Ericsson Fires Up in Colombia

STOCKHOLM -- Ericsson today announced a contract with Telecom Colombia (Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones), the largest fixed operator in Colombia, to provide an ENGINE multi-service network. Ericsson has been selected as a partner to implement Telecom Colombia's Biannual Plan with the objective of modernizing the telephony service for a large part of country's communities, including remote rural areas. Ericsson's solutions will enable Telecom Colombia to offer increased coverage and service penetration of Internet access, IP voice services and data transmission. In the agreement, Ericsson was awarded four contracts to supply switches and network equipment, a terrestrial transmission system, network management systems and mobile telephony equipment - all integral solutions to support a bigger efficiency and service coverage. As part of the contract, Ericsson will deliver high-performance AXI 540-7 Edge Routers, a more compact version of the existing AXI 540. The AXI 540-7 routers will perform aggregation of voice and data traffic to Telecom Colombia's Internet backbone. Other Ericsson equipment includes the ANS local voice switch; AXC 711 RAS for dial up Internet access; IPT 2.1 for voice trunking and services like Pre-paid, PC-to-Phone, Internet Call Waiting, etc.; and AXD 305 for access to TELECOM's existing ATM network. Ericsson AB