SnL_ayaz_/was_here » Telecom Europe

NSN helps unlock broadband opportunity

SnL_ayaz_/was_here — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 11:34:33 +0000

Outlines future of broadband connectivity at this year’s Broadband World Forum

Nokia Siemens Networks will outline its vision for the future of broadband technology for mobile and fixed networks at this year’s Broadband World Forum, September 7-9, Paris, France.

“Building increased value in today’s rapidly converging world demands customizing every individual’s communications experience,” said Mika Vehvilainen, chief operating officer, Nokia Siemens Networks who will deliver a keynote on the subject. “This means efficiently bringing subscriber and network data into context, and using customer insights to increase the value of connectivity.”

Acknowledging both operators’ and individual users’ needs to manage this complex paradigm, Nokia Siemens Networks will showcase an intelligent suite of tools, services and solutions at Broadband World Forum. With Connectivity Scorecard, Nokia Siemens Networks will also demonstrate its clear understanding of how various countries and different sectors of the industry can best harness their ICT potential to stimulate economic growth.

Nokia Siemens Networks at Broadband World Forum

Visitors to Nokia Siemens Networks’ booth # 133 at Broadband World Forum can learn more about the company’s broadband solutions, which boost Communications Service Providers’ efficiency and customer experience in the areas of residential and mobile broadband, such as the company’s end-to-end solution for Long Term Evolution (LTE).

Other innovative solutions include a live demo of Subscriber Data Management and Identity Management, the new Subscriber Intelligence Framework, and the Rich Communication Suite aimed at enhancing the individual’s communications experience.

Nokia Siemens Networks will also demonstrate end-to-end network management for carrier Ethernet and centralized network management for IP over DWDM networks. With DWDM aggregation, operators make the most of their fibre implementation by simply upgrading wavelengths over existing infrastructure, achieving ultra high capacities on single spans (e.g. 3.2 Tbit/s and above).

Showcasing live video and IPTV streaming, visitors will experience the world’s first demo of VDSL2 technology achieving 25 Mbps over 1500 meters.

In addition, there will be a series of speaking engagements by the company’s recognized industry experts as part of workshops and breakout sessions spread over the three days of the event.

Stephan Scholz, the company’s chief technology officer, will share his insights on the emergence of content rich services and smart devices at a plenary session organized by the European Executive Institute. Scholz will share his vision on how key technologies and architectures will evolve over time and enable carriers to unlock the broadband opportunity.

Beppe Donagemma, the head of West South Europe region, will discuss the role of managed services in helping carriers to improve network efficiency, service quality and reduce cost, sharing Nokia Siemens Networks’ experience as a market leader with more than 200 managed services contracts and managing networks for 220 million subscribers.

Finally, Nokia Siemens Networks will be present at the InfoVision awards held during Broadband World Forum on September 7 2009. The InfoVision Award program recognizes technologies, applications, products, advances, and services judged to be the most unique and beneficial to the ICT industry in ten categories. Nokia Siemens Networks is a finalist in four categories: metro network technologies and services; wireless broadband; core network innovation and advances; and network and services management and operations together with Juniper.

Vodafone Germany and Huawei test LTE in 790-862MHz

SnL_ayaz_/was_here — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:21:41 +0000

Vodafone Germany and Huawei today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to conduct a joint test gauging the performance of LTE (Long Term Evolution) in the Digital Dividend Band. This agreement marks a joint initiative to validate LTE’ s application within the Digital Dividend Band (790-862MHz) using Huawei’ s end-to-end LTE solution.

From this summer the cooperation will see Vodafone Germany and Huawei not only demonstrate LTE’ s ability to provide broadband coverage to rural and urban areas, effectively bridging the digital divide between those areas of Germany, but also to prove its compatibility with adjacent technologies such as Digital TV and Digital Radio. The test will be based on Huawei’ s end-to-end solutions and both parties will form a joint working group for conducting the test.

Hartmut Kremling, CTO of Vodafone Germany said: ‘Vodafone is an active player in bringing leading broadband services to Germany. By cooperating with local telecoms authorities, utilising the rich LTE experiences from Vodafone Germany and Huawei, we are confident that the test will be carried out successfully.’

Vincent Pang, Vice President and Head of Huawei Vodafone Business Unit said: “We are very pleased that Vodafone Germany chose Huawei as the partner for this test, which is another milestone for the collaboration between our two companies. Huawei will leverage its cutting edge LTE technologies to ensure Vodafone Germany remains ahead of the market as well as help it to achieve sustainable growth in the future.”

Telenor Q2 profit falls on impairment charge

SnL_ayaz_/was_here — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:43:59 +0000

Norway based European leading telecommunications service provider, Telenor, reported today that its second-quarter net profit fell by around 61 percent on heavy impairment losses, but posted improvements in sales and EBITDA.

