OPERATORS BACKHAUL OPTIONS

Mobile Europes latest Insight Report assesses the backhaul evolution

MOBILE
EUROPE
ALSO INSIDE:
CUSTOMER CARE

TEXT MAD GERMANS DRIVE PROFITS

EUROPES WIRELESS MAGAZINE S issue no. 211 S August/September 2010 S www.mobileeurope.co.uk

> Can operators

turn the customer care challenge into an opportunity?

MAKING MONEY

> Useage is up, but

revenues are flat, apart from in Germany where text dominates.

TV GO HOME

> Mobile video might yet

kill the TV star - although the race is not yet run.

P10

Can mobile operators

BEAT THE LIMITS

on roaming revenue?

P7

P9

LIGHT UP THE
We provide cost-efficient Ethernet Mobile Backhaul with optional TDM support over a single wavelength, stretching all the way to the cell site. Want to know how? Introducing Ethernet Mobile Backhaul Solutions. Meet us at Broadband World Forum, booth D4. Stay tuned at www.transmode.com

CELL SITE

Making light make sense

Contents
August/September 2010
Android making real inroads into UK market

INSIGHT REPORT
INTRO: THE OPTIONS FOR OPERATORS

15 16

The importance of efficient next generation backhaul made the topic an easy choice for this latest Insight Report.

MOBILE MARKET OVERVIEW & CAPEX FORECASTS

Backhaul cannot any longer be upgraded in parallel with the RAN. Fibre is the long term solution, but what about the interim?

MARKET DRIVERS & TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

The huge increase in demand created by upgraded RAN networks and flat-rate data contracts is pushing data traffic to new highs. What are the technology options to cope?

17 18

MARKET TRENDS
Microwave continues to be the most popular form of last mile backhaul for European mobile networks, but faces challenges to cope with ever-denser networks.

Belair launches dual radio picocell for cable-mobile integration.

COMPARATIVE BENEFITS
What are the benefits of PTP and PTMP microwave, Micro E-Band, WiMax, Micro PTMP and Fibre. Which technology do you think tops the matrix?

REGULARS
EDITORIAL

17

COST COMPARISON
If there is a technology winner, is the same technology that wins on cost? Leasing E1s is the most expensive, of course, but what wins the cost battle?

04 05

Keith Dyer says that the search for fairness has no easy answers. And he also announces MEs new website.

21

NEWS
Mobile revenues static despite huge growth in data volumes; Android handsets take real slice of contract handset market; Belair offloads mobile traffic onto cable with dual mode picocell; LTE launches in Turin and Uzbekistan while Telenor Hungary gets LTE ready; O2 Germany bucks declining trend; Acme and Sierra Wireless post good results; Redknee and Juniper make acquisitions in security and billing; Mobile video up, mobile TV down.

CONCLUSIONS
Pulling together all the above, our report reaches a perhaps surprising conclusion as to how operators can drive most cost savings from their backhaul links.

22

DIARY

34

The events and conferences coming up in the weeks ahead and the results of our poll on where MWC should go next.

FEATURES
CUSTOMER CARE
Incrasing data demands are driving the need for operators to evaluate their backhaul options

10 12

More smartphones; more customer calls. But is there an opportunity in there for the operators?

ROAMING PAST THE LIMIT?

Operators face a dual threat to roaming revenues. But what services will drive revenue growth, rather than limit them?

