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Everything Everywhere to up network investment to £1.5 billion over three years

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Everything Everywhere to up network investment to £1.5 billion over three years

Further integrate network: get ready for LTE

Everything Everywhere has confirmed plans to further integrate its two mobile networks, upgrade existing network technology, and kick-off preparations for the rollout of cutting edge 4G mobile technology with an investment of more than £1.5 billion over the next three years.

The investment amounts to double digit growth in its 2012 network investment compared to 2011.

Olaf Swantee, CEO of Everything Everywhere, said, “With mobile data increasing 250% over the past two years, we are making these investments so we can deliver on our ambition to provide the UK’s most reliable, biggest and best mobile data network. We believe that the UK requires a 21st century infrastructure and are committed to rolling out 4G as soon as possible to support growing data use, connect parts of the country with little or no mobile broadband, and drive economic growth.”

Throughout 2012, Everything Everywhere will continue to integrate its two networks. The company is in the final stages of “the big switch on” — enabling Orange and T-Mobile customers to use 2G and 3G signals from either of the networks and benefit from fast data speeds in more places.

Over the last year, more than 22 million customers have used 326 billion kilobytes of data, made 1.33 billion calls, talked for over 2.8 billion minutes, and sent 5.5 billion texts while using a signal from the alternate network. Customers are already benefiting from a 20% reduction in dropped calls in localised areas.

Everything Everywhere said that customers’ devices would, from teh first half of 2012, automatically select the stronger signal from either network if their own signal is weak. The company will also begin a phased programme to streamline network sites, which will reduce its carbon footprint and go towards meeting its synergy savings target of £3.5 billion NPV by 2014 as committed to in September 2010.

Everything Everywhere is investing in improved equipment that provides wider, faster and more reliable coverage, and which can be easily upgraded to 4G once the appropriate spectrum becomes available. Everything Everywhere is also making significant investments in its mobile backhaul – the fixed network that connects individual cell sites – and is critical to delivering even faster data speed for customers.

Everything Everywhere was the first mobile network operator in the UK to launch a live customer trial of 4G technology, in partnership with BT Wholesale. The trial, which launched in September, has demonstrated that broadband can be cost-effectively delivered to rural areas over LTE, helping the government to connect the last 10% of the population who currently have no mobile or fixed broadband access. The trial has delivered satisfaction rates of over 90%.

Fotis Karonis, Chief Technical Officer, Everything Everywhere, said, “Everything Everywhere is committed to building a world-class 4G network for Britain. We are devoting huge resources – including our 15,000 workforce and significant investments in technology – and already trialling, learning and laying the ground-work so that we are prepared to introduce 4G services as soon as it’s feasible.”

Swisscom offers tourists a month’s LTE

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Swisscom offers tourists a month’s LTE

Swisscom, who announced last month it has been trialling LTE in several areas across the country, has now made the service commercially available through outlets in tourist areas.

Visitors to Switzerland can now purchase a week’s LTE access for CHF 19 (€15.3) while a monthly subscription costs CHF 60 (€48.5). Users must have a compatible LTE USB modem and a computer running Windows XP, Vista or Win7. The USB modem and SIM card can be purchased at Swisscom’s Davos and St. Moritz retail outlets, and in the tourist offices of the other sites.

The following Swiss tourist areas below have been equipped with LTE for the pilot project: Davos, Grindelwald, Gstaad, Leuk-les-Bains, Montana, Saas Fee and St-Moritz/Celerina.

As of January 31, 2012, eleven Swisscom Shops will also be equipped with LTE in major cities in Switzerland.

The LTE pilot project continues until mid-2012.

Curing Sprint’s LTE spectrum headache

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How will Sprint move users onto LTE? What will it do with its WiMax service and spectrum? Are there any real differences between vendors of LTE technology?

As European operators grapple with their own plans for LTE, and whine about spectrum harmonisation and availability, spare a thought for this guy. He’s got CDMA users, old iDen customers from Nextel kicking about, a WiMax network serving Clearwire customers, and two strong competitors piling forward with high profile “4G” campaigns.

So Keith Dyer spoke to Sprint’s SVP Networks, Bob Azzi, to find out how the number three US operator is handling a change of direction in its LTE deployment, and how he sees its spectrum management working out. Does Azzi think he’s delivering a network that gives Sprint the best chance to succeed?

Well, yes, he does – although he admits the operator is forced to take a pragmatic approach due to the disparate assets it holds.

