Mobile Europe 2014 February March

E U R O P E S W l R E L E S S M A C A Z l N E
CTO OF THE YEAR
Mobile Europe’s inaugural award to
celebrate the CTO of a European mobile
operator who has delivered excellence
in wireless technology
Radisys Special Promotion, featuring CEO Brian Bronson ALSO INSIDE:
MWC 2014
> This year’s Mobile World
Congress features
Facebook co-founder
Mark Zuckerberg
M-PAYMENT TECH
> What should mobile
operators be looking
out for this year?
CONNECTED CARS
> The challenges behind this
emerging technology
P14
P30
P32
RADISYS: UNTANGLING
COMPLEX ARCHITECTURAL
AND DEPLOYMENT CHOICES
Issue no. 232 February/March 2014 www.mobileeurope.co.uk @mobileeurope
Contents
Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk | 3

REGULARS
EDITORIAL
Congress 2014, a first CTO of the Year, a new tablet edition
and a new editor
NEWS
Operators facing an “unavoidable” capacity crunch, Ofcom
plans for internet on planes, trains and boats, 4G LTE live in 97
countries with 1800MHz the favourite
WHAT’S NEW IN WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY
This issue looks at Ambient Backscatter, 3D Systems and
Motorola’s new plan for smartphones and the first ‘private’
smartphone
MWC PREVIEW
What’s on the agenda as the industry turns its attention to
Barcelona this month
FIVE MINUTES WITH...
EE’s Principal Network Architect, Network Strategy discusses
why V-Band is an increasingly attractive solution for operators
04
06
12
14
42
CTO OF THE YEAR
Mobile Europe’s inaugural award celebrates the best in
class, with the judging panel discussing what will give the
contenders the edge
19
19
FEATURES
M-PAYMENTS
After several years of false starts, will 2014 be the year that
m-payments finally take off?
CONNECTED CARS
Operators have high hopes for the connected car. Paul Quigley
explores the challenges and opportunities involved in this
emerging technology
30
32
February / March 2014
06
14
32
Editorial
Congress 2014, a first
CTO of the Year, a new
tablet edition and a
new editor
?? | Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk
It’s that time of year again. The telecoms world converges on Barcelona
for its annual shindig but in the run up there appears to be little that
will really get us up from our seats. Much could depend on what
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has to say and do while he’s there.
His appearance represents a coup for the GSMA and is timely given
Facebook’s 2013 financial results, announced in February, which
revealed that more than half of its advertising revenues came from
mobile devices in the last three months on the year.
The GSMA’s Chief Marketing Officer told Mobile Europe that while
people go to the CES show in Las Vegas to look at “cool things”, they
come to Congress to “do business”. We will wait and see.
What you don’t have to wait for is finding out who has won our
inaugural CTO of the Year award. We present the thoughts of the
judges and a long list of nominess in this issue. At the end of this list
you will find a QR code that leads you to the brand new tablet edition
of Mobile Europe, where the winner is revealed.
We are delighted with both these firsts. The award was eye opening
– as the interviews with the CTOs in this issue reveal, there really are
some innovative things being done by mobile operators in Europe. The
judging panel had some difficult decisions to make, but ultimately the
choice of winner was unanimous and the interview is certainly worth
watching.
Aside from the CTO of the Year, our new tablet edition features some
great video content. There is an interview with the head of the new 5G
public-private partnership (PPP) body; a Tech Test feature plus plenty of
visuals including the best bits from CES and some illuminating research
data.
This print issue also features a look into the world of connected cars,
wearable tech and V-Band radio systems
alongside our regular content.
The new stuff doesn’t end there.
We’re delighted to announce that
Graeme Neill has joined us as the new
editor of Mobile Europe. Graeme has
worked in the wireless tech press for
several years and will be an integral
part of our new team as we look to take
the brand from strength to strength
in print, online over our various digital
channels and in person.
The new team will be at Mobile
World Congress and we look forward to
meeting many of you out there.
Enjoy the issue.

Group Editor: Marc Smith
[email protected] | Direct tel: +44 (0)20 7933 8999
Editor: Graeme Neill
[email protected] | Direct tel: +44 (0)20 7933 8981
Staff Writer: Ghazanfar Hyder
[email protected] | Direct tel: +44 (0)20 7933 8999
Design and Production: Tania King
Account Manager: Ilyas Ismail
[email protected] | Direct tel: +44 (0) 20 7933 8979
Account Manager: Tim Robinson
[email protected] | Direct tel: +44 (0) 20 7933 8980
Publisher: Justyn Gidley
[email protected] | Direct tel: +44 (0) 20 7933 8925
Publishing Director: Chris Cooke
ISSN: 1350 7362
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News
6 | Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk
Smartphone customers are consuming more data
on a per-user basis than tablet users, according
to a new report, which is helping to push mobile
networks towards a spectrum crunch.
The fourth-annual study from network solutions
firm JDSU found that out of the top 10 most
data-intensive devices six were smartphones, three
were tablets and one was a phablet.
The research was conducted in collaboration
with operators in various developed and
developing markets.
It found that users of Apple’s iPhone 5 consume
more downlink data than any other smartphone
user, while the HTC Sensation XL generated the
most signaling traffic per user of any device.
The “extreme one percent” of all users consume
over half of the UMTS downlink data in both
developing and developed markets.
Meanwhile, 4G LTE users are 10-times “more
extreme” than those without the next gen service,
and just 0.1 percent of all users consume over half
of the LTE downlink data.
Dr Michael Flanagan, CTO of Mobility for
the Network and Service Enablement business
techniques to reduce traffic volumes and
management of subscriber usage patterns via new
pricing models.
Meanwhile regulators, such as Ofcom in the
UK, are looking at ways to boost the capacity
of mobile broadband by adding new spectrum
bands and refarming old ones.
Whatever happens, Flanagan said a spectrum
crunch will be inevitable.
“It’s unavoidable, the problem with spectrum
is that the reform at which it occurs is extremely
slow, it’s not keeping up with the rate at which
mobile demand continues to increase. We need
50 percent more spectrum year-on-year to address
the current data growth, which simply isn’t
possible,” he concluded.
The Arieso report chimes with an October 2013
Deloitte study that found in the seven years it
has taken to develop and deploy 4G LTE, wireless
traffic has increased 30-fold.
“Vendors simple cannot invent new
technologies fast enough to meet growing
demand,” it said in its Looming Spectrum
Shortage report.
segment of JDSU and author of the report, told
Mobile Europe that operators are heading towards
a spectrum crunch as a result.
“We are reaching boiling point – operators just
don’t have enough spectrum to cope up with this
massive increase,” he said.
Mobile infrastructure will overload “at some
point” and operators will face some “ugly”
choices, Flannigan believed.
He added: “[Operators] could say goodbye to
their heavy data users, which can be a good thing
because that would mean they go to a competitor
to crucify their network and a lot of your network
capacity becomes liberated. Or, operators might
look at these users as valuable customers, decide
to keep them and upgrade their infrastructure to
LTE and small cells.”
The CTO said that operators that deploy small
cells should do so in a “surgical and targeted” way
in areas where their heaviest users reside.
Mobile operators have several other ways in
which they can mitigate the risks of congestion,
such as offloading traffic onto the fixed networks
via Wi-Fi, using web and content optimisation
Operators face “ugly choices” as booming demand
means a forthcoming capacity crunch is “unavoidable”
News
Ofcom announces plan for satellite
internet on trains, planes and… boats
4G LTE live in 97
countries with
1800 MHz the
clear favourite,
claims report
Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk | 7
UK regulator Ofcom has given the go-ahead
for commercial vehicles to mount satellite
“earth station” antennas that can provide users
with internet speeds of up to 10Mbps.
Ofcom said it has set aside 4,128 MHz worth
of spectrum specifically for vehicle-mounted
earth stations, giving airline, train and ferry
operators the chance to deliver speeds up to
10 times faster than before.
Advances in earth station antenna technology
have made it easier to provide fast data speeds,
even when mounted on fast moving vehicles,
the regulator said in a statement.
While aircraft and ships will have to acquire
a spectrum licence to deliver the new service,
land-based earth stations will not, although
they will have to be licensed by Ofcom.
The regulator said it expects to be ready to
receive applications for licensing earth stations
from ship operators as early as next month. It is
working with the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority
to make licensing for aircrafts available around
the same time.
The first commercial deployments of the
technology are expected next year.
Ofcom said satellite earth station antennas
enable vehicle operators to track satellites more
closely and make it easier to maintain speedier
and more reliable connections while in the air
or on the water.
There are now 263 4G LTE networks that
have commercially launched in 97 countries,
according to a new report.
The Global Mobile Suppliers Association
(GSA) said 112 such networks were launched
in 2013, while three have launched so far
in 2014. In total, over 500 operators are
investing in 4G LTE networks in 144 countries.
The report also highlights the increasing
popularity of 1800 MHz, which is the most
widely used band. It is present in 44 percent
of commercially launched 4G LTE networks.
Meanwhile, 115 operators have now
launched LTE1800 (band 3) systems in 61
countries, either as a single band system,
or as part of a multi-band deployment. This
is 37 percent higher than six months ago,
according to the industry body.
“Key trends this year include more
deployments of carrier aggregation and
other LTE-Advanced features, growth in voice
services enabled by VoLTE, and a significant
expansion of international LTE roaming
services,” GSA President Alan Hadden said in
a statement.
Telefónica Germany activated its LTE-A
network with carrier aggregation in
November, while Ericsson and Angolan
operator Unitel announced the first
commercial trial of LTE-Advanced (LTE-A)
carrier aggregation (CA) technology in Africa
last month.
Meanwhile, Voice over LTE (VOLTE) is
expected to gain ground this year, and the
GSA noted that there are now an estimated
30 models of phones on the market that are
VoLTE-compatible.
The report also shows that interest in
TD-LTE technology is increasing– the GSA’s
research shows that for the first time, more
than 10 percent of commercial LTE networks
incorporate the TDD mode. Of the 28
TD-LTE networks that have been launched
worldwide, 13 use both TDD and FDD
modes.
Fotis Karonis, Chief Technology Officer at
EE, said that the service would make a big
difference to commuting business workers and
people going away on holiday.
“Being connected is such an important
part of travelling now and this will be another
route we’ve covered with 4G, making a huge
difference to millions of customers who can
now make the most of their journey time,” he
said.
Operators have used air-to-ground 3G
stations or other satellite-based platforms to
provide internet to customers.
EE and Vodafone, for example, signed a
10-year deal to offer mobile services in the
Channel Tunnel in January.
The new deal will allow subscribers to access
voice and 3G services in the tunnel running
from the UK to France in March this year, with
4G LTE services to follow in the summer.
