Nokia and Finnish telecom operator Elisa today carried out the world's first WCDMA/HSDPA data call on the 900 MHz band in a commercial network. The call was conducted in Elisa's live network in Finland, and the equipment included the Nokia Flexi WCDMA Base Station with a special solution for sharing the site infrastructure of the existing GSM base station.

The call demonstrated a new possibility of enhancing the existing WCDMA 3G network. The 900 MHz band can provide 2-4 times larger coverage area than the most commonly used 2 GHz band, thus reducing network deployment costs significantly especially in the rural areas. It also improves the availability of 3G services indoors due to better radio signal propagation characteristics. Finland is among the first countries that have allowed WCDMA 3G operation at 900 MHz band.

"Today's WCDMA900 call proves our dedication to continuously develop the Elisa service offering and bring the best services to our customers," says Matti Vikkula, Executive Vice President, Consumer and Small Enterprise Customers, Elisa Corporation. "Building rural 3G coverage in a cost-efficient way is very important for us, and offering our customers HSPA services at 900 MHz band is an interesting possibility to complement our existing HSPA services at 2100 MHz."