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Telia Sonera’s LTE network: latest test results

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VoLTE call quality “excellent”; further tests for motion, contention required

Telia Sonera’s Finnish LTE network delivered a peak download of 48Mbps in tests carried out by British network test company Epitiro. The tests also showed mean latency of 23 milliseconds meaning that the LTE network would be well suited, at present, to services such as HD video and online gaming.

John Curley, CTO of Epitiro, said that although the company did not know when the LTE service was experiencing peak demand, download speeds of 10-15Mbps were recorded at times, suggesting there was some evidence of service contention. The mean download speed measured was 36.1Mbps.

Epitiro said that LTE upload speeds averaged 1.7Mbps, which meets Skype’s recommendations for Basic video calling (0.3Mbps), HD video calling (1.5Mbps) and Group video calling (0.5Mbps).

Testing was completed over a 5 day period in March 2011 with over 20,000 data points being collected. A 3G test probe also measured services to enable direct comparison to 4G LTE services. Average results for 3G tests over the same period showed a mean download speed of 4Mbps and latency of 117 milliseconds, Epitiro said.

The company also tested VoLTE VoIP quality, terminating a call originating in Finland over a Samsung USB device to a test probe on BT’s 21CN network. Curley said that it showed quality to be “excellent”, scoring ITU-T PESQ MOS (Mean Opinion Score) values of 4.2 or 4.3, from a theoretical maximum score of 5. Tests were carried out using SIP control and the G.711 CODEC.

The Call Setup Times recorded using the 4G LTE services were approximately 0.6 seconds, whichi Epitiro described as exceptionally fast, especially considering the call was originating in Finland and terminating in the UK. These setup times reflect the minimal network latency using LTE within Finland.

Epitiro said that further examination of how the service performs as subscriber numbers increase would be of interest, as additional subscribers could cause congestion at the point of access or in the backhaul. In-motion measurements will also be of interest to see how real-time applications perform with challenges unique to those situations, including cell handoff.

Tests were carried out from March 21st to March 25th 2011, with network measurement probes conducting testing at 30 minute intervals. Each test consisted of Epitiro’s automated mobile broadband test probes connecting to both 4G and 3G services and collecting a series of key performance indicators through active test sequences. Testing was conducted from environmentally controlled locations in Turku, Finland where strong radio signals were available. Genre Mobile Ltd provided the in-country logistics.

Visa to invest €100 million a year into mobile payments and e-commerce

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Visa Europe has said it will invest €100 million a year into mobile and ecommerce payments and expects to see “commercial launches of mobile payments” before the end of 2011.

To place this in context, Visa Europe said in its 2010 annual results that it had invested €1 billion in total on payment technology since its creation in 2004 – an annual average of roughly €140 million. It is now commiting €100 million a year to mobile and ecommerce payments integration.

A spokesperson for the company said the €100 million is “new money”, and “will continue to be invested each year until commercialisation is fully underway”.

Speaking at Visa Insight, Visa’s partner and customer programme in Barcelona, Peter Ayliffe, Visa Europe Chief Executive, said, “We are seeing strong double digit growth in the usage of Visa cards across Europe, particularly with debit, and will continue to do so in the next few years as electronic payments displace cash. But during this time we can now expect to see the emergence of contactless, mobile and even further growth in ecommerce.

“To realise this opportunity Visa Europe will invest €100 million annually. The first results of this will be commercial launches of mobile payments before the end of 2011, closely followed by a major launch in ecommerce payments.”

Ayliffe added, “In just ten years we have moved from €1 in every €18 spent in Europe on a Visa card to €1 in €8.  Today we have committed to accelerate this displacement of cash by bringing to market ways to pay that bring true convergence between electronic payments and mobile and ecommerce technology.”

Network monitoring? Let the customers do it for themselves

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Network monitoring? Let the customers do it for themselves

A network quality monitoring company called Metricell has launched a service that lets users track, by location and time, the quality of service they are receiving from their network provider.

The service, called Tracesaver, is available as an Android or Blackberry app (Apple app is “coming” the company said) and is said to deliver continuous transparent tracking of phone usage and precise locations across the day.