Train operator Eurotunnel announced in
March 2012 that it had signed a deal with the
French Ministry for the Economy, Finance and
Industry, and Bouygues Telecom, Orange, SFR
and Free, that saw the tunnel running from
France to the UK get installed with 2G and 3G
services.
Eurotunnel carries 20 million passengers
every year, about four in five of them travelling
from Britain.
Sponsored Interview
Radisys: Untangling M NO s’
complex architectural and
deployment choices
8 | Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk
he GSMA forecasts that there will be about 500
4G LTE networks in service by the end of 2017,
roughly double the number of live LTE networks
today. These new networks will make for an estimated one
billion 4G LTE subscribers around the world, all looking to
benefit from the technology’s ability to deliver high speed
broadband on the move.
There is already plenty of evidence that 4G LTE is
changing the way people use their phones. Operators are
seeing more streaming, more video and more data usage
than ever as consumer habits shift. What have previously
been fixed line broadband activities like shopping or
watching movies, for example, are moving inexorably to
the mobile space.
It’s a shift that is leaving mobile operators struggling to
resolve how they control their data costs and maximise
their revenues while being under huge pressure to
control capital expenditure and deliver a speedy return
on investment. Meanwhile, spectrum is a limited resource
and operators need to face up to the competition of
the many OTT services on the market. Set against
the context of these and the other operational and
technology issues that they are grappling with, operators
face a number of complex architectural and deployment
choices for their 4G LTE networks.
How, for example, should they introduce voice
services onto 4G LTE and minimise costs by running an
integrated voice and data network? As consumers move
between 2G, 3G and 4G LTE networks, operators also
need to be clever about how they improve the efficiency
and volume of information that can be pushed over the
radio interface. Then, they need to consider how the
network can manage the seemingly endless consumer
appetite for video services.
Clearly, mobile operators have some complex choices
to make. With expertise, products and intellectual
property in key domains such as, media processing, small
cells, SDN/NFV and telecom load balancing that are
critical to optimising and monetising mobile broadband,
Radisys is well placed to provide a view on many of the
options operators have their disposal.
SDN and NFV
Software defined networking (SDN) and network
functions virtualisation (NFV) are becoming coupled as
network transformation begins and operators look to
leverage their existing architecture to save costs and
improve performance. Put simply, in decoupling the
control plane and the data (or traffic) plane, SDN enables
operators to manage their network hardware remotely
and centrally so that they no longer need to make a
node by node adjustment when they set up a service.
With this infrastructure in place operators can deliver
services in a fraction of the time as compared to existing
architectures. And that leads to an improved OPEX
model because fewer engineers are required to deploy
a new service. However, before moving towards these
new architectures (SDN/NFV) it is important to take into
consideration the nature of the applications.
Grant Henderson, VP of marketing and product
management at Radisys, explains: “Telco applications
have their own unique sensitivities, latency and
bandwidth being two, that must influence any platform
decision.”
And the platform decision is only the starting point.
The dynamic nature of a wireless networks, with its
large number of subscribers and applications, coupled
together with end users that are always on the move is
complex in and of itself. However, when this is overlaid
on to a virtualized network the complexity only increases.
Therein lays the importance of load balancing in an NFV
architecture. In order to keep track of subscribers and
what they are doing to ensure the appropriate services
are delivered is important. But when that same dynamic
must then deal with infrastructure that is operating in
an elastic mode (i.e. VMs being created and deleted),
load balancing becomes all the more important. Load
balancing has historically been used to distribute traffic
across physical network elements but those same
principles are applicable in a virtualized environment.
Voice over LTE and media processing
While 4G LTE has clear momentum as a data service,
mobile operators are being slow to deploy VoLTE and
are, for the most part, continuing to deliver their still
commercially significant voice services over 2G and 3G
architecture. But it makes operational sense for operators
to bring their voice services on to the same network in
order to reduce infrastructure costs and give themselves
the capability to refarm precious spectrum from their
2G and 3G networks. This means that operators should
be motivated to invest in their IMS. When operators
add voice capabilities to their 4G LTE networks, they’re
not just installing VoLTE technology to their IMS
T
Grant Henderson, VP of
marketing and product
management at Radisys
Sponsored Interview
Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk | 9
infrastructure, but enabling themselves to add services
that can fundamentally change how their customers
communicate – services which take full advantage of the
technology available in customer handsets and open up
a world of video-based applications such as video mail,
video calling, multi-party video.
Media processing for these applications is complex,
and something that operators can’t afford to get wrong,
as Henderson, explains: “The introduction of visual
communications increases the need for media processing
in the mobile network. This is specialised processing, the
manipulation of voice and video for these services is done
not at the signalling plane but at the voice bearer or
video media plane.”
As they roll out VoLTE and other services operators
might think they need to continue to deploy media
processing platforms for each specific service just as they
have always done, says Henderson. In the past operators
would deploy a voicemail system with signalling and
voice media processing for the voicemail service, or a
voice conferencing service would deploy specialised
media processing for the voice conferencing part of the
media plane.
Not surprisingly, the costs associated with such
an approach can be high. But there is an alternative.
Mobile operators can instead deploy a common reusable
platform that serves all their media processing . Radisys
has developed an open platform to handle the media
processing for all applications, and mobile operators can
layer their applications over it. Adds Henderson: “There
are many benefits to this approach. For example, capex is
reduced, and using a common reusable media processing
platform means fewer devices are needed in the network
to support applications and services. It also reduces opex
and reduces the amount of training for operations staff.
Most importantly new service development and time to
market are increased once this infrastructure is in place
because the operator already has the majority of its
service infrastructure set up and can just layer software
over it to deliver services.”
Small cells
The volume of wireless data will exceed that of wired
data by 2015, according to the Small Cell Forum. This is
an enormous data capacity for mobile operators to deal
with, and they still have to meet their customers’ quality
of service expectations and their own requirements for
cost-effective service delivery. The issue can be addressed
by small cell deployment – in fact Infonetics Research
forecasts that the global small cell market will grow
from a very small base now to $2.7 billion by 2017, and
4G LTE small cell shipments were anticipated to have
overtaken 3G shipments by the end of 2013. South
Korea’s SK Telecom has deployed close to 40,000 small
cells and is the leading adopter of 4G LTE public access
femtocells to date.
As 4G LTE is rolled out almost every operator has
a plan for how they want to use small cells in their
network. But there is wide variation, according to
Todd Mersch, General Manager, Software & Solutions
at Radisys, in the scale of deployment and the way
the operator uses small cell technology. Operators are
using them to plug coverage gaps, to take advantage
of increased aggregate throughput and deliver a better
quality experience, as both indoor and outdoor products.
Radisys foresees some aspects of small cell deployment
becoming especially important, in particular when small
cells are able to make use of some of the features of LTE-
Advanced like Carrier Aggregation. Says Mersch: “We see
lot of traction for carrier aggregation, as it allows more
efficient reuse and utilization of available spectrum. It’s a
practical requirement, the handsets are becoming available,
and we’re seeing a lot of operator interest in this.”
Radisys has already proved its leadership in this area
and last year teamed up with small cell base station
vendor Airspan to demonstrate the first commercial LTE-
Advanced platform, a mini-base station which is an all-
in-one compact outdoor picocell supporting key features
from the LTE-A menu. Says Mersch: “Operators need to
use spectrum as efficiently as they can and also provide
really good LTE service in a cost effective way. These
products are much cheaper than deploying macro sites.”
Smart devices require smart wireless
infrastructure
Over a billion smartphones were sold globally in 2013
and the number of smartphones in service is forecast to
continue to grow, but smart devices can only be smart
if the underlying wireless infrastructure they rely on is
robust and extensive enough to support its applications.
If they’re not already doing so, mobile operators need to
start making decisions about the choices open to them as
they upgrade and extend their wireless infrastructure to
accommodate this relentless growth. Improving wireless
infrastructure lies at the heart of everything that Radisys
does. As Mersch says: “Everything we do as a company
is focused on either the ability of mobile operators to
either to deliver service more cost effectively or help drive
revenue up.”
www.radisys.com
Communication
applications have
their own unique
sensitivities, latency
and bandwidth
being two, that
must influence any
platform decision
Radisys’ market-leading
MRF (Media Resource
Function) and T-Series
Virtualized Platforms
coupled with Trillium
software, services
and market expertise
enable customers to
bring their products to
market faster with lower
investment and risk.
Sponsored Interview
K eeping it fresh: The importance
of maintaining mobile networks for
21st century demand
Phil Sorsky, VP of Wireless Sales - Europe, CommScope
10 | Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk
unger for mobile data is growing exponentially
and will only continue as smartphones become
more accessible. Increasingly tech savvy mobile
subscribers won’t tolerate network downtime or slow
internet speeds, particularly as they become introduced to
lightning fast 4G in line with rollouts in global markets.
Operators must make network planning, optimisation
and management a priority to ensure long term, high-level
performance in a scalable environment. There are several
technologies and physical cell site developments that can
assist in this regard, ensuring subscriber retention.
Changing history
Historically, each generation of mobile networks has
been assigned a new frequency band and wider spectral
bandwidth per frequency channel. As 4G becomes
more popular there is little room for new frequency
bands or larger channel bandwidths. Because of this
spectrum scarcity, spectrum agility will play a major role
in future network evolution. In this scenario, networks
can intelligently adapt to take advantage of free or lightly
used spectrum. This is often labelled a “Self Optimising
Network” (SON) which allows network hardware to
actively switch transmission frequencies to the least
crowded spectrum available. This allows operators to
ensure that subscribers receive the fastest speeds, even in
crowded urban environments.
MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output) will be a crucial
tool in increasing spectral efficiency for cell sites in LTE
networks. MIMO improves capacity and general network
performance by using multiple antennas at cell sites and
the user’s handset. One dual-polar array is commonly used
as a base station antenna to provide two-way transmit
and receive signals. Operators are examining the benefits
of adding a second dual-polar array to enable four-way or
even eight-way transmit and receive.
MIMO offers significant increases in data
throughput and link range without additional
bandwidth or increased transmission power.
Two different streams of information are
transmitted over the same radio channel
using two separate antennas, or two different
polarisations of the same antenna, to achieve
an array gain that improves the spectral
efficiency. The same technique can improve link reliability
by transmitting the same stream of information through
two antennas, creating a diversity path to combat fading or
other types of interference.
