Europe
: Nokia has signed a turnkey deal worth EUR 125 million with Ukrainian
operator DCC/Astelit to build and operate its GSM/EDGE radio network.
With this frame agreement DCC/Astelit, which is majority owned by
Turkcell, becomes a new customer for Nokia. In a deal expected to
last two years, deliveries of the Nokia base station subsystem (BSS)
will start immediately.
"Nokia is well known as the leader in the telecommunication world.
DCC/Astelit has chosen Nokia as a partner to build its GSM network
in Ukraine, based first of all on our trust in the company's name
and our recognition of the quality of its equipment," said Valeriy
Grigorievich Stepanenko, Chairman of the Supervision Board, CJSC "Digital
Cellular Communication of Ukraine".
"We are proud to provide DCC/Astelit with a GSM/EDGE BSS solution
to quickly achieve high quality network coverage in Ukraine. There
is a large untapped market to be addressed in this country, one of
the fastest growing markets of the region, and we look forward to
working with DCC/Astelit for quick and smooth rollout towards successful
service launch," says Jaakko Myllymäki, Vice President,
Networks, Nokia.
Under the agreement Nokia will supply its complete GSM/EDGE base station
subsystem, which can be smoothly upgraded to 3G WCDMA. In addition
Nokia will provide turnkey implementation of the network, including
site acquisition, civil works, network planning, implementation and
project management for fast quality ramp-up of the solution.
Nokia is also providing its operations start-up package to support
DCC/Astelit in starting and developing its operations competencies
and procedures for the network for the first six months. Nokia Care
services, including software maintenance, emergency support and hardware
services as well as training will help keep the network running at
peak performance.
Nokia can draw on its over 15-year track record of implementing and
operating networks and its extensive practical experience of implementing
mobile services for operators. Nokia has contracted operating services
for 20 operators globally, in addition to providing full turnkey implementations
for a total of 25 customers in 21 countries.