Tunisia Selects Huawei 3GTunisia Selects Huawei 3G

SHENZHEN, China -- On June 22, 2004, the Ministry of Communications Technologies and Transportation of Tunisia decided to choose Huawei UMTS equipment to provide 3G trial services in Tunisia. The trial will last for around one year’s time. This marks the first time that 3G/UMTS equipment from China be deployed in North Africa.

As a matter of fact, the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society will be held in Tunisia in November 2005. The representatives of governments, international organizations, civil society and the private sector will come to Tunisia to discuss how the world can eliminate the digital divide in content and physical infrastructure. It is for this important summit that Tunisia government selects Huawei 3G equipment to serve WSIS after strict certification. The two cites that will hold the summit, Tunis and Hammamet, will be covered by Huawei 3G system.

The MoU is expected to cover the entire end-to-end UMTS solution needed for the 3G launch, including UMTS wireless access network, core network, 3G mobile intelligent network, 3G mobile data service platform and even 3G handsets. For the UMTS system, Huawei will provide all the equipment based on 3GPP R4 protocol. The core network is backward compatible with 3GPP R99 and GSM. And Huawei will provide diversified UMTS services to let people experience the splendid 3G world, which includes MMS, Video Phone, Video Conference, Streaming, Pocket TV, Push To Talk, Internet Surfing and so on.

“Choosing Huawei to provide such an important network is not only because Huawei is a global leading player in 3G area, but also Huawei is a partner that can be trusted” said Ali, President of CERT (Tunisian Telecommunications Study and Research Center).

Huawei Senior VP Mr. Ding Shaohua said, “Through 5 years’ effort, Huawei has become a long-term and strategic partner with Tunisia Telecom. Huawei thanks Tunisia government to give us the opportunity to serve WSIS conference. With expertise and years of experience on deploying mobile total solutions worldwide, Huawei will deliver the mature UMTS network to Tunisia.”

Huawei has started the research on CDMA/UMTS from 1995. Currently there are over 3500 engineers engaged in the R&D of 3G system with global R&D institutes in China, Sweden, India and the United States. Till now, Huawei has applied for more than 800 patents covering UMTS key technologies and Huawei has become one of the few vendors in the world who can also produce 3G core ASIC chipset.

Till the end of 2003, Huawei had successfully deployed its commercial UMTS network in UAE and Hong Kong. Till now Huawei has finished the whole Etisalat UMTS project. Huawei’s quick response to customers’ demands and the equipment reliability has been highly valued by the customer. In Hong Kong, the SUNDAY project is also going smoothly as planned. The fact that Huawei’s 3G equipment will serve WSIS in Tunisia proves once again that Huawei has become one of the few vendors in the world that can provide an end-to-end commercial UMTS system.

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.