Radio to the rescue
First generation network architecture kept base station
equipment in shelters, where they could be held in
a protected environment. One major technology
enhancement has been the development of Remote Radio
Unit (RRU) technology. This allows the radio to be separate
from the base band and provides significant flexibility in
deployment. The RRU can be mounted in a number of
ways; however mounting close to the actual base station
antenna reduces some losses in the system and can
potentially improve signal strength. The trade off here is
that the antenna is always the highest point of the site, so
a closely mounted RRU inherently creates some new risks
given the harsh environment and increased expense of site
installation, maintenance and repair at the tower top level.
One trend in the industry is the integration of
the RRU and base station antenna into one physical
implementation. This proximity reduces loss, yielding
greater efficiency as well as power, space and wind
load savings. Despite the potential gains of deploying
more flexible, integrated solutions, their maintenance
requirements are more complex than traditional mobile
towers, resulting in longer network downtime in the event
of a hardware failure. In the event of radio breakdown for
example the composition of a traditional tower allows an
operator to simply remove and repair the radio, leaving
the antenna untouched. If the same issue occurs in an
integrated antenna however the operator must decouple
the whole assembly from the tower to repair it. Recognising
the time and monetary effects such obstacles create for
operators, new antenna and radio combinations have
been developed. Such solutions bring the advantages of
mounting the radio close to the antenna but still allow for
quick and easy installation and maintenance access.
One thing we can be certain of is that the future holds
more complexity for mobile networks and more crowded
airspace, meaning that robust, expertly engineered
infrastructure will be crucial to the success of the next “G”
and the ongoing data boom.
H
Operators
must make
network planning,
optimisation and
management a
priority to ensure
long term, high-
level performance
in a scalable
environment
A number of revolutionary
technologies are playing
an integral role in effective
network evolution
News
What’s new in wireless technology?
12 | Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk
This issue’s round-up features ambient RF signals, Weightless tech, 3D printing and a
secure smartphone
Ambient Backscatter
Engineers at Washington University have created a new wireless communication
system that allows devices to interact with each other by reflecting or absorbing
pre-existing radio signals from TV and cellular transmissions.
By leveraging ambient RF signals Ambient Backscatter avoids the need for a
dedicated power infrastructure and the process of generating radio waves; it is also
“orders of magnitude” more power-efficient than traditional radio communication
and eliminates the need for wires and batteries.
To demonstrate the technology, the researchers built devices that achieved
information rates of 1 kbps over distances of 2.5 feet and 1.5 feet. They said the
technology could enable smart homes, smart cities and an Internet of Things.
Neul
Neul has unveiled a new M2M network solution, based on the Weightless standard,
that is designed to make use of white space spectrum. NeulNET provides two-way,
managed communication with QoS for M2M devices and is designed to operate in
both licensed and unlicensed spectrum.
It works across a variety of frequencies from global unlicensed metering bands (169
MHz or lower) up to and including sub-GHz cellular bands. NeulNET is offered to
network operators on a “per device, per month” basis, using terminal modules that
can operate for 10-15 years using two standard AA batteries.
The solution uses a NeulNET Connected Device Platform (CDP) – a cloud-based
platform for device and service-level management, authentication and billing. Also
included is the NN2510 base station, ready for up-to-5km transmission and NT1001
terminal modules that are based on Neul’s Iceni radio chip.
3D Systems & Motorola
Motorola has teamed up with 3D Systems to produce a high-speed 3D printing
platform capable of producing a smartphone. To enable this, 3D Systems is
expanding its multi-material printing capabilities and will combine additive and
subtractive manufacturing methods.
Motorola’s Project Ara is a line of modular smartphones made up of
Phonebloks that swap out components like Lego bricks. Rather than throwing
out a smartphone when a must-have feature comes out on a new model, such
as an upgraded camera, customers can substitute a Phoneblok.
>>
<<
>>
News
Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk | 13
Are you involved in or have you come across any innovative wireless technology recently?
Email [email protected]
Intel Edison
Intel has unveiled a new computer chip called Edison – a 400MHz
computer board that fits into an SD card. The Edison chip supports Linux
and includes a dual-core CPU, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE and an integrated app
store.
The chip will be available in “the middle of 2014”, and will allow
creators of hardware products to enhance the functionality of existing or
new systems by incorporating Edison’s processing power.
Sunpartner Technologies
Sunpartner Technologies has unveiled world’s first smartphone equipped with a chip that
can receive and transmit data by light while generating its own electricity. The chip, dubbed
Wysips Connect, is an ultra-thin, transparent photovoltaic component inserted between the
screen and tactile base of the phone. The photovoltaic cell acts as a light receiver.
Wysips Connect transforms light into electricity and decodes it to transmit the signal and
the information it contains without using the device’s battery. In this sense, the solution is
energy self-sufficient.
Compatible with any type of electronic device equipped with a screen up to 13.3 inches,
Wysips Connect can produce between 2.5 mW/cm2 and 5 mW/cm2 in sunlight, depending
on the type of device and the required rate of transparency.
Blackphone
Silent Circle and Geeksphone have developed Blackphone, which claims to
be world’s first smartphone that “prioritises the user’s privacy and control”.
The device runs a customised version of Android called PrivatOS that
enables secure communications and storage as well as anonymous web
browsing through a VPN.
The phone’s security works through the TCP/IP using an operator’s data
infrastructure instead of voice to communicate. Conversations between
compatible devices are secured by cryptographic key exchanges that
prevent even Silent Circle and Geeksphone staff from breaking into the
system.
>>
<<
>>
MWC Preview
All eyes on Zuckerberg as
Congress rolls into town
Mobile World Congress 2014 features a keynote from the co-founder of Facebook as telcos look
out beyond core wireless players writes Marc Smith.
14 | Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk
acebook co-founder, chairman and CEO
Mark Zuckerberg is the star turn at Mobile
World Congress 2014 in Barcelona as the
social networking company makes its second keynote
appearance in three years.
According to a statement from the organisers,
Zuckerberg will “explore the importance of extending
the benefits of ubiquitous Internet access to the
unconnected world”.
The GSMA’s Chief Marketing Officer Michael O’Hara
told Mobile Europe that he expects Zuckerberg to
provide “some interesting comments around Facebook’s
mobile plans and new venture Internet.org”.
Talk of Facebook making a serious splash in the mobile
space has been touted for years, but as yet it has not
moved concretely beyond its core social media offering.
In January, for example, it announced plans to run “a
small test” to show Facebook ads in mobile apps.
But it is creeping ever further into the mobile space
occupied by the telecoms world. Alongside well-
established messaging capabilities, last year Facebook
launched a Home screen for Android devices and enabled
iOS users to make in-app voice calls to other Facebook
Messenger users.
With Facebook now a public company and investors
fretting about whether it is monetising its mobile
presence sufficiently, the company’s place in the mobile
industry is only going to become more entrenched.
“People come to Congress to do business and
[Zuckerberg’s presence] is a reflection of his desire to
work with mobile operators,” according to O’Hara.
“We’re really pleased to have him.
Whether or not there is a major mobile-related
announcement from the US-based company, Zuckerberg
is sure to spend some of his time expounding the virtues
of Internet.org.
This six-month old initiative, which includes European
telcos Ericsson and Nokia as co-founders, promises to
develop joint projects, share knowledge, and mobilise
industry and governments to make internet access
available to the more than five billion people currently
without it.
Facebook is joined by company’s including bitcoin,
Citigroup, Ford, Shazam and Viacom as O’Hara said the
show continues to give space to the “ecosystem players”
with which mobile operators are increasingly working
with.
Subjects such as m-commerce, connected living
– what O’Hara called “the battle of the living room” –
cloud and mobile identity will be to the fore. Meanwhile,
the Connected City returns – although it’s the same size
as last year – to showcase all things M2M.
“There will be lots of 4G LTE discussion, some 5G
discussion and plenty of device announcements,” adds
O’Hara.
There is also a return to former venue the Fira where
some satellite events, such as a Mobile media summit,
mobile health initiatives and a developer event, are being
hosted.
F
Five must-see things at this year’s
Congress
Keynote: Mark Zuckerberg, Co-Founder,
Chairman and CEO of Facebook
Monday 24 February at 18:00-18:45.
Mobile Cloud Pavilion
Monday to Thursday 24-27 February,
in Hall 8.1 App Planet
Mobile Security Forum
12.15-16.45 on Monday
24 February,
in Hall 8.0
What’s NEXT Pavilion showcases up-and
coming start-ups
Monday to Thursday 24-27 February, in Hall 8.0
WIPJam DevCon & Hackathon
Monday to Thursday, 24-27 February
at Fira Montjuïc
People who
come to MWC
to do business
and Zuckerberg’s
presence is a
reflection of his
desire to work with
mobile operators
MWC Preview
LTE-A, NFV, SDN and VoLTE
predicted to create Congress buzz
Mobile Europe spoke to industry analysts to find out what will be big at this year’s event and
which companies and products will be creating disruption
Gartner analyst
Annette Zimmermann
Infonetics Research’s
Stéphane Téral
Informa analyst
Dimitris Mavrakis
Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk | 15
Which mobile technology do you think will
create the biggest buzz at MWC this year and
why?
Gartner analyst Annette Zimmermann: Last
year the biggest buzz was around emerging operating
systems like Sailfish OS, Firefox OS and Tizen. This year
we will see that story continue and maybe Samsung
will demonstrate their first Tizen-based devices. We may
also see some advances in flexible display devices. Many
vendors will release new devices so we expect those to
make the headlines as usual.
Infonetics Research’s Stéphane Téral: VoLTE and
LTE-Advanced. SK telecom may try to steal the show
by making a big announcement on its more than seven
million VoLTE subscribers. I’m expecting many other
VoLTE announcements too because 2014 is shaping up
as a VoLTE “kick-off” year. As for LTE-A, again I expect
SK telecom and other Korean operators to brag about
it. Japan’s NTT DoCoMo, EE from the UK and Telstra
from Australia may also have announcements.
Informa analyst Dimitris Mavrakis: The biggest
buzz will be SDN and NFV as infrastructure vendors
attempt to become ICT providers. Vendors that provide
a clear path to tangible benefits apart from cost savings
are likely to generate the most buzz, especially ones that
illustrate new service opportunities, service exposure
and shorter time to market for new services.

Aside from the above, what (new) mobile
technology would you recommend our readers
paying the most attention to at MWC and why?
Mavrakis: LTE-Advanced and initial discussions
for 5G concepts are expected to appear. Also, the
application of LTE for specific vertical markets is
expected to be a major topic of discussion as vendors
and operators realise that verticals may be the next
wave of monetisation for their relatively new networks.
Bluetooth is expected to drive innovation for the
Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile commerce while
products or services for deploying and operating
small-cell networks (or hetnets) are expected to attract
operator interest.
