LTE: Japan: Ericsson to provide SoftBank LTE in major cities.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

LTE: Japan: Ericsson to provide SoftBank LTE in major cities.

Japanese operator SoftBank has announced that Ericsson will build its LTE network in Japan’s major cities, such as Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya and covering more than half the country’s population. 

The deal is the Swedish infrastructure company’s largest LTE contract in Japan. SoftBank is also working with Nokia Siemens Networks, which will help build its FDD-LTE network and expand its HSPA+ network.

Ericsson completes BelAir buy.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Ericsson completes BelAir buy.

Ericsson closed its acquisition of BelAir Networks, a transaction it said “gives Ericsson a strong carrier-grade Wi-Fi portfolio, technological expertise, IPR and established customer contracts and relationships.” 

 Financial terms of the deal, first announced in February 2012, were not disclosed.

Ericsson at Mobile World Congress 2012.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Mobile World Congress, the most important trade show for the telecommunications industry is starting on Monday at La Fira, Barcelona. From February 27 to March 1, visitors to Ericsson's Hall 6 will be able to sneak a peek into the future of communications and the Networked Society. Ericsson will launch new products and services, including a series world's firsts, in the areas of Mobile broadband, Operation and Business Support Systems (OSS/BSS) and Managed Services. Ericsson is the leading player in LTE technology and during the show it will demonstrate the latest developments in this technology. 

 Showcases latest developments in LTE and HSPA.

·         Presents strengthened hetnet portfolio - the same services with half the spectrum and throughput gains of 2-10 times compared to using separate vendors  for the macro and the small cell layer

·         Launch of new services: Data Center Build and Optimization, Smartphone Network Optimization and Managed End-user Service Assurance

·         OSS/BSS solutions together with Telcordia 

Mobile World Congress, the most important trade show for the telecommunications industry is starting next Moday at La Fira, Barcelona. From February 27 to March 1, visitors to Ericsson's (NASDAQ:ERIC) Hall 6 will be able to sneak a peek into the future of communications and the Networked Society.

Ericsson will launch new products and services, including a series world's firsts, in the areas of Mobile broadband, Operation and Business Support Systems (OSS/BSS) and Managed Services.

This year's highlights include:

LTE - Ericsson powers LTE Eco system at MWC 2012

Ericsson is the leading player in LTE technology and during the show it will demonstrate the latest developments in this technology.

It has also partnered with Qualcomm, LG, Sony, Renesas, Nvidia and ST-Ericsson to provide coverage for devices and chipsets built by these companies' chipsets  to fuel the LTE eco system

This collaboration allows the eco system partners to show their LTE products over live, state of the art Ericsson LTE infrastructure. The different UE vendors are all close partners with Ericsson, pushing the boundaries of the LTE eco system. Ericsson is doing this as part of our strategy to strengthening the build up of the LTE eco system and in particular powering the take of LTE based smartphones.

More than 30 LTE LTE eco system products are part of Ericsson LTE demonstration at MWC.

Voice over LTE (VoLTE GSMA IR.92) and video calling over LTE (GSMA IR.94)  will be demonstrated on  Samsung and LG devices. A live demonstration of the world's first LTE to WCDMA voice handover (SRVCC, Single Radio Voice Call Continuity) will be shown in collaboration with Qualcomm. Circuit switched fallback (CSFB) voice services will be demonstrated on LG LTE smartphones.

Services

As more Smartphones are sold with prediction showing that there will be 400 million sold this year and 4 billion deployed by end of year 2016, there will be a continued need for modernizing, transforming and rolling out new technology and services to secure a network's quality of service.

Three new Services offerings are presented; The Smartphone Network Optimization supports the operator to get ready in time for the data uptake and secures the quality of service in the network. Managed End-user Service Assurance - a concept for monitoring and visualizing the end-user quality of service for operators. And finally the Data Center Build and Optimization - to help operators with their cloud offering.

Ericsson showcases services that will help telecom operators to modernize transform and roll out new technology and services while ensuring quality of service for the consumers. With a combination of technology and services leadership that also transfers into adjacent industries, Ericsson unveils co-operation with car manufacturer Volvo on enabling electrical cars to be charged and billed to your account from anywhere.