go to www.mobileeurope.co.uk for the latest information on mobile

Mobile Europe | 3

Comment
editor: keith dyer
Achieving a fair deal on mobile data You will see news articles in this issue that really serve to outline the problems facing operators. One story, based on information from Ofcom, shows that although data usage has grown twenty times over the past two years, data revenues have only doubled. Another report, on half-year results from Europes T1 operators, show that there is little growth around in the results column. So what is needed is some kind of reconnection between what operators sustain in terms of costs to support that data, and what they need to charge users to be profitable. On the one hand, operators can reduce costs, and our Insight Report into backhaul options for operators shows ways they can do just that in one critical area. On the other hand, they need to look at boosting service revenues, and our features into roaming and customer care show how even in two areas where operators are under pressure, there are still opportunities. We also hear much about tiered data pricing. It is, we are told, the only escape route for operators facing the data revenue gap. Operators have to start charging realistically, we are told. But we are also told that operators could limit the negative effect this might have Id like to draw your on users if they can convey these new attention to the fact that we now tiered pricing structures in a way that is relevant and personal to the user. One have a new website at theory that has been proposed has been www.mobileeurope.co.uk. around fairness. What if caps, limits and tiered pricing based on quality of service were explained in terms of fairness. Would users react better to that than just a blunt cap? So we thought it would be interesting to test these thoughts with some real consumers. To do that we enlisted the help of GfK NOP Technology. The headline finding for me was that although people say they agree with the fairness principle, one of the operators big hopes - tiered pricing - is less popular. On the other hand, there was broad agreement that network operators should work out a fairer way of charging for mobile data usage so that the majority of users do not end up subsidising the minority of heavy mobile data users. You can see the full results of this survey into fairness on www.mobileeurope.co.uk. Mobile Europes new website Speaking of which, Id like to draw your attention to the fact that we now have a new website at www.mobileeurope.co.uk. As well as a new look, youll see new features, including regular top level operator interviews and Im pleased to announced that our first one will be with the COO one of Europes largest and most forward-thinking operators, Turkcell. Were also including a regular series of video features addressing key industry topics - with the first one being on data pricing. There will also be increased opinion and comment from the industry itself - which means you. So if you havent been to the site recently, I do urge you to take a look now at www.mobileeurope.co.uk.
Editor: Keith Dyer keith.dyer@stjohnpatrick.com Direct tel: +44 (0) 203 007 0020 Web editor: Robert Riggs robert.riggs@stjohnpatrick.com Production Manager: Tania King Commercial Director: Justyn Gidley justyn.gidley@stjohnpatrick.com Direct tel: +44 (0) 20 7933 8979 Publishing director: Chris Cooke ISSN: 1350 7362 Free Subscriptions Mobile Europe is a controlled circulation monthly magazine available free to selected personnel at the publishers discretion. If you wish to apply for regular free copies then please write to: Database Services St John Patrick Publishing Ltd PO Box 6009, Thatcham, Berkshire, RG19 4TT. Tel: +44 (0) 1635 879361 Email: mobileeurope@circdata.com or register free online at: www.mobileeurope.co.uk Paid Subscriptions Readers who fall outside the strict terms of control may purchase an annual subscription . UK 1 Year - 96. International 1 Year - 120. Subscription enquiries should be sent to: Saint John Patrick Publishers PO Box 6009, Thatcham, Berkshire RG19 4TT United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1635 879361 Fax: +44 (0) 1635 868594 Email: mobileeurope@circdata.com Web: wwwmobileeurope.co.uk

MOBILE
EUROPE

Printed by William Gibbons & Sons Ltd, Willenhall, UK.

The views expressed in Mobile Europe are not necessarily those of the editor or the publisher. Mobile Europe is published by Saint John Patrick Publishers Ltd, 6 Laurence Pountney Hill, London EC4R 0BL.

4 | Mobile Europe

News
Ofcom stats l Android boost l News briefs

UK mobile revenues static despite growth in usage

Despite a twenty-fold increase in data traffic, and increased growth in voice minutes, overall mobile service revenues dropped in the UK between 2008 and 2009, according to Ofcoms report into the UK telecommunications market. Ofcom reported that mobile retail revenues were 14.9 billion in 2008, which is below both the 2009 and 2008 total revenues of 15.9 billion and 15 billion. This is the first time Ofcom has recorded a drop in retail revenues since it began collecting data in the 1990s This overall decrease was despite a sharp increase in active 3G connections from 30.3 million to 41.8 million, an increase in call minutes to 111 billion to 118 billion minutes, and a 2000% increase in data volumes since the end of 2007. Revenue from mobile line rental and voice services fell overall by 0.7 billion in 2009 to 10.4billion. Ofcom said that this decrease has been compensated by revenues from voice charges outside bundled offerings, but this year that number has also taken a hit and fell at a faster rate (7.4%) than those from bundled services. Ofcom said that nearly a third of all connections were using 3G by the end of 2009, with 8 million being added through the year. The below chart shows Ofcoms tracking of data volumes and revenues over a two year period. It should be noted however that the revenue figures only include metered or addon fees, and not a data allocation of a monthly tariff. Ofcoms results also showed that mobile broadband take-up through dongles is beginning to decline, having reached a peak penetration of 15% in Q3 2009. That said, mobile is now responsible for growth in uptake of household broadband. With fixed broadband leveling off at 65%, Ofcom now believes that the growth in overall broadband uptake is being driven by mobile. However, Ofcom also that customer satisfaction is lower with moblile broadband than with fixed.

