Ericsson OSS / BSS powers Spark New Zealand to reengineer IT platforms
By Telecom Lead
October 30, 2014
Telecom network vendor Ericsson today said Spark New Zealand has deployed Ericsson’s Service Agility Suite to reengineer its IT platforms.
Claire Barber, general manager of Change and Technology for Spark, said: “Our re-engineering program has reduced multiple overlapping products and automated manual processes, leading to improvements in new service rollout and more effective cost utilization.”
Ericsson’s Service Agility Suite is expected to enable Spark New Zealand, a leading telecom operator in New Zealand, to better utilize assets and automate a number of service delivery functions to provide significant operational efficiencies.
“Our driving aim of the process is to better manage our network and customer services in order to continue to improve customer engagement and experience,” said Barber, at the Ericsson OSS / BSS Summit 2014 being held October 28 – 30 in New York.
Ericsson says operators are reviewing and updating the processes and systems with a strong focus on better customer engagement and improved experiences.
Spark, which is transitioning from telecom-defined to customer-defined interactions with a simplified product portfolio and approach, can automate processes and simplify those that must remain manual.
Elisabetta Romano, vice president and head of OSS and Service Enablement, Business Unit Support Solutions, Ericsson, said: “The pre-integrated product catalog and order management systems included in Ericsson Service Agility Suite, are essential building blocks for Spark’s IT operations update.”
NTT DoCoMo taps Oracle diameter solution for LTE roaming support
By Dan Meyer, RCRWireless News on October 30, 2014
In a move to expand LTE roaming capabilities, Japanese telecom giant NTT DoCoMo announced that it has installed Oracle Communications’ diameter signaling router platform.
Oracle explained that the router will allow the carrier to rapidly launch services to leverage its LTE network infrastructure, with a focus on support for LTE roaming as its customers travel overseas. The implementation was done in conjunction with Oracle partner NS Solutions and took a reported six months from purchase order to supporting live customer traffic. Supporting the rapid deployment was the platform’s implementation as a virtualized solution, with benefits including scalability and a small physical footprint.
NTT DoCoMo was one of the world’s first mobile operators to launch LTE services, turning on its network back in late 2010. The carrier earlier this year took the next step by rolling out voice over LTE services, which transmits voice calls over the carrier’s LTE network as data traffic.
“The rapid growth of LTE in Japan and roaming markets demands that we support LTE roaming to provide our customers with a consistently high-quality mobile experience no matter where they are,” said Hiroshi Nakamura, SVP and managing director of NTT DoCoMo’s Core Network Development Department.
NTT DoCoMo rival Softbank late last year announced a reciprocal LTE data roaming agreement with South Korea’s SK Telecom.
Oracle late last month announced a number of new mobile-focused initiatives tapping into big data analytics for application development. The company said the moves were designed to allow customers to more easily transition Oracle databases and applications to the cloud.
LTE roaming is still in its infancy, with few operators currently supporting services. Software solutions, like diameter, are seen as being key to the rollout of roaming capabilities as they let operators more precisely monitor traffic across their networks.
XL Axiata swings to $74m loss for 9M14
Dylan Bushell-Embling
October 31, 2014
telecomasia.net
Indonesia’s XL Axiata swung to a 901 billion rupiah ($74.3 million) loss for the first nine months of 2014, due in large part to rising infrastructure expenses.
The result marks a reversal of fortune compared to the 917 billion rupiah profit that the operator reported for the same period last year.
Revenue grew 11% to 17.6 trillion rupiah, with data revenue swelling 43%, compared to just 4% for both voice and SMS revenue.
Data’s contribution to total revenue increased from 28% to 23% over the same period, while data traffic surged 136% year-on-year. The operator’s total data subscriber base increased to 31.2 million, or 53% of its total base.
But XL’s infrastructure expenses grew 43.5% to 6.3 trillion rupiah, dragging down overall profit. Total debt increased to 30.4 trillion rupiah from 17.5 trillion rupiah, resulting in higher interest costs, and forex fluctuations also negatively impacted earnings.
The operator has been making moves to cut down on infrastructure costs, and as part of this strategy has arranged to sell 3,500 telecom towers to PT Solusi Tunas Pratama for 5.6 trillion rupiah. But the transaction has not yet been completed.
“As part of our commitment in data expansion for better experience, we have conducted a network transformation in key cities that have been implemented since early 2014,” XL Axiata president director Hansul Suhaimi commented.
“During Lebaran season, XL has succeeded to manage the traffic increase with result in lower customer complaint as much as 20% decline compared last year and higher successful rate of connection as high as 99.94%.”
