STOCKHOLM -- Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) has completed the world's largest upgrade of a live mobile network, and done it at a record pace. To improve quality of service for more than 13 million Vodafone Essar subscribers in India's four key zones including three large metro cities, Ericsson replaced more than 10,500 of the operator's GSM radio sites, reaching a peak rate of one site every minute.

The network modernization project began in February 2008 and ended first quarter 2009, two months ahead of schedule. During this time, Ericsson delivered more than 16,000 base station cabinets and more than 250 base station controllers, completing the project in only 13 months. As part of the agreement, Ericsson also provided an expansion of the layered architecture circuit core including mobile packet back bone (MPBN) and microwave transmission equipment.

For Vodafone Essar, this means improved network performance, with state of the art equipment and functionalities.

Throughout the project Vodafone maintained uninterrupted network services in the cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, as well as the Punjab region.

Acknowledging the milestone, Naresh Gupta, Technical Director at Vodafone Essar, says: "Swapping a commercially live network with near zero service deterioration is a very demanding task. I am pleased that Ericsson managed to undertake and complete such a challenging project in record time."

Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC)

Vodafone India