Vodafone Australia apologizes for network problems
Vodafone Australia has issued a public apology to its increasingly irate customers over the quality of the network over the past few months. There has been a spate of complaints about network outages, dropped calls and network congestion – culminating in an attempt by a legal firm to sign up enough customers to launch a class-action lawsuit against the company.
According to Vodafone CEO, Nigel Dews, their aim is to provide their customers with an excellent customer experience and the best possible value, but recently their network and customer service performance, particularly in December and January, fell well below the standards they have set for them. He was truly sorry and apologised both personally and on behalf of everyone at Vodafone.
The company blamed the problems on growing its customer base faster than it upgraded its network to cope. The company also didn’t hire enough staff to deal with the increased customer base, an issue it expects to resolve by hiring 300 extra customer care staff.
The company has outlined plans for a major network overhaul, including the construction or upgrade of some 2,500 base stations over the next twelve months and a reported replacement of its entire Radio Access Network with Huawei supplied kit.
The company expects to spend around $1 billion on the network upgrades which will also include a provision for HSPA+ services.
Cisco & Juniper adopt 4G packet core
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Separate announcements have been made by Cisco and Juniper regarding new 4G evolved packet core (EPC) offers. Traditionally, total solution bids have been preferred by mobile operators where a large radio access network (RAN) vendor functions as the systems integrator, designing and rolling out the network and procuring third-party equipment only as required.
But the operators now have to rethink their procurement strategies because of a shift to end-to-end IP infrastructure and explosive mobile data forecasts.
Moving up the value chain and growing margins by offering leading-edge is currently on the minds of the router suppliers’ apart from providing feature-rich solutions rather than just playing a supporting role in mobile backhaul and Internet routing.
Hutchison 3G Austria modernizes its network for HSPA+ and LTE
Hutchison 3G Austria is modernizing its radio access network to be ready for HSPA+ and the next generation of mobile broadband, or LTE. At the same time this step will allow the operator to halve the energy consumption of its base stations. Nokia Siemens Networks will undertake this upgrade starting in autumn 2009.
The demand for increased mobile broadband capacity and throughput in Austria is reflected in the increasing usage of data cards and mobile services like Mobile TV, video download or video sharing,†said Berthold Thoma, CEO of Hutchison 3G Austria. Mobile broadband is also one of the most pragmatic solutions to bridging the digital gap between cities and rural areas. For rural areas, mobile broadband coverage is simply less expensive and faster to deploy than fiber to the home†solutions. We hope that with our nationwide coverage we will contribute significantly to this end.†(more…)
TeliaSonera to be first with UMA fixed/mobile convergence
Danish telco, TeliaSonera, will launch in November the first commercial service based on the global UMA standard enabling a cellular handset to be used to make VoIP calls over a home’s WiFi and broadband connection, and mobile calls outside.
According to an AFP report, TeliaSonera announced on Monday 28 August that it would launch in November a converged fixed mobile service under the name “Home Free” enabling callers to use a mobile phone at home as an IP phone.
The head of TeliaSonera in Denmark, Jesper Broekner, said in a statement: “We are introducing a product that combines the best of three worlds: mobile, fixed-line and Internet. Danish families will now be able to cancel their fixed line subscriptions at home without losing their home phone numbers, and at the same time save more than 20 percent on their phone bill.”
TeliaSonera said that, in future the technology could enable a cellphone to be used an IP phone if the user is in a Wi-Fi hotspot outdoors. The AFP report quoted TeliaSonera spokesman Rune Fick Hansen saying “We chose to concentrate first on usage at home…We may in a later phase extend this solution outside the home.”
Motorola announced in July that it had been selected by TeliaSonera to deploy its commercial UMA fixed mobile convergence solution for TeliaSonera’s planned UMA service launch in the second half of 2006.
Motorola said the contract “follows successful trials in 2005 and 2006 with TeliaSonera in Denmark and represents an important step forward in delivering Motorola’s vision of Seamless Mobility.”
Motorola will supply network infrastructure and integration and deployment services. Handsets for use with the service have not been announced. Motorola said that “TeliaSonera has trialled Motorola’s A910 device” but did not confirm that the A910 was part of the deal.
According to Motorola “UMA allows operators to use wireless LANs connected to fixed broadband connections as an alternative low-cost radio access network. With the technology users can seamlessly roam from cellular wide area radio access networks to wireless LAN to take advantage of better, higher speed, coverage and lower transport costs. Operators can therefore provide communications that are cost-effective in the home or at hot spots and the wide-area together with the convenience of a single handset with a single number, contacts book, voicemail and one bill. In addition, the delivery of wireless broadband to the mobile device when under WLAN coverage offers the potential to provide new data services for subscribers.
The Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) standard has been developed by global cellular standards body 3GPP and is already being trialled by several operators around the world. Clearly, it has the potential to erode cellular revenues but given users’ existing preferences for cellular telephony and their close relationship with their cellphone (it’s their personal phone with their personal number and stores all their contact details) it seems more likely that UMA will enable cellular operators to own the customer and provide the full range of telephone services. (in Denmark TeliaSonera focuses primarily on mobile services, broadband services and cable TV and is the second largest telco in the country).
A recent survey by Motorola indicates that more than 50 percent of the mobile subscribers in Western Europe would likely sign up for an Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA1) service within the next 12 months, provided that mobile calls in the home were priced the same as fixed line calls.
Vodafone has already flagged its intention to expand from being an operator of cellular networks only. Earlier this year it set out a strategy to be a ‘total communications supplier’ by, initially, reselling DSL services and integrating PC, internet and mobile services to offer ‘seamless interoperability.
Source- http://www.itwire.com.au
Technorati : Mobile, Motorola, TeliaSonera
Ice Rocket : Mobile, Motorola, TeliaSonera
