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TPG Telecom takes Nokia nodes to deploy Asia-Pacific’s first live 5G femtocell

Leading Australian operator deploys modular 4G/5G Smart Node solution from leading comms tech provider to become first network operator in the Asia-Pacific region to deploy a live 5G femtocell

Joe O’Halloran
By
Published: 27 Oct 2021 10:00

Australian operator TPG Telecom is using Nokia’s modular 4G/5G Smart Node to provide Asia-Pacific customers from a dedicated femtocell what they claim will be superior indoor 5G coverage.

TPG Telecom owns and operates nationwide mobile and fixed networks including Australia’s second-largest fixed voice and data network, with more than 27,000 kilometres of metropolitan and inter-capital fibre networks and a leading mobile network comprising more than 5,600 sites, covering more than 23 million Australians.

It is home to some of Australia’s most popular mobile brands, including Vodafone, TPG, iiNet, AAPT, Internode, Lebara and Felix.

Smart Node is a dedicated indoor service that Nokia has said is capable of providing superior coverage and capacity, and can be scaled from single to multiple units to meet the telcos’ indoor coverage requirements.

Attributed with delivering high-quality coverage, low latency and reliability, Smart Node can, said Nokia, provide solid 4G and 5G connectivity for the demanding use cases expected by TPG Telecom’s enterprise customers. Its “plug and play” capabilities are also said to make it easy to set up, which keeps installation costs to a minimum.

Supporting both Non-Standalone (NSA) and Standalone (SA) 5G deployments, the dedicated femtocell solution also undertakes traffic management by reducing core network load and optimising macro resource allocation.

It delivers uncongested high throughput network performance with existing secure authentication, and provides a secure connection and SIM-based authentication to assure the quality required in mobile networks.

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TPG Telecom will be rolling out Nokia’s Smart Node solution to selected enterprise customers in the coming months, deployed as part of the company’s smarter 5G network, delivering targeted 5G coverage and capacity to their key customers.

Commenting on the deployment of the technology, Jonathan Rutherford, group executive for enterprise and government at TPG Telecom, said: “We’re excited about the possibilities this product provides for our business customers in particular. Nokia Smart Node is a simple, cost effective and seamless ‘plug and play’ solution to provide indoor 5G coverage for small and medium businesses and corporate branch offices.”

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