Novis - Portugal

Competitive Vision: Cashing-in on Portugal's Broadband Boom in the Cellular Feeding and Access Segments

About Novis

• Launched in 1999
• Primary Investors: France Telecom (43%); Sonae (57%)
• A leading alternative Portuguese operator (24% market share)

The Challenge

• Penetrate Portugal’s booming deregulated telecom market
• Provide cost-effective voice, data & high-speed Internet services
• Effectively compete with incumbents
• Deploy a network that would provide both access and cellular feeding services

The Solution

• The deployment of a supplementary Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) network
• Alvarion’s WALKair for 26 GHz band – product of choice

The Result

• Succesfully integrated BWA network as complementary offering
• Alvarion’s solution enables the superior cellular feeding and access applications that Novis demands (E1 & voice)
• Network base stations cover 500 sq. kms

The Portuguese telecommunications market is emerging in the wake of liberalization policies adopted by the government in January 2000. Already an established telecom powerhouse, deregulation has signaled the dawn of a new chapter in the country’s ongoing development as a leader in the field. In the space of a mere twelve months since the enactment of the new policy, several new operators have entered the arena, vying to compete with fixed-line giant Portugal Telecom, the national incumbent carrier.

The brainchild of France Telecom (43%) and Sonae.com (57%), Novis was established in 1999 in anticipation of the lucrative opportunities that would arise in a deregulated market. The new carrier set itself an ambitious goal: to match the national incumbent by delivering enhanced voice and data services to its customer base faster and more efficiently. Indeed, in less than two years, the fledgling carrier has succeeded in attaining the position of Portugal’s second largest operator and the country’s leading alternative carrier (24% market share), providing access to more than 310,000 subscribers.

The deployment of a Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) network (operating in the 26 GHz band) was an important step in achieving part of Novis’ objectives, as it complements their overall service offerings significantly. The BWA network enables Novis to offer crucial Point-to-Multipoint feeding services for Optimus, a highly successful cellular operator, on a carrier-to-carrier basis. In addition, BWA deployment helps Novis to connect customers in densely populated areas, mainly in Porto and Lisbon, where small and medium enterprise (SME) customers use the broadband wireless network as an access solution. Covering an area of 500 sq. km, Novis’ BWA network serves 70% of Portugal’s emerging enterprise market.

Alvarion’s Solution: Pumping up the Bandwidth with PMP Technology

Beyond the vast experience and market savvy afforded by its founders France Telecom and Sonae.com, much of Novis’ success can be attributed to the equipment that drives its BWA network – chosen by their system integrator Siemens ICN. Alvarion’s WALKair is a Point-to-Multi-Point (PMP) broadband wireless access system that is ideal for carriers like Novis that require cellular base station feeding applications as an integral part of their network. Moreover, it enables telecom operators to easily and cost-effectively connect last-mile business subscribers to their network. The system utilizes dynamic bandwidth allocation to maximize bandwidth capacity and offers the widest range of high-speed data and voice services at the lowest cost - an optimal solution for today’s small and medium businesses in urban and suburban areas. WALKair systems enable carriers to provide SMEs with always-on connectivity and a wide range of broadband-enabled services, including Internet, VPN and LAN interconnect access; VoIP, legacy telephony and data network access; and application sharing, video conferencing, web hosting and E-commerce.

The Alvarion system also made it possible for Novis to deliver reliable services, due to its high-performance under difficult weather conditions such as heavy rain.

The solution’s support of multi-frequency bands, large-capacity base stations, feature rich applications and low infrastructure investment requirements, make WALKair a superior wireless access solution for carriers seeking to deploy networks in emerging markets that can provide quick and stable sources of new revenue. Novis intends to continue to grow its modular BWA network as the basis for increasing its already impressive market share.

 Novis has become an important customer for us, gaining significant presence in the Portuguese market in a very short time. When they turned to us for a BWA solution that would address two important aspects of their business – cellular feeding applications and SME access services – the choice of Alvarion’s WALKair system was clear. It’s basically the only BWA solution that can effectively deliver both over a single network deployment.  -- Luis Gomes of Siemens ICN Portugal

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