Ericsson delivers 'world-first' network to Melita Mobile

As the first in the world to integrate high speed package access (HSPA) mobile broadband to its cable TV network, Melita has paved the way for a new trend in next-generation mobile network technology, Cesare Avenia, Ericsson's head of market unit for southeast Europe, told The Sunday Times in an exclusive interview.

Swedish group Ericsson, the world's leading supplier of mobile phone networks, this week formally delivered a 3G, state-of-the-art network to TV, internet and telephony group Melita, which launches its nationwide mobile service on February 1.

Melita Mobile promises "cheaper, simpler, better" mobile telephony following an investment of €40 million and a recruitment drive involving over 120 staff.

Ericsson issued a statement on Wednesday, underlining the specifications of the turnkey agreement to supply, integrate and deploy an internet protocol-based HSPA radio access, circuit and packet core network and a revenue management solution.

The statement caught the attention of high-profile international news wires, including CNN. High speed package access is a collection of mobile telephony protocols that extend and improve the performance of universal mobile telecommunications protocols (UMTS).

The revenue management solution means Melita becomes Malta's first real quad-player able to offer fully integrated services and single billing.

"Normally, every mobile broadband network has one basic characteristic - back-calling - which is the transmission means you have in order to bring the bandwidth to the antennas," Mr Avenia explained.

"It can be radio back-calling or traditional transmission back-calling. What makes Melita's case unique is that it features IP back-calling, provided with IP technology over the existing cable network. It was a challenge for Ericsson because it is the first time we have used a former cable network to provide the transmission signal to the antennas.

"It is the first out of several cases that we will see. The future of our technology is IP: using an IP backbone to provide the bandwidth to the antennas. This is the name of the game. We have invested substantially for a long time to feed the antennas through IP. We know this is going to happen more and more in the future. Here we had the opportunity to make it happen."

Melita's brief suited Ericsson well: Mr Avenia says the mobile equipment maker is driving the industry to full-service broadband.

"The industry's challenge going forward will be how to provide content reliably in different ways to the end user," he explained. "There was also another nice characteristic to this network: the speed. We were able to show one of our main capabilities, which is very speedy roll-out. Melita asked for six months, which, for this type of network, is a record time."

Mr Avenia says that Melita's is a small network that caters for the capacity needed by a small country.

It is nonetheless a complex and complete network featuring all the required technology: broadband, mobile, charging conversion, and system integration.

"If you want an example of what a futuristic network looks like, Melita's network is it," he pointed out. "For Ericsson, the most important achievement is not only the complexity, but how to handle the complexity reliably.

"We believe that when an operator asks to launch a network, all customers who are provided with service on that network have to have full quality service. Reliability is a must. 3G networks now are very reliable and stable. The network we have provided to Melita is as reliable as any other we have in the world."

Ericsson deployed a 50-strong team to build the network which is housed in a single room at Melita's Madliena station. Personnel were also assigned to train Melita's engineers under Ericsson's Learning Services programme.

Ericsson has a long association with Malta, having been involved in all three mobile networks serving the island. Over 1,000 networks in more than 175 countries use Ericsson's network equipment. Four in ten calls worldwide are made through its systems.