Telecom News --

MTN South Africa provided 3G mobile coverage at football stadiums with Qualcomm’s QUEST

SAN DIEGO and JOHANNESBURG, 18 August, 2010

Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) and MTN South Africa announced their successful collaboration in providing fans attending the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ with a quality 3G user experience. Working with Qualcomm’s Engineering Services Group, MTN South Africa tested and verified its 3G network at major stadiums to support football enthusiasts as they made calls, sent text messages, browsed the Web, sent emails and uploaded photos from the matches.

The collaboration enabled MTN South Africa to boost its wireless coverage and optimise its services for the legions of football fans using mobile devices.

“As the first African global sponsor of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, MTN was committed to providing its local customers and international visitors with a seamless experience during the 2010 World Cup and proactively identified ways in which this could be done,” said Sameer Dave, chief technology officer of MTN South Africa. “All the fans within the stadium and the communities living and working around that stadium had to experience a world-class, quality and seamless service throughout the event.”

During renovations of three soccer stadiums — Soccer City in Johannesburg, Moses Mabida in Durban and Green Point in Cape Town — MTN integrated distributed antenna systems throughout the sites to accommodate increases in voice and data usage. MTN and Qualcomm worked together to optimise these systems using Qualcomm Engineering Simulation Tools (QUEST), a solution that analyses the dimensions of wireless networks to deliver optimal coverage and capacity. The custom-designed technology tools have helped other tier-one operators enhance their mobile capabilities for similar large-scale events, such as the 2010 U.S. football championship in Miami, Florida.

“The growth of 3G-capable smartphones is allowing more people to enjoy wireless data services while attending sporting events,” said Dave. “This trend brings unique network demands in supporting large groups of subscribers in a relatively small geographic area. Qualcomm’s engineering support was instrumental in helping us ensure that spectators received the reliable, high-speed voice and data services they have come to expect from MTN South Africa.”

“Mobile subscribers increasingly rely on wireless connectivity to access information and share memorable life events, such as attending one of the world’s largest and most celebrated sporting events,” said James Munn, vice president of Qualcomm Sub-Sahara Africa. “We are very pleased to have collaborated with MTN South Africa on such an exciting project. Through similar collaborations, Qualcomm is helping operators around the world to fortify their mobile networks for the next wave of wireless data services.”

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