First of all, I would like to thank NSN and their PR agency for inviting me to this media session, I was the only blogger in the room.
Nokia Siemens Network last week invited the media to share about their thoughts on LTE and Mobile Broadband. They also showcased some solutions that they have been working on over the years.
Torsten and Marko from NSN
Presentation on Mobile Broadband
Mobile Voice still remains a hot topic today for mobile operators says Torsten Leibner referring to the recent Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona. Torsten is the Senior Consultant Strategic Differentiation, Global Business Solutions at NSN.
In his presentation Torsten gave example of some average data download on a network:
- T-Mobile Germany- Average 2GB per month(Dongle customers)
- Orange UK- Average 115MB/month (Smartphone)
- Orange UK- Average 165MB/month (iPhone)
Also watch this video: The simple truth about mobile broadband
Presentation on LTE
Marko Lius, Head of Network solution engagement, APAC, NSN said that mobile traffic is set to explode over the next 5 years. He added that LTE reduces the cost of per MB and the upcoming LTE Advance allows more bandwidth and MIMO support(between 4 or 8 antennas).
Some statistic:
- 64 LTE network operator commitments in 31 countries
- Up to 22 live LTE network by end of this year
- 380 million subscribers by 2015
At the moment, Malaysia is considering the 900Mhz band(re-farming) for LTE(which means only 1800Mhz left for GSM) or the Government might issue LTE licenses on the 2.6Ghz band. Basically, if LTE is deployed on the 900Mhz band, it would allow better coverage in rural and urban areas including within buildings. But that also creates another issue- capacity. From a technology point of view, the 2.6Ghz band has more capacity than the 900Mhz band. In simple words, 2.6Ghz can handle more users and offer faster broadband speeds, most of the time. But there is also a downside on the 2.6Ghz band, we are looking at weak signal and smaller coverage areas. Imagine how bad your 3G reception is today especially within buildings, signal reception with LTE on the 2.6Ghz band can be much worst.
Marko said that LTE on 2.6Ghz can be deployed in urban areas(cities) while 900Mhz can be used at rural areas. Hopefully, MCMC will look into this deeply before issuing those LTE licenses in 2011.
Showcase
There were showcase on HSPA, green solutions and more. One of the solution allows mobile advertising to be delivered to a user’s phone via location or the number they call. Another solution allows storing of user name and password within the operator’s network so it could automatically fill up the login credential for you when you visit a page like Facebook with your broadband service and smartphone(using the same account/billing).
The best one is something called NetAct Optimizer from Nokia Siemens Network. Basically it is a Self-Organizing-Network solutions that allows the network to fix or optimize itself with less attention needed from the network team (so the network team can focus on other important things such as upgrading the network).
The video below is taken at MWC 2010, a brief explanation about NSN’s NetAct Optimizer:
