The alliance covers deployment of the Vanu Anywave MultiRAN system by GTL on its customers active and passive infrastructure assets. In addition, GTL will offer its sourcing, provisioning, equipment deployment and system integration services.

The combination of the Vanu Anywave® MultiRAN, an innovative multi-operator radio access network based on the company’s highly disruptive software radio technology, with Global Group’s tower assets forms an industry first --- an active/passive infrastructure that allows carriers to serve new markets without the time and expense of a traditional network build. This will provide global rural carries with a solution to open new revenue streams from the explosive subscriber demand in emerging markets and areas with low ARPU. Commercial deployment is subject to necessary government and regulatory approvals in India.

“Global wireless operators face the prospect of deploying new wireless standards, the opening of new spectrum bands, managing large legacy subscriber bases and integrating wireless acquisitions into their service portfolio, forcing them into faster upgrade cycles requiring support for multiple standards in their network,” said Dr. Vanu Bose, Vanu, Inc.’s, chief executive officer. “The unique combination of an active/passive access solution which combines the Vanu Anywave MulitRAN and Global Group’s extensive tower footprint and proven network expertise will well serve the rural areas that can not afford the time or the investment and yet require immediate, highly flexible, cost-effective solutions.”

The economics of the total active offering are enhanced by Vanu’s Anywave® Basestation software radio technology which enables new wireless standards and system capacity to be added via remote software downloads, thereby providing significant cost savings sharing all electronics and antennae, power, UPS, generator and maintenance which also results in a reduced footprint.

Talking about the alliance, Mr. Charudatta Naik, Whole Time Director and Chief Operating Officer, GTL said, “Interest in RAN sharing is growing around the world as carriers across large geographic areas look to technology to serve areas with low population density or low ARPU. The formation of this alliance and the deployment of the field trials in India will bring in the ‘best of breed’ innovative technology to offer an unbeatable value proposition to our customers.”

About the Vanu MulitRAN

The Anywave MultiRAN allows each carrier sharing the system to independently monitor and modify network parameters like a traditional standalone network. Additionally, the individual carrier independently controls upgrades to their network without affecting other carriers using the same system. For example, one carrier can migrate to a new air-interface standard through remote software downloads to the system, independently of the decisions made by other carriers sharing the Anywave MultiRAN system.

Providing both CAPEX and OPEX financial advantages, the Anywave MultiRAN savings result from dividing among two or more service providers the cost of one physical access network which includes all the expenses for both the RAN and supporting “passive” equipment such as cell towers and backup generators. Contributing factors to OPEX savings include: reduced site visits for maintenance, lower cooling requirements and utility costs with the largest single OPEX saving from the utilization of a shared IP backhaul for the signaling and traffic of all service providers.

At the core of the Vanu MultiRAN is the Vanu Anywave software radio platform which performs the entire signal processing for each wireless standard entirely in software. The Vanu Anywave MulitRAN cellular system currently supports standards at the 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz bands and both CDMA and GSM operation.

Editor’s Note:

Both Vanu, Inc. and GTL Limited will be exhibiting at Convergence India, March 19-21, at the Pragati Maidan in New Dehli, India. Vanu (Booth # E-150, Hall 12-A) will demonstrate the Vanu Anywave Basestation and the Anywave MulitRAN as well as simultaneous operation of GSM and CDMA in a single base station, single network configuration and other advances in software radio. GTL Limited (Booth # E-142, Hall 12 A) will display its Network Services portfolio covering the network lifecycle of OEMs and Telcos.

About GTL Limited

GTL Limited, part of the Global Group, is India’s largest network services provider to the world.

Global Holding Corporation Pvt. Ltd. is the holding company of “Global Group” that has 6 operating companies, two of which are listed on Indian Stock Exchanges. The group has Operations across 35 countries, Revenues in excess of US $600 million and Balance sheet size of over US $2 Billion. It employs more than 12,675 professionals of 22 nationalities and supports 18 social causes.

For over 2 decades Global Group has been partnering with leading telecom operators and OEMs offering its expertise in wireless communications. From 2G Networks to 3G and 4G, from WiMAX to IPTV, Global group provides complete life-cycle solutions around Network Services. The services include Network Planning and Design, Network Deployment, Network Operations and Maintenance, Infrastructure Management, Energy Management and Professional services.

GTL Infrastructure Limited, a Global Group Enterprise is engineering a Pan India network of over 25,000 towers that are being shared among the Telecom Operators. The Towers located across Semi Urban and rural India will help bringing in connectivity at affordable prices to the poorest of poor, creating a positive impact on Indian economy. By 2010, the Group plans to Erect, Engineer and Manage 100,000 Cell Sites across 150 Networks. These Networks are expected to connect more than 100 million subscribers in 50 countries across the world.

Global Group Enterprises have received more than 20 accolades and awards for excellence in Business, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Governance, Human Resources and Entrepreneurship. The group flagship company GTL Limited features amongst Top 10 in the Standard & Poor’s ESG India Index, is the recipient of Golden Peacock Global Award for Corporate Governance 2007 and Golden Peacock Innovation Award for CSR.

For more information on GTL, visit www.gtllimited.com 

About Vanu, Inc.

Vanu, Inc. (www.vanu.com) is the developer of the Anywave Base Station, the first U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC)-certified software radio. The Anywave Base Station provides significant advantages over traditional equipment designs including: simultaneous operation of multiple wireless standards on a single platform; the use of general purpose, open standard servers rather than proprietary hardware; remote software downloads to add system capacity and migrate to future standards; decreased backhaul costs; and a full range of additional capital and operating cost savings. These benefits come from implementing the high speed signal processing functions of the base station as a portable software application running on Linux, eliminating the need for specialized signal processing hardware. The company delivers Anywave radio access network solutions, licenses its software, and provides design consulting to service providers, system integrators and wireless OEMs. Vanu was founded in 1998 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. www.vanu.com