Ericsson to include TIBCO Software’s middleware in OSS / BSS offerings
By Telecom Lead
Telecom network vendor Ericsson today said it will include TIBCO Software’s middleware in Ericsson’s OSS / BSS offerings.
TIBCO software will complement Ericsson’s OSS / BSS services in the area of charging, billing, order management, product catalog, customer relationship management and customer experience management.
Paolo Colella, vice president and head of Consulting and Systems Integration at Ericsson, said: “We can transform operators’ OSS / BSS solutions and enable telecom communication service providers to become more cost-efficient and agile.”
Boku acquires rival mopay to lead carrier billing-based mobile payment biz
By Telecom Lead
October 7, 2014
Boku on Tuesday announced the acquisition of its rival mopay.
Germany-based mopay is one of the largest carrier billing companies in the world.
The acquisition makes Boku the largest standalone provider of carrier billing-based mobile payment services in the world.
The companies will merge operations and operate under the Boku brand.
Financial terms were not revealed.
Leading Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists fund Boku including Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and NEA.
Their merchant customers include Valve, gameloft, and Wargaming, Facebook, Sony, Spotify, and Electronic Arts.
The combined assets of the two companies will offer better scale and operational efficiency and standardized carrier billing solution to the benefit of merchants, carriers and consumers.
“By coming together we’ve created a company that can realize the vision of charging purchases to your phone bill as a truly global payment method at scale,” said Jon Prideaux, CEO of Boku.
The new organization offers mobile payments in more than 80 countries, with a reach close to 5 billion consumers.
Based in San Francisco with offices in Europe, Latin America, and Asia, Boku reaches more than 4 billion consumers worldwide, across 67 different countries with more than 250 operators. Boku partners with global merchants including Facebook, Sony, and Electronic Arts.
mopay operates in more than 80 countries, reaching more than 4.3 billion consumers. mopay has more than 100 employees at locations in the United States, Germany, Austria, Spain, the United Kingdom, Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, China, Romania and Brazil.
Robi gets BTRC approval to transfer 49% share in infrastructure biz to Edotco
By Telecom Lead
October 3, 2014
Bangladesh telecom regulator BTRC has approved Robi’s proposal for transferring 49 percent of its network infrastructure shares to Edotco Group.
Both Robi and Edotco Group are subsidiaries of Malaysian Axiata Group.
Robi will receive around Tk 540 crore from Edotco Group, the operator said in its application seeking permission from BTRC.
The money will be spent on the upgrading of network infrastructure or non-telecom equipment, which includes towers, buildings, batteries, power and cooling systems.
In June, BTRC (Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission) postponed Robi’s proposal for transferring 80 percent of its telecom network infrastructure shares to Edotco due to lack of relevant guidelines.
BTRC officials say Robi will be allowed to transfer the shares when the guideline is formed.
The telecom regulator has approved the Robi proposal because the share transfer will assist Edotco to strengthen its business. This apart, the telecom tower proposal will help other mobile operators to improve their network in a more cost-effective way, said Md Ahsan Habib Khan, vice chairman of BTRC.
“We are pleased and welcome the decision of the BTRC. We firmly believe this is timely and will enable better infrastructure development in the telecom sector in Bangladesh,” said Matiul Islam Nowshad, chief corporate and people officer of Robi.
China Mobile-owned Zong launches 4G mobile Internet in Pakistan
By Telecom Lead
October 3, 2014
China Mobile-owned Zong on Thursday launched 4G LTE mobile Internet services in Pakistan.
With this, Zong has become the first telecom operator in Pakistan to launch 4G services.
Zong 4G services will initially be available in five cities: Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi and Faisalabad. Zong intends to roll out 4G services in Quetta and Peshawar by the end of this year.
The Pakistan telecom operator is selling monthly 4G hybrid package at Pakistan Rs 599 + taxes for 2 GB data and Rs 799 + taxes for 4 GB plan. Both schemes offer unlimited On-Net voice and 500 SMS per day.
Zong 4G mobile Internet is cheaper than 2G and 3G in Pakistan.
For instance, the Zong 4G 2 GB data plan will cost you Rs 350 against 1 GB of 2G or 3G data available for Rs 250.
The price of 4 GB data plan of Zong 4G LTE is Rs 650, 10 GB is available at Rs 1500, while 20 GB will cost Rs 2500.
China Mobile was the only operator to purchase one of the two 4G licenses that were auctioned in April this year, while Mobilink, Telenor and Ufone only bid for 3G licenses.
Chunghwa Telecom hints at lowering Capex for current year
By Telecom Lead
October 29, 2014
Chunghwa Telecom today said its Capex (capital spending) in Q3 2014 increased 2.2 percent to NT$7.9 billion.
Chunghwa Telecom invested 47.8 percent of total Capex for domestic fixed communications, 33.8 percent for mobile communications, 11.3 percent for internet, 5.8 percent on international fixed communications, and the remainder on others.
“It is possible to realize more than a 10 percent reduction in budgeted capital expenditures this year due to having our fiber broadband investment focus primarily on FTTH construction instead of network coverage,” said Rick L Tsai, chairman and CEO of Chunghwa Telecom.
Q3 revenue of Chunghwa Telecom decreased 1.0 percent to NT$56.14 billion. The revenue break up includes: 47.2 percent mobile, 12.2 percent internet, 32.2 percent domestic fixed, 6.8 percent international fixed, and 1.6 percent from other businesses.
Mobile communications revenue dipped 3.8 percent to NT$26.47 billion. It posed a decrease in mobile voice revenue mainly due to market competition and promotional packages and lower handset sales.
Mobile value-added services (VAS) revenue increased 22.1 percent to NT$8.95 billion, with mobile internet revenue, the largest contributor to VAS revenue, rose 29.0 percent.
Internet revenue of Chunghwa Telecom grew 2.2 percent to NT$6.88 billion.
Net income decreased 8.8 percent to NT$9.73 billion.
Chunghwa Telecom 4G
Chunghwa Telecom 4G is gaining momentum. In the most recent two months, 4G subscriber base grew. “We maintain our year-end target goal of acquiring 40 percent of the 4G market,” Tsai said in a statement.
Chunghwa Telecom targets to reach 90 percent of Taiwan’s population by the end of 2014 and up to 99 percent by year-end 2015 through 4G network deployment.
Ericsson, Smart on mission to re-connect displaced Filipinos via REFUNITE
By Telecom Lead
October 14, 2014
Ericsson, in partnership with Smart Communications and REFUNITE, has announced the launch of a new family tracing and reconnection service in the Philippines.
The new SMS service, the first of its kind in Asia, will help Filipino families separated by Typhoon Haiyan unite, the company said.
After the typhoon hit the Philippines in November 2013, many families in the region were displaced. The UNHCR estimates there are still around 4 million displaced persons in the Visayas region.
With REFUNITE, a mobile and web platform, families can search for missing relatives by sending an SMS through any mobile and web-enabled device. More than 350,000 people have already registered on the global platform.
Erisson will provide the technology support for the platform.
the mobile service will soon be accessible to survivors of Typhoon Haiyan.
By the end of 2014, families will be able to search, reconnect, and communicate with missing loved ones in the aftermath of Haiyan. This will also benefit Filipino victims of emergencies and disasters in the future.
Smart will popularize REFUNITE family reconnection platform through SMS campaigns and/or cell broadcasts. The joint response will be piloted in Tacloban City, which was among those hardest-hit by Typhoon Haiyan, and then scaled to other regions.
An SMS-based service that enables people to search for their missing loved ones will be very useful, especially in countries like the Philippines that is frequently affected by natural calamities, said Orlando B. Vea, chief wireless advisor of Smart.
Sam Saba, Ericsson Head of the Southeast Asia and Oceania region, says: “We continue to seek new ways to leverage technology for good. This new partnership will aid the displaced Filipino population, and bring them closer to their goal of reconnecting with lost loved ones.”
Christopher Mikkelsen, co-founder of REFUNITE, says, “Everyone has the right to know where their family is. The Philippines experiences around 20 typhoons each year. Our goal is to leverage new technology to bring separated families back in touch.”
True commits extra $123m to 4G
Dylan Bushell-Embling
October 31, 2014
telecomasia.net
Thailand’s True Move has committed to investing 4 billion baht ($122.9 million) to expand its 4G network, and plans to roll out 4,000 more base stations by February.
The operator has set a target of having 7,000 base stations for its 2.1-GHz 4G network up and running by next February, the Nation reported.
According to True CEO Suphachai Chearavanont, demand for 4G is expected to take off in 2015, and the operator aims to be in a position to meet this demand and become the 4G market leader.
He said True aims to cover 60% of the population by February, up from 25% at present, and to have a 40% share of the 4G market in 2015.
True currently has around 800,000 4G subscribers, 19 million 3G users and 4 million still on 2G. Its 3G network consists of 13,500 850-MHz base stations and 5,300 in the 2.1-GHz band.
Suphachai also told the Nation he expects True Corp to turn a profit in the fourth quarter, and that the company expects continued growth now that it has solved its debt problem.
True Move launched LTE services in May last year, becoming Thailand’s first operator to do so. The rollout started in densely populated urban areas, including in Bangkok
Snapdeal bags $627M funding, Ola nets $210M, as SoftBank ploughs $10B into India
By Malavika Velayanikal, www.techinasia.com at 12:34 pm on October 28, 2014
Japanese telecom giant SoftBank today invested US$627 million in Indian ecommerce site Snapdeal, and US$210 million in taxi app Ola, formerly Olacabs.
The investments into Snapdeal and Ola are part of a whopping US$10 billion earmarked by SoftBank to pump into India’s booming ecommerce, telecom, and aviation industries. Masayoshi Son, founder and CEO of SoftBank, shared this investment plan when he met Indian prime minister Narendra Modi as well as IT and telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in New Delhi on Monday.
“Since SoftBank’s foundation, our mission has been to contribute to people’s lives through the Information Revolution. We believe India is at a turning point in its development and have confidence that India will grow strongly over the next decade. As part of this belief, we intend to deploy significant capital in India over the next few years to support development of the market,” Masayoshi Son said in a statement announcing the investment.
Ola’s existing investors – Tiger Global, Matrix Partners India, and Steadview Capital – participated in this latest investment round along with SoftBank. The investment-flush American entrant Uber has put Ola and other local on-demand taxi services in India under intense pressure in a price war. Just last week, Uber increased its discount for rides in Bangalore to 45 percent.
Snapdeal too has been on the hunt for a suitable investor ever since Indian ecommerce leader Flipkart raised US$1 billion in funding earlier this year, followed immediately by a US$2 billion cheque for Amazon India from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The entry of SoftBank, which is flush with funds, balances the equation.
Emerging markets with huge potential
SoftBank has a one-third stake in Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba, whose recent IPO in the US made Son the richest businessman in Japan with a net worth of US$16.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Clearly, a significant portion of those new funds will go into emerging markets. As Nikesh Arora, vice chairman of SoftBank, explains: “India has the third largest Internet user base in the world, but a relatively small online market currently. This situation means India has, with better, faster and cheaper Internet access, a big growth potential. We want to support the leaders and entrepreneurs of the digital future.”
Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Ola said, “Ola is at the forefront of the mobile internet revolution in India and Softbank as an investor and a strategic partner with its global network, brings in a lot of relevant experience and knowledge of this domain.”
Son is on a two-day visit to India, and more deals may be struck. Indian mobile commerce startup Paytm is also a candidate for a major funding.
“Japan’s richest businessman Mr. Masayoshi Son met me today. He expressed great optimism in India’s changed investment climate,” India’s IT and telecom minister said on his Facebook page.
Son is reported to have said during his meetings with Indian ministers that he expects Indian ecommerce to grow into a half-trillion-dollar business in the next 10 years. The Japanese telecom major already has a 50:50 joint venture with India’s Bharti Telecom – Bharti SoftBank is the backer of Indian messaging app Hike.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi got assurances of US$35 billion in investment from Japan during his visit to Tokyo last month. The US$10 billion pledged by SoftBank in New Delhi on Monday suggests that the mark will soon be crossed.
SingTel teams with MS to launch COSN
Dylan Bushell-Embling
October 30, 2014
telecomasia.net
SingTel and Australia’s Telstra have both announced initiatives aimed at diversifying their enterprise product lines with innovative new services.
SingTel has teamed up with Microsoft to launch the Cloud Operating System Network (COSN) in Asia-Pacific, the first operator in the region to do so.
COSN is designed to allow customers to move their data and workloads between the public cloud, a dedicated private cloud and SingTel’s virtual private cloud.
It uses SingTel’s hybrid cloud platform SingTel Managed Cloud, and will allow customers to use Microsoft applications over the operator’s cloud infrastructure.
“Our customers can keep their mission-critical data on-premises while harnessing the limitless computing power and storage of cloud on a pay-as-you-use basis,” SingTel Group Enterprise vice president Lee Han Kheng said.
Telstra separately announced the debut of a new business app marketplace. The operator aims to make Telstra Apps Marketplace a one-stop-shop for finding and buying the best business apps.
The marketplace will feature a catalog of apps – including Box and DocuSign – for business customers of all sizes.
Telstra is particularly targeting the 75% of Australian small businesses that are spending up to $1000 each year on paper, and aims for the marketplace to serve as a repository for apps that can eliminate these redundancies.
Ooredoo Myanmar aims to connect women with tech
Dylan Bushell-Embling
October 30, 2014
telecomasia.net
Ooredoo Myanmar has stepped up efforts to use technology to empower women in the nation, launching a community group and a natal healthcare app.
Ooredoo and the GSMA have just concluded the Connected Women conference in Yangon, an event which aimed to explore ways Myanmar’s technical revolution can benefit women. Discussions focused on health, education and entrepreneurship.
At the event, Ooredoo’s start-up acclerator Ideabox launched the community group Geek Girls Myanmar, which will bring together female IT professionals, students and enthusiasts aiming to improve female participation in Myanmar’s technology sector.
The operator also launched maymay, a healthcare app aimed at delivering access to pre and ante natal healthcare information and advice to women.
“We are passionate about working to help women overcome the barriers which prevent them from accessing technology, such as technological illiteracy, costs and cultural or gender practices,” Ooredoo Myanmar CEO Ross Comack said.
“We have a unique opportunity here in Myanmar to help address this issue early on in the country’s development.”
Ooredoo recently teamed up with the GSMA and the Clinton Global Initiative for a project aimed at tackling the mobile internet gender gap. The program will involve research in 12 markets including China, India and Indonesia, as well as technical projects.
Ericsson, Facebook, XL Axiata in joint project to improve network performance
By Telecom Lead
October 13, 2014
Ericsson, Facebook and XL Axiata today said they created a new methodology to measure and improve network performance.
Network-wide optimization implemented through the joint project delivered up to 70 percent improvement in app coverage.
The initiative is part of the strategy of Internet .org to enhance mobile Internet penetration across the world.
Indonesia has the fourth-largest Facebook user base in the world.
In Indonesia, 75 percent of users are on 2G GSM/EDGE networks.
XL Axiata says its data traffic rose 142 percent in 2013. More than half of the operator’s 62.9 million subscribers are data users and a majority of those use Facebook.
Hasnul Suhaimi, chief executive officer XL Axiata, said: “We believe app coverage is essential and correlating Facebook application use cases with network-wide statistics has proven to be an innovative and efficient way to detect and address network optimization opportunities.”
The joint project by XL Axiata, Facebook and Ericsson developed a framework for evaluating user key performance indicators (KPI) based on simulated Facebook application use cases using a test agent and correlated these KPIs with network statistics.
Chris Daniels, vice president, Internet.org, Facebook, said: “We have a model for improving network performance that can be applied globally by mobile network operators. This will help ensure we have more efficient use of existing network capacity and resources.”
Warid Telecom selects Ericsson for 4G LTE network
By Telecom Lead
October 12, 2014
Pakistan mobile service provider Warid Telecom today announced that it selected network vendor Ericsson as its supplier of 4G LTE.
Warid Telecom CEO Muneer Farooqui said: “Warid is gearing up for the 4G LTE launch with the best available network solutions and Ericsson has been committed to provide us with the technologies and services.”
Warid Telecom Capex plans
Warid Telecom 4G will be initially available in five key cities including Lahore and Islamabad.
Tariq Gulzar, chief financial officer, Warid Telecom, said: “Over the next five years we are investing over $470 million. We have recently invested over $100 million in LTE.”
Recently, Ericsson announced its association Indian telecom service provider Bharti Airtel to supply 4G LTE equipment when it rolls out 4G service on FD-LTE technology.
Warid Telecom has started an internal trial to test the network capacity and service reliability.
The company has already started delivering free 4G LTE SIMs to its subscribers who have 4G LTE enabled handsets.
The company also unveiled its 4G LTE logo during the ongoing GITEX Technology Week 2014 in Dubai on Sunday.
Pakistan is in the midst of an internet revolution, at the heart of which is the increasing uptake of smart devices and mobility. Connectivity via handsets already exceeds the number of connections through fixed line, and majority of first-time users experience the internet for the first time through their smartphones.
Warid Telecom does not have 4G license
The Abu Dhabi Group-owned Warid, the only mobile operator that refrained from participating in the recently concluded mobile spectrum auction in Pakistan, will now directly jump from 2G services to 4G technology.
Earlier, Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) in a press release dated 23 April 2014 said that Warid Telecom would seek permission of PTA to launch 4G.
This follows media reports suggesting that Warid Telecom would launch 4G without participating in the 4G auction.
In fact, PTA Chairman Syed Ismail Shah held a meeting with Warid Telecom CEO Muneer Farooqui in Pakistan in April.
The meeting discussed the reports of Warid Telecom launching 4G services without participating in Next Generation Mobile Services Award (NGMSA).
“Though the existing license of Warid is technology neutral, it would properly seek PTA’s consent. PTA will look into such a request based on the license conditions and in the best interest of the cellular industry and 3G and 4G,” PTA said in Apri.
PTA said that 4G LTE services by the existing licensee will have to go through a process as per their license conditions as well as requirements of assuring proper coverage and quality of service, enhanced monitoring requirements and commencement permission by PTA.
Nokia Networks inks $970 mn 4G TD-LTE deal with China Mobile
By Telecom Lead
October 10, 2014
Nokia Networks on Friday announced its $970 million telecom network deal with China Mobile.
Nokia Networks will provide its 4G TD-LTE technology including Evolved Packet Core (EPC) and GSM wireless networking equipment, core application platforms, OSS, software, and services to China Mobile.
China Mobile will be utilizing these equipments for rolling outs its 4G LTE services in 2014 and 2015. Nokia Networks said deliveries under the agreement commenced in Q1 of this year.
Li Huidi, vice president of China Mobile, and Hans-Juergen Bill, executive vice president at Nokia and also chairman of the Board of Directors of Nokia Networks GmbH & Co KG in Germany, signed the deal today.
The agreement was signed at the Sino-German Economic Forum in Berlin.
China Mobile and 4G
China Mobile, which competes with China Telecom and China Unicom, is in the process of deploying 500,000 4G base stations. The world’s telecom operator aims to build the largest TD-LTE network in the world by the end of 2014.
With 46 TD-LTE radio references, Nokia Networks is supplying approximately half of all commercial TD-LTE networks globally and is the only vendor to have deployed TD-LTE on all six continents, the company said in a statement.
Nokia Networks has established a TD-LTE value chain in China, including TD product headquarters, product design, R&D, testing, manufacturing, procurement, sales and marketing.
Ericsson, SingTel, Qualcomm achieve 260 Mbps downlink speeds during FDD / TDD CA demo
By Telecom Lead
October 7, 2014
Telecom network vendor Ericsson today said SingTel – using Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor — achieved 260 Mbps downlink speeds during the live demonstration of FDD / TDD Carrier Aggregation using commercial track hardware and software.
Tay Yeow Lian, managing director for Networks, SingTel, said: “We are using dual-layers of LTE FDD with LTE-Advanced Carrier Aggregation, and we know the performance of our mobile network is critical to ensuring that our customers have a great experience on their smartphones and tablets.”
“We will continue to explore the future option of bundling even TDD spectrum into the LTE carrier aggregation to expand network capacity, allowing our customers to enjoy consistent high data speed download even at high traffic areas,” Lian added.
SingTel and Ericsson conducted the demonstration at the SingTel office in Singapore on October 3, 2014, utilizing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, and Ericsson LTE software designed to support the company’s RBS6000 family of base stations for macro and small-cell networks.
In the demonstration, Ericsson aggregated 20 MHz of LTE FDD spectrum with 20 MHz of LTE TDD spectrum, supporting peak data rates up to 260 Mbps.
Benefits of FDD / TDD Carrier Aggregation
FDD / TDD Carrier Aggregation enables telecom operators to complement their FDD networks with a cost-efficient deployment of TDD. For operators using TDD bands, the TDD uplink coverage can be a constraint.
By combining TDD and FDD spectrum through Carrier Aggregation, low band FDD can deliver better uplink coverage while the TDD band can be leveraged for higher downlink capacity. LTE FDD / TDD Carrier Aggregation enables spectrum from both LTE FDD and LTE TDD to be combined to deliver better peak data speeds and improve app coverage across the network.
Ericsson in a statement said the TDD and FDD spectrum through Carrier Aggregation increases the effective TDD coverage area by up to 70 percent, reducing the cost of providing TDD coverage. It also ensures efficient utilization of spectrum, increasing both the combined FDD / TDD coverage area and capacity of the network.
Commercial devices supporting FDD / TDD Carrier Aggregation are expected in 2015.
Connected cars: Deutsche Telekom and China Mobile to form joint venture
By Telecom Lead
October 10, 2014
Deutsche Telekom and China Mobile will form a joint venture to focus on connected cars in China.
A deal will be signed on Friday, Reuters reported.
The German telecoms will bring its technology for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, while China Mobile will provide the network.
The company’s investment in the M2M venture would be in the double-digit millions.
M2M service provider AT&T has already signed an agreement with China Mobile. This apart, AT&T has an agreement with GM to deploy LTE for the OnStar service.
Auto makers including GM, BMW, and Tesla are making investments in connected car programs.
Connected cars market
Connected cars segment is a big market opportunity for telecom service providers. Some telecom operators are seeing as much as 90 percent of their M2M revenue generated from the connected car segment.
In fact, North America is the foundation of the connected car business, accounting for 37 percent of global service revenue in 2013. Europe and Asia will be fast-growing regions, said Infonetics Research.
Infonetics expects revenue derived by service providers for the connectivity and other basic value-added services they provide to the automotive, transport, and logistics segment to more than triple from 2013 to 2018, to $16.9 billion.