A live feed from the stand to one of Ericsson's Global Network Operation Centers displays the global skill and scale in Ericsson's service delivery operations. Scale of the 56,000 services professionals Ericsson has proven skills in delivering services remotely from its four Global Service Centers, using standardized processes, methods and tools.

Today's transformation of networks from Telecom, IT, Broadcast and related content management systems puts very high demand on the project management as the projects are very complex with many several sub suppliers involved. Ericsson presented its leading project management capabilities, its experience of complex projects and multi technology and multi vendor projects.

OSS/BSS

Ericsson has the most comprehensive OSS/BSS portfolio in the industry, recently strengthened through the acquisition of Telcordia.

Ericsson will show how to empower operators to monetize, provide optimal user experience and innovate in the Networked Society by transforming business and supporting systems to leverage network investments and create business opportunities.

Ericsson offers its holistic operator view when transforming organizations and IT environments utilizing true real-time competence and creating configurable OSS/BSS solutions. This gives the ability to monetize and manage any opportunity with the trust of a global experienced partner.

Ericsson is putting customers' business benefits first by taking a holistic approach to people, process and technology aspects when defining and embarking on a modernization and consolidation path for an effective OSS and BSS architecture with leaner processes. Ericsson will demonstrate its approach to reach these kinds of achievements backed up by customer cases proof points such as OSS and BSS transformation reference cases.

High Definition Video Conferencing

Ericsson together with world's leading telecommunications operators, Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange, Telecom Italia and Telefónica and equipment vendors Italtel, Polycom and Quanta Computer, among others, will bring a demonstration of the new interoperable HD videoconference capabilities.  Samples of practical use will be demonstrated at the Telefónica (Hall 8), Ericsson (Hall 6) and Polycom's (Stand 2D01) stands, connecting to Deutsche Telekom in Germany and Telecom Italia in Italy. The services shown will be based on 3GPP IMS and uses GSMA IPX to interconnect enabling point-to-point as well as multi-party HD video conferences, regardless of video user equipment, access network or country of origin and destination with a customer experience as easy as a phone call.

M-commerce

Ericsson will be showcasing its recently announced m-commerce portfolio, designed to provide the world's leading consumers brands with the infrastructure and solutions needed to create and connect m-wallets across a global m-commerce eco-system.

Ericsson Converged Wallet can unlock the potential of the m-wallet for operators and financial institutions by converting the accounts of over a billion consumers already on the Ericsson Billing & Charging Solution to m-wallets. Some 1.6 billion people worldwide who are already using a type of 'first generation' m-wallet voice accounts (pre and post-paid accounts), can now be easily converted to 'next generation' m-wallets through Ericsson Converged Wallet

The Ericsson Merchant Wallet service will help provide large Internet brands and merchants with a solution for payments including payments; virtual currency transactions, loyalty points.

Ericsson Wallet Platform delivers software solutions and hosted services to enable secure and convenient mobile financial services, e.g. person to person money transfer, bill payment, merchant payments and micro loans

Ericsson M-commerce Interconnect acts as an eco system hub for money transfer; payment transactions and services between subscribers of Mobile Network Operators and other service providers (e.g. banks, money transfer organizations, payment service providers, Internet service providers)

Ericsson participates at "Picture today, Inspire tomorrow" initiative

Ericsson is the founding partner of "Picture today inspire tomorrow", a unique photography project, getting millions of people around the world to share and reflect on their own lives and learn from the lives of others.

 On May 15, 2012, people all over the world - amateur and professional photographers, photojournalists, artists, media groups, NGOs, educational institutions, social networks; anyone interested-will be invited to take photographs to illustrate the energy of one single day. The resulting gigantic photo collection will be given direction, structure and context, making it a relevant portrait of today, for tomorrow.

In the "Picture today inspire tomorrow" area in hall 6 Ericsson and Expressions of Humankind, the initiating foundation behind the project, will be available to discuss and present the project. 