 

ip.access demonstrates pocket-sized femtocell concept

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ip.access demonstrates pocket-sized femtocell concept

ip.access has demonstrated a “working concept design” of an extra-small femtocell – a design it is calling the Advanced Femtocell Concept (AFC).

Although the design is described as a concept, a statement from the company said the AFC, “unlike many concept products, is fully working”. ip.access said that the AFC is about the size of a smartphone and offers much more flexibility as to where a femtocell can be located, as it can connect to the internet or home router via WiFi rather than only through a fixed connection.

ip.access’ CTO, Dr Nick Johnson, said that the design is not intended to make its way to the market exactly as it is. In a company video (see below) he described the design as like a “concept car.”

“You’re not going to see this on the shelves any time soon, but you are going to see the technology inside it in next generation products from ip.access:

the compact antenna solution, the compact form factor, the portable nature of it, the fact you can put it anywhere in the house — these are the things you are going see in next generation products.

As well as WiFi, the product also has integrated GPS, which ip.access said is to meet regulatory requirements for operators in certain markets — ip.access cited the USA — to know exactly where their femtocells are located. GPS location could also be used to lock out a user from taking the AFC on their holidays, and plugging it in in a foreign country. This could be illegal, as the device operator would be likely to have no license to use that spectrum in that country. An accompanying fact sheet said, “GPS location locking prevents the device transmitting outside the regions covered by the mobile operator’s spectrum license.”

ip.access said that a small, standalone femtocell, independent of a home router or set-top box, could give mobile operators the option of offering customers a femtocell without the customer or operator bearing the cost of a full, integrated device. And then, of course, there’s the increased flexibility in terms of location.

Although ip.access’ concept design requires a DC power connection when it is not plugged into a router, a battery-powered option could also be possible in future, ip.access’ statement said.

 

 

 

And the top three policy management vendors are…

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And the top three policy management vendors are…

Infonetics has produced another of its regular troikas of information, producing forecasts for the the Convergent Charging and Subscriber Data Management (SDM) markets, and releasing a few results of an operator survey looking at Policy Management.

The busy Shira Levine,  directing analyst for next gen OSS and policy at Infonetics Research, is forecasting that the SDM market is on track to “blast past” the half-billion-dollar mark in 2011, hitting $563 million, a 55% increase over 2010. By 2015, the market could be worth $1.5 billion, Infonetics said. the market will be pushed along by carrier spending in subscriber analytics to support advances in mobile advertising, network modernisation initiatives, and machine-to-machine (M2M) applications.

Key players include vendors such as HP, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens Networks looking to expand their traditional HLR/HSS offerings; players in the adjacent charging, policy management, and deep packet inspection markets (e.g. Openet and Sandvine); and large database and IT suppliers like Oracle, IBM, and Amdocs looking to leverage their longstanding enterprise data management capabilities.

In Convergent Charging, the analyst said there would be over half a billion dollars of business done in 2011, up 42% on 2010’s investment. By 2015, the analyst thinks the market will be worth $3.2 billion, reflecting heavy spending from Southeast Asian and Indian operators driven by the need to differentiate on more than just price. Infonetics said that there is also growing interest in deploying convergent charging solutions that support both the consumer market and enterprise services, such as hybrid accounts for employees, revenue settlement for cloud services, and real-time management of machine-to-machine (M2M) transactions

As for the main contenders to benefit from this growth, Levine said, “Smaller software suppliers such as Comptel, Volubill, and Orga Systems have gained traction in emerging markets with their integrated solutions that include charging policy and subscriber management functionality. However, these vendors face intensified competition from larger IT and billing players like HP, SAP, Oracle, CSG, Amdocs, and Convergys that are taking a more converged approach to charging by incorporating adjacent functionality.”

Infonetics’ third nugget was formed of the result of an operator survey into Policy Management. The operators said that bandwidth-on-demand and advanced subscriber control capabilities are the top application drivers for policy management investments, followed by VoIP. The rising percentage of respondents naming the IT department as holding the budget for policy also showed a shift of responsibility within carrier away from the networks and operations teams.

“This creates a challenge for the more established policy vendors who have longstanding relationships with operators’ network departments but less sway with IT and marketing teams, while creating new opportunities for IT players such as the billing vendors entering the policy space,” Levine said.

As for who stands to gain, when asked in “an open-ended question” who they consider to be the top three policy management vendors, service providers named Tekelec/Camiant and Openet as the top two, followed by Bridgewater Systems (now Amdocs DES) and Ericsson in a tie for third.

Infonetics was publicising three items, all of which can be accessed at http://www.infonetics.com/login (see NEXT GEN OSS AND POLICY for 2011 and new 2012 services):
Subscriber Data Management Software and Service Report
Convergent Charging Software and Services Report
Policy Management Deployment Strategies and Vendor Leadership: Global Service Provider Survey

Still a nice idea

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Still a nice idea

It was another LTE kind of a week. Described as Less Transforming than Expected by Arete Research in a note for the folks at Telco2.0, the technology is still driving investment, even if it’s not to the levels expected by Arete.

Everything Everywhere said that the need to keep consolidating its 3G networks would lead it to spend £1.5 billion over the next three years on its network. The newly promoted Fotis Karonis, CTO, said that EE is committing “huge resources” to LTE. In any case, EE said its network investment would increased by a double digit number (shall we call it somwhere between 10 and 99%?) over what it spent during 2011 – where much of its investment was chucked Huawei’s way, as the company was given the job of integrating the 3G network.

Now the carrier is addressing 250% growth in data volumes on its network, by investing in equipment that can be upgraded to LTE when required. That speaks to a Single RAN approach, with a macro-based turn-on of LTE when spectrum is available and licensed.

What would be really interesting would be to see EE turn to its large amount of 1800 spectrum for LTE, following several operators across Europe who are also attracted by the proposition that 1800MHz offers. The chances of that happening, however, without it carrier giving something significant back in return, are small. But watch that space all the same.

Also of interest, given the late launch date of UK LTE will be what happens with voice. At the moment, with LTE devices now looking ready to go in early 2012, many operators have done some serious thinking about what they will do to support SMS and voice services. Given that, it was interesting to see Ericsson state that it has deployed CSFB technology in several operators, who are now ready to go. This suggests that an increasing number of LTE devices are ready to go to market. In the UK, of course, where LTE is unlikely to see the light of day till deep into 2013, the situation may be rather different. Here, operators may be able to go to a full LTE implementation.

Everything Everywhere, for one, is indicating that it wants to be ready to go with LTE as soon as possible. If it’s going to do that, then let’s see some voice support built in from the off as well.  

SwissCom is ready to support rich tourists with LTE. It announced that those visiting Davos and St Moritz and other such down at heel venues will be offered a week’s LTE sub for a few Euro. Of course, they’ll need to buy an LTE dongle as well, but it looks like an interesting attempt to capture the inbound roaming market in a novel way. Instead of data roaming interconnect, IPX and all of that, Swisscom just punts out dongles and an all you can eat LTE tariff. Nice. But not so nice if you are the “home” operator.

Here is another nice idea, a company offering a back up and synch service to operators. I feel like I’ve been writing this same paragraph for years now, but if you are working at an operator and you are not O2 and responsible for BlueBook, then please consider this. Online back up of contacts, content and messaging is your next opportunity. You get a customer “self-care” portal, you get an online “presence”, you get a “My Operator” space in someone’s digital lifestyle, you get regular incremental subs, or else you give it free and gain from the customer loyalty such a service would generate. It’s cloud, it could be social, it will make or save you money. Please, please, do it. Don’t make me write this paragraph again next year. It’s too painful.

And while we’re talking about operators and content…oh look, Carrier IQ again. This week technical evaluations of what the software actually does, carried out by independent security researchers, reveal that the company “cannot” act as a keylogger.

The UK has been treated to a succession of celebrities complaining in recent weeks that when they get an apology for a wrong story it is always buried away in the inside pages, whereas the original story that did all the damage was published in 84 point ALL CAP BOLD on the front page.

Similarly, although the search engine-chasing tech blogs were quick to bedeck their sites with repeated accusations about Carrier IQ, they were much less quick to report the detailed analysis that showed that the software wasn’t designed to, like, totally invade your (barely existent) privacy.

It was only when Eric Schmidt decided late in the week to call the software a “key logger” that the news engines cranked back up again. How odd. Of course, the real news here is that Google’s ex-ceo thinks that software to be found on many phones running Google’s Android OS does something it doesn’t – although that’s not how this was reported, of course.

Sorry to have come back to this, but I think those voices urging caution last week have been validated. Let’s hope Carrier IQ now has both a future, and the number of a decent PR company.

Keith Dyer
Editor
Mobile Europe

 

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Operators well placed to address Unified Comms opportunity

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Operators well placed to address Unified Comms opportunity

The increasing desire amongst enterprises to provide flexible and productive working arrangements for their employees is creating a growing opportunity for mobile operators.

Earlier this week, the Cohen Research Group released a survey of 200 IT professionals in the USA and UK, that showed that many of them plan to move to more deployment of Unified and Collaborative Communications technologies.

The survey, commissioned by Unified Communications (UC) provider Broadsoft, found that 64% of respondents planned to deploy Videoconferencing, 56% Instant Messaging, 53% Unified Messaging and 46% Single Voicemail services on desktops and notebooks within the next year.

Interestingly for mobile operators, the survey also found that mobile service providers cam very high up the list of companies that enterprises would view as “best positioned” to provide these services.

“Enterprise end-users are demanding their IT department support a consumer-grade communications experience that includes access to advanced communications services and applications across their preferred mobile communication device,” said Leslie Ferry, vice president marketing, BroadSoft.

“More telling, the survey revealed mobile network operators have a compelling, but closing window of opportunity to be the preferred provider of choice when it comes to delivering unified communications services that keep mobile employees connected via video, instant messaging, web conferencing and presence management, indicating MNOs need to act now, before competitors erode their customer base.”

On a per technology basis, between 40 and 50% of respondents thought that mobile service providers were best positioned to provide Single voicemail, instant messaging, unified messaging, video calling, extension dialling and video conferencing.

When asked who could “put it all together”, to provide a complete set of UC services, Microsoft, Google  and “my mobile service provider” were the top three choices, with all three recording very similar scores.

Nick Webb, Head of Solutions Marketing at Vodafone Global Enterprise, said that he was “not surprised” by the high score given to mobile operators.

“We know that the workplace is going mobile, and therefore any UC or converged solution that does not have mobile at its core is not addressing the needs of businesses in the next few years,” Webb said.

“We also know that mobile providers are at the heart of this because customers are asking us to talk to them about UC and convergence and how they can change their working practices.”

Vodafone is building up its competency in UC, forming a dedicated UC practice within its Global Enterprise unit, and providing an increased amount of professional services and consulting support to enterprises, Webb said. Just yesterday it announced it had bought UK firm Bluefish, to boost its professional services capability.

“Our customers see things in broad terms – how can they keep their end users productive, and they are asking for our help and guidance in how we can support that need for more flexibility and productivity,” Webb said, ” With that it makes sense to put together to put together a UC practice.”

Small cell “goons” don’t have the answer, says Ericsson

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Small cell “goons” don’t have the answer, says Ericsson

Mobile operators are leaving revenue on the table by bumping customers too quickly to 2G networks as a result of running poorly optimised 3G networks, according to Magnus Ewerbring, Head of Mobile Broadband at Ericsson.

Ewerbring said that a high number of users are receiving 2G coverage where 3G might be available — as a result of operators being too quick to “dump” users onto 2G networks where 3G networks appear to be congested. The poor user experience is a result of “poor network tuning,” he said. “Smartphones are about snappiness of service. With this quality of service, the risk is that people can churn.”

The important knock-on effect of this is that, in Ericsson’s view, there is a risk operators will move to deploy dense, capacity-focussed solutions before they have “fixed” the macro layer. “We like small cells, but first things first. There’s no sense in in looking for capacity benefits if you have not done the macro layer.

In many operator deployments poor quality of service is in many cases about backhaul and a lot about dimensioning. You need to carefully plan the network in its entirety to make sure there are no bottlenecks.”

This top down, “small cells come last” approach, is illustrated most graphically in Tokyo, where Ericsson supports Softbank’s network. In one central area, around Shinjuku station — through which pass 3.5million passengers a day — a single square kilometre is served by 16 “macro”, rooftop base stations. These are maxed out at six sectors per BTS, with four carriers at 2100MHz and two at 1500MHz.  The next layer of coverage is provided by in-building DAS.

Ewerbring said that although what he jokingly termed “the goons of the small cells” would say “spray this area with small cells”, that approach could lead to a degradation of performance as these cells are not co-ordinated with the macro layer.

“You have to split the spectrum so the small cells operate on a unique layer, or they will degrade performance. If you set aside dedicated spectrum that will remove capacity from the macro layer.”

To expand, Ewerbring is talking about deploying (or more accurately, not deploying) metro femtocells that operate in dedicated spectrum. He prefers an approach that slots picocells into the macrocells for specific use cases.

“Yes we need to add more solutions, and there is a need to go to smaller cells, but ones that are well integrated into the rest of the network. Our recipe for that is to come out with smaller such units with less power. But don’t cream the area with zillions of small cells. Use a limited number of small cells where you have a coverage whitespot, or capacity hotspot, and make sure they are integrated with the macro network.”

Spectrum revenues up to €20 billion in Western Europe: KPMG

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Spectrum auction revenues across Europe could be in the region of €20 billion between 2011 and 2015, according to KPMG’s Spectrum Monitor.

