Go is to fully replace its mobile core network currently serving its 2G and 3G mobile customers with a next-generation platform by the end of the year, chief technology officer Joseph Bugeja told The Times Business.
The new network, part of a €25 million investment plan which kicked off last year and will be completed this year, will be rolled out by telecom giant Alcatel-Lucent. It will eventually be capable of also supporting fixed line telephony services, Mr Bugeja added.
"This new architecture will eventually enable Go to offer services that are traditionally associated with either the mobile network alone or the fixed network alone in a merged and transparent manner to end users," Mr Bugeja explained.
"The project will give even more edge to Go's infrastructure, allowing us to continuously improve our portfolio of voice and data mobile services, in short, to create a better end-user experience for our customers. This investment, as well as other important projects such as fibre-to-the-home deployment, confirm Go's confidence in strengthening its local operation to the benefit of all its stakeholders and Malta's development."
He emphasised Go was ensuring that there will be no impact on existing service in the migration project and all current mobile devices and internet keys will continue to be functional.
Asked how the new platform compared to those in operation in Europe, Mr Bugeja said that Go's new solution complies with the same standards of the most advanced European mobile networks.
"We have been careful to ensure that the product is compatible with the future deployment of internet protocol multimedia subsystems, the industry's way forward for the convergence of voice, video and data services with underlying mobility," Mr Bugeja said.
Mario Covini, Alcatel-Lucent's country senior officer for Malta, said the islands had one of the most up-to-date communication infrastructures in place, despite the country's size and thanks to Go's open attitude towards innovation.
Alcatel-Lucent, which has a long-standing collaboration with Go, believes the Maltese operator's approach to new technology gave it the opportunity to deploy "interesting" projects like this new network and the submarine cable linking Malta to Italy and the rest of the world.
"We have interesting and long-standing collaborations in mobile intelligent network, transmission technologies, a nation-wide broadband DSL network and the fast internet project, an initiative that will enable Go to extend its broadband service portfolio with a fibre-to-the-home solution having great bandwidth potential," Mr Covini noted.
"This project will enable a complete upgrade of Go's existing network and paves the way to further future enhancements and IMS evolution. Alcatel-Lucent will provide Go with a solution that will perfectly inter-work with the existing 2G and 3G radio access network and application layer."
Mr Covini said Alcatel-Lucent had one of the broadest solution portfolios in the industry, covering every customer request from networking, to applications, to services. Solutions are laden with innovation as Alcatel Lucent can exert leverage on the famous Bell Labs, its research and development asset that invented such things as transistors, laser, and mobile phones. Its forward-looking vision for mobile services included the development of applications such as mobile payment and mobile advertising that will impact the way people use their mobile phones.