Vodafone ups its capacity with CWC deal

As part of CWC's Network 2000 upgrade, it will provide the mobile operator with an STM-16 backbone, able to carry ATM and next-generation mobile technology.

Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) has won a #100m, five-yeare operator with an STM-16 backbone, able to carry ATM and next-generation mobile technology. contract to supply Vodafone with increased capacity.

Vodafone, the UK's largest mobile operator, will use the additional capacity to expand its GSM network, using cutting edge SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) technology.

CWC will provide Vodafone with a fully diverse STM-16 backbone network using path protection switching. The STM-16 backbone is capable of carrying ATM for future enhancements, including third-generation mobile technology.

The expansion programme is being carried out as part of Network 2000, a #400m upgrade covering CWC's entire national network.

The carrier will provide SDH transmission across a range of bandwidths between Vodafone's core sites and from core to cell sites. This will include 1,900 2Mbps circuits during the first year of the contract.

"We believe Cable & Wireless Communications can provide the transmission network build we require now, and in the future," said Dave Targett, Vodafone's acting operations director. "The huge bandwidths in our network expansion plans can be delivered through CWC's network 2000 infrastructure rollout, providing Vodafone with a premium quality network."

CWC said that its business with mobile phone operators has grown 72 per cent over the last 12 months. Cable & Wireless, CWC's parent company, owns 50 per cent of the UK's number four operator One2One.

Elaine Axby, senior consultant at telecoms analyst Schema, said that since CWC was acting as wholesaler, the impact of the deal on One2One would not be a consideration.

"Vodafone obviously felt that it would get a better deal by going to a supplier than increasing capacity in its own network," she added.

According to a recent report published by Salomon Smith Barney, one in every five people in the UK already has a mobile phone.

This figure is expected to increase to more than one in three by the year 2001.