LTE: Australia: Ericsson picks up A$1B LTE deal

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Ericsson was awarded a AUD1 billion (US$1.1 billion) contract to build and operate a 2.3GHz fixed-wireless network using LTE technology, as part of the Australian government’s National Broadband Network project.

 The network will deliver theoretical peak download speeds of 12Mb/s and upload speeds of 1Mb/s to subscribers in rural Australia, marking a “significant” improvement compared to existing broadband services.

LTE: Ericsson looks to strengthen LTE dominance.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Swedish network vendor Ericsson is cautiously optimistic it can grow its 50 percent-plus market share of the nascent LTE sector.

In an interview with Mobile World Live, CTO Håkan Eriksson said the firm will aim to strengthen its early dominance of the LTE network contract market.

“I think we have probably a chance to do that,” he commented, adding that Ericsson’s share of the ‘older’ 2G and 3G network market is around 40 percent.

Ericsson said that such growth is possible due to the fact that the number of competing vendors has dropped from 20-30 “in the mid-80s” down to around five major players today.

 He warned, however, that the remaining players were capable of stealing Ericsson’s LTE market share. Ericsson’s dominance of the LTE market so far has been spurred by some major operator wins, such as with US carriers AT&T and Verizon. 

Elsewhere in the interview Eriksson commented on the potential commercial deployment of HSPA technology supporting theoretical peak speeds of 84Mb/s and 168Mb/s, as well as likely timeframes for availability of LTE-Advanced technology.

 He warned that spectrum was the biggest hurdle to successful deployment of future superfast mobile services. Eriksson also urged operators to make the best use of technologies such as Wi-Fi and picocells, as well as the importance of maximising backhaul performance.

Sweden: Ericsson picks up Telenor services deal.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Ericsson signed a “major managed services contract” with Telenor Sweden, stating it will provide maintenance and implementation service for the operator’s fixed and mobile networks.

 Some 44 Telenor employees will transfer to Ericsson as a result of the deal.

LTE: US Clearwire to abandon Wi-Max in favour of LTE. Signs with Ericsson.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

US WiMAX player Clearwire has announced a managed services deal with Ericsson, lending further weight to the expectation that the carrier will soon abandon WiMAX technology in favour of LTE, now established as a global standard. Ericsson also has a managed services deal with Clearwire parent Sprint, another carrier widely believed to be about to switch technological horses to LTE.

The two carriers’ technology shift is all but an open secret in the industry, with only the timing up for debate.

Ericsson’s pedigree in managed services is well documented, but it has little experience of, or interest in WiMAX, having long since dismissed the technology as a viable contender in the evolution of the wireless industry. The deal will see Ericsson absorb some 700 Clearwire employees and assume responsibility for network engineering, and operations and maintenance for Clearwire’s core, transmission and access networks.

The deal will provide a welcome respite from some of Clearwire’s financial pressures, not least in terms of human resources. “We greatly appreciate the tireless contributions the talented people on our network services team have made in building Clearwire’s 4G network and laying the foundation for our success,” Clearwire COO Erik Prusch said in a statement, adding:  

“We are pleased they will have new opportunities within Ericsson to support our customers, and further position Clearwire as the leader in mobile broadband.”

As well as bolstering Ericsson’s already sizeable managed services customer base, the deal further entrenches the Swedish vendor in a market where, just five years ago, it was a bit player. “There has been a fundamental shift in the US market for Ericsson that proves our commitment to North America has actually paid off for the whole business,” Arun Bhikshesvaran, Ericsson’s VP for strategy and market development, North America, told Telecoms.com in a recent interview.

Sweden: Ericsson outlines growth plans.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Mobile equipment vendor Ericsson this week laid out its plans to grow annual net sales by 4-10 percent through 2013 and operating income by 5-15 percent in the same period.

 At a management briefing in New York yesterday, president and CEO Hans Vestberg (pictured) said the world’s largest mobile network infrastructure vendor will focus on a number of major areas: expanding its presence in large and fast-growing markets (eg the US, South Korea and Thailand), increasing its share of operators’ capital and operating expenditure, entering into partnerships and M&A activity, moving further into new growth areas such as machine-to-machine (and outside the core telecoms sector to utilities, health and transport) and “portfolio momentum in mobile broadband, managed services and BSS/OSS transformation.” 

