Press release
MBNL delivers more than 12,000 consolidated 3G sites across the UK for Three and T-Mobile.
MBNL, the network joint-venture between Three and Everything Everywhere, the company that runs Orange and T-Mobile brands in the UK, together with its key partners proudly announces the delivery of more than 12,000 consolidated 3G sites for T-Mobile UK and Three. This achievement follows three years of intensive effort, investment and hard work on the part of all of those involved.
Thanks to this programme, all the 3G sites, transmitters, base station equipment and backhaul connected to the operator's core networks are now fully configured for high speed mobile broadband access.
This has given T-Mobile and Three's customers far greater 3G coverage depth and capacity in towns and cities, and extended rural mobile broadband coverage to new and remote locations across the length and breadth of the United Kingdom.
Alongside the customer benefits, Three and Everything Everywhere - through their joint venture company Mobile Broadband Network Limited - will see significant savings and environment benefits because of the work. This has included the switching off of more than 5,000 sites - more than 2,000 of which have already been fully decommissioned - as part of a project recognised as the largest and most successful integration of two live networks to have occurred anywhere in the world.
Graham Payne of MBNL said "This was an exciting, challenging and ultimately hugely rewarding project for the team at MBNL. My thanks to all who have worked so hard to deliver this fantastic network, special thanks go to our key partners who are rightly proud of their roles in this project."
The contribution of MBNL's key partners is as follows.
Ericsson was the primary service provider for the project and was responsible for network design and deployment, the acquisition and building of sites, capacity management, equipment swaps and vital upgrades. Millions of man-hours were committed by Ericsson to improve speeds and coverage for Three and T-Mobile customers. This was done while keeping the two networks running smoothly during the project, which also saw Ericsson deliver the all-important cost and efficiency savings.
Chris Houghton, Managing Director, Ericsson UK, said: "We're extremely proud of the leading role we've played in providing our managed services and systems integration expertise to MBNL. Innovative consolidation projects like this reflect new business models taking root in the industry, which I'm sure will learn a lot from our work and the achievements made during the project."
Nokia Siemens Networks, MBNL's sole 3G equipment supplier, played a crucial role in this landmark project by providing the entire site installation work, third line operational support services, and spare parts and upgrades.
Steve Glanville, head of the MBNL customer team at Nokia Siemens Networks, said: "Our unique Multi-Operator Radio Access Network (MORAN) has undoubtedly proven its ability to support huge capacity demands while delivering the highest levels of performance to Three and T-Mobile UK customers everywhere."
BT Wholesale provided the market-leading Ethernet backhaul to support delivery of mobile voice and data traffic to thousands of cell sites across the country. This has helped reduce the overall data transmission cost to MBNL and greatly increased mobile broadband and data speeds across the whole of the UK. BT Wholesale's work will also ensure the MBNL network continues to meet the capacity needs of the parent company's customers at a time of unprecedented data growth fuelled by the take off of smartphones and mobile broadband.
BT began work on delivering the managed service project in June 2009 and since then several hundred BT employees have been involved in delivering this project as planned.
"Over the last year, the volume of video related content transmitted over mobile networks has grown by 70 percent," said Sally Davis, chief executive of BT Wholesale. "This type of business challenge needs a pretty profound network transformation and BT is delighted to have played its part in delivering this ground-breaking project that is truly pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved in the mobile industry."
Arqiva, the communications infrastructure and media services company, is MBNL's strategic cell site partner and has provided 5,100 sites to the consolidation project. Arqiva was chosen as cell site partner because of its extensive portfolio of sites and its ability to deliver sites and upgrades quickly.
Steve Holebrook, managing director for Arqiva's Government, Mobile & Enterprise business unit said: "We're pleased to have worked alongside MBNL on this groundbreaking project and delighted that our contribution has been delivered on time. This is testament to the dedication of the people involved and the close working relationship enjoyed by all of the project partners. We now look forward to continuing this relationship with MBNL through the marketing of 1,500 sites and the continued development of the MBNL network of sites."
Kevin Russell, Three CEO, said: "I'd just like to say a big thank-you to everyone at MBNL, all our partners, and everyone who has contributed to the success of this roll out.
"There were a lot of people back in 2007 who said a network share of this scale could not happen. We've proved an awful lot of people wrong.
"There's an exciting period coming up for Three and the MBNL network is going to get bigger and it's going to get better."
Emin Gurdenli, Vice President of Network Services at Everything Everywhere said: "Network coverage and capacity is vital in providing a great customer experience so the success of MBNL in delivering 12,000 3G sites is great news for T-Mobile customers. The integration of a large number of former Orange cell sites into the network will also provide enhanced capacity and coverage to all of our customers."
