TOT selects NSN to upgrade to HSPA+ for faster speed, better service (Thailand)
TOT, Thailand’s state-owned telecom operator, has selected Nokia Siemens Networks to upgrade its 3G network to HSPA+. This upgrade will improve mobile broadband services for the 7.2 million TOT customers and increase download speeds to even 42 megabits per second (Mbps) compared to the current 7.2 Mbps. The upgrade will be ready by April 2012.
Monchai Noosong, acting president at TOT, said that the Thai mobile market is extremely competitive, so they always need to ensure they are well ahead of the curve. With demand for data skyrocketing and operators looking to venture into the 3G space, they knew this was the right time to upgrade their 3G network. Nokia Siemens Networks has helped them scale up quickly enabling them to ride the mobile broadband wave sweeping the country. In addition, the company’s solution ensures an easy migration to LTE once that becomes topical for them.
Krittika Mahattanakul, head of Asia North, Asia Pacific region at Nokia Siemens Networks, said that as smartphones become more common also in Thailand and people start using data heavy applications on them, it is important that the mobile broadband networks can manage the capacity needs and provide enjoyable customer experience. Also, TOT is ensuring this by upgrading its network to HSPA+ early on.
Nokia Siemens Networks’ all-IP ready HSPA+ solution is based on the Dual Carrier HSDPA technology, Flexi Multiradio Base Station and the 3G Radio Network Multicontroller (RNC).The company will also deploy its Liquid Core’s COTS ATCA-based Open Mobile Switching Server (MSS), which together with the Flexi Multiradio Base Station enables a smooth transition to LTE.
The TOT network, including GSM and 3G, will be monitored and optimized by the Nokia Siemens Networks NetAct network management system. Nokia Siemens Networks will also provide its Location Based Services solution enabling TOT to offer Value Added Services (VAS), such as localized advertising.
Nokia Siemens Networks will provide TOT network planning, implementation and optimization services, as well as services for operations support and training.
Nokia Siemens Networks Uses Azimuth Systems’ Field-to-Lab Solution for LTE Testing
Azimuth Systems, Inc., a leading provider of wireless channel emulators and targeted test solutions, today announced that Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), the world’s number one mobile infrastructure provider, has selected the Azimuth Field-to-Labâ„¢ solution to perform benchmark testing for upcoming User Equipment (UE) and LTE eNodeB releases using drive test data collected from real-world locations of interest. The Azimuth Field-to-Lab solution provides the ability to accurately reproduce the same channel conditions observed during drive testing, in the lab, with the addition of fading and noise, offering a highly repeatable and reliable test methodology that will enable NSN to ensure that LTE equipment will perform with the high quality expected when deployed.
Every day, a quarter of the world’s population connects using Nokia Siemens Networks infrastructure and solutions. As the world’s number one provider of mobile infrastructure, with the most LTE commercial deals of any vendor, NSN is focused on delivering the best quality experience to its customers and consumers worldwide.
“We constantly innovate to provide the smartest solutions to our customers and expect our suppliers to meet the same standards of excellence. We performed a detailed evaluation of potential testing solutions and the Azimuth Field-to-Lab solution was the only one available that met all of our testing goals in terms of capabilities,” said Frank Weyerich, head of LTE E2E development at Nokia Siemens Networks. “NSN has come to rely on Azimuth’s easy-to-setup and use, bi-directional ACE MX wireless channel emulator for MIMO testing and the addition of the Field-to-Lab capabilities provide NSN with a market-leading, highly reliable solution for accurate verification of equipment performance.”
