Ericsson has signed an agreement with TAIF-TELECOM company to expand the existing Santel GSM network.

The agreement provides deployment of the most up-to-date cellular technologies, including high-speed mobile access to Internet. The sum of the contract is US$ 16 mln. It includes software upgrade of existing Santel switch and deployment of additional base stations, with the newest MAXITE-900 stations being among them. TAIF-TELECOM says that the project will drastically expand the set of mobile communication services offered by Santel network. The latest Ericsson WISE (Wireless Internet Solution from Ericsson) solution, shipped within the framework of the project, allows TAIF TELECOM to enter the market of high-speed Internet access services. Santel subscribers will be able to make full use of Internet even in rural areas of Tatarstan (a republic of Russian Federation), where landlines are not always available, by connecting their computers to mobile phones. Ericsson HSCSD (High Speed Circuit Switched Data) technology provides data transmission rate as high as 38.8 Kbps. Up to the moment, this is the highest rate provided by Russian cellular networks. The upgraded GSM switch will allow to expand the coverage area of Santel network and increase the number of its subscribers to 100,000.