“The trends from the first quarter of 2009 continued into this quarter, with a challenging business environment also affecting the telecom sector. In spite of pressure on the top line development our operations are improving their performance, resulting in a record high operating cash flow. At the end of the quarter, we reached a total of 168 million mobile subscriptions,“ said Jon Fredrik Baksaas, President and CEO of Telenor.

Strong growth and high margins

“Grameenphone in Bangladesh and Mobile Norway are delivering a particularly strong quarter, both in terms of revenue growth and margins. We are also happy to see that Telenor Pakistan this quarter reached its highest margins so far. During this quarter the margins and market positions in CEE remained strong and Kyivstar distributed dividends for 2006 and 2007. The Telenor portion amounted to NOK 2.1 billion,” Baksaas said.

The Telenor brand launched in Denmark

“In June the Telenor brand was successfully launched in the Danish market. The rebranding will strengthen Telenor Denmark’s ability to provide unified products and services, as well as creating a stronger company identity. In Sweden we continue to focus on improving efficiency. In addition to initiatives in sales and distribution channels, downsizing of staff has been announced and will be completed during the second half of 2009,” Baksaas said.

Preparing for launch in India

“In India we are building our operation and preparing for launch. Key agreements are now in place, including GSM equipment and IT outsourcing, in addition to infrastructure sharing. We plan to launch services in five circles in the fourth quarter. The current roll-out plan is embedded in our updated outlook for 2009,” Baksaas said.

New hearing in Siberia

“Our shares in VimpelCom are under arrest since 11 March 2009 related to the unfounded Farimex case. Telenor’s appeal of previous rulings is scheduled to be heard in the Federal Court of Tyumen 30 September 2009,” Baksaas said.

Revenues remain under pressure

“For the rest of the year we expect revenues to remain under pressure. We will continue to scale our business activities accordingly, while delivering a strong operating cash flow and sustaining our market positions,” Baksaas said.

Ericsson wins Telefónica O2 UK deal for managed services

SnL_ayaz_/was_here — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:39:10 +0000

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and Telefónica O2 UK have signed a multi-year managed services agreement. Ericsson will provide field maintenance and other services for the Telefónica O2 UK 2G and 3G networks.

Under the new agreement Ericsson will provide field maintenance services for radio and switch sites, spare parts management logistics support as well as optimisation and drive services and facilities engineering services for Telefónica O2 UK.

Ericsson and Telefónica O2 UK have a multi-year relationship for supply of mobile core network technology. This new agreement marks the first time that Ericsson will undertake day-to-day operations for Telefónica O2 UK. In addition to the new agreement with Telefónica O2 UK, Ericsson has a global relationship with Telefónica in multiple countries.

Mats Granryd, Managing Director, Ericsson UK, says: “We view this as an excellent step in the development of a long-term strategic partnership with Telefónica O2 UK and we are extremely honored to have been chosen by Telefónica O2 UK as its Managed Services partner. Although Ericsson and Telefónica O2 UK have enjoyed a long relationship this agreement has significantly strengthened it, bringing us much closer.”

Through economies of scale, best practice tools, methods, processes and efficient resource allocation, Ericsson’s managed services supports its partners to improve network performance and end-user experience whilst reducing operational costs. With 15 years experience, Ericsson is the global managed services market leader. In the UK, Ericsson holds multiple managed services contracts with fixed and mobile operators.

O2 expands into ‘personal finance’ with launch of O2 Money

SnL_ayaz_/was_here — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 05:51:37 +0000

O2 joins forces with NatWest to breathe new life into money management

O2 has partnered with NatWest to make its debut in the personal finance market with the launch of O2 Money, a new business within O2 that will seek to advance the increasing synergies between mobile and money. The first products from O2 Money, supported by NatWest, are two cash cards, designed to give people greater control of their money.

The O2 Money cash cards are two completely Fee Free pre-paid Visa cards, which will help people better manage their spending money by never going overdrawn and with real-time balance updates sent to their mobile phone. They combine a clear, simple and transparent approach to banking with all the benefits of mobile – always with you and immediate. The cards are ideally suited to help O2 customers in the current economic climate and will be available by the end of August.

“The strength of our brand and relationship with our customers gives us the ideal opportunity to take O2 into a completely new market,” said Ronan Dunne, O2’s UK Chief Executive. “By bringing a fresh, transparent and customer-focused approach to pre-paid cards, we plan to drive this market and take a significant share. In partnership with NatWest, O2 Money is delivering new ways of helping our customers better connect with their money.”