Vestberg added that opportunities in the company’s traditional mobile network business (where it has a 32 percent market share) remain strong, with roughly 5 billion mobile broadband subscriptions expected by 2016, with roughly 55 percent of total mobile subscriptions being broadband.

Ericsson’s need to diversify comes as the Swedish network-equipment giant faces mounting competition from rivals that are merging, as well as from up-start Chinese vendors willing to sell their products at a lower price. At its Business Innovation Forum in California earlier this week the vendor talked of its vision of a Networked Society,’ with chief strategist Douglas Gilstrap claiming the company believes that “anything that should be connected will be connected.” 


The concept made headlines last year when Ericsson predicted that the number of connected devices will surge to 50 billion over the next 10 years, via the widespread use of embedded modules.

LTE: Korea: Ericsson to build LTE network for LG UPLUS.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Ericsson has signed a commercial contract with LG U+, a South Korean wireless service provider, to build a LTE commercial service network. The contract was signed via their local entity, LG-Ericsson.

With this deal, LG U+ will be able to support the existing CDMA and 4G LTE mobile service concurrently. Commercial service will start in July 2011.

Ericsson will be responsible for building LTE network in Seoul and metropolitan area with a population of 25M and will supply Evolved Packet Core network, LTE base stations and optical repeaters for access and transmission. The project will start in May this year and be completed in 2012.

At the initial stage, the service will be provided through a dongle that allows LTE network access. Once LTE-dedicated handsets are available, the LTE service is expected to prosper.

"Ericsson has successfully introduced the world's first LTE commercial service and accumulated unrivalled technology, experience and know-how. We are embarking a vital project for the future of LG U+. We will not only bolster our partnership with LG U+ but also contribute to the LTE development in Korea," said Mats H Olsson, Head of Region China and North East Asia.

In September 2010, LG U+ had a benchmarking test to select LTE equipment vendors and named Ericsson as supplier of Evolved Packet Core (EPC) and LTE radio base station (eNodeB).

Hungary: Magyar Telekom picks Ericsson for network upgrade

WorldWide  Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Hungarian operator Magyar Telekom picked Ericsson as sole partner for the modernisation of its radio access network, including preparations for an LTE rollout once licences have been allocated. Magyar is part of Deutsche Telekom group.

LTE: Canada: Rogers selected Ericsson to build LTE network.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

As part of this multi-year agreement, Ericsson expands its key supplier role with Rogers by delivering an end-to-end LTE network. Ericsson will deploy all 4G/LTE radio sites with its new multi-standard radio base station, RBS 6000, and upgrade and expand Rogers' existing packet core network into an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network, supporting the new LTE network.

"This deal reaffirms Ericsson's leadership in LTE and further extends our long-standing relationship with Rogers. Ericsson's LTE/EPC network will enable Rogers to deliver unique experiences for people and businesses thereby shaping the networked society," said Angel Ruiz, head of Ericsson North America.

"Ericsson has been a strategic, valued partner of ours for more than 25 years and we look forward to working with them to bring this next generation technology to Canadians," said Bob Berner, Executive Vice President Network and Chief Technology Officer of Rogers Communications Inc.

To date, Ericsson has signed commercial LTE contracts with six of seven of the top ranked operators by 2010 global revenue. In North America, the world's fastest growing LTE market, we now have four LTE contracts with leading operators in the region.

LTE, the next generation of mobile communication technology, enables the fast transfer of huge amounts of data in an efficient and cost-effective way, optimizing the use of the frequency spectrum. With increased speed and decreased latency, consumers can enjoy a wide range of applications (real-time web, online gaming, social media collaboration and video conferencing) effortlessly and while on the move. LTE will meet the demands of new and enhanced mobile internet applications of the future.

Ericsson has been driving open standards and has had the highest impact on the released LTE specifications. Ericsson expects to hold 25 percent of all essential patents for LTE, making it the largest patent holder in the industry.