Téral: The European Commission, led by Neelie Kroes
might take the opportunity to introduce the European
5G project officially launched last December. NTT
DoCoMo may also make some noise about it along with
vendors Huawei and Samsung.
Zimmermann: Although everyone talks about the
Internet of Things and wearable devices, MWC focuses
on how the mobile device is the hub of this growing
ecosystem of new breeds of devices and how apps and
services bring this ecosystem to life.
So attention should be paid to the enhancements
made to the software, for example new APIs that enable
the phone to interact with appliances in the connected
home.

Which company do you think will be the most
disruptive in the wireless tech field in 2014 and
why?
Mavrakis: All infrastructure vendors are attempting
to transform their business, in parallel with operators.
For the time being, no company has emerged with
products or services that are positioned as disruptive
in the mobile industry, but MWC may be the ground
for new innovation in the technology and business
domains.
Zimmermann: There could be many different
disruptive forces – a vendor disrupting the market by
establishing a new business model or a paradigm shift
changing the way we use technology. The four giants
we are watching in 2014 are Apple, Google, Samsung
and Intel. The market for Intel has been changing
dramatically and so they will have to move forward with
innovations around IoT etc. We could see Apple take
new steps towards wearables
.
Sponsored Feature
Tektronix Communications:
M NO s claim back lost ground
with 4G analytics
16 | Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk
rmed with the right solutions and informed
by actionable intelligence, operators can
leverage their LTE investments and offer
new services aligned to the lifestyle preferences of
their customers, says Lyn Cantor, President and CEO of
Tektronix Communications, the Telecoms Intelligence
Provider.
Operators are often seen by subscribers as little more than
the means of accessing OTT services such as Skype, Viber
and WhatsApp. Voice and SMS communications have
taken a back seat, but the migration to 4G has created
an environment where value added services can flourish.
Operators are now in a position to both partner with
OTT players and launch their own premium VoIP, IM and
video-calling services, delivering the same experience
as their third-party counterparts but with enhanced
functionality and improved performance.
Carriers are in a unique position to capitalise on their
Big Data opportunities and deliver tailored application
and valued-added services to individual customers,
based on their needs and behaviour. Put simply, with
geolocation and multiple other real-time data points,
few organizations know as much about their customers’
behaviour than a mobile operator. And, because
operators have a contractual duty of care over data
security, they can alleviate subscriber concerns about
anonymous third party providers – such as the OTT
players with whom subscribers do not have a contractual
relationship – accessing their data directly. Carriers are
better positioned than OTT players, because a level of
trust has already been established, and the existence
of a contractual relationship offers subscribers a greater
degree of protection.
Enhanced Quality of Service
While access to OTT services is free, initially at least,
with the user only required to register, QoS over
wireless networks is subject to available bandwidth
and the proximity of the user to a strong cellular or
Wi-Fi connection. As the operators migrate to an all-IP
infrastructure to support 3G and 4G (LTE), their networks
have become smarter and they are now harvesting a
world of detail about user behaviours and journeys.
The data operators have access to has become an asset
of unprecedented value and once the subscriber journey is
understood, a limitless number of commercially attractive
avenues open up. Mobile operators can take the many
lessons learned from OTT operators, emulate them, build
upon them and welcome their subscribers back on board
with an altogether more enticing service proposition.
Telecoms in 4D
The growth of mobile data has expanded the mobile
network significantly. There are now four dimensions
to be considered: subscriber’s behaviour, the services
and applications they consume, the network itself,
and the technologies they use. It’s no longer a case
of understanding a single aspect of the network. It’s
necessary to get to grips with the entire network
environment and broader mobile eco-system, and join
the dots between them. Tektronix Communications
is now engaging with its customers to leverage
the unprecedented volumes of data created by the
move to 4G. We are now in the process of helping
operators make meaningful use of the data crossing
their networks, as well as helping them understand
the complete network environment and what goes
on within it, spanning legacy and new generation
technologies. Through real-time data collection and
analysis, we can offer operators actionable insights
to deliver the experience and service their customers
demand at every point in their journey.
Finally, the data inside a carrier’s various functional
areas also has the potential to become the glue that will
ultimately bind them together and make silos a thing of
the past. Sharing data between departments provides
a more holistic and truer picture of what is actually
going on in the network and in consumer behaviour.
Those carriers that harness this capability and benefit
will ultimately reap the rewards in terms of competitive
benefit and cost efficiencies.
The correct and actionable use of Big Data provides
many of the keys to the successful future and evolution
of mobile service providers. Tektronix Communications is
working with global carriers to help them extract value from
their networks, as a key part of their growth strategy.
www.tekcomms.com
A
Operators are
now harvesting a
world of detail about
user behaviours and
journeys
CTO
OF THE
YEAR
Introducing
Mobile Europe’s
inaugural award
for the wireless
industry
CTO of the Year
Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk | 21
Marc Smith on the thinking
behind the new award
Mobile Europe is delighted to launch this new
award for the mobile industry. While there are
many awards out there, we felt there was not
one that recognised the incredibly important
role that the CTOs of mobile operators –
Mobile Europe’s key audience – play today.
With this in mind, we brought together an
independent panel of judges and asked our
readership to vote on who they think deserves
the title in its inaugural year. A “long list” is
brought together in this issue, with a shortlist
of five and the winner revealed in the brand
new tablet edition of Mobile Europe. We look
forward to this award becoming a mainstay of
the industry moving forward.
Bengt Nordström and Caroline
Gabriel on the current
environment CTOs of European
operators are working in
Mobile Europe’s CTO of the Year award is
a worthwhile recognition of the increasing
importance that CTOs are playing in the
mobile industry.
In a market with intensified competition
between mobile operators, the importance
of a high quality network is increasing.
Traditionally, a high quality network has
meant focusing on coverage and capacity for
voice and text based services; however, the
arrival of next generation mobile broadband
and IP-based services has meant that the
complexity of building and operating
networks has increased tremendously.
Further, the CTOs of European mobile
operators have to deliver high-quality network
services amid very strict budgetary constrains,
both from an operational and capital
expenditure perspective. The economic
downturn of the past few years has squeezed
operators’ budgets at a time when users’
expectations are rising, calling for inventive
technology approaches to fill the gaps. Even
without the pressures of recession, CTOs are
having to keep abreast of rapidly changing
technologies, and increasingly they are
charged with ensuring that these contribute
to the bottom line, either by enabling
new services or making the operator more
competitive against over-the-top rivals.
In addition, the CTO’s role has broadened
in recent years. From being fairly sharply
focused on the planning and deploying
the best network, a CTO now often takes
significant business responsibilities and, as IT
and telecoms converge, is also taking on data
centre platforms and teams.
Glen Ragoonanan on the criteria
the judges were looking for
The once technical role of the CTO is
changing as the communications landscape
continues to evolve and connect digital users
anywhere, anytime and on any device. As
such, the Mobile Europe CTO of the year
needed to stand out in three broad areas:
business, commercial and innovation. This led
to the following refined list of criteria we used
in our selection process:
• Execution skills on technology plans
• Business plans, such as cost savings to
increase margin, successfully delivered
• Commercial objectives, particularly
increased subscribers and reduced churn,
met through the delivery of high quality of
service and/or launching new services
• Implementation of innovative solutions to
enhance network, service and/or customer
management
• Industry leadership.
Introducing Mobile Europe’s
new industry award
The judges introduce this inaugural award and outline the context and the criteria
behind their decision-making
THE JUDGING PANEL
Caroline Gabriel,
Research Director at
Maravedis Rethink
Bengt Nordström,
CEO of telecoms
industry
consultants
Northstream
Glen Ragoonanan,
Principal Analyst
at Analysys Mason
Marc Smith,
Group Editor of
Mobile Europe
and European
Communications
CTO of the Year
Mobile Europe spoke to some of Europe’s most influential CTOs under consideration for the
award to get their views on their achievements and innovation in the current market.
22 | Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk
Belgacom PROXIMUS’
Geert Standaert
In 2013, PROXIMUS was faced with high competition
in the Belgian market due to a price war initiated by a new
MVNO and new regulation that allowed customers to stop
their existing subscription with their mobile provider at any
given moment.
To counter the situation, PROXIMUS opted for a strategy
to strongly differentiate itself in the market through
substantial investment in network quality. To achieve this,
there was a major upgrade of the PROXIMUS network to
3G+ that saw average speeds increase by 60 percent and the
roll-out of 4G LTE (coverage reached nearly 50 percent by
the end of 2013).
A new dimension in customer experience was introduced
through the concept of ‘Very Annoyed Persons’ (VAP),
identifying customers with a suboptimal individual
experience allowing fine-tuning of our mobile network to
assure the best quality possible for each and every customer
where possible.
Thanks to the deployment of these technical innovations,
churn levels were brought back to the levels of before the
market disruption, positively turning around the impact to
again growth.
The biggest challenge for 2014 will be to cope with
the expected strong mobile data growth and the high
investment that will be required to achieve this. We will be
looking at inducing smart off-load mechanisms via Wi-Fi. To
assure this is transparent for our customers and to maximise
customer experience, the concept of seamlessness will be
introduced. This will allow the seamless hand-over on a
mobile device from 3G/4G to Wi-Fi and vice versa and will
reduce our need to extend capacity on our mobile network,
by making use of our fixed network where possible.
We recently acquired a license for 800 Mhz spectrum,
which allows for a nationwide roll-out of the 4G LTE with
deep-coverage extension into rural areas. This year we will
start with the technical preparation, pilots and will start-
up the permit-process to gradually introduce the 800Mhz
spectrum into the network.
At a given moment in the next few years 4G LTE mobile
data usage will surpass 3G, making it a particular challenge
to predict at what point 3G mobile data usage will stop
growing to avoid over-investment in 3G capacity but making
sure we have invested sufficiently in our 4G LTE deployment.
“
”
CTO of the Year
Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk | 23
In 2013 we rolled out a high-quality 4G
LTE network covering more than 60 percent
of the population in France. We were able to
do it so fast by re-using existing 2G 1800MHz
frequencies. By far, 4G LTE provides us with
the biggest opportunity this year because of its
performance and coverage. But it also presents
us with our biggest challenge as we will need
to keep up the quality of service, as traffic will
continue to grow exponentially.
In the last 12 months, the incredibly fast rollout of 4G LTE
has continued and we covered 70 percent of the population with
two million customers signed up. We continue to innovate with
our spectrum allocation and now offer 4G LTE over a 2 x 20MHz
network that offers world-beating average speeds. Not only that,
we had a world first in December when we switched on a carrier
aggregation network capable of delivering 300Mbps – this was the
first time we’d used any of the 2.6GHz spectrum that we acquired
in the UK spectrum auction, and a huge stride forward for both EE
and the UK. That network will be commercially live this year.
