Vivendi and Monaco Telecom for the UMTS contest

The subsidiary of the group Vivendi announced during the 3GSM of Cannes its intention to establish a UMTS network before summer in the principality. The operator selected the providers Siemens and Nec.

Monaco Telecom was also at the top of the 3GSM World Congress ending on Friday February 23rd in Cannes.The historic telecommunication operator in the principality, Vivendi’s subsidiary since June 1999 presented an attractive project, which could interest everyone in the GSM. Monaco Telecom aims to be one of the first operators in Europe to offer its users applications and services via a UMTS network. The operator selected Siemens and NEC in order to establish this UMTS network before summer 2001.The UMTS European laboratoryThus Monaco Telecom showed its assets which allowed it considering to be the European UMTS laboratory in a geographic and economic environment which gathers broad-minded clients, either professionals or individuals, with consumption behaviours in advance compared to the neighbouring countries. It also has the chance to have the command of all the competences of a telecommunication historic operator.The operator of Monaco which addressed to the specialized international press aimed to prove they had the competences necessary to succeed in this first step in UMTS. Several points were highlighted:“- the command of diverse telecom techniques: with a copper and optical fibre terrestrial network, satellite accesses, abilities in submarine cables, the operator controls networks as well as low access and wideband. - the operating of the mobile network: in the principality, the operator manages the GSM networks linked to the three French operators. - -The abilities to provide multimedia content: Monaco Telecom owns a subsidiary dedicated to the content which offers specific contents to the principality under two portals in particular (happy-monaco.com and monaco-infos.com).Siemens and NEC as providersWith its experience in the development of GSM networks, Siemens takes in charge the integration of the complete solution with NEC. Both will provide a turn key network to the operator. NEC is in charge of all radio equipment for the radio coverage of Monaco and will offer UMTS terminals.Siemens intervenes in the “Core Network”, the heart of the network, as well as in applications. The German group will offer a UMTS solution from the summer 2001, solution based on the evolution of its platform at the heart of the GSM network. This platform can develop with reliability and stability towards the future UMTS standards as the whole IP, while minimising investments, explains Monaco Telecom.As for applications, Siemens created various solutions. From the streaming to the video-conference, each application can be integrated simply (Plug&Play) on its Core Network independently from the IP or ATM technology implemented by the operator. When the network will open, the user will have the possibility to access to services and applications offered by Siemens and its partners.A determining experienceThe aim is to test in real environment a UMTS service from the beginning to the end, either it is technology, terminals or services. “The network which will be operational before summer shows the maturity of the UMTS technology and the advance of Siemens and NEC in this field, as it was written in a press release of Monaco Telecom. As a conclusion, this first step will allow the group Vivendi via its subsidiary to have determining information in its contest for the third generation mobile”.