Den Haag,
28
februari
2017
|
14:46
Europe/Amsterdam

T-Mobile Netherlands and Huawei sign groundbreaking agreement to create the best UNLIMITED network in The Netherlands

  • Best UNLIMITED Network delivering unprecedented capacity and Gigabit LTE experience supporting customer’s fast growing demand for UNLIMITED mobile data.
  • Smart investments to boost capacity, double in 2017, and speed while fully leveraging world’s most advanced SRAN technology.
  • Joint R&D effort to co-develop and deploy new and unique innovations like smart active antenna’s, Higher Order MIMO and new generation of small cells.
  • First agreement of its kind between Huawei and Deutsche Telekom Group
  • The value of the deal is confidential

The Hague / Barcelona, February 28th 2017 – Following the groundbreaking launch of the Go Unlimited proposition in January, T-Mobile is now taking its next step in the UNLIMITED strategy. T-Mobile Netherlands today signed a groundbreaking partnership agreement, with the current world leader in telecom equipment Huawei. This partnership agreement allows T-Mobile to build the best Unlimited network with unprecedented capacity and Gigabit LTE experience. To accomplish this target the parties have agreed on several unique R&D initiatives, starting with the development and deployment of Europe’s first implementation of MIMO Active Antenna on LTE technology followed by the development of smart small cell networks and LTE-advanced.

In 2016, T-Mobile Netherlands was awarded ‘Best Tested Mobile Network’ in the Dutch market by P3, the world's most acknowledged testing agency. Building on this achievement T-Mobile launched its disruptive proposition Go Unlimited, unlimited mobile data, voice and messaging for an affordable price. The partnership agreement signed today is the second step in the UNLIMITED strategy, serving Dutch customers with the best quality, speed and simplicity in the market.

Søren Abildgaard, CEO T-Mobile Netherlands: “Go Unlimited was the ultimate proposition our customers had been waiting for. An unconventional step generally considered unachievable up till then, due to the exponential growth of data traffic this generates. But we have taken it upon us to radically remove limits to give our customers the full freedom on mobile internet. And our network is up for it. In our new partnership with Huawei we invest heavily in equipment and R&D for the network capacity and speed required for the future. It ensures our customers will enjoy unlimited use of data in the years to come with the best network experience. We choose Huawei because they are far ahead on innovation and jointly we are building a unique Unlimited network for today and the future. This is truly pioneering in Europe and cannot be copied by our competitors.”

NEW TECHNOLOGY
Over the past 4 years T-Mobile Netherlands has implemented a complete new nationwide mobile network based on Huawei SingleRAN (SRAN) providing the company with a huge competitive advantage. SRAN allows T-Mobile to add capacity within a very short timeframe at a lower cost level. In the next phase of the network development, T-Mobile will further exploit SRAN and develop a new range of network solutions on top of that. Rachid El Hattachi, Chief Technology Officer at T-Mobile Netherlands: “This is a groundbreaking agreement for us and our customers. In 2017 only, we will double our network capacity by leveraging our strong spectrum position and the most advanced technology. We will deploy LTE on 2100MHz and 2600MHz and increase our network speed beyond 300 Mbps. With the new agreement we will be able to introduce new technologies like active antennas providing more capacity and speed.” The agreement also includes an extension of the existing managed services agreement, including the outsourcing of the ‘network roll out’ activities and the development of the fixed network of T-Mobile Thuis, recently acquired by T-Mobile Netherlands.

Wonder Wang, CEO of Huawei Technologies Netherlands, says: “We are delighted to announce a new step in our long-term cooperation with T-Mobile Netherlands, maximizing the full capacity of mobile networks and innovation strength of both companies. Together we have built the best tested network according to P3’s network performance tests. Now, we have the ambition to push this even significantly further, making T-Mobile’s customers unleash everything that mobile internet has to offer with the best experience in the Dutch market in the years to come. That’s how we see a Better Connected World.”