The biggest Croatian exporter of telecom services and solutions Ericsson Nikola Tesla signed a contract with the first Belarus mobile operator JV MDC Velcom about the infrastructure upgrade, valued at HRK 250 million. The Croatian telecom exporter and Belarus operator that this year celebrates the seventh year of its operation contracted this job in the middle of June.

The contract includes the upgrade of the GSM core network, which will enable Velcom to serve 3 million users. To be more precise, the contract includes the implementation of new switching, radio and transmission equipment that will enable Ericsson Nikola Tesla's customer to offer a wider range of services of improved quality. Besides that, the new Belarus job includes delivery of professional services.

The Contract was signed on behalf  of JV MDC Velcom by G. V. Melnikov, General Director and on behalf of Ericsson Nikola Tesla d.d. by Zvonko Bićanić, Country Manager and Account Manager for the Belarus customers.

The realization of the contract is expected to be finalized by the end of this year. The signatories of the contract expressed great satisfaction with the results of their cooperation reached so far.

"When this project is completed our network capacity will be significantly expanded, which will enable us not only to serve a wider end user base than we are serving now, but also to offer our users more varied services of better quality. We see this as a guarantee of strengthening our leading position in the Belarus GSM market," comments G. V. Melnikov.

"I congratulate my colleagues who work in the Belarus market on this important success and wish to point out that this job has a strategic significance for us. Namely, Ericsson Nikola Tesla has a tradition of successful operation in Eastern and Central Europe as well as in Central Asia as a supplier of modern and reliable solutions for wireline networks and we started to penetrate the mobile markets in this part of the world a few years ago. The contract with Velcom is our most valuable contract in Belarus so far and its realization will prove that Ericsson Nikola Tesla has a reason to be optimistic about its standing within mobile telecommunications in this market", said the president of Ericsson Nikola Tesla, M. Sc. Gordana Kovačević.

JV MDC Velcom and Ericsson Nikola Tesla also cooperate on the introduction of the 3G system into the Belarus market. At the end of March this year a trial UMTS (3G) system that covers the centre of Minsk, Belarus capital, was launched. About this aspect of cooperation between Ericsson Nikola Tesla and Velcom Z. Bićanić says:

"So far the trial UMTS system, which in total will be available to the Velcom's end users over six months, supports free access to one TV program, downloading video clips and browsing the Internet using speeds up to 1,8 Mbit/sek (HSDPA). It is important to say that JV MDC Velcom has again confirmed its leading position in the Belarus market, while implementing the cutting edge Ericsson technology."

Company Communication of Ericsson Nikola Tesla