Doug Overton, VP Analysis & Consulting, WDSGlobal, investigates the causes behind the mobile ‘No Fault Found’ phenomenon and how the industry can solve this vastly expensive problem.

Incredibly, one in seven mobile phones are returned within the first year of purchase by subscribers as faulty, according to research by Which? This statistic will doubtless raise eyebrows and drive speculation over product design flaws and standards in build performance. However further analysis into the nature of these returns reveals the even more disturbing statistic that 63 per cent of the devices being returned are done so without fault.

” height=”<% height %>” align=”right” alt=”Handset support – Damaged goods?” class=”articleimage” />

This figure, unearthed as part of a study into mobile device returns trends in the UK, places mobile phone ‘No Fault Found’ returns at a level 13 per cent above the average within the consumer electronics sector.
With operators, manufacturers and retailers collectively covering administration, shipping and refurbishment costs approaching £35 per device, this equates to a potential cost to the UK mobile industry of £54 million and more significantly a global industry cost of £2.3 billion (US$4.5 billlion).
So why are so many devices returned without fault? WDSGlobal is working alongside a leading UK mobile retailer to implement mechanisms and services to significantly reduce the impact of the NFF phenomenon. Analysis of over 15000 monthly calls arriving at the specialist retail returns/diagnostics line provides a valuable insight into the causes behind the trend.
In some of these instances (24 per cent) the user had resorted to abandoning the device after a lengthy and frustrating battle with the usability of functions or applications. This provides a clear indication that manufacturers still need to invest considerable time and effort into the user centred design and modelling of device software.
A recent study in the Netherlands reported a 20 minute average time in which the user will attempt to use a service before abandoning it. Alarm bells should be ringing for the industry when the manual set-up of an e-mail service on a device alone takes a minimum of 20 minutes even before the user attempts to understand how the program works.
Some eight per cent of users were simply attempting to return a device on the basis that it did not fulfil the purpose for which it was sold. This may be a consequence of inadequate marketing on behalf of the manufacturer, but is more often than not attributed to a knowledge deficit at the point of sale.
The majority of mobile retailers are not equipped with the expertise to provide informed advice on the more complex features of mobile devices. Many high-end mobile phones are now differentiated through data communications technologies including GPRS, EDGE, UMTS and Bluetooth, which are complimented by an equally confusing array of applications such as WAP, MMS, e-mail and Streaming media.
If the mobile retailer is anything short of fully briefed on the benefits and application of these technologies they are highly likely to be furnishing the customer with inaccurate or insubstantial advice. A recent mystery shopper survey carried out by WDSGlobal identified that only 20 per cent of retail staff could provide a moderate description of what ‘BlackBerry’ functionality could provide within a device, despite its prevalence as a powerful differentiating business function.
For some retailers, the provision of inappropriately positioned devices to customers is also a reflection of store policies to ship specific models based on margins, stock levels or promotions rather than matching requirements to solutions. The same retail survey alarmingly identified that only 60 per cent of leading high street retailers adopted an impartial customer focussed approach to sales, based upon listening to the requirements of the customer.
It is little wonder that angry and frustrated customers try to return devices as ‘faulty’ when they were ill advised at the point of sale. The more astute retailers are already embracing in-store kiosks and other knowledge based point of sale platforms in an effort to prevent this happening.
The most significant contributor to the ‘No Fault Found’ problem derives from users who —quite understandably — diagnose lack of connectivity to services such as WAP or e-mail as a fault. The reality however is that many devices are purchased in an un-configured state for use with these services. While many operators attempt to set up services for immediate ‘out of the box’ usage the more popular applications such as e-mail will be left to the ‘DIY’ devices of the user.
Subscribers who swap networks while maintaining their equipment, or those who purchase imported, second hand or SIM-free equipment will comprise the growing number of users who will be in an ‘unconfigured’ state for all services.
Out of the 300,000 calls received by WDSGlobal into a specialist tier two support environment in Q2 of this year, 47 per cent of the issues faced related to problems associated with mobile service configuration. This in itself is a major concern, even more so when it presents a two per cent increase on the same statistic drawn in 2000. The problem is not going away and as device and service complexity continues to develop at an unprecedented rate the user experience only stands to worsen.