ANDROID TAKES 13% SHARE OF UK CONTRACT MARKET

Android sales trebled during the first half of 2010, according to GfK

Sales of Android phones in the UK have more than trebled over the first half of 2010 according to market-tracker GfK. GfK said that although contract market sales grew by less than 1% overall, sales of Android phones increased by 350% from Q1 to Q2. The growth boosted the market share of phones with the Android OS to 13% during Q2 2010, from just 3% in Q1 2010. Sales of other phones based on what Gfk terms advanced OS grew 3.8%. Sales of nonadvanced OS-based phones dropped 25%. That meant that as Android put ten points on its market share, other advanced OS phones added just a point overall, growing from 525 to 53.5%. Non advanced OS phones dropped from a 45% market share to 33.3%. A Gfk spokesperson said that the company

could not mention individual companies by name, as many of them are clients. But it seems likely that HTC launches of phones based on Android drove much of the growth. HTC said that global sales of devices running Android increased 41% during the first six months of 2010. Samsung, ZTE and others have also launched Android-based devices. Overall, GfK said that Phones with an advanced Operating System* (OS) continue to grow in the contract market, reaching 66.7% in Q2 2010 compared to 55% in Q1 2010. Growth has been continuous since 2010 began and is expected to rise consistently throughout the rest of the year; Gfks latest monthly data shows that in June, phones with advanced OS represented 73.5% of the contract market.

I iBwave, a provider of in-building wireless software solutions, has signed a referral agreement with UK-based Aircom International, an independent network planning and optimisation consultancy. Through the partnership, Aircom will supplement its existing radio network optimisation and planning solutions with iBwaves indoor planning tools and techniques. I Designed to allow wireless operators to deploy commercial location-based services quickly, Andrew Solutions has introduced the new standalone GeoLENs Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) Platform. Andrews new GeoLENs SUPL Platform is based on a standalone server compliant to the Open Mobile Alliances SUPL 1.0 standard, which utilizes the user plane for providing the location of a mobile device. I Shipments of combo chipsets for mobile devices that gather a variety of connectivity types in one small package are expected to approach 280 million worldwide by the end of 2010, according to ABI Research. ABI Research forecasts that more than 979 million such chipsets will ship in 2015.

go to www.mobileeurope.co.uk for the latest mobile news

Mobile Europe | 5

News
Data offloading l LTE launches

BELAIR LAUNCHES DUAL RADIO PICOCELL

Product to bring cable and mobile operators closer together Mobile operators are being offered a new way of building out networks with the launch of a combined cell site/ WiFi access point from BelAir Networks. The idea of BelAirs 100SP Strand Picocell is that it will sit on the end of cable network infrastructure, allowing operators to take advantage of cable plants power and locations. BelAir says that the unit can sit on overhead cable, or on residential pedestals, or in cabinets. It can use AC power from the cable plant and use the cable network for backhaul. Dave Park, VP, Product Marketing, BelAir Networks, said this solves the three problems mobile operators have in cell site planning site availability, power and backhaul. Because the cells offer radios covering both licensed and unlicensed spectrum, they could be deployed by mobile operators to offer cell site coverage, but also be used to offload traffic from wireless networks directly over the cable network. The WiFi side of the unit would also enable cable operators to offer wireless access to their own subscribers. Park said the units also include a policy engine that can communicate with an operators central policy control systems to enable operators to be able to steer traffic either back into the core network or directly out over the internet. The difference we bring with this solution is that it enables a symbiotic relationship between mobile operators and the cable operators, Park said. It expands on the backhaul relationships we see today, which are more about leasing capacity. This is about a box that is an inherent part of the mobile and cable operators networks, he said. Stphane Tral, Principal Analyst, Mobile and FMC Infrastructure, Infonetics Research, said, "For mobile carriers looking at smaller cells as a way to augment their 3G and LTE networks, the BelAir100SP offers a very innovative approach to deploying and operating a small cell architecture within a traditional macrocell environment."

NSNs Flexi Multiradio Base Station

Telecom Italia and Nokia Siemens Networks trial LTE in Turin

Telecom Italia, Italys main communications service provider, is undertaking a trial of LTE, in collaboration with Nokia Siemens Networks, in selected city areas of Turin, Italy. With the 4G mobile network, TIM says its customers will be able to access services such as high definition video streaming, video conferencing, online gaming and many other multimedia applications for smart devices Nokia Siemens Networks end-to-end offering for LTE comprises its Flexi Multiradio Base Station, as well as its Evolved Packet Core (EPC) technology, which consists of the highly-scalable Flexi NG (Network Gateway) and Flexi NS (Network Server).