Our main challenge is one shared by all operators in the UK –
the uncertainty around the proposed increases to the spectrum
Annual Licence Fees. At a technology level, our teams face the
challenges of upgrading our 2G equipment, increasing the
capacity of our 3G sites, and deploying more 4G LTE sites across
the UK, as well as growing the footprint of the carrier aggregation,
LTE-Advanced network to cover all of London this year.
Bouygues Telecom’s
Yves Legrand
EE’s
Fotis Karonis
“
“
”
”
CTO of the Year
24 | Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk
Over the last 12 months we have
made rapid progress with the LTE rollout;
we have been able to cover 85 percent of
the population, while our customers enjoy
an average download speed in excess of 20
Mbps today. We were the first provider in
Europe to complete the rollout of LTE 800 to
the 900 GSM antennas and the first European
provider to successfully launch LTE roaming.
Additionally, we have launched a single app
for all communication needs. iO, which is
free, allows users to make calls with their
own phone number directly from the app – a
feature that distinguishes iO from other free
services.
Looking ahead, LTE Advanced (carrier
aggregation) will provide us with the biggest
opportunity by providing more capacity and a
maximum speed of up to 300 Mbps. This year,
the biggest challenges will be dealing with
the growing volume of data, increasing the
density of the LTE network and developing an
intelligent way of managing data traffic.
I started work at Telekom Austria in September
2013 after arriving from Optus in Australia. During
my short time here we have secured an excellent
spectrum allocation for the next 20 years. In 2014 I
think the biggest wireless technology opportunity is
lowband 800 LTE, due to its excellent propagation
attributes. With this technology we will have the
exciting opportunity to reach every second Austrian
with 4G LTE. Our biggest challenge will be surfing
the upcoming LTE data wave, as this is something
being demanded by our customers.
Swisscom’s
Heinz Herren
Telekom Austria’s
Günther Ottendorfer
”
”
“
“
CTO of the Year
Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk | 25
KPN’s
Erik Hoving
The most innovative thing we have done in the last 12
months was the way we launched and rolled out 4G LTE in The
Netherlands. The innovation is not related to the 4G technology
itself, but rather to the way we prepared and executed the roll-out.
Unlike operators who first acquired the frequencies, then rolled
out the network, we decided to prepare our network for 4G LTE in
parallel with the modernization of our 2G network. By doing so, we
created a first-mover advantage, launching 4G only six weeks after
the acquisition of 4G LTE frequencies. We will achieve nationwide
coverage by the end of Q1 2014, which is about one year ahead of
our next competitor.
We are also excited by a new service we launched at the end of
2013. Five years ago, KPN acquired a stake in Jasper Wireless, which
is now a worldwide leading player in M2M solutions. Capitalising
on the knowledge behind this platform, Jasper Wireless and KPN
jointly conducted a programme and co-developed a “smartphone
as a channel platform” which has now launched. With this platform
we are able to stay connected with our customers 24/7, predict
their needs, proactively offer what they are looking for and instantly
gratify. More importantly, our customers with smartphones will be
able to get resolution to their problems like call drop, throttle etc.
with just one click.
In 2014, we believe this technology will help us to improve our
24/7 relationship with our smartphone-customers, to continue
to further innovate our self service applications and to continue
providing a best in class customer experience.
”
“
CTO of the Year
26 | Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk
The most innovative thing that we have
been doing and will continue to do is define
a set of initiatives around virtualisation, NFV
and SDN. The traditional Service/Network
room for the installation of network nodes or
service platforms – such as data centres with
dedicated infrastructure and ad-hoc solutions
for every platform – is dead. The industry is
evolving and focusing on virtualisation and,
in a second phase, the cloud. The future of
telecoms lies in the ability to sell high quality
services rather than network resources – with
the focus always squarely on the customer.
It is clear that current trends are all pointing
in the direction of cannibalising the “control”
that telecom operators have in today’s world.
But Telefónica, as well as a select few other
mobile network operators, is shifting its role
from traffic carrier to “application enabler”.
Here, virtualisation and cloud are key elements
to extract and offer our customers the
maximum value and capabilities from our
networks.
Elsewhere, Telefónica Germany became
the first operator to perform a multivendor
VoLTE-to-3G call handover. Our engineers
demonstrated that SRVCC standard (Single
Radio Voice Call Continuity) allows the
handover of a VoLTE call from the LTE network
to 3G. This is a significant landmark for
successfully testing the mobile broadband
network for the future.
The implementation of our ambitious
network sharing agreement with Vodafone in
the UK, together with the innovative Stadium
& Venue Solutions deployed for the London
Olympics, were also remarkable.
Additional, and highly relevant, innovative
advances include our commitment to Wi-Fi-
cellular integration. Our developments with
smart antennae – testing ways to improve
coverage and capacity along with SON – to
bring new sites on-air more reliably and
rapidly and to develop a cost-efficient ultra-
remote rural solution is helping to bring basic
telephony to the most remote parts of Latin
America. We are also starting to develop our
first steps in Cloud RAN.
We expect 4G LTE to really take off during
2014, so we are accelerating rollout as this
technology is now fully mature and has a
wide base of devices available. 4G LTE is the
future of mobile communications, offering great
opportunities to both customers and operators
alike. Moreover, LTE-Advanced will increase
the potential of the technology to offer better
quality and experience.
Meanwhile, customers are ever more
demanding and expect higher speeds, greater
quality and attractive bundles. The challenge
for operators is to monetise these opportunities
and grow revenues in the face of new and non-
traditional competitors.
Telefónica’s
Enrique Blanco
“
”
CTO of the Year
Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk | 27
Fin
d
o
u
t w
h
o
w
in
s in

M
O
B
IL
E

E
U
R
O
P
E
’S

n
ew
ta
b
let ed
itio
n
where final shortlist and the winner
of Mobile Europe’s CTO of the Year
are revealed.
Go to www.mobileeurope.co.uk/tablet
Providing our mobile customers with a high quality
4G LTE network was a top priority in 2013. The spectrum
of choice for 4G LTE for Telenor in Norway was originally
2600 and 800 Mhz. When Apple announced that iPhone
5 would only provide 4G for the European market on
1800 Mhz, Telenor Norway quickly changed the rollout
of 4G LTE and started to install 1800 Mhz. In addition to
a successful deployment of CSFB, this enabled Telenor
Norway to launch 4G LTE on iPhone 5 six months before its
competitors in the advanced Norwegian mobile market.
In 2013 it was people’s social network that went mobile,
but in 2014 it will be people themselves. The mobile phone
will be even more important for people as apps and sensors
become mainstream. Health apps, different wearable
connected devices and sporting sensors will be a natural
part of people’s lives. Home automation and connected cars
will become mainstream and the mobile phone will in 2014
be the device that gives the user control over their own life,
homes and cars.
Telenor Norway’s
Frode Støldal
“
”
Sponsored Interview
LTE evolves
to LTE-A
– the
essential
facts
By Stamatis Georgoulis,
Aeroflex Limited
28 | Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk
TE is rapidly evolving to LTE-Advanced
(LTE-A), promising to reduce OPEX/CAPEX
and improve spectrum utilization, and also
to benefit subscribers by improving data speed and
capacity.
LTE-A promises true 4G connectivity, and the main
reason operators are keen to take advantage of it is
not just the benefit of higher data rates up to 1Gbps,
but also the massive demand for data from users
of smartphones and tablets running data-hungry
applications such as social networking and video
streaming. LTE-A helps meet this demand by improving
coverage and capacity, and its advanced technology
also gives operators faster deployment and prompt
troubleshooting, getting users connected quickly
and keeping connections operational and generating
revenue.
Table 1 summarizes the main features of LTE-A and
how they relate to the benefits described above.
Testing LTE-A networks
LTE-A brings a new range of challenges for testing
and verifying network performance under real-world
load conditions. Aeroflex has a complete range of
end-to-end test systems for LTE TDD and FDD network
equipment, based on the TM500 Test Mobile platform,
used by almost every base station manufacturer
and regarded as the de facto standard for eNodeB
development and testing.
L
Table 1: Benefits of LTE-A
compared with LTE
Right: Growth in mobile subscriptions by technology up to
2013 (actual) and to 2017 (forecast) Cisco Visual Networking
Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2012–2017
M-Payments
M -payment options increase but
winning hand still proves elusive
Paul Skeldon analyses the current state of the m-payments market and assesses what mobile
operators need to be aware of this year
30 | Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk
obile payments spent much of 2013 being the
next big thing in mobile and commerce – 2014
should be no different. But m-payments is a
tricky beast to tame. Big names have dabbled with little or
no success: witness O2 shutting down its wallet, unofficially
because no one used it; Google Wallet hasn’t yet set the
world alight and even Barclays’ PingIt is struggling to get to
critical mass.
Yet these early players possibly were just that: too early.
2014 now offers a chance for a host of new technologies
and services to start to break this potentially enormous
market and disrupt the old order of things. So what should
telcos be looking out for?
Forget Apple but not the banks
Just like every other year, Apple is poised to take the world
of m-payments by storm. This isn’t going to happen; at
least not in a compromising way to operators or banks. If it
does happen, it could kill off a swathe of fledgling payment
providers, but this is unlikely.
If Apple does enter the m-payments space it is going to
be offering a customer-facing end to payments: it is not
going to set itself up as a bank or a carrier, it will simply be
an interface. It can’t take its customary cut as it has done
in music, films, books and newspapers for running this
gatekeeping service as neither consumer, retailer nor bank
will swallow this cost.
While Apple may be a red herring when it comes to its
impact on m-payments, operators need to be wary of the
banks and in particular bank-integrated payment solutions.
These are the offerings that are most likely to gain consumer
traction and, other than carrying a bit of data about, cut
operators out of the m-payments loop.
Most notable of these is Zapp. Backed by five major
UK banks – HSBC, first direct, Nationwide, Santander and
Metro Bank – and running on the faster payments network
operated for the banks by Vocalink, Zapp integrates into
consumers’ existing banking apps and essentially fires up
the banking app when the Pay By Zapp button on a site is
clicked.
It is fast, simple and secure and is really so far the only
seamless integration of phone and bank account that is easy
to use. And this is the key to m-payments – it has to make
paying easier than it is with any other form of payment tool
otherwise what is the point?
Paul Marriott-Clarke, Commercial Director of Metro Bank,
says: “Metro Bank is committed to offering customers the
best in service and convenience through whatever channel
they choose to use for their banking. Zapp is an exciting
innovation that will provide something extra to those who
want to bank through mobile devices.”