The true cost
Working within the industry it is often hard to empathise with the pain experienced by mobile subscribers. Assumptions that users will embrace complex device configuration menus or self-serve portals often fail to recognise that most users simply expect devices to work without understanding the underlying complexity. This is not difficult to understand when all other consumer electronic devices including MP3 players, portable gaming units and digital cameras simply work when they are taken from their boxes.
A user spending £500 on a sophisticated mobile device is doing so on the understanding that it will improve their personal productivity or simplify part of their lifestyle. However when this benefit comes at the expense of time spent elsewhere engaging with customer service agents or ploughing through convoluted instructional guides, the exercise becomes counterproductive.
The result is that either the device is abandoned (returned without fault) or the service itself is abandoned, relegating a potentially powerful communications tool to the status of an expensive personal organiser; neither situation is healthy for the consumer or the industry.
The $4.5 billion quantitative cost of this problem is easily recognised, and for mobile operators and manufacturers can be easily absorbed into the growing overhead associated with launching new products, or in many cases simply hidden within the an inflated consumer price tag.
What is of greater concern is the less tangible qualitative issues at stake. Mobile subscribers are becoming increasingly despondent with mobile technologies, and a frustrating user experience has sadly become the rule and not the exception. Brand loyalty and subscriber churn once again come under fire as mobile users migrate between device vendor and mobile operator brands in an ostensibly eternal quest for an optimal user experience.
The mobile phone has become the poor relation of its consumer electronics cousins, and while many parallel sectors receive recognition and accolade for innovation and design, the mobile industry continues to draw bad publicity. In an age of rapid innovation, where industry prophets foretell of entirely converged consumer electronic devices in the near future it is ironic that the mobile phone appears to be at the hub of the convergence. If mobile manufacturers and operators truly wish to form the vanguard of convergence innovation then there is still much to learn from their consumer electronic counterparts.

Mitigating the  risk
The NFF problem is not going to be solved overnight. It is a problem that has developed and festered over many years in conjunction with rapid industry growth and technology innovation.
The root causes however are not shrouded in mystery – they can be catalogued and analysed systematically with a view to preventing them in future product launches. Most operator support centres will carry detailed call records, explicitly capturing the frustrations faced by subscribers at the coal-face; similarly most reverse logistics organisations or departments will accurately log the inherent drivers behind NFF returns.
It is this data that provides the market intelligence for mobile industry Product Managers to mitigate problems with the launch of future products. Every problem can be traced back to a deficiency in the device design or the channels, processes and mechanisms that surround its launch and in-life support. Most of these issues may be addressed through stringent device testing and usability modelling prior to the launch of the mobile device. Furthermore, the effective empowerment of sales channels and support centres with specialist knowledge will help to assuage much of the NFF problem.
It is a simple and logical process, which if pursued on an ongoing basis, should realistically show a reversal in the trends of high volume customer support calls and ‘No Fault Found’ returns inside two years.

With some mobile operators preferring to bury their heads in the sand when it comes to VoiP in the mobile arena, Tony Dennis looks at the technology now available to make it happen.

Thanks to its initial inferior voice call quality, VoIP (Voice over IP) became a technology which many mobile network operators wished would simply go away. Times have changed, however, and the latest VoIP handsets offer a call quality which is indistinguishable from cellular.

” height=”<% height %>” align=”right” alt=”Mobile VoIP – Who you calling ostrich?” class=”articleimage” />

Rather than merely ignoring the threat, some observers argue mobile operators can respond effectively by migrating  their networks rapidly towards IMS [IP Multimedia Subsystem] and offering VoIP over their 3/3.5G based networks.

VoIP handsets
Across Europe, the existence of high quality VoIP software has led several communications companies to offer VoIP handsets that connect calls via WiFi hotspots or a broadband wireless router (WLAN). Provider’s like the UK’s BT, for example, sees itself competing head-on with the mobile networks. It intends to cover the major UK conurbations with wireless hotspots – thereby providing its customers with a VoIP handset which is truly ‘mobile’. The latest Fusion WiFi handset is not merely confined to the home as was the case with the original (Bluetooth) version of BT’s Fusion service.
“Over 60 per cent of mobile calls are made indoors – at home, in the office, at railways stations and airports. We believe this is an underserved market in terms of good low-cost access to the Internet,” commented BT’s head of mobility and convergence, Steve Andrews. He added, “I think we’ll see mass market adoption for BT Fusion over the next 12 months.”
 In many ways providers like BT are treading the tried and tested route which was taken with the original CT2 networks like Rabbit and Mercury Phonepoint – except with Fusion, subscribers can receive as well as make calls.
Using technologies like UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access), services like BT Fusion are effectively replacing DECT cordless phones with WiFi cordless phones that are also able to ‘roam’. Tage Rasmussen, CEO with Danish supplier, RTX, believes that DECT isn’t dead quite yet. “We believe that Wi-Fi phones are still immature compared to our Dualphone handset for Skype. Why? Because it uses DECT which is more reliable – having no interference problems with other wireless devices unlike WiFi and Bluetooth,” he explained.
“It offers more as a two-in-one telephone for both Skype (VoIP) and ordinary (PSTN) land lines which is better because the Dualphone is capable of making emergency calls.”
A very different approach to DECT is being taken by providers such as N9uf (Neuf Cegetel) and Free in France; Mobiboo in the UK and T-One (Deutsche Telekom) in Germany. These companies are offering dedicated dual mode handsets which support both WiFi and GSM. These dual mode handsets are introducing a number of new players into the cellular arena. For example, the handsets are being manufactured by companies previously unknown in the GSM/cellular space.
In the UK Mobiboo is selling the Tovo dual-mode handset  – which is actually the Pirelli DualPhone DP-L10 – through the leading supermarket chain, Tesco. The DualPhone is being sold in France by Free while its rival, N9uf, utilises the GW1 from WNC (Wistron Neweb Corp). Significantly, the WNC product is being re-badged as the V-Click by one of the major players in the WiFi space, D-Link. It wasn’t just the hardware which introduced new players, either.
The VoIP software used by the first dual mode phones ran on Texas Instruments’ popular OMAP processors and was provided by India’s HelloSoft. CEO  Krishna Yarlagadda commented, “Our VoIP phone application on the OMAP1710 will assist OEM/ODMs [manufacturers] in their next generation handset designs to support dual mode functionality such as converged VoWLAN (Voice over WLAN) or VoIP support over GSM/GPRS/3G.”
A third approach is to utilise WiFi enabled smartphones from the leading handset vendors such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson – who already have models commercially available. Other leading vendors such as Motorola, LG and Samsung have either announced or are known to be planning WiFi enabled handsets too. These models can then be loaded with VoIP client software.
Such a move has been resisted by some network operators such as Vodafone which shipped the Nokia N80 WiFi enabled handset with the VoIP client software absent. It’s unclear what will happen if consumers start downloading the VoIP client software themselves. Will the VoIP traffic be blocked? Will the warranties become invalid?

