Austrian mobile operator H3G has made two significant investments in new technology as it attempts to position itself for the expansion in wireless data.

The company has deployed HP’s home subscriber server to support its LTE network and Alcatel-Lucent’s 100G optical coherent technology to expand fibre optic network capacity.

H3G started offering LTE services in November 2011. The service, available to consumers via a modem, is running in Vienna.

A spokesperson told European Communications that the potential market was 200,000, but was unable to give a precise figure on take-up. H3G will expand LTE coverage throughout 2012.

HP’s HSS solution will serve as the “master database” for all of H3G’s LTE users.

The vendor said the deployment means subscriber data is managed as a single logical record, which accelerates provisioning, reduces the ongoing cost of change and evolution, and provides a better customer experience on the LTE network.

“The new LTE network will provide our customers with the best possible mobile experience,” said Jan Trionow, H3G’s CEO (pictured).

The operator handles the largest volume of mobile broadband traffic of any operator in Austria.

“Due to the rapid growth in 3G mobile broadband we are facing new challenges for our data network. Additionally, the introduction of LTE will increase the need for capacity,” commented Matthias Baldermann, H3G’s CTO.

Consequently, the company has chosen A-L’s in-service network upgrade, which will allow it to expand network capacity over its existing fiber-optic infrastructure.

A-L said the transport of very large amounts of data over long distances would see improved capacity and performance. Bringing together optical transport network (OTN) and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology onto a single platform will simplify operations and cuts costs, it added.

“We will now have the most powerful data transport network in Austria, which will play an important role in maintaining our position as the leading provider of mobile data services,” added Baldermann.

“Also, because we are able to add these new capabilities to our existing network, we are able to move quickly to expand our services offerings without incurring a huge expense.”