If it delivers on its promise, it could provide a service that lets users see exactly the quality they have received, and of course have the ability to share that with their service provider or operator.

Tracesaver users are provided with encrypted access to an industry quality web site to review their call details, whereabouts and all other key facts. Weekly, monthly summaries are provided to show metrics concerning the service performance they receive from their network provider. Low signal and dropped calls are pinpointed, services used, upload data speeds and more are summarised for all registered mobiles. An overall Global Service Quality measure is provided for users over any period. 

End of the drive test?
The service can also be made available to mobile operators, with the platform tailored to integrate with an operator’s customer support services function.  Metricell said that the use of smartphones to report the actual customer experience could enable major advances to existing operator customer support systems with efficiency benefits and cost reductions by eliminating most 1st generation drive test measurements.

Steve Mockford, Metricell’s Managing Director comments: “Tracesaver uses smartphones to capture key data 24-7 to pinpoint network problem areas. Subscribers have a free service to track their whereabouts and summarise all aspects of their mobile phone usage. Customer use cases include emergency location of family or general tracking of fleet vehicles.

 

“Many users specifically want to pinpoint where they have unacceptable network service levels. From an operator point of view, tracesaver has targeted collection to report locations of poor quality or dropped calls. Other key metrics such as upload data speeds, services used, overall coverage experience and more.”

Metricell works already with MBNL, providing its Livetime NetView product. Its Subscriber Experience module for Livetime can be used with Livetime NetView in an operator environment, and drives the Tracesaver customer-facing application.

Livetime also acts as the project data warehouse for Everything Everywhere’s network consolidation project.

SIMalliance launches Open Mobile API for secure apps

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The SIMalliance has announced the availability of its Open Mobile API. The organisation says that the API, which allows application providers to access the Secure Element within a mobile device, is designed to combat  a “growing number of malicious attacks on smartphone applications and operating systems”.

The API provides a means to use two-factor authentication to aid the secure delivery of NFC, payment and identity services. The SIMalliance said that single factor authentication – where users log in to a mobile application or service using a password – has been shown to be inadequate as attacks on smartphone and tablet applications “increase in number and sophistication”.

By connecting the application to the Secure Element via the Open Mobile API, many of the security breaches we see today will become preventable, the SIMalliance hopes.

Created by the SIMalliance Open Mobile API workgroup, release v.1.01 of the Open Mobile API delivers the transport layer between the smartphone application and the Secure Element.

“The development of a standardised API is a very significant step towards reducing the threat of identity theft and fraud on today’s generation of smartphones and tablets,” says Frédéric Vasnier, Chairman of the Board, SIMalliance.

“Knowing their data is safe will increase consumer confidence and stimulate growing demand for new services – and that is good news for the user, the mobile operator and the hundreds of brands that now recognise the opportunities of engaging with their consumers on the mobile.”

You can read a position paper from SIMalliance here. The paper highlights the need for a change in how security is approached on the connected mobile device. It focuses on the need to create security (and security policy) at the development stage, and highlights the telecoms industry’s unique position of already having a solution to the problem.

Sandvine brings policy to 20 Telefonica territories

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Sandvine has announced that it is now providing its policy control product to Telefonica in over 20 countries, providing traffic control and management for the mobile operator.

Telefonica is using Sandvine’s Policy Traffic Switch to collect network data and present that to executive management functions to help them to make business decisions and to enforce new policies in the network.

“As a global company, Telefónica’s network insight and business intelligence is key to understanding how we can better serve our vast subscriber base worldwide,” said Vicente San Miguel, CTO, Telefónica Corporate. “Working with Sandvine since 2008 has brought us closer to understanding and acting on the needs of our customers, while improving revenue opportunities and the cost-effectiveness of our network.” 

In one use-case, Telefónica’s UK subsidiary, O2, is helping reduce consumer bill shock, in compliance with the new European Union Data Roaming regulation, using Sandvine’s Quota Management solution. Sandvine’s solution monitors subscriber roaming usage in real-time and proactively keeps subscribers informed of their usage through automated messaging that notifies subscribers when they are nearing and surpassing their quota.

At another subsidiary, Telefónica recently introduced a menu of tiered pricing plans that accommodate subscribers’ personalized network usage patterns and budgets. These plans were designed with the help of Sandvine’s Business Intelligence solutions and are enforced in the network by Sandvine’s Usage Management product.  Under this model, subscribers can choose from plans that range from a basic email or social networking plan, to more comprehensive plans that also cover real-time entertainment usage. 

Telefónica is also helping to protect their global consumers, through the implementation and adoption of measures to combat child pornography through Sandvine’s URL Access Control product.  Many governments, regulators, and public advocacy groups are increasingly looking to ISPs to prevent users from inadvertently, or deliberately, accessing questionable Internet sites.  In this use-case, Sandvine’s URL Access Control leverages the PTS traffic identification capabilities to restrict access to specific websites with minimum impact on both the subscriber and the service provider.

eircom and O2 bring network sharing to Ireland

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Telefonica O2 Ireland and eircom Group have said they want to provide the “best mobile network infrastructure” in Ireland, as a result of an agreement to share elements of their mobile networks.

The two operators have said they will co-operate in areas including site equipment, power supply, technology and transmission sharing. That means that wherever possible, the existing sites of both operators will be consolidated. Where new sites are to be built, they will be built jointly and staff from the networks teams of both operators will work together in a single team to manage the day-to-day build and operation of the distinct networks.

eircom Group, CEO Paul Donovan said, “The current economic realities require all operators to think creatively on how to operate more efficiently. This new collaboration between two of the largest operators in the Irish market demonstrates how working together we can deliver tangible benefits for customers. ”

Stephen Shurrock, CEO of Telefonica O2 Ireland, said, “Today’s announcement will enable us to not only deliver new and enhanced services, including faster broadband speeds, but also to do it in a much more efficient way, providing the best mobile infrastructure for the customer and the economy alike. There is a strong strategic requirement for greater collaboration and focus in the area of investment in helping to accelerate the introduction of new technologies and O2 is delighted to be at the forefront of this development”.

ZTE – growth in managed services surpasses 300% in Europe

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ZTE, a global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, has announced that the company has surpassed 60 percent growth for its managed services in terms of contract value worldwide. Managed services are said to have become one of the company’s new growth areas – especially in Europe where ZTE says it has seen growth of over 300 percent.

ZTE has made a number of breakthroughs in the European and American markets to lay a solid foundation for the future development of telecom services. For example, ZTE won a six year managed contract with H3G Austria in 2010 to provide a full portfolio of network operations and maintenance (O&M) services to more than 4,000 H3G sites including the O&M of third party equipment. In Poland, ZTE will provide CDMA2000 1x/EV-DO network construction and managed services to the largest Polish operator Polkometel’s entire network, as well as to its GoTa dedicated trunking Push-to-Talk (PTT) service.

Mr. Yang Jiaxiao, general manager of ZTE’s service product line, said, “In 2010, ZTE’s managed services portfolio grew rapidly, and we have signed managed services contracts with a number of operators in Europe and North America. ZTE will help network operators achieve efficient operations with comprehensive and high-quality services.”

ZTE’s managed services are used in almost 70,000 sites and by 30 million users of 45 operators in more than 100 countries globally, and with more than 20,000 kilometers of OFC (Optical Fiber Cable) O&M in use.

Since 2006, ZTE’s strategy has focused on its transformation from an equipment vender to a leading software and services provider. In order to provide increasingly customised service solutions to global operators, ZTE says it will focus on developing managed services, cloud computing and integrated circuit in terms.

Mobile entertainment market to grow by 15% in 2011 despite global economic uncertainty, says new report

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A new report from Juniper Research has found that revenues from mobile entertainment content and services are expected to increase by more than 15% this year from $33.2 billion to nearly $38.4 billion.

This continuing growth comes despite the backdrop of an uncertain economic climate, demonstrating both the relative robustness of the mobile content industry as a whole, and the opportunities in comparatively untapped segments such as mobile gambling.

The report found that the transition to a predominantly app store-led content delivery model had greatly benefitted smaller content developers, which have had their opportunity for end-user visibility dramatically increased. For example, in the mobile games segment, developers such as Rovio (with Angry Birds) and Lima Sky (Doodle Jump) have each achieved more than 10 million paid downloads.