Business apps
VoIP isn’t a facility that just appeals to consumers – it has obvious business applications, too. At Nokia Featured Developer, WiFiMobile CEO Gerry O’Prey, claimed, “Dual mode phones like the Nokia E-series (right) are great for businesses as through VoIP they hand back call control to enterprises via their switchboards (PABXs ).”
WiFiMobile claims its OneFone software is simply the first IP multimedia [IMS] service that can be offered equally well as a VoIP service over cellular as it can over WiFi. O’Prey added, “Thanks to WiFi and VoIP, a handset user can be located anywhere in the world where there is a WiFi connection and the user can still answer his or her switchboard extension.”
Indeed, roaming is one of two main areas where VoIP/WLAN represents a major threat to traditional cellular operators, argued Matthew Heath, md with Mobiboo.
“Roaming is the key area,” he explained. “Not only does roaming generate huge revenues but it also creates a major slice of operators’ profits.” Heath estimated that as much as 15 to 20 per cent of an operator’s profit can be derived from roaming fees. With VoIP solutions, however, roaming is defunct because not matter where the user is geographically located, calls cost the same.
“This could potentially have a huge impact on revenues. Particularly as consumers are growing increasingly more aware of the true cost of roaming,” he added.
Further bad news from an operator perspective is that subscribers are becoming increasingly aware of the costs incurred when roaming. “Customers are ever more frequently in range of a broadband connected WiFi access point – meaning they can make free or very low-cost calls using VoIP,” claimed Roland Hanbury, product director with VoIP provider, Truphone. “Typically this saves customers 50 per cent or more on their mobile phone bills, especially if they do any travel abroad.”
Thanks to the proliferation of Wi-Fi access points in homes, offices, and commercial hotspots – access to a VoIP service is becoming increasingly easier, he maintained.
“Some 60 per cent of the average user’s ‘mobile’ phone calls are made from just two locations which typically correspond to home and office,” argued Hanbury.  “Perhaps 50 per cent of offices now have WiFi and an ever-increasing number of homes do so too.”

Other major threat
Besides VoIP, the other major threat to cellular operators from WiFi has been termed CoIP (Content over IP). In essence CoIP enables content to be downloaded to a mobile handset at speeds to which broadband users have already become accustomed. Heath claimed that he’s already seen WiFi enabled handsets experience genuine download speeds of around 5 Mbit/s which is at least 15 times faster than the standard 384 Kbit/s which 3G can offer. At such rates, WAP based services suddenly deliver services which consumers expected from them seven years ago.
However, most handset owners will want to view content from the regular Internet rather than WAP. The catch is that consumers want to pay for this ‘broadband’ capability the same way as they do for a fixed line service – via flat rates. So Heath revealed his company will soon be offering its mobile phone users what he describes as ‘buffet’ tariffs because they provide subscribers with an ‘all-you-can-eat’ data tariff for a fixed price. Indeed, some cellular operators – such as Vodafone and 3 – have already responded to this threat with fixed price data tariffs over their existing 3G networks.
The worst case scenario predicted by many analysts is that VoIP will bring about the death of voice call tariffs as the industry currently knows them. As WiFiMobile’s O’Prey put it, “A GSM network, like any other SS7 network, is inherently more expensive than modern packet switched (IP) networks. This means that circuit switched voice cannot compete with VoIP in the long-term. Consequently VoIP will always be less expensive to provide whether on a per minute cost or unlimited subscription basis.”
He added, “The mobile world has recognised this and is moving their networks towards IMS. It is important that operators like 3 UK (in the form of its X Series plan) have recognised that the future for cellular is to offer a broadband pipe to the subscriber over which IMS services can be deployed.”

Who’s afraid of VoIP?
“The pure cellular companies [such as Vodafone] are the most afraid of VoIP,” suggested Louis Corrigan, CTO with Irish VoIP handover software supplier, Accuris. “Conversely the traditional PTTs are the most enthusiastic about it. They view VoIP as a way of winning back the ‘voice call minutes’ which in recent years they’ve steadily been losing to the cellular operators.”
Truphone’s Roland Hanbury also thinks that, “Traditional operators can’t easily match ‘Internet-rate’ prices, and cannot block traffic over the internet, so there is little that they can do to stop the new entrants.”
Hanbury added, “There are several operators who offer a basic outbound mobile VoIP service, but a complete service requires both outbound and inbound voice and outbound and inbound text messages. In the medium term, mobile VoIP requires an Internet connection, which means that providers such as Truphone will be able to offer a variety of community, communication and multimedia services to supplement voice revenue.” He continued, “There’s a very healthy future for the ‘true’ (all-IP) VoIP providers even as voice rates fall.”
 He predicts that these new network operators will continue to develop new WiFi enabled services in addition to voice. These services will include email over WiFi, Instant Messaging [IM], SMS over IP, music download, gaming, video on demand, and location-independent TV.
The inescapable conclusion is that while the cost of rolling out 3/3.5G networks is coming down, WiFi provides an interim solution for VoIP. As Gerry O’Prey believes, “Cellular operators need to start providing IMS services right now and VoIP needs to be part of them.” Martin Heath agrees, “The cellular operators are taking an Ostrich-like approach to VoIP and sticking their heads in the sand. They adopted the same mindset towards VoIP as the fixed line operators did ten years ago. That’s fine by me because the longer they take to react the better it is for my business.”

” height=”<% height %>” align=”right” alt=”Mobile VoIP – Who you calling ostrich?” class=”articleimage” />

Nick Pimlott, solicitor in the Communications Group at Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP, examines what’s in store for 2007 on the regulatory front.

This year promises yet another packed regulatory agenda for the mobile sector across Europe. The seemingly endless stream of initiatives from both the European Commission and national regulators presents both opportunities and threats for established operators who are still attempting to turn the investments made in 3G into reliable revenue streams.  Equally, opportunities for new entry with innovative applications and services are looking stronger than at any time since the 3G auctions of the early 2000s.

” height=”<% height %>” align=”right” alt=”Mobile regulation – Red tape revealed” class=”articleimage” />

The key themes for 2007 will very much build on the foundations that have been laid over recent years.  Spectrum liberalisation and trading will push ahead across the EU with the UK, which has pioneered these developments, leading the way. Consumer protection will also be prominent with the expected adoption of the EU Roaming Regulation, along with initiatives to bring SMS termination and 3G voice calls within the net of call termination regulation.  Security is also an issue that is never far from the surface.  The mobile industry along with the communications sector generally, will have to contend with the implementation of the Data Retention Directive adopted in March 2006 and which is due to be implemented into national legislation by 15 September 2007. The mobile sector also needs to keep abreast of developments in audio-visual content regulation as the revised Television Without Frontiers Directive makes it way through the European legislative process.

Liberalisation
Spectrum liberalisation has been one of the key issues in mobile regulation for a number of years. At its heart is the simple proposition that markets, rather than regulators, are better placed to decide what the most efficient use of the spectrum is. However implementing liberalisation poses significant challenges. These are both technical – ensuring that liberalisation does not create unacceptable degrees of interference or disputes between users – and economic – balancing the benefits of liberalisation against the interests and expectations of those operators and equipment manufacturers who have made large investments under the old regime. There are also legal obstacles – some bands are allocated either by international agreement or by the EC to particular technologies and services. 
Key developments in spectrum liberalisation in 2007 will be:
• Major consultations by Ofcom and the European Commission on what to do with the spectrum released as part of the switchover to digital television between 2008 and 2012 (the “Digital Dividend”). In the UK digital switchover is expected to release 112 MHz of spectrum in the so-called “sweetspot” between 200 MHz and 1 GHz.  There are a large number of potential uses of this spectrum and Ofcom, in line with policy of liberalisation, is not proposing to choose between them but rather to release the spectrum by way of auction on a technology- and service-neutral basis. It has recently launched a consultation on how the spectrum should be packaged and on auction design with the first auctions anticipated in the second half of 2008.  The European Commission, consistently with the proposals in its Review of the EU Regulatory Framework for Electronic Communications Networks and Services in June 2006, can be expected to adopt a similar approach.
• Further development of the notion of “spectrum usage rights” which Ofcom issued a consultation on in April 2006.  One of the challenges of liberalising use of the spectrum is ensuring that interference environment is not materially impaired.  Ofcom’s proposals for spectrum usage rights would seek to define permitted   emission levels at frequency and geographic boundaries.  Further technical work is needed to ensure that the proposals are robust and Ofcom does not propose to introduce this approach into existing licences when they are liberalised. It plans instead to trial spectrum  usage rights in one of the forthcoming auctions of new spectrum, probably 1452 MHz- 1492 MHz or 2500 MHz – 2690 MHz.
• Liberalisation of 2G mobile licences may become a reality in 2007 enabling 2G mobile operators to use 3G technologies in the GSM spectrum. This has been held up by legal difficulties – the GSM Directive mandates GSM technology in the 900 MHz mobile spectrum, but moves are afoot to amend this. The difficult question of whether 2G operators should pay for these valuable additional rights and, if so, how, will also need to be confronted.

