E-Plus Develops UHSE-Plus Develops UHS

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands -- E-Plus, KPN's German mobile unit, has developed and applied for a patent for a new system for optimum expansion of its UMTS network called Ultra High Sites (UHS). Ultra High Sites are sites taller than 100 metres – like transmitter masts and industrial chimneys – from where multiple narrow antennas provide a large area with high-quality UMTS signals. The antennas cover the area like a canopy to offer customers top quality UMTS coverage from just one site.

Reduction of some 1500 conventional UMTS base stations One UHS typically replaces eight conventional UMTS sites. Approximately 200 UHS stations will be built in Germany this year instead of around 1500 conventional base stations. The innovation will save E-Plus approx. €60 million in capital expenditure between now and year-end 2005.

A UHS has a transmitting range of between two and four kilometres in built-up areas and between four and six kilometres in outlying areas. For a city with a population of 100,000, like Erlangen in Germany, a single site rented by E-Plus on a tall chimney will be sufficient to give the entire city UMTS coverage. By way of comparison, the conventional technology would require 14 UMTS base stations to provide the same coverage. A single UHS mounted on the 234-metre tall Rheinturm tower in Dusseldorf will replace no fewer than 40 conventional base stations.

"Using UHS will enable us to expand the UMTS network faster and more flexibly than our competitors," said Uwe Bergheim, Chairman of the E-Plus Board of Management. "We will be able to offer our customers the UMTS coverage they need. An extra advantage is the cost reduction compared with the conventional concept. UHS will therefore have a positive effect on the growth of our company."

E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH