Alcatel-Lucent is deploying small cell technology for AIS to help the Thai mobile carrier rapidly improve coverage and capacity in cities and villages for residents and a growing number of tourists traveling to the country.
AIS is the country’s first mobile operator to deploy small cells. Deployment began in September 2014 with 500 units of small cells have already being installed. AIS plans to increase the number in operation to 3000 in 2015, Alcatel-Lucent said.
Alcatel-Lucent is providing its 9764 Metro Cells Outdoor and 5620 Service Aware Manager together with integration and technical support.
As of 2014 AIS reached 97% of the Thai population with its 3G coverage and is using small cells to help strengthen its network with much needed capacity.
AIS is deploying small cells in popular tourist destinations and shopping malls in Thailand, as well as in urban environments and villages. This will help AIS expand its data service faster and more economically than with conventional cellular networks, which may be more costly and take considerably more time to install.
“AIS needs to provide the best mobile data services in Thailand. Thanks to self-optimization features, Alcatel-Lucent’s small cell performance in a multi-vendor radio environment as well as their simplicity of deployment are allowing to meet demanding requirements. AIS is able to install very fast and deliver top quality service to AIS customers wherever they are,” said Weerawat Kiattipongthaworn, senior executive vice president of operations at AIS.
The announcement comes a week after AIS contracted Alcatel-Lucent to build a 100G optical transport network to help meet growing demand for data capacity in the country.