Consumer protection
On the consumer protection front the most important and controversial issue is the impending EU Roaming Regulation.  This initiative to bring down international roaming charges, which appears to have become almost a personal crusade on the part of Commissioner Viviane Reding, is expected to become law in summer 2007.  The proposed regulation, which was issued in July 2006, would link the wholesale charge that the visited network may make to the roaming customer’s home network to an EU-wide average of regulated mobile termination charges. The retail margin that the home operator of the roaming customer may charge is capped at 30%. EU Regulations are directly applicable in the Member States without the need for national implementing measures so the price caps could take effect as soon as the legislation is passed.  National regulators will have a role to play in enforcement.  Short of giving away roaming for free, it is not clear what the industry can do to stop this particular juggernaut.
2007 may be the year in which SMS termination gets caught in the regulatory net. The European Commission’s Review of the EU Regulatory Framework proposed including SMS in the market for mobile call termination and the French regulator has already imposed price caps on the wholesale SMS termination charges of Bouygues, SFR and Orange.  Ofcom is proposing to follow suit with a review of the SMS termination market in the course of 2007/8.
For voice call termination, the key issue will be the inclusion of voice calls terminating on 3G networks in the price controls on termination. The question of whether operators should be entitled to recoup some of their 3G licence costs through the regulated termination charges is likely to be a hot potato. Ofcom’s proposal for a modest uplift for 3G licence costs has already met with the Commission’s disapproval.

Data retention
On a slightly different tack, both mobile and fixed operators will have to contend in 2007 with the implementation of the Data Retention Directive (2006/24/EC) which is due to be implemented into national law by 15 September.  This Directive harmonises the rules for the retention of communications data across the EU in order to assist the fight against terrorism and organised crime. The Directive  imposes specific obligations on communications providers to retain data call information data, and does not cover the contents of communications but “communications data” (ie the caller and called party, the time, date and duration of the call, the type of call, the user’s equipment, and in the case of mobile the location of the mobile equipment). The actual retention periods may be set by Member States but the Directive sets the lower and upper limits of six months and two years. 
 
Content regulation
Finally, the Television Without Frontiers Directive is in the process of being “modernised”, which means amongst other things that it is being extended to cover services and technologies it did not previously cover. The proposal currently extends content regulation beyond linear television broadcasting to video-on-demand and other online television-like services irrespective of the delivery platform. This will no doubt mean that many mobile television services will fall within the regulatory net.
The proposal reserves the toughest regulation for so-called “linear” services which are those where the service provider decides on and sets the schedule of when programmes are transmitted.  Non-linear services where the user decides when a programme is transmitted on the basis of a selection provided by the service provider are to be subject to a lower level of regulation.
The formal adoption of the legislation is expected to proceed in May 2007 with a national implementation expected within two years thereafter.

What do those attending 3GSM think will be the hot topics, what do they themselves want to find out, and what are their tips for survival? Keith Dyer also spoke to Bill Gajda, cmo of the GSMA, on the development and value of the event to his members.

The numbers are, as ever, impressive: at least 1300 exhibitors, a million square feet of exhibition space, and an expected 60,000 visitors. When you consider that in Cannes two years ago, around 35,000 made the trek to the Palais des Festivals, that’s an impressive uplift.

When the industry is developing a new technology, those who support the early design processes often know best where things are heading. Keith Dyer spoke to those whose job it is to provide test forms and cases for the early stage developers of LTE, to find out what stage market development is at, and where the steepest hills to climb might lie.

The 3GPP is aiming to have the standards for UTRA-UTRAN Long Term Evolution (LTE) finalised by September 2007. Standards for 3GPP System Architecture Evolution (SAE), which addresses the core network supporting the fast radio access network, “should follow”, the 3GPP stated last October.

