Australia’s mobile operator Optus has selected Nokia Siemens Networks as its sole packet core vendor in a multimillion dollar agreement to address growing bandwidth requirements and offer new data services along with improving time to market.

“With the increasing use of data and smartphone applications, our Evolved Packet Core provides a springboard to operators such as Optus to launch new services,” said Kalevi Kostiainen, head of Australia and New Zealand at Nokia Siemens Networks. 

“Moreover, our platform is LTE ready and adds enormous capacity to data transport channels, allowing Optus Open Network to be flexible in responding to the market demands related to high capacity, using a robust platform,” Kalevi added.

The Evolved Packet Core from Nokia Siemens Networks can accommodate GPRS, WCDMA and LTE network traffic. It also includes Nokia Siemens Networks’ new Flexi NG GGSN platform. Flexi NG provides a significant uplift in capacity, thereby, providing plenty of headroom to Optus for new product launches.

"Mobile Packet Core solution will give Optus the flexibility to provide more bandwidth to our customers as required, especially as online applications and mobile working has become the norm," said  Günther Ottendorfer, managing director, Optus Networks.