Helen Page, Managing Director of Marketing and Innovation at NatWest, said: “In the current climate, NatWest is more committed than ever to developing innovative solutions to help customers connect with their finances. Aside from general mobile banking services such as text alerts, NatWest was the first bank to offer customers the opportunity to activate their debit card from their mobile phone, as well as providing a text alert service to keep them updated during every stage of their mortgage application. We believe these groundbreaking O2 Money cards will really raise the bar, in terms of the added value customers will get from the interaction with their mobile phone.”

The two pre-pay cards are powered through a partnership with NatWest and are called Cash Manager and Load & Go. They will allow people to ring-fence their disposable income and never spend more than has been loaded onto the card. They can be used almost anywhere that accepts Visa within the UK and abroad, as well as online, and will only be available to O2 customers.

Ronan Dunne continued, “O2 has a strong and successful track record of innovation and O2 Money will represent a launchpad into a wide range of mobile banking services. We believe that we are at the start of a journey towards the coming together of phone and wallet and we intend, through O2 Money, to be at the forefront of this trend. This launch represents an important step towards O2 becoming a leading service provider with mobile at its core.”

Helen Page continued. “More people than ever are using their mobile phones as a means of managing their money and NatWest is always looking at new ways of incorporating the mobile phone into our services, to ensure our customers can interact with us as easily as possible. These cash cards, delivered in partnership with O2, are the first step on the road towards a more advanced mobile banking service, and the closer alignment between mobile phones and payment technology.”

SFR subscribers set to speed on mobile Internet highway

SnL_ayaz_/was_here — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:00:39 +0000

SFR and Nokia Siemens Networks pioneer all-IP backhaul technology for next-generation mobile network experience

Subscribers of SFR, France’s leading communications service provider, will soon enjoy real time multimedia applications, such as virtual office. Earlier this month SFR in collaboration with Nokia Siemens Networks became the first to showcase such applications in France on a live 3G network with a 14 Mbps mobile broadband connection.

SFR has selected a radio solution from Nokia Siemens Networks which will enable the migration of SFR’s mobile backhaul network to all IP (Internet Protocol), enabling the operator to increase capacity while keeping costs under control.

“SFR strives to bring leading edge innovation and most attractive services to its broadband customers. This demonstration with Nokia-Siemens Networks confirms that our mobile network is ready to offer a new suite of advanced services thanks to an all IP mobile access network which combines high performance and high quality, thus transforming the customer experience”, said Pierre-Alain Allemand, General Manager Networks of SFR. “Nokia Siemens Networks IP mobile access solutions allow us to bring more value to our customers while optimizing our operation costs.”

Nokia Siemens Networks’ integrated IP radio access solution is a part of the Flexi Base Station platform, which supports High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and can help operators easily migrate their mobile backhaul to IP using software. This solution is also compatible with SFR’s fixed broadband access technologies. Since it supports high bandwidth and low latency, it enables operators to offer a real-time multimedia experience at reduced costs.

“As mobile operators prepare their networks for a wave of new innovative broadband data services, they realize that the efficient integration of the mobile network with the internet protocol is essential for success,” said Hervé Suquet, Head of Customer Team SFR, Nokia Siemens Networks. “Native IP support across the mobile network is the ideal way of guaranteeing this integration with extreme network efficiency and superior customer experience. By offering IP capabilities integrated into our Flexi Base Stations we offer SFR an extremely straight forward and cost effective way to allow this IP migration”

Nokia Siemens Networks is the global leader in the deployment of high-speed mobile broadband networks supplying WCDMA/HSPA networks to more than 150 customers worldwide. Over half of the world’s 300 million WCDMA/HSPA subscribers are connected by Nokia Siemens Networks.

3 Italia and Telecom Italia sign an agreement for radio mobile network access site sharing

SnL_ayaz_/was_here — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:08:46 +0000

The “co-siting” agreement will last for three years and will concern a minimum of 2,000 sites, permitting a cost saving of 30% at full swing

Telecom Italia and 3 Italia have signed a “co-siting” agreement for the sharing of radio mobile access sites which regards both existing sites and those which will be built in the future. The objects of the agreements are the so called “passive” infrastructures: poles, cables, electricity supply and conditioning systems and other civil infrastructures.

Each operator, that will maintain ownership of its infrastructure, will also house the radio mobile stations of its partner with the objective of optimizing national network coverage. The agreement does not include electronic devices which permit the supply of mobile telephony services to their customers or relative management services.

With this agreement, which also renews and widens the contents of a previous contract, the two companies ensure the observance of the guidelines contained in the Code for Electronic Communications aimed at promoting a more efficient use of network infrastructure in urban and rural areas.

“This is an agreement of huge importance for the telecommunications industry in Italy, because on one hand it improves the cost structures of the two companies, further reducing the environmental impact of a clean technology such as wireless and, on the other hand, it signals a turning point in the continuation in higher levels of competition”. Vincenzo Novari, CEO of 3 Italia highlighted.