Belairs 100SP Strand Picocell

UCell deploys 4G network in Uzbekistan

ZTE, a global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, today announced that a 4G (LTE) network constructed for Uzbekistan mobile operator UCell - a subsidiary of TeliaSonera - has been successfully deployed with ZTEs SDR technology and Uni-RAN solution. The network is said to be able to achieve a downloading peak rate of up to 100 Mbps. With ZTEs SDR (Software Defined Radio) solution, the test in the nations capital Tashkent, ZTE and UCell demonstrated highspeed Internet access, streaming video, file uploads and downloads, Internet browsing and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). "We are proud that Uzbekistan has become one of the few countries in the world utilising the 4G network. As part of TeliaSonera, a company with over a hundred years of experience in telecommunications, we are committed to delivering state-of-the art technologies and an excellent wireless data experience to our customers," commented UCell Chief Executive Oguz Memiguven.

I The two millionth radio base station has been delivered by Ericsson, the company has announced. The unit was an Ericsson RBS 6000 unit, delivered as part of a mobile broadband network expansion project. Ericsson says it has supplied the majority of HSPA networks operating at speeds of 14.4 Mbps or higher, and claims to be the only supplier participating in all major 4G/LTE network builds currently underway.

6 | Mobile Europe

News
Results l Telenor Hungary
I Comprion is offering an LTE Test (U)SIM following the latest 3GPP specifications. All new LTE data fields up to Release 9 are included in the 256K/J Test (U)SIM. The card has implemented three applications: a Test SIM, a Test USIM and a Test ISIM. The Test (U)SIM also supports the three voltage classes 1.8V, 3V and 5V. I Cellcrypt, a provider of secure mobile voice calling, has announced that it has launched a secure conference service that provides both device authentication and voice call encryption to participants using popular mobile phones like BlackBerry and Nokia smartphones. The service authenticates the phone and encrypts conversations between each participant and the conference bridge. I Empirix has announced the availability of LTE and SAE technology support in its IPXplorer solution as part of its Distributed Monitoring Architecture. Empirix said that one limitation of conventional assurance products is the inability to provide comprehensive visibility into both the user and control planes. Consequently, network operators have limited vision into their customers' overall quality of experience (QoE), potentially mitigating the investment in LTE technologies. I Infineon Technologies and Intel Corporation have entered into a definitive agreement to transfer Infineons Wireless Solutions business to Intel for approximately US $1.4 billion.

GERMANY BUCKS DECLINING TREND

The half year results from both France Telecom and Telefonica show that although there are a whole host of good indicators across both operators business, both operators are seeing overall revenue decline in key European markets. The contract base is growing, traffic is increasing, data ARPU is growing, but voice ARPU continues to decline across all markets, although there was a slight slowing in the rate of decline from the first to second quarter in many reported markets. This voice decline clearly impacted on overall revenues, which also declined in many markets. This is the landscape the major operators face, and it shows that although many think the app opportunity is over-hyped, growing data revenues is critical to mobile operators, given that voice revenues appear to be in long term decline. However, it is clear that there are other ways to grow data revenues aside from chasing the app stores. One example is O2 Germany, where overall revenues were up year on year. Interestingly O2 ascribed this to non-P2P SMS revenues which it said were up 34% and now account for a whopping 41% of total mobile data revenues. Mobile data revenues themselves now accound to 32% of all O2 Germanys service revenues. Another, less positive, exception is the

Non P2P SMS now accounting for 41% of total mobile data revenues at O2 Germany

Czech Republic, where data revenues declined alongside voice revenues. O2 attributed this to an increased adoption of mobile broadband packages truly heres an insight in the data revenue gap whereby operators cannot realise the financial value of increasing sales of flat rate data packages. See how Orange and O2 have performed in your market at http://www.mobileeurope.co.uk/news/newsanaylsis/8020-the-truth-behind-o2-andoranges-results.