By allowing real-world RF conditions collected by drive test tools/scanners to be replayed in the laboratory through the Azimuth ACEâ„¢ MX MIMO channel emulator, the Azimuth Field-to-Lab solution bridges the gap between laboratory and field-measured test results. By utilizing actual channel conditions, test engineers can validate or benchmark mobile equipment performance and/or recreate network trouble spots/conditions for analysis and resolution. It is also the firstin the industry that allows users to automate the entire testbed, with an automation architecture that facilitates sharing of automation modules not only within individual companies, but also across ecosystems to drive consistency in the way things are tested while providing more reliable and repeatable results. These capabilities enable the entire mobile ecosystem, including operators, handset manufacturers and infrastructure vendors to troubleshoot, improve and optimize performance prior to and post deployment. In addition, the Field-to-Lab solution features a host of other features for unprecedented ease-of-use.
“The Azimuth Field-to-Lab solution will enable NSN products to be tested using industry standard models and real-world conditions from actual field data collected from locations of interest,” said Pete Paglia, senior vice president of field operations at Azimuth Systems. “This provides a comprehensive, repeatable and reliable test environment that is closer to the ‘real world’ than ever before, further enhancing NSN’s ability to deliver the high quality products that the company has built a reputation on providing, while saving NSN a substantial amount of time and money.”
Azimuth Systems will be showcasing the Field-to-Lab solution in booth #263 at this week’s CTIA Wireless conference, taking place at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL from March 22-24. Contact Azimuth to schedule an in-person meeting or product demonstration.
About Azimuth Systems
Azimuth Systems is a leading provider of wireless channel emulators and targeted test solutions for LTE/LTE-Advanced, WiMAX, 2G/3G cellular and Wi-Fi technologies. Azimuth’s products are used by the world’s foremost wireless semiconductor designers, infrastructure and mobile equipment vendors, and service providers to improve wireless product quality and speed time-to-market. Azimuth’s wireless test and channel emulation products and solutions enable research, development, quality assurance and systems engineers to test the performance, conformance, certification and interoperability of broadband wireless devices and networks while greatly reducing the cost and time of manual testing.
The company is based near Boston, Massachusetts, USA and may be contacted at +1 (978) 263-6610 or at www.azimuthsystems.com. Follow Azimuth Systems on Twitter at:http://twitter.com/azimuthsystems.
NSN boosts network efficiency with Liquid Radio
NSN has launched a new architecture for mobile networks which enables the company to direct mobile broadband capacity to where it is needed the most. Known as “Liquid Radio”, the approach enables a more economic use of network resources through sharing and redistributing capacity based on user demand. Nokia Siemens Networks has also announced its Flexi Multiradio Antenna System as part of the Liquid Radio architecture.
The company expects to start deploying the new platforms during 2011.
At the heart of Nokia Siemens Networks, Liquid Radio is the ability to respond to the demands of networks with a technique known as baseband pooling. This approach centralizes the resources needed to undertake processing functions common to every base station in a given area. Baseband pooling helps to achieve a more cost efficient sharing of resources over a large geographical area.
Nokia Siemens Networks Flexi Multiradio Antenna System is based on active antenna technology that combines antenna and radio part in one functional enclosure, built with dedicated power amplifiers for each antenna element. The active antenna allows Beamforming - focusing a particular radio connection and directing it to a specific user – as well as handling of multiple technologies in one unit.
Together with other layers of coverage provided by macro, pico and micro site configurations, beamforming allows capacity to be directed exactly where the user requires it, delivering up to 65% capacity gain.
NSN wants to alter Motorola assets purchase terms
Nokia Siemens Networks is reportedly seeking to renegotiate the terms of its US$1.2 billion acquisition of Motorola Solution’s wireless network assets.
The company is facing difficulty getting approval from Chinese authorities and recently stated that it would have to delay the completion of the transaction. It is also facing a legal challenge from Huawei in the USA over the Chinese vendor’s prior agreements with Motorola.
According to reports, NSN wants to exclude Motorola’s GSM unit from the acquisition and renegotiate the price accordingly in order to win antitrust approval by the Chinese government.
US and European regulators have already approved the transaction with the GSM assets included in the sale.
