No progress on Vodafone, Orange link

THE DECISION by Vodafone and Orange to share their Radio Access Networks (RANs) in the UK was heralded as a 'historic agreement'. Six months later and we're still waiting for something to happen.

Our sources within Vodafone say that an announcement on the subject should be forthcoming before the end of this month [September]. But progress has been very slow so far.

For starters, there's no news of what the joint venture company needed to operate the combined network will actually be called.

Naturally our source is blaming Orange UK for the feet dragging, claiming that everything has to be doublechecked with its master - France Telecom.

The aim is to combine the two company's 3G networks first and then replace the ageing Vodafone 2G core with new gear.

Our mole also claims that upgrading an existing network to EDGE isn't as simple as the INQ recently claimed.

She says that Ericsson's The newer 2106/2206 hardware supports EDGE out of the box, but these weren't available until around 2001-2002.

The earlier Ericsson 2202 cabinets need a bit more modification than a simple software upgrade, our source argues.

Given that approximately 80 per cent of Vodafone's 2G sites are from the 2202 family, she reckons it wouldn't be worthwhile for Vodafone to swap over right now.

Maybe when the joint venture finally gets around to the new 2G core, then? µ

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