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Orange Slovensko, a major Slovakian mobile operator, is upgrading its wireless network to 3G with Nortel solutions to meet increasing demand for mobile broadband services.

Nortel has been chosen to upgrade the operator's radio access network and transmission capabilities with 3G UMTS wireless equipment and multiservice switching equipment.

"There are enormous benefits that enhanced broadband wireless can offer to businesses and consumers, including mobile e-mail, high-speed Internet access, personalised content, music and video downloading, content streaming, and conferencing," said Dana Prekopova, chief technology officer, Orange Slovensko. "Working with Nortel we are able to plan the evolution of our services with the additional capacity offered by UMTS, which we aim to launch in the first half of 2006."

"Nortel is driving the evolution of broadband wireless services by rolling out networks in the most advanced markets in the world," said Peter MacKinnon, president, GSM/UMTS, Nortel.

Nortel's broadband wireless access solutions enable an operator to deliver a broad range of mobile applications, including music and video downloading, content streaming, conferencing, e-mail, high-speed Internet access and personalised content.

Under the terms of a new agreement, Nortel will supply Orange Slovensko with UMTS base transceiver station (BTS) and radio network controller (RNC) solutions. In addition, Nortel Multiservice Switch (MSS) 15000 will be used to provide cost optimisation and reliable packet transmission between Orange Slovensko's BTS, RNC and network operations centers.

Orange Slovensko's existing wireless network is based on Nortel GSM and GPRS technology and currently covers 99.3 percent of the population and 86.8 percent of the geography of Slovakia. In addition, Orange Slovensko offers fixed wireless services as a broadband access alternative to fixed-line DSL for both consumers and businesses, based on Nortel EDGE technology.

Nortel has designed, installed and launched more than 300 wireless networks in over 70 countries. Nortel was the industry's first supplier with wireless networks operating in all advanced radio technologies (GSM/GPRS/EDGE, CDMA2000 1X and 1xEV-DO, UMTS and WLAN), and is the only end-to-end provider of all next generation wireless solutions