NSN bags Vodacom Tanzania network deal
Nokia Siemens Networks has won a five-year deal to manage telecom network of Vodacom Tanzania.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed, but the companies stated that they are aiming to reduce operating costs, improve efficiency, save energy and offer competitive tariffs to customers of Vodacom Tanzania.
They added that as a part of the agreement, 124 Vodacom Tanzania employees will transfer to Nokia Siemens Networks.
NSN appoints Marco Schroter as new CFO
Nokia Siemens Networks has named Marco Schroter as its new financial chief, succeeding Luca Maestri, who will join Xerox Corp. The appointment will be effective from March 14.
Schroter, a 47-year-old German, was previously chief financial officer at logistics company Schenker AG and at German semiconductor maker Infineon Technologies AG.
Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture between German conglomerate Siemens and Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia Corp. is restructuring amid ongoing price pressure from rivals, including Chinese vendors such as Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp.
According to the company’s CEO Rajeev Suri, Marco has a strong track record of disciplined financial management and helping deliver growth and shareholder value. As the company continues their turnaround, he is confident that he has the right skills and experience to help take Nokia Siemens Networks to the next level of performance.
BSNL and NSN sign SDH transmission equipment deal (India)
If reports are to be believed State-run Indian telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has selected the local unit of Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) to supply Synchronous Digital Hierarchy telecom transmission equipment.
The equipment is used for digital telephone networks, which is in a deal US$4.27 million.
Airtel plans African mobile market economy transformation
Bharti Airtel Limited is planning to move the transformation of African mobile communications and positively impact the speed of economic development across the African continent.
According to the company, it is relying on the partnership between it and IBM, which is expected to manage the computing and technology services that will enhance Airtel’s mobile network.
In addition to deploying and managing information technology (IT) infrastructure and applications, IBM will deploy advanced technologies created by IBM Research, including the Spoken Web _ a voice-enabled Internet that allows users to access and share information simply by talking over the existing telephone network, which is particularly compelling for populations with little or no literacy, visual impairments, or lack access to computers.
IBM is also planning to deploy a content management system to offer rich media content such as music and video over mobile devices, while simultaneously facilitating the growth of the application developer community in Africa.
According to Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) and Joint Managing Director, Bharti Airtel, the strategic partnerships with Ericsson, Huawei and NSN will exponentially improve the quality of the network across the African landscape and expand the footprint of the 2G and 3G services. In line with global trends, Africa is experiencing a surge in demand for access to mobile data applications.
The modernization and optimization of the networks will give Airtel an opportunity to offer exciting services in 2011.
Kohli further observed that the partnerships take us one step closer to our vision of making telephony available and affordable for everyone across Africa, even in the most remote areas which are at present disconnected from the world. We are also laying the foundation for the introduction of 3G HSPA wireless broadband as access to content is the right of every African citizen. Mobile broadband is a catalyst for economic growth and development. Many of their new customers will have an online experience for the first time in their lives.
China postpones NSN-Motorola deal
Chinese regulators have vetoed Nokia Siemens from attaining its goal of buying Motorola’s wireless infrastructure business by the end of 2010.
According to the company, it now expects the $1.2 billion acquisition to close in the first quarter of this year.
China’s Anti-Monopoly Bureau, a unit of the Ministry of Commerce, has so far yet to sign off on the proposed purchase.
Regulators from the US, the EU, Brazil, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan and Turkey have all approved the deal already, making China the last holdout.
According to Nokia Siemens CEO Rajeev Suri, they are continuing to work closely with the authority in China to finalize the clearance process in that country. The company was disappointed by the delay.
The deal for Nokia Siemens to buy the bulk of Motorola’s wireless infrastructure assets was first announced in July. It is part of Motorola’s plan to spin off its handset division from the rest of the company.
Nokia Siemens stated it would acquire around 7,500 former Motorola employees with the purchase, including entire large R&D sites in the US, China and India.
