Vodafone has selected Siemens to provide transmission equipment and services in a project to expand its existing voice and data transmission network.
In the three-year, $15 million deal, Vodafone is upgrading its network to include microwave radio systems, optical multiplexers and network management software and services.
According to officials, under the contract Siemens is designing and integrating the complete system using its own equipment as well as technology supplied by partners Italtel and Marconi Communications.
In the deal similar to the recently announced Telstra-Siemens-Marconi contract [Network World Today, July 22, 1999, Marconi Comms settles into Australasian market], Marconi is supplying SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) technology to Siemens.
This includes Marconi's Series 3 synchronous multiplexer family and the Equipment Management Operations System (EM-OS) - a uUix-based object-oriented network management system, said Tim Geerarts, Marconi's regional marketing manager.
"For us it is quite exciting . . . we have managed to sell this equipment into both Telstra and Vodafone," Geerarts said.
According to an industry source, Marconi's contribution to the Vodafone project is said to be around $7 million.
According to Geerarts, Siemens is one of Marconi's distributors. "We work locally with them as with Ericsson . . .and we also supply equipment direct," he said.
Vodafone officials were not available for further comment before press time, but in a statement, Peter Abery, managing director of Vodafone, said: "A major reason for selecting Siemens was the quality and sophistication of its product and services. Siemens' equipment is able to meet Vodafone's exacting current and emerging technology requirements and quality standards."