Nortel unveils CDMA 450 products
announced a new line of CDMA products for use on the 450 MHz band and said it has begun commercial deployments in Europe. Some European countries, including Sweden and Norway, are looking at CDMA 450 as an alternative to the TETRA (terrestrial trunked radio standard), which is seen by some as an expensice, capacity-limited platform.
The CDMA 450 product line is built on the company’s Metro Cell base station solution. The lower frequency allows operators to cover a larger footprint, reducing the need for cell sites, lowering capital expenditure costs and eliminating the need for operators to acquire additional spectrum, Nortel said. The CDMA 450 radios are designed as dedicated standalone units, which enables operators to cost effectively build on their existing infrastructures to expand and digitize voice and data services in both urban and rural environments, Nortel said. In addition, the CDMA 450 solution reduces site power requirements by as much as 25% and eliminates the need for frequency shifter hardware, which can “significantly decrease” site deployment costs, the company said.