Three Ireland partner with Samsung to prepare for 4G.
The British arm of Three might be in no hurry to launch their 4G network - preferring to instead to wait and see how things pan out for the competition (specifically O2, Vodafone and EE), but Three Ireland don’t seem quite so laid back about their 4G roll out. They’ve already secured some chunks of 900 MHz and 1800 MHz spectrum at the Irish 4G spectrum auction and now Three Ireland have partnered with Samsung to begin the next phase of preparation for a live 4G network.
The partnership between the two firms allows Samsung to become Three Ireland’s sole provider of LTE Radio Access Network (RAN) and LTE core infrastructure equipment - which is to say the equipment necessary to actually roll out a 4G network.
Samsung has already successfully provided LTE equipment in the US, Asia and the Middle East and now their presence is expanding into Europe. This will be their second mobile network roll out in Europe and their first in Ireland.
The plan is for Samsung to supply LTE base stations as well as all the systems and support services that are required along with them across Three Ireland’s network nationwide. The deployment should be finished in time for the service to make its debut in Dublin in August of this year.
Robert Finnegan, CEO of Three Ireland, commented on the announcement, saying: “Following on from Three’s successful win of a strong 4G spectrum portfolio in the recent LTE spectrum auction, today’s announcement marks a further milestone in our 4G roll-out strategy and further demonstrates our commitment to maintaining our No.1 leadership position in providing mobile broadband and data services to Irish consumers. We are delighted to be partnering with Samsung, market leaders in LTE solutions. Their advanced network solutions will allow us deliver a market -leading 4G experience offering faster speeds of up to 100Mbps for our customers using mobile broadband on smartphones, tablets and laptops. Customers will start to see the benefits later this year, which will open countless opportunities and will change the way people work and live allowing them to interact in a better, more efficient way.”
Samsung also stated how happy they were with the partnership, in the words of Mark Thompson, Sales and Marketing Director of Samsung Networks Europe: “We are proud to be collaborating with Three Ireland in its endeavour to provide best in class customer experience for end users. This latest LTE contract demonstrates the growing interest in Samsung’s network solutions. Three Ireland customers will benefit from Samsung’s market-leading LTE solutions whilst Three will benefit from working with a stable supplier, synergies across the Three Group and with Samsung”.
It certainly sounds like a good match and it’s just one part of the over €800 million that Three Ireland has invested in building its Irish network, which has led them to become the mobile broadband leader in the country - a title which they obviously want to keep.
