C&W builds private GSM network for UK's Tesco

Under the terms of the 5-year deal, Tesco will pay C&W £100 million (US$179 million) for the network.  In turn, C&W has contracted Ericsson to design, build and manage the network for 5 years.

Ericsson will supply a complete core and radio-access network, based on small and low-power GSM base stations operating on the guard band spectrum of existing GSM frequencies – spectrum that is currently use to separate GSM networks to avoid interference. Ericsson will also provide a service platform including SMSCs and a voicemail system.

The network is expected to go live as early as next month.  “It is a completely contained network. The users of this private network will have all the normal facilities as a regular cellular service, but once they leave the home network, they will roam to the regularGSM network – the public one,” said David Curl, external relations manager at Ericsson UK.  “So it offers all the freedoms of mobility inside Tesco’s organisation and all the conventional mobility outside their organisation.” 

The network will use C&W’s IP network as backhaul, which will be used to link up some 1,500 Tesco locations with the private GSM coverage. The solution is designed to provide indoor fixed and mobile coverage for enterprise users using Micro and Picocells, as well as Femtocells in some locations.

The service will enable Tesco staff to have a single mobile handset for all calls.

 “The key difference with this network that we are providing for C&W, is that the backhaul – the connections between base stations and the core of the network – the backhaul connections are all provided by C&W’s IP backbone.