Telenor Hungary to build Hungarys first LTE-ready network

ZTE, a global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, has announced a contract with Telenor Hungary, a subsidiary of one of the Telenor Group, to build a GSM/UMTS/LTE network in Hungary. ZTE will provide the company with radio and core infrastructure over the next five years, including its industry leading End-to-End and Uni-RAN solutions. As part of our vision of a Digital Hungary, we predict a growing need for simple- to-use, value-for-money mobile communications services across Hungary, especially mobile broadband and we now see that the time has come to switch to the next gear and take the lead in providing even faster and even more reliable services to our customers, said Anders Jensen, CEO of Telenor Hungary. ZTE will switch, expand and operate the GSM/UMTS/LTE network and deploy over 6,000 base stations, including LTE eNodeBs throughout the country. With its SDR-based solution, ZTE will help Telenor Hungary achieve a unified 2G/3G/LTE core network, supporting multi-mode and multi-band wireless services. This technology eliminates the need for further infrastructure upgrades, providing the operator with the flexibility to roll-out new services and a smooth evolution path to LTE. This agreement with Telenor Hungary marks another major breakthrough in the European market for ZTEs Uni-RAN technology and further cements our partnership with Telenor. With ZTEs unified network, Telenor Hungary will have the flexibility to upgrade its network as new services are rolled-out, preparing it for the imminent 4G era, Kenneth Fredriksen, GM of ZTEs Telenor Business Unit.

go to www.mobileeurope.co.uk for the latest mobile news

Mobile Europe | 7

News
Acme Packet l Juniper l Redknee

WIRELESS DATA AND M2M DRIVE POSITIVE RESULTS

Results from two companies show the way the industry is heading at the moment with both benefiting, albeit in very different ways, from increased demand for mobile broadband and data services. First off, Acme Packet, which hit record second quarter revenues of $53.3 million recorded total revenue for the first six months of 2010 was $104.4 million compared to $63.8 million in the same period last year. This was Acme said that demand for its session border control products has been fuelled by a perfect storm of voice,video,image and data flooding networks which werent designed to handle it. Telcos the world over are undergoing a $125 billion upgrade to deal with this storm, Acme said in a note to Mobile Europe. Also feeling good about itself is Sierra Wireless, who also reported a record quarterly revenue of $159 million. Sierra, which markets embedded wireless modules as well as USB modems, and M2M services, said that revenue was driven by strong demand for M2M and mobile computing products in the quarter. In fact, of the $159 million, M2M revenue increased to $83.6 million, up 53% compared to $54.6 million in second quarter of 2009. CEO Jason Cohenour said this M2M growth was exceptional. Mobile computing revenue was $75.5 million, down 6% compared to $80.7 million in the second quarter of 2009, but up 21%
Sierra Wireless AirCard USB 308 / 310U

"ALSO FEELING GOOD ABOUT ITSELF IS SIERRA WIRELESS, WHO REPORTED A RECORD QUARTERLY REVENUE
enough for it to revise its 2010 outlook to a projected revenue of $214-218. Its last guidance, given in April, stood $10 million below that number.

sequentially from the first quarter of 2010. Although revenue is increasing for Sierra, results also showed the margin pressures in this market. Sierras 2Q net loss was $8.6 million compared to a net loss of $5.9 million in the second quarter of 2009. In revenue terms, Sierras results make contrasting reading from Options, a competitor in USB modems, data cards an embedded modules. Option, during the first quarter of 2010, generated revenue of 13.1 million, showing a marked decline from 50.8 million in Q1 2009 and 76.8million in the first quarter of 2008. Unlike Sierra Wireless, Option doesnt have an M2M business to build on, and has seen its market share in modems and data cards undermined by Chinese competitors.

Juniper Networks to buy SMobile

SMobile designs mobile security software for devices running on Android, Apple iOS, Symbian, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile operating systems. Its enterprise and consumer products protect devices from from viruses, spyware, identity theft and other threats, while providing parental and enterprise controls. Juniper will integrate this portfolio into Junos Pulse, its network security client that it launched at Mobile World Congress in February. The company said that SMobile would "extend our market share leadership in the SSLVPN segment with a breadth of new capabilities and device coverage that, we believe, is unmatched in the industry." According to industry analyst firm Infonetics Research, the mobile client security market is projected to grow to more than $1 billion by 2014. "Security breaches in today's mobile environment are growing threats that impact everyone," said Mark Bauhaus, executive vice president and general manager, Services Layer Technologies at Juniper Networks. "Juniper already secures the majority of smart phone traffic in the United States, is a global leader in high-end firewalls and the SSL VPN2 market, and enables more than 25 million end users to remotely and securely connect their PCs and smart phones to corporate networks. Integrating SMobile's portfolio into Junos Pulse will provide users with the most comprehensive mobile security solution available on the market." "The SMobile mission has always been to secure, manage and control all mobile devices, ensuring the Internet in your hand is safe and reliable for enterprises, consumers and service providers," said Neil Book, president and CEO of SMobile. "We are excited and energized about the opportunity to leverage Juniper's world-class organization and global sales channel to continue to provide the most feature-rich and robust mobile security solutions in the market."

