Displaying items by tag: LTE network

Nokia is to completely modernize the nationwide LTE network for Ukkoverkot, the Finnish private network operator offering wireless data communications services for infrastructure operators, the industrial IoT market, public safety authorities, the maritime industry and both residents and enterprises in remote areas.

The new network will be powered by Nokia's leading LTE solution, which provides superior network quality, capacity, security and reliability required for such specialized use cases.

"Ukkoverkot is totally focused on serving our customers, for whom connectivity means the world,” said Mikko Uusitalo, CEO of Ukkoverkot. “The agreement with Nokia enables us to roll out the most advanced public protection, IoT and campus network functions as they are available. The agreement with Finavia to develop their airport infrastructure on Nokia technology is clear testimony to the potential we have."

Founded in 2014, Ukkoverkot operates its own LTE-based mobile data network and a number of local private LTE networks, offering fast connections using the 450 MHz and 2.6 GHz spectrum bands.

Ukkoverkot's low-frequency nationwide network is largely reserved for the use of its industrial and public safety customers, which helps ensure exceptional network stability and reliability, while its high frequency network is reserved for private micro-operator networks. As a pure broadband operator, Ukkoverkot's network exclusively carries data services.

Starting in Q4 2017, Nokia will upgrade Ukkoverkot's older-generation network technology to Nokia's state-of-the-art LTE-based solution, which significantly improves network performance. This enables Ukkoverkot's customers in industrial IoT settings to capitalize on opportunities related to new Industry 4.0. applications, while critical communications and public safety operators can benefit from ultra-reliable, high-bandwidth services supporting all standardized public safety features.

Due to better propagation characteristics, low-band spectrum can provide a larger coverage area than high-band spectrum, which makes Nokia's 450 MHz LTE network solution ideal for delivering services in sparsely populated areas such as the Nordic countries.

This agreement highlights Nokia's growing momentum around the delivery of critical communications networks for customers outside of the traditional communications service provider market. Large industrial and public sector organizations are seeking robust, reliable and highly resilient networks to support services on which - in some cases - lives depend, and Nokia's solutions are ideally suited to addressing this challenge.

"With their LTE network based on Nokia's wide portfolio of technologies, Ukkoverkot brings the benefits of broadband data to the reach of new customer segments such as the industrial IoT market and public safety authorities,” said Thorsten Robrecht, head of Advanced Mobile Network Solutions at Nokia. “We are proud to team up with Ukkoverkot in its network modernization to ensure these customers can benefit from first-class network quality, and to prepare them for the services enabled by future 5G networks."

T-Mobile recently announced plans to roll-out its new 600MHz LTE network in the US, leveraging the massive haul of super-premium low-band spectrum the operator won in the government broadcast incentive auction concluded earlier this year. The announcement came just two months after the company received its spectrum licenses from the FCC.

The first of T-Mobile’s 600MHz LTE network sites were switched on in Cheyenne, Wyoming using Nokia equipment. Starting in rural America and other markets where the spectrum is clear of broadcasting, T-Mobile plans to deploy the new “super spectrum” at “record-shattering pace” – compressing what would usually be a two-year process from auction to consumer availability into a short six months.

The operator said additional 60MHz sites are slated for locations including Wyoming, Northwest Oregon, West Texas, Southwest Kansas, the Oklahoma panhandle, Western North Dakota, Maine, Coastal North Carolina, Central Pennsylvania, Central Virginia, and Eastern Washington. Those deployments and other network upgrades will help T-Mobile increase total LTE coverage from 315 million Americans today to 321 million by the year’s end, it predicts.

“Earlier this month, wireless customers coast to coast proved T-Mobile already delivers America’s best unlimited network. We swept the competition in OpenSignal’s report on all counts—a global industry first. And that was before we started lighting up the world’s first 600 MHz LTE network,” said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile.

To meet this aggressive timeline for getting this “super-spectrum” into customers’ hands, T-Mobile said it has been coordinating closely with infrastructure providers, chipset makers and device manufacturers to bring 600 MHz LTE to customers at breakneck speed. Nokia and Qualcomm have launched new technology, and both Samsung and LG plan to launch phones that tap into this new spectrum in the fourth quarter of this year.

T-Mobile is also working closely with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and broadcasters like PBS to clear the spectrum in record time, investing where necessary to preserve programming consumers care about while paving the way for new wireless coverage and competition for consumers.

“To work with T-Mobile in lighting up the world’s first 600 MHz LTE network is a momentous achievement,” said Rajeev Suri, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nokia. “We knew this spectrum would be key for covering wide areas, providing bandwidth in hard-to-reach places, augmenting capacity and improving data speeds, so we began testing and readying 600 MHz network infrastructure equipment and software long before the incentive auction was over.”

Nokia, Alphabet's Access Group and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. joined forces to demonstrate the first live demo of a private LTE network over CBRS (Citizens Broadband Radio Service) shared spectrum at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The companies built a virtual reality zone inside stock race cars operating at the Richard Petty Driving Experience, with 360° video streaming to provide an "in car" experience in real time.

The demonstration, which achieved speeds in excess of 180 mph, showed not only how the combination of a new CBRS band and innovative technologies can offer new audience experiences, but also how shared spectrum can be used by venues and enterprises to deploy their own private LTE network to offer new services.

Deployment of a private LTE network is becoming a reality due to the availability of the CBRS spectrum (without the auction costs) and advances in network technology that are providing the performance benefits of LTE with an easy deployment model.

The live demonstration successfully highlighted some of the key performance benefits of using LTE, including consistent high data rates to stream 360° video for immersive experiences, superior mobility at extreme race car speeds, exceptional outdoor coverage, and capacity that can be customized to meet the needs of the particular service.

In this case, the 360° video was streaming from within the high-speed vehicles. The demonstrations also showcased that, thanks to the availability of CBRS shared spectrum, an enterprise, campus, venue or other group can deploy their own private LTE network.

The shared spectrum used in the Las Vegas Motor Speedway demo is the new CBRS spectrum released in the U.S. by the Federal Communications Commission. This spectrum allows for broad innovation in wireless business models.

Nokia, Alphabet's Access Group and Qualcomm Technologies are founding members of the CBRS Alliance, which is promoting LTE-based solutions in the CBRS spectrum. The three companies are committed to driving technology forward to allow for ubiquitous deployment of LTE networks within the CBRS band.  

The collaboration of Nokia, Alphabet's Access Group and Qualcomm Technologies brought together industry-leading expertise and technology innovations to create the foundation for a cutting-edge demonstration - revolutionizing the audience experience and showing first-hand the performance benefits of a private LTE network.

Powered by its TD-LTE radio innovation and experience of LTE networks for high density venues and high speed race events, the Nokia CBRS private LTE high performance network used CBRS base stations to cover the complete track and spectator area.

CBRS spectrum for the base stations was provisioned by the Access SAS (Spectrum Access System), and the 360° virtual reality video was streamed in real time using YouTube Live Events. This was the first SAS demonstration in support of a live event.

The network was customized to provide: high uplink data rate on the race track and high downlink data rate in the spectator area; very low latency between car and network; and seamless mobility. Such a set up allows the continuous streaming of real time 4K 360° virtual reality video between the spectators and the cars - in this demonstration driving in excess of 180 mph. The in-car connectivity for the trial was enabled by a Qualcomm Snapdragon(TM) LTE modem.