” height=”<% height %>” align=”right” alt=”LTE: a testing environment – Fast forward” class=”articleimage” />

And the pressure is on, with seven operators last year forming the next generation Mobile Networks initiative, aimed at making sure that issues of IPR and interoperability didn’t hamper the progress of the standard, and with rival wireless broadband technologies also based on OFDM and using MIMO technology progressing quickly.
Renaud Duverne, European Market Development Manager, Signal Sources Division, Agilent, says: “LTE is certainly going to be one of the buzzwords at 3GSM, because the standard is coming and companies are working on that. I definitely reckon it will be the term that will be adopted as standard, amongst all the acronyms we’ve seen so far for this technology.
“It’s more stable now, although the standard is not finalised until September 2007. So at 3GSM we will show our first LTE solution, following the release of new design libraries for the LTE standard.”
Phil Windred, General Manager, at Aeroflex’s business in Cambridge says:
“We  see LTE moving very fast, even faster than previous new technologies. There’s pressure from Japan with DoCoMO, and from WiMax putting the mometum behind LTE. WiMax is a threat to cellular operators and LTE is the answer to that threat.”
Jonathan Borrill, director of market strategy at Anritsu, agrees that there is now considerable market momentum behind the technology.
“The industry has seen a lot of surprisingly quick developments over the past three to six months, since the first draft of the standard, and 3GPP made its selection, in mid 2006. We’ve seen network suppliers moving very quickly to do things on LTE, and it seems quite aggressive to get LTE functionality ready for market.”
Yet some think that the September 2007 date seems a little ambitious. One of those is Othmar Kyas, Director Strategic Marketing, Tektronix Network Diagnostics.
“Most delegates on the committee think that is a very ambitious time line,” he said. “So, basically, it is roughly two years behind where WiMax is today.”
Yet despite these slight differences on the timing, there is clear agreement that LTE development is happening fast – and it is happening now.
Agilent’s Duverne says that the first products from the test houses will come on the design level, followed by Beta releases as early as February this year on signal generation, creating a pre-configured compliant signal and a         pre-defined set up on the receiver side.
“We’re already engaged with a few customers and they’re already preparing for transition from one to another — they are looking at the design mode right now.”
Yet the industry is faced with developing physical layer test products for networks and devices for technology that is very different from the current WCDMA and GSM environments. LTE takes mobile operators from a WCDMA environment into an air interface based on OFDMA and MIMO antenna technology.
Tektronix’s Kyas says: “LTE is based on OFDMA in downlink and SC FDMA (Single Carrier FDMA) in the uplink. This is significantly different to CDMA and quite a challenge for operators because managing, planning and optimising these technologies is very different.
“There’s also the addition of the MIMO antenna concept.”
The new air interface also involves a difference both in the range and dynamics of frequencies used.
“UMTS is up to 3GHz and OFDMA up to 8GHz,” Kyas says, so test instruments require higher frequency support.
“Secondly, the dynamics in the air interface are much higher in networks with MIMO – beam forming active  antennas with the intelligence to dynamically react to application service profiles make it difficult to measure, assess trends and isolate faults or problems.
“In the past, the RF characteristic was relatively stable for walk and drive tests. But OFDMA operates through a large number of sub carriers to transport the bits, so the transmission of traffic is split onto 512 or 1,024 subcarriers across the spectrum. The advantage is that where the best characteristics are you can select a bundle of subcarriers for transmission.
“So it’s fascinatingly dynamic, but for test equipment vendors the complexity is high, with the need to adapt to RF standards and find new algorithms and processes for identifying faults.
“We need to start with new protocols and find new ways to characterise and manage the network. It’s time to define which KPIs are really relevant and displaying what goes on in the network.”
Anritsu’s Borrill says that although OFDM is a known technology through its use in WiMAx and WLANs, the task for the industry is to learn how it will work and be implemented in cellular networks.
“MIMO is very new for everybody, it’s just come in for WiMax and WLAN and we have to figure how MIMO really works in a cellular network. It’s the same for OFDMA. Today, there’s not an agreed basis for test specs.
“OFDMA as a basic technology is understood but in a mobile network it’s a very complicated algorithm to the handset and base station. MIMO is literally just coming out of the research environment. It’s now about understanding how it will work in the real world, in the street and with real interfaces. So new algorithms will be the big challenge.
“One further challenge is on the handsets, getting into handsets without increasing the price, power consumption and size. That’s one of the critical factors in the choice of MIMO/OFDMA.
“It’s the reason 3GPP specified SCFDMA on the uplink, as you can’t have handsets with such wide RF bandwidths. It would be  much too expensive for handsets.”
Of course, LTE is only part of what is happening within R8. Apart from the air interface, the 3GPP is defining the core network architecture, the System Architecture Evolution (SAE), that dispenses with the circuit switch-based RNC, SGSN, and GGSN network elements.
“With the RNC, SGSN, GGSN all that thrown away in SAE, there will be an evolved NodeB , or a superNodeB, to take over everything that the RNC does, making it a much more complex and intelligent piece of equipment,” Borrill says.
“With the main gateways completely removed there will be a new entity called an access gateway, with all the new interfaces based on IPv6.
“So there are questions on fundamental technologies. Customers wanting to build solutions need to know what are the test solutions, what are the important factors in OFDMA signal beahviour, interfaces and bad signals, etc?
“At the system level on IP, with a NGN being all IP, with  people starting to put VoIP over the network — how do you plan the network to put all the voice traffic over IP?”
Yet despite the inevitable hurdles to overcome, there is a positive sense too that the industry is now ready to meet  challenges, as Aeroflex’s Windred says, that have caused it to stumble before.
”The whole industry learnt a lot in the move into WCDMA and I’ve seen everyone raise their game. The test industry has to be a part of that, taking products to another level, providing observability and analysis of data to let people fix problems. “Because we know there will be problems — the thing is to fix them as quckly as possibile.” 