In addition, a variety of larger digital content publishers and service providers have also profited from the greater levels of consumer awareness and usage of mobile content and applications:

·         In the fast-growing mobile gambling segment, there has been a surge of activity on both browser-based applications and native smartphone apps.

·         Mobile gambling has been given an additional fillip by deregulation of the European remote gambling  laws.

·         A number of US state lottery providers are considering the deployment of mobile lottery services in the medium term.  

According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, “While revenues from traditional staples of the mobile entertainment sector – such as ringtones and logos – have gone into steep decline over the past couple of years, the tremendous scaling up of activity in games, streamed music and social media has driven strong overall growth. Furthermore, as major retailers, brands and media organisations  increasingly utilise mobile content to drive awareness of and engagement with their products, this growth will continue.”

Metaswitch acquires Colibria

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Metaswitch Networks, a supplier of next generation infrastructure and applications to network operators, today announced the acquisition of Colibria, an independent provider of enhanced instant messaging, presence and network address book solutions. Colibria’s all-IP, standards-based portfolio is being deployed by operators worldwide to deliver messaging and content sharing capabilities. 
 

“Operators around the world have quickly come to realize that it is time to turn up the heat on their over-the-top competitors,” said Kevin DeNuccio, CEO at Metaswitch Networks. “The way people communicate is quickly evolving from just voice and text to a new, richer set of social interaction and contextual calling services. Metaswitch is in the middle of this transformation, helping service providers address these demands and putting their brand front and center in the new communications experience. Colibria technology will play a key role in making this happen.”

The Colibria acquisition is said to further complement Metaswitch’s recently launched Thrutu service, an in-call content sharing experience that enables mobile users to impulsively exchange information during a call. Available as a branded platform for global operators, Thrutu allows operators to introduce these new services today. The addition of Colibria’s IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and Rich Communication Suite (RCS and RCS-e) compliant portfolio further broadens the range of options that Metaswitch can now present to operators looking for short, mid and long-term answers to the dual challenges of countering competitive threats and keeping the voice call relevant.

“We see RCS as a strategic move by service providers that resonates well with customers. A move that could attract nearly 44 million subscribers by 2015,” said Diane Myers, directing analyst, VoIP & IMS for Infonetics Research. “We’ve tracked both Metaswitch and Colibria for a while and see the combination as a potent force in SIP-oriented converged applications for wireline and wireless operators.”

“We are thrilled that Colibria has been acquired by Metaswitch,” said Lars Myhrum, Colibria CEO. “The companies share a common culture of engineering excellence and customer-first thinking. Colibria has been in the forefront of messaging and rich communication services, exemplifying Norwegian companies’ ability to innovate and succeed alongside major international companies. Metaswitch will now allow us to write the next chapter in that story.”

Metaswitch says it will continue to invest in and support Colibria’s brand, products and strategic industry partnerships. Myhrum will assume the General Manager role for Metaswitch’s presence in Norway, with responsibility for the ongoing development and evolution of the Colibria product line.

Mallinson out, Brown in as CEO at ip.access

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Femtocell vendor ip.access has a new CEO, following the departure of Stephen Mallinson after 11 years spent at the helm.

The new CEO is Simon Brown, known to Mobile Europe readers from past stints as CEO of SMS router vendor Telsis, and COO at messaging software company Followap before it was sold to NeuStar. Following that sale, Brown then headed NeuStar’s Next Generation Messaging division (as it was then known) for a short period before moving to Telsis. He is also chairman of Movirtu.

Andy Tiller, ip.access’ SVP Product Management & Marketing,  said that the “transition” period had taken place over the past three months, and had been amicable and orderly. All major customers have also been informed, he added.

Brown has a good grasp of the mobile infrastructure industry, he said, through his involvement with Telsis and Followap, and before that with Nokia Networks.

The change in CEO doesn’t signal a change in direction, or strategy, Tiller added. Instead, it “signals a continued belief in the industry and the potential for ip.access to maintain its growth.”

ip.access’  investors include Amadeus Capital and Scottish Equity Partners. It has also attracted industry investment from Cisco, Motorola, ADC, Qualcomm, and Intel Capital.

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