Ericsson Will Upgrade the WCDMA/HSPA Network for Vodafone Spain

Vodafone Spain need to expand and modernize their WCDMA/HSPA radio access network, so they chose Ericsson to do this and signed a three-year contract with the Swedish company, which is known world-wide as a leading supplier of communications networks. According to the contract, Ericsson will improve Vodafone Spain's network coverage by installing radio base stations and adding the latest HSPA functionality. Furthermore, the existing base stations will be upgraded with new nodes in order to achieve a better functionality for the entire network.

"We are modernizing our 3G network so we can provide the best possible multimedia experience for our customers," declared Jaime Bustillo, Chief Technology Officer at Vodafone Spain. "The choice of Ericsson for this important project is a natural step for us following a long working relationship in which Ericsson has proven it has the competence, product portfolio and rollout capability necessary to deploy an advanced 3G network."

The President of Ericsson Iberia, Ingemar Naeve, said: "Ericsson is proud to have been selected for this important WCDMA/HSPA radio project, which further strengthens our long-term relationship with Vodafone Spain."

Vodafone Spain, formerly known as Airtel, has at the moment over 14 million subscribers, and this is the first time when Ericsson delivers a WCDMA/HSPA radio network to the Spanish carrier, but it is not their first deal: a year ago, Vodafone Spain selected Ericsson as exclusive supplier for the development of its entire core network in Spain.

Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (in short, WCDMA) is the basic 3G technology used in UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) for delivering video, audio and high-speed Internet access to mobile devices. WCDMA uses CDMA (standing for Code Division Multiple Access), but they are different technologies and they're not compatible, although both use spread spectrum signaling. HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access) is a set of 3GPP technologies used to improve the performances of mobile networks.