Ovum analyst Eden Zoller agrees that Zapp could really
change the face of m-payments: “The ability to provide
scale is a critical success factor for mobile payments and
Zapp has made a promising start by signing the financial
brands announced. However, to succeed in its ultimate
goal of becoming a single, industry wide m-payment
platform, Zapp will need to get the other major UK financial
institutions behind it, such as Barclays whose own Pingit
app is proving popular in its own right. Alongside this, with
more countries and regions developing faster payments like
infrastructure, if Zapp proves successful in the long term,
it could prove to be a model for other markets. Visa and
MasterCard will likely be watching developments closely.”
Operator billing
Where mobile networks have a foot in the payments door is
in carrier billing. Putting charges for things – usually digital
goods, but in some countries physical goods too – on the
phone bill is a tried and tested way of billing. Extending this
is really where mobile operators can enter the payments
game.
“We need to get away from it being thought of as
premium rate,” stresses Sharan Rattan, head of mobile
payment services at Three UK. “Currently in the UK these
charges are seen as a premium rate offering… but more
and more people are using SMS or voice shortcodes or
Payforit to charge things like car parking or extras in games
and apps to their bill – and not at a premium. This is where
MNOs need to concentrate.”
According to Rattan, there needs to be a big push by
operators to encourage app developers, games companies
and businesses such as Netflix and Spotify to look at how
to use carrier billing as a quick and easy way of delivering
M
2014 will
not be the year
that near-field
communication
takes off and neither
will 2015
M-Payments
While a lot of focus has
been on NFC, networks
should be focusing on
carrier billing for a suite
of services.
Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk | 31
what are essentially micropayments in a convenient way.
Operators aren’t going to compete with banks and retailers
for card-like payments in shops, but they do have a huge
potential in offering services that help make quick payments
possible.
“Regulators need to reclassify these things as just
payments not premium rate payments if this is to work,”
says Rattan. “They also need to look seriously at lifting daily
payment limits as well, if these payment tools are to stand
a chance.”
NFC and beacons
According to Ovum’s Zoller, the revolutionising impact of
NFC isn’t going to deliver any time soon and as such it is
a busted flush in terms of m-payments. “2014 will not be
the year that near-field communication (NFC) takes off –
and neither will 2015,” she says. “A growing number of
alternative enabling technologies are readily available, and
at lower cost to merchants and consumers, such as beacons
and possibly hosted card emulation (HCE), but pure NFC is
not going to make it big this year. Or next.”
HCE – where card details are hosted in the cloud and
NFC used to trigger interactions with this rather than
storing the card details on the device – offers some
hope that NFC payments may start to be used, but the
investment in hardware is still a barrier to entry and NFC
trials have all but proved fruitless in most geographies.
Instead, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) “beacons” look
to have a much brighter future for offering contactless
payments – among other things – to retailers of all stripes
on a budget.
With both Apple and PayPal pushing BLE technology,
there is clearly something in this tech. It clearly offers a great
marketing channel, but can it offer much to payments and
can it do so with more popularity than NFC?
“Once the customer is ready to check out, because
they are already checked-in at the merchant’s location,
and assuming the customer has set up payment either
through a service like PayPal or via a mobile wallet on their
smartphone, that information can be accessed by store
clerks who can automate the payment process,” says Erik
Vlugt, VP of Product Marketing at VeriFone. “BLE only
allows for approximate pinpointing location in store, but
is not granular enough to bypass individual authentication
– so when used for payment using a linked cloud wallet,
merchant will be paying card-not-present rates.”
mPOS
Mobile technology for retailers to take payments is an area
that is going to hot up considerably in 2014. The likes of
Square and others have already brought card payment
handling capabilities to mobile workers such as plumbers
and market stall holders, but the big play for device makers
and network operators is in how to leverage the in-store
Point of Services market and revamp the idea of how
consumers pay for things.
One of the key innovators in this space is Monetise,
which has seen not only the potential of the mPOS market
for MNOs and banks, but has also seen the threat to these
sectors from innovators such as Square.
The Monetise approach offers an interesting model
for MNOs in that it is a card handling system that will let
operators build not only a payment handling facility, but
allows them to offer the full gamut of loyalty services,
offers and tokens, as well as a suite of CRM and stock
management tools too.
Such all-encompassing tools are the future of how MNOs
can morph their payment offerings into something much
wider and more clever – which is what they need to offer
the market if they are to play in this space. While Apple
was somewhat cavalierly discarded above, this is a role that
it could fulfill to the detriment of carriers. This perhaps is
really what the carrier community should be looking at:
how to involve more mainstream companies in using carrier
billing and how to extend carrier billing into a whole suite
of services.
Payment in the background
Perhaps the ultimate in m-payments is in making the
payment process disappear. Witness taxi app Hailo: this
essentially hides the actual act of payment within the app.
If you have registered your card and agree to just pay on
completion of the journey then you don’t in effect have to
actually do anything to pay.
It has simplified the process down to something that
happens as part of something else. This is the key to mobile
payments: making it more simple than existing payment
methods. Perhaps looking beyond overly complex wallets
and expensive retail hardware is what network operators
should really be considering. They have the devices,
customers, networks and billing mechanism – it’s just how
to cleverly use them that seems to be missing for now.
Connected Cars
Connected cars: operators’
driving ambitions
Paul Quigley analyses the challenges involved in the emerging technology behind
the connected car market
32 | Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk
hen the Galvin Manufacturing Company
launched the first car radios back in 1930, the
cost represented around one-fifth the value
of the entire car. After several years of struggle, Paul Galvin
finally managed to convince automakers to install a car
radio as a standard feature in Fords and other cars. As the
decade elapsed, the concept of music and news in cars took
hold. Galvin’s company became Motorola and the rest is
history. Today, a similar paradigm shift is upon us.
The arrival of the connected car is having its birth pangs
in the same way and, for mobile operators, making sure the
promised new services actually work is a major challenge.
The US is motoring ahead, with AT&T blazing a trail for
other operators around the world to observe.
“The future car is going to be a smartphone with four
wheels and powerful capabilities specifically built for a safe
and enhanced customer experience,” says Chris Penrose,
Senior Vice-President of Emerging Devices for AT&T. “As
4G LTE networks reach more and more people in the US,
virtually every automobile manufacturer is working toward
a connected car that takes advantage of next-generation
data speeds, from voice-controlled apps and infotainment
to advanced diagnostics.”
However, the engineering and technical mayhem
that new systems and marketing ideas have on existing
operations can be fraught with dangers. Systems
integration, backhaul infrastructure, network and device
security – as well as big data content management and
privacy – will form the major technical challenges facing all
mobile operators and their solution partners in rolling out
connected car applications.
In order to integrate new systems into the existing
infrastructure, adequate and robust APIs, type approval
of devices and certification will be essential. “The
continued development of connected car technology
will have significant consequences for the existing
network infrastructure,” says Peter Nicholson, head of
Spirent Communications’ automotive business unit. “The
automotive and mobile industries need to work closely
together to deliver certified, secure, interoperable and
quality [products]. Certified connected car technology
and its associated applications will require development of
open policies, plans and procedures that include all parties.
Certification is primarily to verify that the equipment and
application will not damage the network it is operating in,
whether that is cellular, wireless or in-vehicle.”
According to Nicholson, a certification standard that
sets the testing bar at an achievable level is a superior
approach to setting onerous testing standards that can stifle
innovation and delay technology rollout. “Developing these
procedures may be a challenge for the automotive industry
and this is where mobile operators could assist, sharing their
understanding and experience of this connected market,”
he adds.
Software and security
Moreover, software is now every bit as vital as new
hardware as systems integration marries disparate industries
such as telecoms and autos together. APIs are becoming
vital for network operators to consider and will be the
glue holding partnerships together. “The roll out of APIs
in the automotive industry means drivers are now more
connected than ever before,” says Antoine Rizk, Vice-
President of Solutions Marketing and Corporate Strategy
at Axway. “In-car connected apps call on such APIs to let
users access digital music players on the go, use navigation
software on multiple devices, update statuses from their
dashboard and even remotely lock and unlock their car.”
Billing, operational support systems and revenue
assurance, as ever, remain the cornerstone of mobile
networks’ core businesses, something that the infrastructure
and operational management need to have front and
centre in any connected car roll-out plans. Rebecca
Prudhomme, Vice-President of Product and Solutions
Marketing at Amdocs believes that connected cars will
call for new considerations when it comes to charging,
billing and partner relationship management. “A dynamic
solution that provides all of these capabilities is essential
for a communications company so that they can split the
connectivity charges for separate services occurring in
the same car,” she says. “Consumer applications, such as
navigation and entertainment can be billed to consumers,
while connectivity for car diagnostics, vehicle telematics
and safety services may be included in an automaker’s
subscription charge.”
Security is, as always, a top priority for mobile operators.
W
The future
car is going to be
a smartphone with
four wheels
Connected Cars
34 | Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk
The connected car
market is predicted to
unleash new products
and services from
operators.
Samuel Loyson, Head of Connected Cars at Orange
explains: “Security is an engineering challenge, but we
are confident the industry as a whole will find the right
solutions. Security is fundamental to all of our services, and
Orange constantly invests in and reviews the security of our
services.”
Dr Hongwen Zhang, CEO of Wedge Networks and
co-Chairman of the CloudEthernet Forum security group,
believes security will come as a standard service for those
who can afford luxury cars. “History tells us that, in the car
industry, advanced features typically start from the high-end
and move down to standard cars. Ordinary drivers will
depend more on the “smartness” of their cars. As one can
imagine, security will be a ‘life and death issue’ if the cars
start driving themselves.”
Given that the telematics side of the connected car
opportunity is primarily an M2M issue, some are mindful
of the capacity issues that may eventually arise if the
market takes off as many predict. “The relentless pace of
technological innovation provides a challenge for telcos,
who have to account for ever increasing demands for data
connections from consumers. Internet-connected cars will
only accelerate this trend,” explains Axel Pawlik, MD of
Regional Internet Registry RIPE NCC. “If telcos cannot build
networks which can handle connections from cars, they
will experience long-term problems monetising usage. For
example, without investing in IPv6, they may run out of
IP addresses and not be able to accommodate more users
on the network, which would see both the telco and the
consumer suffer.”
John Collins, Industry Analyst with Inter Orbis concurs:
“There is an imperative to make efficient use of bandwidth.
To do this, the car will be expected to process and analyse
much of the information gathered itself, rather than
transmitting it all to an OEM cloud or service provider.”
According to Collins, connected cars will therefore be
operating as “thick client” vehicles and will transmit only
about two to five percent of the most useful and relevant
data that they generate. “In addition, data compression can
reduce bandwidth usage by a further 70 to 90 percent,”
adds Collins. “The car will be able to provide data and
diagnostics to OEMs and others whilst minimising data
costs.” Karthikeyan Natarajan, Senior Vice-President and
Global Head of Integrated Engineering for Tech Mahindra
agrees. “Operators will need to address the infrastructure
challenges posed as these bandwidth-hungry services take
off with network solutions to ensure seamless connectivity.
Big data and privacy
Nevertheless, many third-party corporates and others
are lining up, salivating over the prospect of “indirect
revenues” they hope to tap for services’ derived from the
exchange of premium data such as infotainment and
“vehicle probe” data between connected cars and others.
Such revenue-sharing opportunities are, however, fraught
with complexities over data privacy and other legalities,
which is set to become a veritable minefield given recent
developments in mass breaches of privacy and data
monitoring.
For operators, however, the network data issues remain
regardless, with big data and content being a major
issue. According to Orange’s Loyson, creating customer
trust around privacy takes more time. “At Orange, we
have a very clear policy on data privacy, and we promote
transparency on data usage. Users will gain clear benefits
from technologies like connected cars, and as long as
service providers and manufacturers are transparent about
how personal data is utilised, and provide tools to manage
privacy, we believe any issues or questions around privacy
can be mitigated.”
Tech Mahindra’s Natarajan also sees major ethical hurdles
ahead for engineers and privacy. “This technology does not
come without its challenges; one of which is that they bring
a certain amount of threat to personal privacy. Autonomous
vehicles are built with advanced sensing and tracking
capabilities, and are constantly under surveillance, making
them traceable at any point in time. While this feature is
intended to complement vehicle performance, we cannot
overlook the fact that this may create new privacy issues
and lend itself to harmful application and potential misuse.”
Ultimately, for mobile network operators, the connected
car market represents an opportunity for a fundamental
shift from a largely capex business model to a more opex-
orientated one, even potentially shifting the focus of both
manufacturers and operators’ core businesses to embrace a
new focus on new products and services.
The key to its success will ultimately be the willingness
of the driving public to pay for extra services, as Samuel
Ropert, Senior Consultant in Internet Services at IDATE
concludes: “Will these connected capabilities be seen as
‘nice to haves’ but without a sufficient appetite from the
masses to pay for them? Undoubtedly, those that can
harness the opportunities of the connected car will have a
very profitable future.”
Sponsored Feature
G LO BO : Company O verview
36 | Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk
LOBO was founded in 1997 and is listed in
the London Stock Exchange (LSE-AIM:GBO).
The Group operates internationally through
subsidiaries and offices in US, UK, Europe, Middle East and
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GLOBO is an international leader and technology innovator
delivering Enterprise Mobility Management and Telecom
software solutions. The company’s GO!Enterprise mobility
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and custom application development in a fully secure
containerized environment for both corporate-liable devices
and BYOD initiatives.
Globo’s Enterprise Mobility product family consists of
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productivity suite suitable for BYOD practices), GO!AppZone
Studio (cross mobile platform application development
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With solutions ranging from tailor made plug and play
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GO!Enterprise MDM
As mobile devices continue to penetrate the workplace,
organizations face new challenges in maintaining proper levels
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GO!Enterprise MDM is designed to provide IT
administrators a single console to manage and secure
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GO!Enterprise Office
GO!Enterprise Office is a mobile productivity solution which
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GO! AppZone Studio offers a user friendly drag & drop
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GO! AppZone supports centralized distribution of GO!Apps on
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GO!Enterprise247
GO!Enterprise247 is an innovative, all-in-one, cloud-based
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G
Sponsored Feature
Alcatel-Lucent:
LTE express ebook review
38 | Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk
TE is not just about adding capacity to a network.
Alcatel-Lucent has written a series of ebooks to
explain what else mobile operators (MNOs) need
to consider – from getting to market first to reap the most
benefits, building a cutting edge, future proofed network,
and putting in place innovative services to differentiate
from the competition – before they begin deploying a next
generation network.
LTE express is a series of ebooks to address all aspects
of LTE deployment, providing operators with a complete
view of LTE. The titles are easy to read and understand
and presents the material in an interesting manner. The
LTE express series is a must read for any MNO that has
not yet deployed LTE.
1. LTE Now
This ebook focuses on why MNOs should move to LTE
sooner rather than later and is targeted at marketing and
network planning and deployment teams. The first operators
to launch LTE get the largest increase in market share and
ARPU. Operators also benefit from reduced costs, with a
cost per bit that is 57 percent lower than other services. By
moving to LTE, operators
not only have their
investment reap the
benefits of a long life, but
they also see their need
to invest further in 3G
capped.
Consumers are not the
only market to demand
LTE, with the enterprise
sector viewing next generation mobile as an important
business tool that can increase productivity, cut costs and
win new customers.
To read more, the LTE Now ebook can be downloaded
from www.alcatel-lucent.com/solutions/lte-express/lte-
now
2. Fast-track rollout
Getting to market fast is essential in this fiercely competitive
sector, so this ebook outlines
what operators can do to
deploy their LTE network
quickly and effectively.
Among the topics
that are explored are
choosing the right
path with LTE overlay
compared to converged
RAN, which could lead to a time saving of between 40
and 50 percent. The ebook also looks at how operators
could benefit from existing spectrum, by using VoLTE
and refarming to launch 4G services ahead of the
competition.
The author also outlines the benefits of using external
LTE integration experts to deploy, rather than taking a
DIY approach. By looking beyond your own workforce for
help in deploying a network, this can cut the time it takes
to integrate the network in two.
This ebook is aimed at marketers, as well as the
network planning and deployment teams within an
MNO.
To read more, the Fast-track Rollout ebook can be
downloaded from www.alcatel-lucent.com/solutions/lte-
express/fast-track
3. Massive capacity
By 2018, mobile data is expected to grow sixfold, with
one billion LTE subscribers in the market by 2017. Given
this expected growth, it is essential to build a network that
enables massive capacity.
This ebook explores how operators can get the most
capacity and coverage from each macro cell site by
deploying advanced next generation equipment. By
optimising their network
with LTE-Advanced
Carrier Aggregation,
operators will be able to
get the most out of their
spectrum.
The author also shows
how, by deploying as few
as three LTE and carrier
Wi-Fi small cells per
macro site, capacity can be trebled – a cost-effective way
of boosting capacity in urban hotspots. Networks can
meet the challenge of reducing the massive bandwidth
required for video by deploying eMBMS.
Aimed at the network planning and deployment teams
within the MNO’s organisation, this ebook shows how
by carefully planning how to deliver massive capacity,
an operator can deploy max capacity smartly and cost
effectively.
To read more, the Massive Capacity ebook can be
downloaded from www.alcatel-lucent.com/solutions/lte-
express/capacity
4. Cost efficiency
While capacity can be increased to meet mobile user
L

Sponsored Feature
Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk | 39
demand, it is important to put an efficient cost structure
in place or your business case will be broken. If a network
team plans ahead, not only will it build an LTE network, but
deploy one that is cost efficient and helps protect margins.
Aimed at management
and financial teams, this
ebook explores the ways
an operator can cut costs
by deploying LTE. One
example is by rolling
out LTE overlay, which
can reduce deployment
costs by as much as 48
percent. By densifying the network with metro cells
as well as macro cells, an operator can save up to 31
percent. Moving on to a cloud RAN architecture by
deploying centralised baseband units can produce total
cost of ownership savings of 25 percent, meanwhile.
By bringing together all three of these methods, an
operator can reduce its TCO by 57 percent per bit.
To read more, the Cost Efficiency ebook can be
downloaded from www.alcatel-lucent.com/solutions/
lte-express/efficiency
5. High QoE performance
While subscribers always crave more capacity, they also
want a better quality of experience (QoE). So, operators
who implement outstanding QoE when rolling out an LTE
network will get the most rewards.
For a network to ensure it has first class QoE across
its business, it must start with excellent access and
ensure ubiquitous coverage and capacity everywhere by
building metro cell HetNets.
This ebook examines what operators need to do
to deliver an excellent subscriber experience. Among
the ways to improve this is to boost the average user
throughput rate. If an operator lacks the spectrum to do
so, it can use VoLTE to free up bandwidth on an existing
spectrum holding. VoLTE offers subscribers a higher
QoE by enabling HD voice,
enriched messaging services
and by enabling LTE data
services before, during and
after a voice call.
Another way to boost
QoE is to combine real-
time network intelligence
with policy management
to intelligently manage traffic, optimise services and
control how subscribers access an operator’s network.
This title is mainly aimed at the marketing and
network planning and deployment teams.
To read more, the High QoE Performance ebook
can be downloaded from www.alcatel-lucent.com/
solutions/lte-express/performance
6. Cutting edge network
By using the latest advanced technologies that future proof
networks and offer leading edge subscriber services, MNOs
can stay one step ahead of the competition. Innovation
is crucial for an operator’s future and by deploying
advanced radios today, they can benefit from advances
in tomorrow’s technology. Advanced radios enhance
capacity, coverage, and subscribers’ QoE through a wide
range of technologies,
including higher order
MIMO and variations of
beam forming.
Among the other methods
of building a cutting edge
network is to use wideband
ratios and LTE Advanced
Carrier Aggregation. The
latter not only increases user rates and capacity for bursty
applications such as web browsing, but also opens the
door to more flexible and powerful service delivery.
Through carrier aggregation, multiple services can be
simultaneously delivered over multiple carriers to a single
subscriber.
Other advantages of building a cutting edge network
are the ability to create compelling experiences for
subscribers with innovative venue and event-based
applications and content, like on-demand video
replays and commentaries at football games. A leading
network maximises coverage and capacity at the event,
enables the selection of the best access for the content,
optimises content delivery (for example, by using
eMBMS for video delivery) and guarantees the best
possible QoE for video by leveraging video optimisation
techniques.
This ebook, which shows operators how to be
innovative in building their LTE networks, is mainly aimed
at marketing professionals, as well as the network planning
and deployment teams.
To read more, the cutting edge network ebook can be
downloaded from www.alcatel-lucent.com/solutions/lte-
express/cutting-edge
Discover more on how to jump ahead with LTE express at
www.alcatel-lucent.com/4g-lte
By using the
latest advanced
technologies
that future proof
networks and
offer leading edge
subscriber services,
MNOs can stay one
step ahead of the
competition
Sponsored Interview
O racle: M onetising the
digital lifestyle
40 | Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk
s businesses and consumers increasingly adopt
a digital lifestyle using mobile platforms such as
tablets and smartphones, communication services
providers (CSPs) are asking how best to monetise services
while lowering costs. CSPs want to maximise yield per
customer and reduce the churn for users consuming a range
of data, voice and SMS text services.