REDKNEE CLOSES NIMBUS ACQUISITION

Redknee, a provider of business-critical billing and charging software and solutions for communications service providers, today announced the closing of its acquisition of Nimbus Systems, a privately-held company that specializes in next generation billing, content settlement and customer care. Redknee announced its intent to acquire Nimbus Systems on July 30, 2010. Caroline Chappell, Analyst at Large, Heavy Reading commented: The acquisition of Nimbus Systems by Redknee reiterates how the real-time billing and customer care space is becoming one of the most dynamic domains in the industry today. As the world continues to converge towards 3G and 4G networks, the need for robust end-to-end offerings in real-time billing and customer care becomes more urgent as service providers look to drive data revenue and increase profitability.

8 | Mobile Europe

News
Mobile TV

Dedicated mobile TV networks face uncertain future, says report

A new study has found that disappointing adoption levels of existing mobile TV services, allied to competition both from streamed mobile services facilitated by the growing prevalence of WiFi and from mobile reception of free-to-air terrestrial networks, has lead to growing disillusionment within the industry. The Juniper Research report found that the number of paying subscribers to networks based on standards such as DVB-H, DMB, CMMB and MediaFLO were not expected to exceed 10 million globally until 2013 (reaching only 5% of 190m paid mobile TV users) at the earliest by which time more than 180 million mobile customers will be subscribing to 3G/4G/WiFi enabled mobile TV services. According to mobile TV report author Dr Windsor Holden, Qualcomms recent announcement that it is seeking to sell mobile TV subsidiary MediaFLO is understandable: MediaFLO has been hamstrung by various factors, many of which have been outside its control. The delay in analogue switch off prevented it from gaining national coverage; its partners set the service price at too high a level which put off potential customers. When you factor in likely free to air competition over ATSC-M/H in the medium term, then clearly MediaFLO faces a difficult future in the US. However, the Juniper Report argues that MediaFLO may have better long-term prospects in Asian markets such as Japan and Taiwan, and that its networks and those of other mobile broadcast service providers may be better served focusing on delivering a wide range of data services rather than as acting as pure mobile TV distributors. It also identifies a further revenue stream for mobile TV delivered to in-vehicle entertainment systems.

YAMGO ANNOUNCES GLOBAL MOBILE TV SERVICE

Yamgo, which provides live streaming of linear TV channels to mobile phones has expanded its coverage from just the UK to build what it is terming a global content delivery network. Yamgo CEO and Founder Ian Mullins said, We have added different encoding and streaming capabilities that enable live TV to be watched even over very low bit rates from 2.5G to WiFi, and built a mobile TV Content Delivery Network that optimises delivery to mobile phones worldwide. We work on over 90% of phones worldwide that support streaming this is an industry first. You can now access live TV on almost any phone anywhere. We now encode into 15 different profiles and multiple formats. This has extended the reach and compatibility to more networks and old / low end devices. Mullins said that the company had negotiated global rights from 15 ondemand channels from Football to Bikini girls, and 4 linear channels (TV Yachts, Guitarist TV, Outdoor Sports Channel and UCB). We are launching 20 new linear channel as a result of this new platform globally over the next 3 months including some of the biggest news, sports and entertainment brands, he added.

Yamgos mobile TV streaming

So is there an opportunity for mobile operators in Yamgos approach? Mullins said that there may be. We are primarily focused on D2C, but with the advent of walled gardens coming back to restrict streaming due to capacity issues we are likely to offer Yamgo free to view services through some overseas operators next year. Operators need more reasons to up-sell the more expensive smartphones and live TV has mass market appeal, Mullins added. There have been mobile TV applications launched, but Mullins said that adopting an application based strategy for content distribution would require individual programmers to maintain and update Apple iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Mobile, Nokia and Blackberry apps and require users to update their apps to benefit from any developments.

MOBILE VIDEO REVENUES TO TRIPLE BY 2014, SAYS RESEARCH

The mobile video market is set for rapid expansion in the next few years, with revenues expected to roughly triple between 2009 and 2014, rising from $436 million to $1.34 billion, according to new research from eMarketer. Mobile video revenues, including direct downloads, subscriptions and ad-supported video, are expected to reach $548 million in 2010 as the population of mobile video viewers in the US grows to 23.9 million, the firm reports. Video is in many ways the most fragmented of the three primary mobile content categories, said Noah Elkin, eMarketer senior analyst. Video consumption on mobile phones can take place through various channels, including paid and free applications, mobile websites, pay-per-view downloads and subscriptions through mobile carriers. Of these three primary revenue streams for mobile video, the ad-supported component will be the fastest growing. Ad-supported mobile video revenues will post a 60% CAGR between 2009 and 2014.