Presence and the benefits of having interconnected IM user communities and services are about to radically change the way users relate to and use their mobile phones, Neustar executives tell editor Keith Dyer.

” height=”<% height %>” align=”right” alt=”Interview – Getting the IP message out” class=”articleimage” />

MOBILE EUROPE:
Jeff, NeuStar recently spent $139 million acquiring IP messaging specialist Followap, which we now know as your Next Generation Messaging (NGM) business. Clearly that represents a major investment in this market. What is it about mobile instant messaging that excites you?

JEFF GANEK:
The most remarkable thing is going on in the communications industry today, and here’s what’s happening. There’s a huge end user demand for mobile instant messaging (MIM), and this is in our view the largest, most material, new revenue opportunity that the mobile network operators have. And that is reflected in a fundamental change in the way end users want to use their handsets. Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are acting now to capture this opportunity and respond to market demand. Things are happening now in the networks and within marketing programmes to change the offering operators put before the end user. And already 19 of the largest MNOs in Europe have selected NeuStar’s NGM platform to deliver this innovative new wave service. This platform has capabilities not just to deliver MIM, which has a defined demand, but the MNOs see it as fundamental network component allowing them to deliver a new wave of IP-based value added services that are the future of mobile communications.

ME:
So what is driving this end user demand for MIM?

MARK FOSTER:
SMS is essentially unchanged as a 10 year old product, and yet it is the second biggest revenue earner for mobile operators, with 1.2 billion active users. In other user communities, there has been wide adoption of other messaging technologies, and this has led operators to conclude they must upgrade this critical product to introduce new services.

So, for MIM what we are really talking about is SMS 2.0. And faced with the prospect of huge growth and innovation, from a current market of $63 billion a year, mobile operators are bringing IP capabilities to mobile messaging to replace SS7 and adding new features such as presence. That means that this becomes about more than text messaging, with the platform becoming a future environment for person-to-person communications in the mobile environment – for text, video, and voice.

ME: So which operators are we seeing deploying MIM services?

SIMON BROWN:
There’s a whole spectrum of operators using it now. On our platform, the ones we can name publicly of our 19 customers include Vodafone, Wind, SFR, Turkcell, and the Hutchison Group. And operators are signing up quite quickly right at this moment.

This clearly indicates that we believe that SMS platforms will be replaced by IM. And in terms of the end user, the services are the same but with the added value of presence. The number one SMS sent is probably “Are you there?” Presence takes that out. Users can have multiple threads running at the same time and IM keeps track of all those conversations at the same time.

JG:
It’s interesting too that they turn to NeuStar for this because NeuStar is a very different kind of service provider. There’s nobody else quite like us. We built and operate the physical directory, and route every telephone call made, in North America. It’s that trust and responsiveness that is key to NeuStar and the NGM platform that they must have to meet the multi billion dollar end user demand for MIM.

MF:
Certainly that’s a natural role for NeuStar, not only do we operate the master routing database for US, Canada and Taiwan, but we also provide routing capability for nearly a quarter of the world’s internet traffic through our Top Level Domains such as .org, .info, .biz and .uk, as well as the global routing directory to route interoperable GPRS services between and amongst the GSM Association’s members. So this is the sweetspot of what NS does already today, in a way that is fully interoperable.

And that’s vital to the success of MIM – it has to be interoperable at the outset. You can’t do this on an isolated basis.

ME:
So what are the challenges facing operators as they seek to establish that interoperability between user communities?
SB:
When you talk about a MIM architecture there are two basic platforms. The IMSC – the platform of operator communities – and second the media messaging gateway, connecting to the internet portal providers. So for example, in 3’s case the deal we have there is to use our platform to provide MSN to their subscribers.

The acquisition of Followap by NeuStar in that way helped us. NeuStar’s charter is to stay a neutral third party, and that means we are also a neutral third party. So the advantages now begin to stack up quite healthily.

