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    HomeInsightsFlarion says OFDM better than CDMA

    Flarion says OFDM better than CDMA

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    One of the bidders for a 450MHz licence in Finland, Saunalahti, has released details of its planned rollout of rural mobile broadband services.

    Saunalahti will start-up of construction of a mobile broadband network covering sparsely populated areas in Finland during 2005, if the Ministry of Transport and Communications grants the company a licence for the use of the available frequency. The network investment is estimated to amount to approximately EUR30 million in total during 2005-2007.
    Saunalahti has said that if its license bid is successful then it deploy Flash-OFDM technology to provide coverage. During the first year, the operator said it would plan to build out over 200 base stations, with one base station can cover an area of over 30 kilometres. The company estimates that the new broadband network will provide versatile services for around150,000 users in the future.
    “Lack of broadband services altogether and, on the other hand, the local operators’ pricing annoy inhabitants of sparsely populated areas. Saunalahti’s objective is to offer everyone wireless broadband connections clearly cheaper than before, at the so-called Helsinki price level of approximately EUR20 per month. Currently, the monthly cost of broadband in sparsely populated areas is about EUR 35-40,” Matti Vikkula, CEO of Saunalahti Group , said.
    “We will offer our wireless network openly also for the use of the local operators and their customers at corresponding costs,” said Vikkula.
    It has been estimated that there are 300,000 customers with slow Internet subscriptions in Finland. In addition, there are 120,000-130,000 households in places where it is not possible to construct ADSL connections. In addition to these, according to even the most cautious estimates there are tens of thousands of holiday houses without the possibility to obtain broadband connections.
    There are a series of license awards to be made across Europe in the 450MHz frequency band, including in France and the UK, where the frequency was returned to regulators by the failed Dolphin consortium. Qualcomm especially has seen the license as an opportunity to bring CDMA to Europe, as it has done in the same frequency band in areas of Eastern Europe.
    But Flarion Technologies, provider of the Flash OFDM technology which Saunalahti intends to use, claims it is well positioned to win contracts, and indeed says it has the superior technology in terms of capacity and IP compatibility.