“The value of this agreement – Stefano Pileri, Director of Technology and Operations at Telecom Italia commented– is two-fold. From the point of view of efficiency, it will be possible to significantly reduce the cost of site leases, one of the highest cost items in mobile networks. Secondly, the progressive reduction of the number of antennas will have a positive impact on the environment”.

The agreement will last three years, it is renewable and will address at full swing 2,000 sites, ensuring an optimization of investments, a cost saving of 30% and a time reduction of the network development for each operator.

Ericsson acquires more than 95 percent of LHS shares

SnL_ayaz_/was_here — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:52:25 +0000

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) has recently, through a wholly owned subsidiary, purchased shares in LHS AG (XETRA:LHS) that together with currently held shares represents more than 95 percent of the outstanding shares in LHS.

Today, Ericsson informed LHS that it requests a squeeze-out resolution to be passed at LHS’ next shareholders’ meeting. The date for the next shareholders’ meeting has not yet been set.

Back in 2007, Ericsson announced a cash offer to acquire LHS, aimed at strengthening its leading offering in revenue management with a fully integrated convergent charging and billing solution.

Ericsson to modernize Kyivstar’s network to meet uptake of mobile data in Ukraine

SnL_ayaz_/was_here — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:18:02 +0000

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) is paving the way for leading Ukrainian operator Kyivstar to offer its 23.9 million subscribers mobile broadband services under a three-year network modernization deal between the two companies.

While Ukraine awaits the imminent release of 3G licenses, Kyivstar’s customers across 99.9 percent of the country will be able to access multimedia data services and superior voice service thanks to an expansion and modernization of Kyivstar’s GSM/EDGE network. Ericsson will boost capacity and coverage of the operator’s radio access and core network, which serves more than half the nation’s total subscriber base of 55.2 million. By increasing capacity by more than 30 percent, Kyivstar will be able to manage the anticipated uptake of mobile data in the network.

The core network capacity is expanded by using the Ericsson Mobile Softswitch Solution, which also enables cost-efficient migration to an all-IP network. The deal also covers microwave transmission, network deployment, systems integration and support services, as well as competence development for staff.

Igor Lytovchenko, President of Kyivstar, says: “This network modernization furthers Kyivstar’s strategy of maintaining its technology leadership, while preparing for the launch of mobile broadband services with the introduction of 3G in Ukraine.”

Jan Campbell, President of Ericsson Eastern Europe and Central Asia, says that the deal is an extension of Ericsson’s established partnership with Kyivstar, which dates back to the nationwide rollout of its GSM network in 1996. “By using Ericsson’s latest GSM/EDGE technologies, Kyivstar can deliver seamless services to its customers today and be well prepared for future needs.”

Kyivstar and Ericsson have also joined forces in the area of advanced mobile technologies, with the first Ukrainian demonstrations of 3G and MMS in 2002 and EDGE in 2004.

Nokia Siemens Networks multimode radio wins €250 million EIB backing

SnL_ayaz_/was_here — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:27:15 +0000

Nokia Siemens Networks has secured a EUR 250 million loan facility from the European Investment Bank for the development of its multimode Radio Access network technology.

The EUR 250 million facility will provide financial support for R&D in Europe which will build on the success of Nokia Siemens Networks’ multiradio technology platform. Nokia Siemens Networks’ award-winning Flexi Multiradio Base Station allows communications service providers (CSPs) to use a single base station platform to support several technologies, including GSM, WCDMA/HSPA/HSPA+ and Long Term Evolution (LTE} – all running concurrently in a single unit.

“Nokia Siemens Networks has some of Europe’s most talented and innovative developers working on radio access network products that are setting standards across the industry and we are delighted that the value of that work has been recognized by the EIB with this facility,” said Luca Maestri, Chief Financial Officer of Nokia Siemens Networks.

EIB Vice-President Eva Srejber said: “The EIB attaches particular importance to the development of a knowledge-based economy in the Union, which assures a long-term growth of European economies. We are happy to assist such promising initiatives.”

The development of a multimode platform allows CSPs a highly cost-efficient and environmentally sustainable roll-out of mobile broadband telecommunication services, as today’s technology deployments can support future requirements through simple upgrades. Multimode Radio Access Equipment is also a key requirement for developments in the field of mobile telecommunications, the so-called frequency re-farming. Frequency re-farming relates to the use of new technologies in GSM frequencies, as UMTS today and LTE in the future. Regulatory steps are being undertaken to allow this in the near future. Nokia Siemens Networks’ European Radio R&D is carried out in Finland, Germany, Poland and Italy.

SnL_ayaz_/was_here » Telecom Europe

NSN helps unlock broadband opportunity

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