KPMG’s Spectrum Monitor estimates that from 2011 to 2015:

  • More spectrum will be auctioned in Europe over the next 3 to 4 years than has already been auctioned over the past decade
  • The total value of proceeds generated through auctions of spectrum over the same period may be in the region of £20 billion in Western Europe alone. This is a significant investment for operators and of course does not include the additional capital expenditure that will be required to roll out new LTE networks
  • At least two-thirds of the auction proceeds are expected to come from the digital dividend transfer (the switch from analogue to digital TV) in Western Europe which will free up the valuable 700/800 MHz band

Benoit Reillier, Director in KPMG’s Economics and Regulation practice, said, “Many Governments will be eyeing up spectrum auctions as a way to raise some sought after revenue. While it will not make a structural difference to the level of the deficit in many countries it will certainly go some way towards European governments’ garnering of more cash in the short to medium term.

One fierce critic of spectrum auctions is industry consultant Bengt Nordstrom, of Northstream. Nordstrom told Mobile Europe that the urge of governments to maximise short term financial returns from spectrum hampers economic progress in the long run.

Instead of awarding spectrum to the highest bidder, Nordstrom said that regulators should return to the “beauty contest”, where the best qualifed, and technically competent, bidder wins the spectrum. In return, the regulator could place much stricter service, capacity, speed and coverage obligations upon the operators.

Nordstrom said, “The licensing of spectrum is uncoordinated and entirely focussed on making as much money as possible. That’s extremely short sighted, as that is money that should be put into networks and services. By putting requirements onto the operators in terms of speed and coverage of their networks, governments would generate far more for the economy than just through spectrum auctions.”

Nordstrom also said that the auction processes also guarantee that “we can never again have new entrants to the market because it is mission impossible. Hutchison spent billions of Euros and they have 10% of the market.” He conceded that the debate about auctions is now over, however, and the industry is now set in the next ten year cycle of spectum allocation.

Rellier said, “Mobile operators need to understand the policies and mechanisms put in place by their country’s government and regulator for the allocation of spectrum since the way the auctions are designed will have a critical impact on the prices they have to pay. The question of the affordability of spectrum is particularly critical given the current pressure on operators’ cash flows.”

KPMG said that in order to inform their business and regulatory strategy, operators will need to consider carefully a number of key factors including the following:

  • The technology mix of their networks
  • The timing of roll out
  • The extent to which some infrastructure may be shared across operators to reduce costs
  • The substitutability of other technologies including fixed ones as well as the level, structure and dynamics of data traffic demand and pricing

Reillier concludes, “Today’s operators remain willing to pay substantial sums for radio spectrum. However, the outcome of what are increasingly complex spectrum allocations will, in my view, continue to remain uncertain for several months to come due to the myriad of issues that need to be negotiated.”

Vodafone to form new Unified Communications Practice after Bluefish buy

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Vodafone to form new Unified Communications Practice after Bluefish buy

Vodafone Global Enterprise – the business within Vodafone which manages the communications needs of its largest multinational customers – is strengthening its professional services arm through the acquisition of European IT and communications consultancy, Bluefish Communications Ltd.

Bluefish will form the nucleus of a new Unified Communications and Collaboration practice within Vodafone Global Enterprise, which will focus on advising multinational companies on how to get the most from their mobile, fixed line and IT services, as well as offering guidance on the adoption of cloud services.

The practice will also advise large corporate customers on how new collaboration services, such as video conferencing and presence awareness, can boost their business’s performance.

Unified Communications seeks to make fixed and mobile communications more efficient, optimise and reduce costs, and enable better collaboration between employees, business partners and clients.

Bluefish has been recognised as one of the fastest growing technology companies in both the UK and Europe.  The acquisition will expand Bluefish’s geographical reach as it becomes part of Vodafone Global Enterprise’s global network.

Further services on offer to Vodafone’s multinational customers will include:
•           An audit of existing infrastructure and future communication needs.
•           Advice on moving to a communications strategy that spans mobile, fixed line and IT.
•           Management of system integrators and vendors to ensure an effective and unified communications network closely aligned to business strategy.

Nick Jeffery, CEO of Vodafone Global Enterprise said: “The acquisition of Bluefish further develops our expertise in unified communications and broadens the range of services we can offer to our multinational customers. Having the right information at the right time, in the right place, has never been more important to business success and this acquisition will enhance our ability to advise multinationals on how to maximise value from their communications.”
The value of the gross assets being acquired is £3.14m.

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