MediaFLO could benefit from wider data services

go to www.mobileeurope.co.uk for the latest mobile news

Mobile Europe | 9

Customer care

THE HIDDEN COST OF THE SMARTPHONE

Although increased smartphone useage has brought increased support costs, some operators say they have the opportunity to fight back, and turn the cost centre into a revenue opportunity.
martphones are currently witnessing a period of rapid growth, according to a report this year from WDS Global. In mature markets they currently account for nearly a third of all handsets sold; by the end of 2011, they will have overtaken feature phones. WDS said that established smartphone OEMs are quickly expanding outside of their traditional enterprise markets to attract a wider consumer demographic and maintain share in a fiercely competitive market. Factors including the opensourcing of Operating Systems and a reduction in component prices have helped to lower the price point of smartphones. In addition, a strong ecosystem of third-party applications has helped to drive consumer interest in a wider portfolio of data applications and allowed carriers to further leverage their investments in high-speed data networks through the development of new offers such as application stores. WDS report said However, while the increasing proliferation of smartphones on carrier networks offers immediate, and obvious, revenue opportunities it does come with a degree of risk to subscriber profitability. In particular, the stresses that are placed on existing support channels as consumers explore sophisticated smartphone services can quickly erode margins that have already been reduced by the high subsidy costs carriers must bear to make smartphone technology accessible to the wider massmarket. For carriers the challenge will be to both manage this support burden and also help a wider demographic of consumer discover the full range of revenue-generating features and functions available to them. If this doesn't happen, consumers will default back to more familiar services and not realize their full revenue-generating potential. While consumers will change their devices without much thought, changing user behavior on the device is not so simple. As smartphone sales migrate through the prosumer and into the greater consumer mass-market, a wider demographic of user will be exposed to more sophisticated operating systems and functionality. It's important at this point to recognize that the buying behavior of the prosumer and consumer markets is markedly different. Motivation among prosumers is predominantly led by connectivity needs and peer conformity. The 'digital-native' generation expects, and is expected, to be connected at all times. They have a strong feature-led motivation that offers a clear rationale for purchase. After the point of purchase,

Can operators turn the call centre cost into a revenue opportunity?

there's likely a very clear process of exploration on the device, mapping to the original connectivity requirements. The mobile device market is typically technology-push driven. This means that products are created ahead of the recognition of existing consumer needs and development is frequently based on consumers' possible future needs. The result can be a sporadic approach by the wireless carrier and OEM communities to pre-empt the consumers' needs and position the smartphone as all things to all men. Without a clear motivating need, consumers can easily become overloaded with new technologies, features, functionalities and complex set-up procedures. In such circumstances, particularly when faced with an unfamiliar device, it's quite usual for the user to simply abandon set-up of a new service and return to familiar voice and SMS applications. Ultimately, while a user may change device with little thought, he won't necessarily change usage patterns to suit. When WDS asked what they did in the first 24 hours of ownership, consumers continued to show a bias towards personalisation of the handset (setting a ringtone, importing contacts and personalising wallpapers). However, mapping the features considered during the purchase phase, more a quarter showed a keenness to start using Internet services and nearly 20% wished to set-up their email accounts. Only the 16-34 year olds demonstrated an immediate desire to set-up social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter and download content and applications. Studies show that users will spend no more than 17 minutes trying to configure a data service such as email. After this time it is abandoned. For many users the challenge of setting-up and using a complex device or service will outweigh the potential benefits derived through

10 | Mobile Europe

Customer care

its use, resulting in its abandonment and users defaulting back to more familiar and 'comfortable' services. The impact the smartphone boom has had on mobile networks is well documented, but there is another cost for mobile operators that is hitting the profitability of new data services - and that is customer support. It may not be a sexy area, but consider the numbers. InnoPath's headline figure is that smartphones cost four times as much in terms of their lifetime support compared to featurephones. Stratecast estimates that smartphones require three times the average call handling time of a featurephone. Rob Dalgety, of Mformation, cites a Strategy Analytics stat that on average smart device calls last 45 minutes, "a lot longer" than the average feature phone call. "The problem for operators is that they are burning opex on these calls," Dalgety says. An InnoPath study in 2009 found that calls related to mobile email alone were costing operators and device makers $266 million a year. Just four main issues (email, internet settings, lost phones and handset bugs), representing less than 25% of support calls, cost operators $466 million over the 12 months to August 2009, InnoPath said. This can also lead to a knock-on cost as customers churn, or return handsets. RealVNC's Tom Blackie says that it's "not unusual" for 10-15% of new handsets to be returned as users struggle with configurations and become frustrated with lengthy calls to customer care centres. This impact on mobile operators is leading the industry to prioritise investment in solutions that give device management capabilities to front line customer care agents. This includes remote diagnostics, as well as the ability to carry out over the air fixes. The emphasis is on increasing what InnoPath calls "first call resolution", and also on freeing up higher tier support for genuinely complex issues. InnoPath says that three year savings from integrating device management at the customer care level at a Tier1 operator could amount to

