3 Ireland and Nokia Siemens Networks have demonstrated the I-HSPA technology and announced that the upgrade of the radio technology to enable higher broadband speeds has been completed.
Nokia Siemens Networks innovative I-HSPA (Internet High-Speed Packet Access) technology is currently being rolled out as part of the National Broadband Scheme, and will be extended to 3’s existing network in Ireland. It is the first commercial deployment of I-HSPA in Ireland.
The strategic agreement with Nokia Siemens Networks, will see 3 offering consumers and businesses in the NBS coverage areas and their existing network, access to high-speed and high capacity broadband services, operating on 7.2Mbps technology, upgraded during 2010 to operate on technology of 14.4Mbps. The project uses I-HSPA, the innovative flat network architecture optimized to carry huge volumes of data traffic, with its all-Internet Protocol (IP) backhaul.
To prepare for I-HSPA technology and the National Broadband Scheme 3’s WCDMA network has been totally replaced with Flexi base station technology by Nokia Siemens Networks in an astonishingly rapid time of just one year – nearly 2 years quicker than the original estimate.
The new broadband network will build on 3’s new WCDMA/HSPA radio and packet core networks, allowing the service provider to build on the existing investments. I-HSPA also provides greater scalability and a smooth evolution path to the future mobile architectures “Long Term Evolution” (LTE).
What amazes me however is that project estimate of 3 years, and then resulting deployment coming in at 1 year – incredible project management!