London, 9 September 2010 … NEC Europe announced today that Latvijas Mobilais Telefons SIA (LMT), Latvia’s first mobile network operator, has selected NEC to supply a national Packet Transport Network (PTN).  The backbone network will support next-generation mobile backhaul services with transmission speeds of 10Gbps.

NEC will equip more than 50 nodes with its MN5000 Series PTN solutions.  These range from compact access devices to high-capacity aggregation nodes transporting E1, SDH[i] and Ethernet-based mobile broadband traffic.  NEC will ensure the network has a high level of resiliency by deploying MPLS-TP[ii], which also ensures low OPEX.

“We chose a packet transport network based on MPLS-TP because it gives us deterministic traffic paths which can be easily and quickly configured.  It is a relatively easy step for us to migrate our backbone from SDH to MPLS-TP, giving us the scalability we need without a major upheaval in our operations,” said Jevgenijs Busarovs, Vice President and CTO of LMT.  “NEC was able to provide us with the ideal combination of the NEC MN5000 series combined with WDM[iii] equipment.”

NEC will supply the optical transmission infrastructure for the project using WDM equipment provided by its partner Transmode.  The use of WDM will allow legacy SDH services to be maintained in parallel with the new network, without requiring additional fibre to be installed.  It also allows for significant capacity expansion as mobile backhaul traffic continues to grow exponentially.

“NEC is providing next-generation mobile backbone solutions that ensure LMT can meet the unrelenting demand for capacity from its mobile broadband customers.  This move builds upon NEC’s role as a strategic supplier of microwave equipment to LMT for almost 15 years.  It is a great demonstration of our broader delivery capability to an important client,” said Fredrik Tumegård, President and CEO of NEC Scandinavia.

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About Latvijas Mobilais Telefons SIA (LMT)

Latvijas Mobilais Telefons is the market and technology leader in Latvia, providing highest quality services and the widest network coverage in the country as well as the largest customer base. LMT has operated on the mobile market since 1992 and is the first mobile network operator in the country. The service was established as an operator of the NMT system. Within a couple of years of starting, the company has undergone rapid development. In January 1995, a GSM network was started, and in December 1999 a dual 900/1800 MHz network was opened. From 1 September 2002, LMT's customers have been able to use data transmission services across all of Latvia. From December 2004, a UMTS 3G mobile communication network has been available to LMT users.

About NEC Europe

NEC Europe is a subsidiary of NEC Corporation, a leader in the integration of IT network technologies that benefit businesses and people around the world. NEC Europe is building upon its heritage and reputation for innovation and quality by providing its expertise, solutions and services to a broad range of customers, from telecom operators to enterprises and the public sector.  For additional information, please visit the NEC Europe home page at: http://www.nec.com/eu

About Transmode

Transmode is a leading provider of optical networking solutions for transport of data, voice and video traffic, based on CWDM and DWDM technology (Coarse/Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing).

Transmode's unique Intelligent WDM (iWDM™) approach has lead to widespread deployment of over 20000 systems in a customer base consisting of more than 300 fixed and mobile network operators, service providers, large enterprises and public institutions across Europe, the Americas and Asia.

Transmode's comprehensive product portfolio and strong global organization enable our customers to grow the capacity and to improve service level of their regional, metro and metro access networks, on a cost-efficient basis without compromising on functionality.

For additional information about Transmode, please visit www.transmode.com.