Ukkoverkot, a mobile service provider in Finland, and Huawei today announced that they have signed a contract to deploy commercial LTE 450MHz network. Huawei is contracted to provide an end-to-end network solution, including base stations and devices, to ensure the smooth migration from CDMA 450MHz to LTE 450MHz for Ukkoverkot network customers in Finland. Ukkoverkot only offers mobile data service to consumer and business customers.
Huawei said that this is the first time a commercial LTE 450MHz has been deployed anywhere in the world. It added that each 450MHz base station can cover twice the footprint of an 800MHz base station and up to 20 times the footprint of a single 2.6GHz node, hence reduces network investment dramatically and shortens service launch time.
"Ukkoverkot is clearly in challenger position in the Finnish mobile market landscape, especially from a frequency resources point of view. Deploying disruptive technology like LTE 450MHz is a good technology strategy. It gives us high capacity and new value for the 450MHz band in mobile data use. In addition, the coverage properties are truly impressive, with countrywide network across the whole of Finland (~340 000 km²) successfully achieved with only few hundred sites.”
- Antti Pellinen, CEO, Ukkoverkot
"Huawei continues to contribute to the industry development of LTE 450MHz standards. For instance, in 2013, Huawei, together with industry partners, made 450MHz the standard of the 3GPP LTE band and established the LTE 450MHz Industry Alliance. We recently unveiled the LTE 450MHz chipset that is available on customer-premises equipment and MiFi devices. The partnership with Ukkoverkot to deploy LTE 450MHz is another important step and, we look forward to cooperating with many more operators to deploy LTE 450MHz commercial networks and bring universal broadband to more people and ubiquitous connection for M2M or things to things."
- Zou Yong, Vice President of Huawei LTE Wireless Network
