Estonian mobile network operator Tele2 Eesti has announced that it will install 15 new 3.5G base stations in the country’s second largest city Tartu this year, with a view to enhancing the service quality received by its customers in the region. The cellco claims that, while its mobile internet services are comparable in quality to those of its rivals, it is aware of increased demand for data service, and said the decision to upgrade the network in Tartu would tackle any congestion.
As previously reported by CommsUpdate, last month Tele2 Eesti’s parent company, Swedish group Tele2, revealed it had selected Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) as sole network supplier for the rollout of 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile broadband technology across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In addition to providing Tele2 with LTE radio and core networks in all three Baltic countries, NSN will also modernise and expand Tele2’s 2G and 3G networks using a Single Radio Access Network (RAN) and Liquid Core technology for 2G/3G/4G traffic. The contract includes NSN’s Flexi Multiradio base stations, multi controller radio network controllers and base station controllers, as well as voice core network elements including its Liquid Core-based open Mobile Switching Centre Server and open Media Gateway. In addition, the Finnish vendor is providing its Evolved Packet Core platform, including Flexi NS (network server), Flexi NG (network gateway) and Liquid Core-based SGSN (serving GPRS support node). In Estonia, it was reported locally that the upgrading of base stations was to begin immediately, with 4G-enabled cell sites in Tallinn and Harju County to be replaced as soon as the end of April, while the mobile broadband infrastructure will also be expanded to sites that only supported 2G to date.