3G News Europe : 3G network supplier Huawei Technologies, which launched Africa's first 3G network at Emtel in Mauritius in November, has been selected by Dutch mobile operator Telfort to deliver and install a nationwide 3G (UMTS) network in the Netherlands.

Huawei will deliver a turnkey solution, giving Telfort full 3G/UMTS capabilities, interworking with its existing GSM and EDGE platforms and HSDPA compatibility. As an indication of the strategic importance of the implementation, the contract was signed in the presence of the Prime Minister of the Netherlands and the Premier of China.

Ton aan de Stegge, CEO of Telfort, said Telfort's selection of Huawei was based on the technical assessment of Huawei's products, Huawei's technical capabilities and existing 3G contacts with other mobile operators which now includes sites in Hong Kong, the UAE, Europe and Africa. Huawei has also agreed to support Telfort's efforts to develop mobile data in the Netherlands by setting up an R&D centre in Amsterdam which will focus on end-user services.

"Telfort's strategy is to challenge the established norms of the mobile industry. This contract, which is the first of its kind in Europe, is exactly in line with that. We are confident that Huawei will help develop innovative and cost-effective data solutions."

Deng Tao, president of Huawei in Europe said: "We strongly believe in the potential of Telfort to show that our UMTS product can be highly successful in the competitive Dutch market and our commitment to building a successful future with Telfort as a partner."

This is the fifth worldwide commercial UMTS 3G network implemented by Huawei. The previous four networks are Etisalat in United Arab Emirates, SUNDAY in Hong Kong, Emtel in Mauritius and TM in Malaysia.

The five operators used competitive equipment for their 2G networks, but selected Huawei's 3G equipment in preference to their incumbent suppliers, indicating the superiority of Huawei's 3G technology.

"Starting as a fast-growing vendor in wireless market, Huawei has become one of the leading 3G vendors in the world," says Tao.

"Huawei was the first supplier to release the R4 Softswitch commercial version. Since then, Huawei has taken the lead in adopting the R4 version in its five commercial implementations in favour of the R99 version being widely applied in most UMTS commercial networks. This has given Huawei and its customers a significant technological advantage over companies using R99," says Tao.

In November, Softswitch equipment supplied by Huawei was successfully implemented in the largest Softswitch tandem network over IP with China's largest global operator, China Mobile. "Technically, Softswitch has been brought to a level of maturity and stability superior over circuit core network. Many operators have already started to replace 2G core network with Softswitch which is compatible with both 2G and 3G networks," says Tao.

Huawei also provides the Series BTS for geographically-challenging implementations. The coverage issue was solved in Hong Kong, which is possibly the most difficult terrain to implement a wireless network, and where some experts indicated at the time of Huawei signing the Hong Kong 3G project, that a wireless network was not achievable.

"The high-rise buildings, narrow terrain and surrounding mountains make Hong Kong the most challenging environment in terms of setting up a mobile infrastructure. And Huawei succeeded despite much scepticism," says Tao

"As a result, Huawei has won favour from customers for this innovative distributed BTS solution which not only addresses coverage problems in terms of landform complexity but has also proven to be a most cost-effective solution."