14 DAY TRIAL // Ericsson, the leading telecommunications equipment and infrastructure provider, announced today the completion of the largest upgrade of a live mobile network in the world, which has been made in a record time. The company announced that it had had to replace more than 10,500 of Vodafone Essar's GSM radio sites, and that the peak rate it managed to reach was of about one site every minute. The upgrade was meant to improve the quality of the carrier's services in four zones in India, three of which are large metro cities.
The infrastructure provider also announced that the network enhancement project kicked off in February 2008 and that it ended in the first quarter of the ongoing year, two months faster that originally previsioned. Ericsson delivered over 16,000 base station cabinets along with more than 250 base station controllers, and managed to complete the entire move in only 13 months.
In addition, the agreement between the two companies also imposed that Ericsson delivered an expansion of the layered architecture circuit core that was stated to include microwave transmission and mobile packet back bone (MPBN) equipment. Vodafone Essar succeeded, this way, in improving the performance of its network with advanced equipment and functionalities. The duo also informed that, during the deployments, the carrier was able to maintain uninterrupted network services in the areas, including the cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, and in the Punjab region.
Naresh Gupta, technical director at Vodafone Essar, commented on the achievement by sharing that, “Swapping a commercially live network with near zero service deterioration is a very demanding task. I am pleased that Ericsson managed to undertake and complete such a challenging project in record time.” Gowton Achaibar, president of Ericsson India and Sri Lanka, added, “This record-breaking network modernization project demonstrates Ericsson's end-to-end capacity and expertise in carrying out large and complex projects. It was made possible by our highly competent and dedicated team.”