Huawei has been selected by Portuguese mobile operator Optimus to provide UMTS/LTE multi-frequency antennas for its LTE network.

The coexistence of multi-format and multi-band technologies supporting GSM/UMTS/LTE networks has created great challenges for antenna deployment. With limited site space available, operators must choose multi-band antennas, which also provide efficient deployment and maintenance costs while meeting the technical requirements of the network rollout.

Using Huawei's multi-band (1800MHz/2100MHz/2600MHz) antennas, Optimus added LTE operation while maintaining the number of antennas, minimising rental and infrastructure costs and retaining minimal visual impact.

Zhou Taoyuan, Huawei Wireless Network Business Unit President for Antenna and IBS Solutions, said: "Huawei has put forward a 3S strategy (Single, Synergy and Soft) in order to unify and fully automate the production platform to meet the requirements of operators for MBB network capacity and performance."

The size of the contract was not disclosed.