The connected car services market is growing at a CAGR of 25 percent during 2013-2018, nearly 21 times the growth rate expected for traditional mobile voice and data services during the same time period.
The market for M2M technology is expected to be worth $20 billion a year by 2018, against $8 billion last year, according to telecoms research company Juniper.
M2M in Asia
Asia is the largest regional M2M market, accounting for 40 per cent of the world’s 189 million M2M connections at the end of 2013.
Asia added 55 million M2M net connections between 2010 and 2013 and China was the primary driver of growth in the region, adding nearly 39 million M2M connections during the period, said telecom industry association GSMA earlier.
Demand from the energy and transportation industries has driven much of this early growth, while M2M solutions are also gaining traction in the automotive, smart city, healthcare, education and retail sectors.
Connected cars have already attracted several chip makers.
Global chipset suppliers such as Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom, and NVIDIA have recently started targeting automotive as a new business development opportunity, competing with established automotive chipset vendors such as Freescale, Renesas, TI, and STMicroelectronics.
Earlier, ABI Research said the installed base of wireless connected devices will exceed 16 billion in 2014, about 20 percent more than in 2013. The number of devices will more than double from the current level, with 40.9 billion forecasted for 2020.
Alcatel-Lucent revenue not impressive against Ericsson and Nokia Networks
By Telecom Lead
October 30, 2014
The third quarter revenue performance of Alcatel-Lucent was not impressive as compared with Ericsson and Nokia Networks.
Ericsson improved its Q3 revenue by 9 percent, while Nokia Networks posted 13 percent increase in revenue €EUR 2.9 billion fuelled by LTE.
ALSO READ: Ericsson Q3 revenue up 9%, operating income dips 7%
On the other hand, Alcatel-Lucent Q3 revenue decreased 5.9 percent to $4.09 billion.
Alcatel-Lucent Q3 revenue drops 5.9% to $4 bn, net loss at $23 mn
Michel Combes, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent, said: “We opened the second chapter of The Shift Plan, sharpening our focus on applying innovation to unlock growth in order to address our strategic ambitions within and outside of the telecoms sector.”
The company said most of its main divisions performed badly.
Telecom network vendor Alcatel-Lucent said its Core Networking segment revenues fell 3.9 percent to €1,443 million.
IP Routing revenues rose 2.2 percent to €594 million, with notable growth in Europe, APAC (outside of China) and CALA. Alcatel-Lucent observed solid order intake, reflecting encouraging trends in both the Americas and EMEA.
Alcatel-Lucent 7950 XRS IP Core router registered 4 new wins in Q3 for a total of 32 wins to date, including recent announcements of US operator Century Link, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom. These come in addition to announcing Oi Brazil and Turk Telekom as customers and the deployment of XRS-40 at DE-CIX.
Nuage Networks added 4 new wins in the quarter, totaling 12 customers with traction across extra-large enterprises, cloud service providers and service providers.
IP Transport revenues dipped 3.3 percent to €527 million. Alcatel-Lucent said its terrestrial optics increased at a high single-digit rate as its WDM portfolio continued to drive growth in EMEA and APAC. Its submarine business witnessed stronger backlog, but was impacted by delays in certain contract milestones.
Within WDM, its 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS) represented 50 percent of terrestrial optical product revenues.
Year-to-date, 100G shipments represented 34 percent of total WDM line cards shipments compared to 26 percent in the same period of 2013. 100G platform was recently selected by Telefonica Spain, MTN Nigeria and Ucom in Armenia.
IP Platforms revenues decreased 14.2 percent to €322 million, reflecting its strategy to rationalize the product portfolio and leverage on growth engines such as IMS for VoLTE and Motive Customer Experience portfolio.
Alcatel-Lucent said Access segment revenues decreased 7.5 percent to €1,807 million.
Wireless Access revenues fell 1.5 percent to €1,176 million, as LTE 4G rollouts continued at a more moderate pace in the third quarter.
LTE overlay wins in the third quarter include Globe Telecom in the Philippines as well as both nTelos and Pioneer Cellular in the US.
Alcatel-Lucent signed 3 new small cell customers in the quarter, bringing total to 74 customers.
Fixed Access revenues declined 4.6 percent to €518 million as demand for vectoring and fiber was not enough to offset the pause in specific customer rollouts.
Managed Services revenues decreased 50 percent to €97 million, reflecting its strategy to terminate or restructure loss-making contracts.
Ericsson Q3 revenue up 9%, operating income dips 7%
By Telecom Lead
October 24, 2014
Telecom network vendor Ericsson today said its third quarter 2014 revenue rose 9 percent to SEK 57.6 billion or $7.94 billion, while operating income dipped 7 percent to SEK 3.9 billion or $537 million.
