Network Operators

Customer

Vertel Telecoms, Australia (Large Nationwide MPT1327 Network Operator)

Background

Vertel is Australia’s largest MPT1327 Network operator, covering all States. A large number of Cell Extender® s form an integral part of the Network. Most Cell Extender® s are of the 1+2 type (1 Control Channel, 2 Traffic channels), but there also several 1+3 systems, where traffic demand is higher than the usual average.

Vertel choose Cell Extender® for a number of reasons. It provides economical solutions to specific coverage requirements, including coverage extension in areas where the available infrastructure has no further expansion capacity without major re-investments. Finally, as Cell Extender® is so easily installed, it is also used to provide fast track solutions to immediate expansion requirements.

A typical example is the Mt. View, NSW, Cell Extender® installation, briefly described below. This system was one of the first Vertel Cell Extenders, installed almost 10 years ago.

Product

Cell Extender®

Location

About 120 KM towards the North of Sydney, Australia, near Cessnock, a medium size country town, the Mt. View mountains rise some 200 meters above sea level.

Challenge

The population density in the area is low, but it carries a lot of business traffic passing through, on the way to or from the far more densely populated Sugarloaf and Mt. Arthur coverage areas. Add a highly undulating and mountainous terrain in between these two sites and you have the classic recipe for a coverage problem - mobiles "don’t know whether to lock onto one or the other site", and more often than not are “on the wrong site”.

Solution

Cell Extender® system, operating with 1 dedicated Control Channel, and 2 Traffic Channels, linked off the Sugarloaf site further South. To keep the coverage limited to those areas that required it, low cost, low power radio bases were used, which also helped to keep the total investment low. Installed nearly a decade ago, the Mt. View site has become a vital, high performance link in Vertel's radio network, carrying a large number of calls every day, around the clock.

Result

John Morehead, the Operations Manager of Vertel Telecom comments "Cell Extender® has given us an ideal tool to perfect our overall Network performance, effectively and reliably. It doesn’t need microwave links or land lines. The number of installed channels can be readily tailored to meet local area traffic demands. Even coverage into areas like underground car parks, or into large concrete structures, can be readily provided, by Cell Extender® , using only one single radio channel if necessary, if that’s all what the area needs. What’s more, a Cell Extender® system is, relatively speaking, quite mobile. It can be easily moved to new locations when the need for local coverage diminishes, or if and when a new Trunked Site has started to cover the area. All it needs is a simple re-programming procedure. Installation is equally simple, there are no complicated or critical adjustments, and it is a true "plug and play" system".

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