Nokia quiet on advert for network planners

By PETER GRIFFIN

Mobile equipment vendor Nokia went big in the weekend press with advertisements for senior network planning staff but is refusing to say whether it is putting a team together to build the country's first 3G network.

Among the positions the Finnish company is looking to fill are those of project manager, rollout manager, project engineer for civil and technical planning, senior network planners, two for radio frequency and one for internet protocol and a cost and progress manager.

Heading the advert which ran in the Weekend Herald were the words "Fifth gear all the way". Nokia went on to say it was recruiting a team " ... to be part of the most exciting telco project this country has yet seen, partnering with a leading global technology provider ... "

Nokia is bidding to build the 3G networks of both Vodafone and TelstraClear but neither of those operators has finished the process of selecting which equipment vendors will build their networks.

With no major development on the cards for Vodafone's existing network, which Nokia constructed, it appears Nokia expects to pick up a 3G contract, potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Vodafone is currently undertaking an auction process where the vendors shortlisted bid electronically against each other, but have no knowledge of the details of competing bids.

Vodafone's general manager of engineering, Jenny Mundi, said the auction was drawing to a close with a vendor decision expected to be made next month after the Vodafone board had approved the deal.

Mundi said "cost is absolutely critical" in the final stages of the auction.

Phil Kemp, the former managing director of Nokia New Zealand who is now based in Britain working on the Vodafone account, would not comment on the job adverts, saying only that negotiations were still underway.