The sales growth was mainly driven by the Middle East, China, India and Russia, but was partly offset by lower sales in North America.
Ericsson India
Ericsson India posted 56 percent year-on-year increase and 22 percent quarterly increase in Q3 2014 revenues to SEK 2 billion. Ericsson India said SEK 1.1 billion revenue came from networks, SEK 0.7 billion from Global Services and 0.2 billion from Support Solutions in the third quarter.
Since end of last year, sales in India has recovered, mainly driven by an increase in operator Capex spending in response to greater data uptake. The growth in Support Solutions is driven by OSS and BSS and TV & Media, said Ericsson.
Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg said: “We are executing on 4G/LTE contracts in Mainland China and Taiwan and improving sales in Japan. Furthermore, the investment climate in India continues to improve. Sales in parts of Europe, mainly UK and Germany, showed growth year-over-year while the development in southern Europe continued to be weak.”
For comparison, Nokia Networks, one of the main rivals of Ericsson, posted 13 percent increase in Q3 2014 revenue fuelled by 4G-driven mobile broadband roll outs in North America and Greater China.
Chinese telecom network vendor ZTE on Thursday said its Q3 revenue grew 24 percent, while net profit surged 191 percent. The growth was fuelled by 4G and smartphone business.
Interestingly, three telecom network vendors Ericsson, Nokia Networks and ZTE improved their revenue streams due to their strong presence in mobile broadband.
Ericsson revenue highlights
Ericsson said it posted 3 percent dip in North America revenue, 11 percent increase in Latin America and 38 percent surge in the Middle East.
The mobile equipment supplier generated SEK 30 billion revenue from networks, SEK 24.5 billion from Global Services and SEK 3.1 billion from Support Solutions.
Nokia Networks Q3 revenue up 13% to EUR 2.9 bn fuelled by LTE
By Telecom Lead
October 23, 2014
Telecom network vendor Nokia Networks today said it Q3 2014 revenue rose 13 percent to EUR 2.9 billion supported by new LTE network deployments in North America and Greater China.
Nokia Networks said its sales improved in four of six regions. The company did not share additional details.
Sale of Nokia Networks mobile broadband, its main business, grew sharply.
Nokia Networks global services delivered its sixth consecutive quarter of double digit profitability.
Rajeev Suri, president and CEO, Nokia said: “Nokia’s third quarter results demonstrate our strong position in a world where technology is undergoing significant change.”
“Networks benefited from some unique developments in the quarter, with a business mix weighted towards Mobile Broadband and regional mix that included strong gains in North America,” Suri added.
Nokia Networks recorded 83 percent increase in operating profit to EUR 397 million in Q3 2014.
HERE posted 12 percent growth in net sales to EUR 236 million in Q3 2014.
HERE sold map data licenses for the embedded navigation systems of 3.2 million new vehicles globally in Q3 2014 compared to 2.6 million vehicles in Q3 2013.
HERE delivered a double digit sales increase in the quarter. “We are sharpening HERE’s strategy in order to better balance growth and profitability while ensuring relentless focus on priority segments such as automotive,” Suri said.
Nokia Technologies posted 9 percent growth in net sales to EUR 152 million in Q3 2014, primarily due to Microsoft becoming a more significant intellectual property licensee.
ZTE Q3 revenue up 24%, profit surges 191%
By Telecom Lead
October 23, 2014
Telecom network vendor ZTE today said its third quarter revenue rose 24 percent to RMB 21.1 billion, while net profit grew 191 percent to RMB 703 million.
ZTE said smartphone and 4G equipments contributed to the growth in profit.
Q3 revenue of Nokia Networks, one of the main rivals of ZTE, grew 13 percent to EUR 2.9 billion mainly due to surge in 4G-driven mobile broadband business in North America and Greater China.
ZTE said sales of handsets increased more than 40 percent. It did not share shipment of smartphones. China, the United States and Japan contributed to the revenue growth in phone business.
ZTE posted growth in revenue from Carriers’ Networks, including 4G systems, in addition to Telecommunications Software Systems. The company did not disclose specific growth details about telecom carrier business.
For the first nine months, ZTE net profit increased 232 percent to RMB 1.83 billion, while revenue rose 7.8 percent to RMB 58.8 billion.
The company said its 4G LTE, 100G Optical Networks, Gigabit Passive Optical Networks, network routers and premium smartphones grew in Europe, North America and China.
ZTE research and spending increased to RMB 927 million, or 11.5 percent of revenue, in the third quarter of 2014.
ZTE said its net profit will be between 2.5 billion to 2.8 billion in 2014, growing between 84.1 percent and 106 percent, for the full year.
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