Of the 6,000 islands that make up Greece, only 227 of them are inhabited throughout the Aegean and Ionian Sea. For the country's largest mobile operator, Cosmote, providing services to many of the remote islands has been a challenge, and the company is addressing this problem with the help of Nokia (News - Alert)'s network technology. Nokia just announced it is deploying its long-haul 9500 Microwave Packet Radio to the growing demand in remote Greek islands by increasing backhaul capacity and speed to residents and tourists.
Cosmote is the mobile arm of OTE Group, the largest telecom provider in Greece. The parent company made Cosmote the customer facing brand for fixed, broadband and mobile telephony in 2015, and since has been making considerable investments to improve network infrastructure and services.
The deployment of Nokia's long-haul 9500 Microwave Packet Radio will provide underserved rural locations throughout Greece by enabling Cosmote to deliver high-speed fixed and mobile Internet access to these communities. The Nokia technology will backhaul data at speeds of 1Gbps via full IP connectivity serving these networks.
Konstantinos Koroneos, head of the OTE/ Cosmote account at Nokia, said, “Providing a network across a spread of islands provides its own unique challenges. Nokia first demonstrated the capabilities of the 9500 MPR in a demanding live field trial, and we are pleased to work with Cosmote as it evolves its network in this commercial deployment.”
Nokia is going to be upgrading Cosmote's existing SDH-microwave trunk-based network, which will allow the company to reuse existing passive radio equipment, thus saving the operator a considerable amount in capital expenditure by not having to invest in a new deployment.
The 9500 Microwave Packet Radio maximizes spectrum utilization by facilitating legacy-to-packet transformation over a common, converged packet network to reduce the total cost of ownership of microwave networks. According to Nokia, this platform delivers the highest functionality with the smallest footprint, allowing it to be deployed in remote and difficult topologies, while at the same time delivering high levels of scalability and resiliency.
The 9500 can be deployed to address a range of network needs including mobile backhaul, energy, transportation, public sector communications and last-mile service access. Once it is fully deployed, operators are able to experience a cost-effective evolution from traditional TDM to IP/Ethernet networking with seamless adaptation from TDM and ATM to packet along with advanced quality of service mechanisms to ensure service level agreement compliance.
This deployment also makes Cosmote ready for 5G, as Nokia has the most comprehensive range of 'anyhaul' mobile transport options specifically designed to address the critical requirements of 5G.
Edited by Alicia Young