EE Pick NSN for UK Rural 4G Mobile Broadband Network Deployment

Mobile operator EE (4GEE) has picked Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) instead of existing partner Huawei to help them roll-out their “superfast” 4G (LTE at 1800MHz) based Mobile Broadband network to “the next 25% of the UK population in rural areas and small towns.”

NSN’s base stations are already used in parts of EE’s existing 2G and 3G infrastructures and the new turnkey contract will include some work to improve the performance and reduce the power consumption of their existing 2G network.

Olaf Swantee, EE CEO, said:

“We have pioneered 4G in the UK, and we are now working with NSN on the next stage of our rollout, covering the next 25% of the UK population in rural areas and small towns. This partnership highlights our approach to maintaining a differentiated 4G network experience. We will continue to lead our UK competitors in speed, coverage, and reliability.

We have selected NSN because of their technology, their people, and because of their ability to provide a high quality end-to-end services model. We look forward to working together as we continue to give people across the UK access to the biggest and fastest 4G mobile network.”

Rajeev Suri, CEO of NSN, added:

“EE will also benefit from NSN’s significant experience in spectrum efficiency research when refarming current 2G spectrum for 4G with NSN’s support.”

It’s understood that NSN plans to implement its Single RAN Advanced solution, which will allow EE to run different radio technologies using single, multi-purpose hardware. The deployment also includes NSN’s Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Stations and their cloud-ready NetAct for network management.