Monetising the smart office or digital lifestyle is doubly
important as revenues from voice dwindle in mature markets;
text messaging continues to grow but comes under attack
from Internet Protocol (IP) services such as WhatsApp and
iMessage; and as CSPs rack up high costs to build IP-based
networks and cater for 4G.
Viewing these trends, IT and telecommunications giant
Oracle believes that customer-centric strategies are vital for
CSPs, particularly when faced with competition from third-
party content providers. Their apps and content require
CSPs’ networks, but they can also provide new revenue
for CSPs that want to capture more market share of higher
value services.
Over-the-top (OTT) services are growing at an annual
rate of more than 50 percent, US-based technology market
intelligence company ABI Research reported in 2013.
So what’s the big plan? “We believe that monetisation
has to be done in a coherent way,” says Gordon Rawling,
Director of EMEA Marketing, Oracle Communications.
Put another way, Rawling maintains that convergent
charging and policy systems bridging network and IT
functions are the key to customer-centric strategies that
win and retain customers and capture a larger share of their
spend.
“Having a platform to manage the interaction experience
of the customer is not new per se, but that platform now
needs to be informed in a very different context – the
lifestyles of the future – because of consumer expectations
and also the pace of movement,” Rawling says. “There is also
the element of cost: who will have the most cost-effective
platforms from both the consumer’s and the enterprise’s
perspectives to deliver these services?”
As Oracle sees it, customers demand constant connectivity
that is both location- and device-agnostic but also want some
personalisation and control as well as service plans and tariffs
tailored to lifestyles and budgets, and flexibility to adjust
plans. Customers also want their experience with the CSP to
be trouble-free, easy and predictable.
Thus, Oracle advises CSPs to pursue excellence in product
differentiation, customer engagement and operational
efficiency and has designed and engineered its Oracle
Communications Convergent Charging and Policy solution
with this in mind.
Oracle positions this as the only such solution allowing
CSPs to achieve three key aims: combine business and
network policies to design and launch innovative offers
rapidly; empower customers to personalise and control their
service usage experience; and to deliver predictable and low
operations cost.
All elements of a CSP’s operation and support come
together in the Oracle product which is now being used by
100 out of the top 100 CSPs around the world, including
leading providers such as Vodafone, Orange, SFR, Telefónica
and KT (Korea Telecom).
The rapid design and launch of relevant services can
attract, keep and influence customers. Useful real-time
customer engagement with proper levels of personalisation
and control maximises spend and loyalty.
Operational efficiency delivering effective, efficient and
low-cost IT and network operations leads to a good quality of
service (QoS) that customers appreciate.
The need for speed is more than a glib phrase: “Broadly
speaking, the product release life cycle of a service
provider has not changed much since Alexander Graham
Bell (patented the first telephone in 1876),” Rawling says
with a smile.
“Operators are good at network integrity, but it is
important to work out how to leverage the dynamism of the
new capabilities in order to be more anticipatory and reactive
to what is happening in the digital lifestyle.”
With decades of experience in hardware and software
integration behind it, Oracle’s approach is to get all the
elements – network integrity, quality of experience, QoS – to
work towards monetisation and lower cost.
“Many CSPs spend a large part of their IT budgets in
making all the pieces work together and inevitably integrate
them around the lowest common denominator,” Rawling
says. “Oracle ensures that all our pieces across the entire
data and process landscape come together around the
higher common denominator, which is really important as a
foundation for delivering the good experience that will keep
customers paying for the services.”
The company sees product innovation in the sector being
inhibited by: fragmented design tools and methodologies
across business, IT and network departments; long
development and testing cycles; and limited re-usability of
policy and charging rules for different markets and business
models.
As an example of how it has responded to these challenges
through the Oracle Communications Convergent Charging
and Policy solution, the software’s design tool for users in the
business side of a CSP allows these personnel to easily define
pricing structures for an offer or promotion.
A
Sponsored Interview
Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk | 41
Almost anything that is measurable – e.g. the application
being used, the user’s location, the customer, the network,
the QoS, and the device being used by the customer – can
be set up as a pricing attribute for incorporation into pricing
rules that charge for what the client consumes or commits
to take.
The tool means a commercial offer can be worked up
without being coupled to the network and IT. This speeds
up development and testing and ensures that network or IT
system changes have no impact on those commercial offers
that are actively being promoted at the time others are under
development.
Commercial offers created with the business tool can
nonetheless be visible to other customer-facing interfaces,
such as the web, customer relationship management (CRM)
software, or mobile applications.
Moreover, the Oracle Communications Convergent
Charging and Policy solution is agnostic as regarding
network, service and event, so network and business policies
can be reused for different markets and business models as
market conditions change.
When it comes to customer engagement, the system
allows what Oracle calls “order for one,” which means
individual customers can choose precisely the voice
minutes and SMS and data limits they want in a plan priced
specifically for them.
“We think there is opportunity for additional revenue from
this kind of approach,” Rawling says. Thus Oracle’s solution
allows subscribers real-time ‘granular’ control of plans. So
for example, a family could set different limits for different
services for each of its members within a single family plan
and tell the network how to restrict or block access – e.g.
blocking text messages to and from a child in school hours.
Knowing the application that a customer is using, on
which device, and where, allows the CSP to react in real-time
to offer revenue generating opportunities. For example, by
offering a high-definition video of replays or highlights of
other matches in a football league to a customer already at
one. Top-up reminders can be sent when prepaid minutes
are running low.
The Oracle Communications Convergent Charging and
Policy solution also allows CSPs to gamify service offerings
to make non-game apps more engaging. This can also
incentivise actions by awarding points, badges or titles for
customers to share on social media sites or maybe use as a
form of currency.
Social media can be key – CSPs understand the power
of reaching new potential customers through a subscriber’s
social network: family, friends, colleagues, and followers on
popular social networking sites such as Facebook.
When it comes to enabling operational efficiency
through predictable, lower cost operations, the Oracle
Communications Convergent Charging and Policy solution is
built around standards-based open architecture and interface
standards such as 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).
The entire solution and its components are certified and
compliant to the TM Forum (TeleManagement Forum),
Business Process Framework (eTOM) and Information
Framework (SID) models.
Oracle has taken these approaches to simplify and speed
solution deployment, reduce risk and comply with proven
and familiar industry design and process principles.
The Oracle Communications Convergent Charging and
Policy solution is engineered with modern and proven
technologies for extreme performance and the flexible
scalability needed to address the demand made on networks
and IT by fast escalating data consumption.
The charging system, for example, is built around in-
memory data cache grid technology, so processing and data
are co-located and replicated automatically throughout the
grid. This means there is high availability, low latency and
extreme transaction processing speed. Yet it can run on
commodity hardware for low cost.
A cross-functional roadmap engineered into the solution
lowers lifecycle management costs and expertise for
common management tasks such as upgrades, patches
and maintenance activities which are all handled by a single
operational management tool.
Taken together all these operational efficiency features
in the Oracle products are designed to address challenges
still facing many CSPs. These include closed and proprietary
integration between network and IT, which adds to the
difficulty and expense of maintenance and upgrades.
Also, high costs to scale and meet network performance
requirements, with IT systems usually sized for peak usage,
thus leaving unused network and IT capacity wasted for
most of the time. And high costs of maintaining multiple
product versions across a number of IT vendors, each with
different product release schedules and multiple operational
management applications and consoles.
www.oracle.com
Operators are
good at network
integrity, but it is
important to work
out how to leverage
the dynamism of
the new capabilities
in order to be more
anticipatory and
reactive to what is
happening in the
digital lifestyle
*Further reading
The Thinking Networks Revolution: A “Digital
Lifestyle” Call to Action for Communications
Service Providers. An Oracle White Paper,
publ. September 2013.
Five Minutes With...
Professor
Andy Sutton
42 | Mobile Europe | @mobileeurope | mobileeurope.co.uk
Please explain what V-Band is and the
capabilities it has…
It depends on definition as V-band can be
considered to be frequencies in the range
of 50 to 75GHz. However, more commonly
V-band generally refers to the band of 57
to 64GHz, also commonly known as the
60GHz band. V-band millimetre wave radio
systems can provide high throughput with
low latency transmission over distances of
several hundreds of metres and potentially
out to 1km.
Why are operators such as EE starting
to look into it?
Historically network operators have steered
clear of 60GHz systems due to the high
atmospheric attenuation (oxygen absorption)
in this band. A new use case focused on small
cell backhaul has emerged and suddenly the
very characteristics which have restricted the
use of 60GHz previously are now considered
beneficial. This change of position is due
to the small cell deployment scenario, in
this case public access outdoor picocells
which will be deployed in the urban clutter
to add capacity to mobile networks. Small
cell backhaul deployments will require large
numbers of low-cost links to provide the vital
connectivity back to the mobile operators
existing network, V-band millimetre wave
radio system is one of the solutions to this
requirement. Link lengths will be short
therefore atmospheric attenuation is easily
managed within the RF path budget while
high frequency reuse is possible.
How does V-band compare with other
small cell backhaul solutions?
V-band is one of several wireless solutions
available for small cell backhaul, and there
are pros and cons associated with each. The
V-band cost point is increasingly attractive
as chipsets, components and sub-systems
for this band become increasingly common
due to the wide range of use cases (not just
small cell backhaul). The small form factor of
V-band radio systems is also beneficial when
compared with more traditional point-to-
point radio systems.
What are the operational challenges
associated with implementing V band?
Planning of individual links (given the
possible volume), antenna alignment and
implementation of nodal/hub sites. Using
point-to-point links for a nodal or hub site
in the urban clutter is a challenge with radio
systems which require one unit per link, as
common with V-band systems, point-to-
multipoint and multipoint-to-multipoint
solutions offer an alternative approach
here; however, these tend to operate in
traditional microwave frequency bands. If a
nodal/hub site has four radio directions then
an operator must manage the individual
Ethernet cables from each radio unless they
can be cascaded between radios. However,
this impacts MTBF therefore serious thought
is required to optimise V-band network
topology.
How are these challenges being
overcome?
There are ways to overcome these
challenges. The cost point is reducing making
this technology commercially viable while
innovative design and implementation is
addressing the antenna alignment challenges.
In the main V-band is an attractive solution
for small cell backhaul. It’ll certainly be part
of the solutions tool-kit for many mobile
network operators who require a range of fixed
and wireless solutions to address the various
deployment scenarios. The capacity and
performance that can be achieved with V-band
radio systems is ideally matched to small cell
backhaul requirements.
Principal Network
Architect, Network
Strategy at EE, discusses
the V-band millimetre wave
radio system