Friday Network News: February 14
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Friday Network News: February 14

Capacity brings you the latest network news. If you have network developments you'd like us to share, please tweet us @capacitymag or email editorial@capacitymedia.com.

Saudi Telecommunications Company (STC) has launched an LTE-A network in its home country. It is thought to be the first operator in the region to do so and the network is expected to provide customers with double the speed of its existing 4G network. [read more]

Vodafone Ireland is reportedly in talks with the country’s Electricity Supply Board (ESB) over the roll-out of a €400 million national fibre network. ESB and Vodafone’s Irish subsidiary are negotiating the practicalities of deploying a fibre network alongside ESB’s nationwide electricity network. [read more]

Belgian mobile operator Proximus has become the first to launch its LTE network in the country’s capital Brussels. The subsidiary of Belgian incumbent Belgacom launched 4G in Belgium in November 2012, but local regulations had blocked the introduction of 4G in the capital until now. [read more]

Greek operator Wind Hellas has upgraded its core network infrastructure in partnership with Swedish equipment vendor Ericsson. The carrier has installed Ericsson’s evolved packet core solutions as part of a year-long network evolution project, in an effort to modernise its mobile packet core. [read more]

Claro Uruguay has partnered with Alcatel-Lucent for the launch of a 4G LTE network in the country. A subsidiary of América Móvil, Claro Uruguay is deploying Alcatel-Lucent’s end-to-end LTE solution, designed to deliver advanced broadband services and ultra-high speeds to customers in the country. [read more]

Telenor’s Indian arm, Uninor, has announced plans to expand its network by 30%, through the deployment of 5,000 network sites. The operator will invest $98 million over the next five months to improve network coverage in its six circles of Uttar Pradesh West, Uttar Pradesh East, Bihar (including Jharkhand), Maharashtra and Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. [read more]

China Telecom is set to upgrade its network by implementing equipment vendor Huawei’s eOTDR solution. Huawei’s embedded optical time domain reflectometer (eOTDR) is designed to help network maintenance and test for backbone fibre faults. [read more]

Vendors NSN and Huawei have signed a partnership to improve the interoperability of their operations support system (OSS) interfaces for operators. The bilateral agreement follows a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by both companies in May last year, and is designed to support operators using systems from multiple vendors. [read more]

Saudi Arabian operator Mobily has signed an agreement with US vendor Ciena to launch advanced connectivity services aimed at the operator’s enterprise customers. The deal allows Mobily to offer high-speed data transfers, bandwidth-on-demand and enhanced cloud service access. [read more]

Polish telecoms regulators have cancelled the country’s LTE spectrum auction, due to a technical anomaly. Initial bids for the auction were due to be submitted last Friday, but a technical problem meant auction rules were unavailable for around two and a half hours. [read more]

French vendor Ekinops has launched an optical mobile backhaul solution for rural cell sites, where service providers need high capacity but have to minimise space, power needs, and cost. Certified for Extended Temperature Range (ETR) operations from -40 to +65 degrees Celsius (-40 to 149 degrees Fahrenheit), Ekinops’ mobile backhaul solution can operate in extreme temperatures. [read more]

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