Ericsson, MTN Ghana roll-out UMTS 900 MHz in Africa

In urban areas it compliments UMTS 2100 MHz in offering more network capacity and better in-building coverage.

Lars Lindén, president, Ericsson sub-Saharan Africa, says: "By leveraging off their existing installed Ericsson 3G Radio Access Network and enabling UMTS in 900 MHz, not only can voice, video and high speed data calls be carried over the network, but operators benefit from having one network delivering all services with the lowest total cost of ownership."

According to a GSMA report (UMTS 900 Market Study Final Report V1.1, GSMA, 2007), UMTS 900 provides between 44% (in urban areas) and 119% (rural areas) increased coverage per Node-B compared with UMTS 2100.

MTN Ghana CTO, Eben Albertyn says: "Ericsson's solid position as an established infrastructural provider in the local and international market and the diverse connectivity services they are able to offer MTN Ghana, allows us to continue to grow our network coverage locally as well as into many rural and remote sites - bringing voice and data services to our growing subscribers."

Under the terms of the agreement, Ericsson will be responsible for the access, transport and transmission of 3G UMTS 900 MHz, where roll-out will begin in Q2 2010.

Lindén concludes: "African operators should be seen as meeting the challenges that their markets uniquely present and vendors should be seen as being proactive in supporting these operators in their diverse challenges - enabling communication irrespective of the boundaries that exist. Ericsson is doing just that - pioneering the use of 3G in different frequency bands and demonstrating that it is possible to build nation-wide mobile broadband networks now."