There’s already a large community of operators who know us and work with us. It’s very simple to connect to our interconnect platform, the expertise and resources that NeuStar brings to us, and the ruggedness and QoS we can provide is going to be second to none.

JG:
The industry for all its wizardry has not yet established a standard for interoperability for IM that has historically existed for all mobile handsets for messaging. The existing IM networks are not pervasive or interoperable. Here’s what the market is crying out for: 1.2 billion users of handsets worldwide need to be able to originate and terminate IM on any of the billions of network endpoints around the world. What will change the situation for the messaging market is an infrastructure  that allows MNOs to talk to customers and say, “The handset you’ve been using for voice and SMS, use that same handset to send IM to and from any phone in the world.”

In Barcelona last February really for the first time we saw a coordinated launch of Personal IM services. And the interoperability aspect, in addition to all the enabling products and services, between and within networks and to internet portals is key to everyone’s collective success

ME:
Has the work within the standards bodies not mandated interoperability already?

SB:
There’s a range of IM platforms that operators could buy. But regardless of who you have bought your IMSC from, communities need to interconnect. For example we have connected Colibria’s product within Telefonica’s network to our platform, and it is our full intent to interconnect with other vendors.

The platform we have is able to support SIP, XMPP, or OMA/ Wireless Village, with real time protocol translation. This is how we manage to interconnect multiple communities together.
With internet portals, at the end of the day a commercial transaction has to be agreed between the operator and the portal, but the good news is that the technical and physical side is working. And as Mark said, the GSMA has an MoU with 30 signatories saying they will interconnect.

MF:
Interoperability problems between networks are often the same as problems within networks. It’s important to know how to route a service request within a network. If an IM subscriber wants to send a message to a non-IM user, how does that work in a seamless fashion? 

ME:
And what is the role and value of an interconnect platform for the industry?

JG:
Our name, NeuStar, comes from neutral. It’s such an important part of our values that we put it in our name. We will never compete with a MNO or service provider customer.  They can trust us to provide key deep infrastructure capabilities that enable network operators to deliver services from their network to any other network in the world. And there’s not another company in the world that is pledged formally and legally to act in this way.

MF:
As we talk about interoperability, we have to try and make the value of that tangible. First, look at MMS – a more recent service that is perceived largely as a failure by operators for the key reason of a lack of seamless interoperability when that service was launched. What they learnt was that initial poor experience of that interoperability soured consumer perception of the service

The value proposition we have is the ability to interconnect these disparate IM user communities today. The key to this is that this creates a clearly compelling business case and a core rationale for MNOs investing in the key element in an IMS architecture. It’s a very practical infrastructure to evolve into a true IMS next generation environment. And I think this is a very powerful value proposition.

ME:
When we talk about value, what is it about IM that you think will make it drive those next generation investments for operators?

JG:
IM has an attribute that is unlike any internet standard communications service, this is the attribute to change the way the communications users use networks. That attribute is presence, which changes the way we use communications versus SMS or traditional, conventional voice.  Once users understand that presence is in the network, then they can apply that not just to IM but all kinds of communications. This is the first wave of the IP revolution in mobile communications.

SB:
I think there will be different flavours of communications on mobile, with email on a specific client for example. People talk about IP convergence and that is indeed what IMS should enable.

But IM on mobile is on a parallel path ahead of developments on other services. It’s working without IMS and is an example of a service that subscribers have a requirement for and interest in.  We’re seeing a continued and rapid acceleration of IM traffic.

ME:
Is this a wave of IP communications that can deliver increased revenues to the operators, however? The experience in the fixed line world has not always been encouraging.

MF:
People have good reasons to be sceptical about the introduction of fundamentally new services.

But this is not a new service, mobile IM is an upgrade to the existing second generation revenue generating opportunity to operators.

JG:
There is a view that as soon as you stream IP to a handset the end users will use all the free services. What’s different in this case is that we are not talking about open access via broadband. Instant messaging is about putting into the infrastructure of MNOs an IP based capability that can  deliver services and products that customers demand and want to pay money for that they can’t deiver with their old technology. It’s not academic. It’s three to four times less costly to provide than SS7 based SMS.

MF:
In the markets where these services are going live, the average message volume increase four to six times compared to text messaging. So that’s a very compelling metric on a cost and revenue basis.

SB:
The thing to realise is that this becomes about a range of different services on top of the basic IM service. Turkcell, which is one of the most forward thinking operators in this area, have found chat particularly successful and a great revenue earner as well.
And that’s not just about a subscriber’s friends, you can join a user group or forums and chat that way. Turkcell has a package price for IM and charges subscriptions for services like  – the info buddies. All the leading operators have put in detailed investigation into this, and they have not observed cannibalization of SMS. The conclusion is that is it a different behaviour and it builds on top of text messaging type of practices.