Better batten down the hatches with more cost-efficient network architectures
Rajeev Suri, who took over as CEO of Nokia Siemens Networks in November 2009, says one of the biggest challenges facing mobile operators today is how to make a business case out of mobile broadband when the acceleration in data traffic volume is far outstripping the pace of mobile data revenue growth.
According to figures presented by Suri at the MWC event, the volume of mobile data from ‘smart devices’ is set to increase 10,000% by 2015 from 2009 levels. In other words, by the year 2015, annual mobile data traffic will reach 23 exabytes – and that, say the NSN number crunchers, is the equivalent of 6.3 billion people each downloading a digital book every day. “Some mobile operators will sink if they don’t do anything about this,” says Suri.
It’s not just the bulkier data downloads from the more advanced mobile devices that are causing the surges in data demand. Suri points out that the signalling resources required by an individual smart device when it is in idle mode – for information and configuration updates and so on – can be the equivalent of 1,000 voice calls across the network every day.
To reduce the impact of this ‘network overhead’, Suri claims that NSN is the only vendor taking advantage today of the paging channel feature set out in 3GPP standards to meet these signalling requirements. “By doing that, we are five times more efficient than competing products,” says Suri.
Suri then took the opportunity to draw attention to NSN’s suite of products, which are designed to cost-effectively deal with the smartphone overload. These include NSN’s IP microwave products, which were launched at the MWC event.
NSN is also demonstrating in Barcelona 112Mbps HSPA+ data calls using four base radio receivers and test terminals provided by Qualcomm. NSN reckons this kit will be commercially available by 2011.
In cooperation with Telefonica, NSN is also showcasing an LTE network at MWC in what it says is a ‘real’ environment. Suri adds that NSN has got seven LTE RAN references, plus the LTE packet core for Verizon’s LTE rollout. But while NSN has LTE frontrunner TeliaSonera as a valuable reference customer, NSN notably lost out to Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson last month in its bid to be an LTE RAN supplier for AT&T. Suri says, however, that the contract for AT&T’s LTE packet core packet core is still up for grabs and that NSN is in the running for it.
There was good news for NSN on the HSPA+ front, however, as Suri announced in Barcelona that Iliad, France’s fourth-largest operator, had effectively chosen NSN as its main supplier to build its 3G network as NSN was now in exclusive negotiations to seal the contract. Iliad, which bundles broadband, TV and internet services, plans to launch its Free Mobile service by early 2012.