Smarter devices can bring increased revnues but also increased care costs with longer and more complex calls.

Studies show that users will spend no more than 17 minutes trying to configure a data service such as email.

$575 million. Mformation's Dalgety says that giving his company's product to customer care agents will enable them to deal with device-based issues without having to escalate the call. As an example of this approach, Mformation has recently partnered with Amdocs to include its device management product within Amdocs' CES product. Already a key partner with HP, Dalgety says that Mformation is "vey focused" on this partnership with Amdocs, and sees it as adding a crucial tool to customer care agents' dashboards. InnoPath is also targeting its ActiveCare product for integration with Amdocs, Siebel and SAP's customer care software. It says that ActiveCare can save 14 minutes, or as much as $24 a call, by resolving issues quicker. Seth Nesbitt, Vice President, Product and Solutions Marketing, Amdocs, says, "Mobile devices and services are becoming increasingly complex, which makes providing profitable quality support for mobile customers a growing pain point for mobile operators." Orange is making 200 million revenue annually from the three million customers it has signed up to its Orange Care service, Olaf Swantee, Senior VP, France Telecom said. he service provides a combined "lifecycle" customer care service across user support issues, contacts and data transfer and back up, as well as insurance.Swantee said that the success of the Care approach shows that operators can turn what has previously been a cost base, customer care, into a revenue centre. "We have 90,000 people working in our call centre and retail distribution outlets and most of these people are quite reactive today. But they could bring a huge difference to the new market," Swantee said. With 75% of the user base still to access the mobile internet, Swantee said there is a big demand for customer care services to help users along they way. Even 15-20% of people that buy and iPhone request a customer care starter pack, he said, adding that this is for a device that is recognised as being user friendly. The issue for operators in smartphone customer care has been that support calls tend to last longer, and require more technical solutions -costing the oeprator. But Swantee said that using the retail channel, as well as remote access solutions, could turn this into a "big revenue stream." He also said that the device manufacturers were happy to see Orange take the lead in customer care, and Nokia had in fact worked with Orange to set up its care service.
Mobile Europe | 11

Roaming revenues

GOING BEYOND THE CAP

The canny provider will see the EUs data roaming caps not as a negative, but as a positive, an opportunity to not only generate revenue, but also strengthen relationships with their user base.
he growth in the use of smart phones means more customers are using data services and it is in this boom area that the operators opportunity lies, according to Alastair Hanlon, Global Director, Telecommunications, Convergys. Pre-caps, savvier customers, mindful of the potential charges for using data abroad, would switch off the internet capabilities of their devices, denying the operator any opportunity to make money. The huge bills of the few could not cover the fact that the majority steered clear of any activity which might result in bill shock, Hanlon says. With these cost caps, the smart phone is set free. With customers safe in the knowledge they will never be charged more than a set amount, users will not be afraid to make full use of their phones, using data services alongside more traditional voice and text, whether at home or abroad - providing operators with new revenues as they do so. For many customers a charge of 50 to browse the web on the beach, access their email or even use the satnav to find their hotel is a reasonable part of the holiday expense. Operators that get the service balance right and offer both access and holiday essentials, such as insurance, travel guides, and mapping services stand to earn more than they would have done under the previous regime. In order to do achieve such returns, operators need to start thinking about customer needs and how they can add value to the customer mobile experience when abroad. Amit Daniel, VP of Marketing and Business Development: Yes there is a strong effort by operators to boost roaming revenues. They now need to think out of the box and be more creative in order to differentiate from the competition. Price per minute and first-to-market are no longer sufficient.

The limit on data roaming in the EU could represent an opportunity.

I see it that operators, should they wish to, can react positively to this. If, for example, they monitor customer activity in real-time, they could immediately spot if a customer is using their phone abroad.
12 | Mobile Europe

Operators are getting more creative and flexible with pricing bundles, as well as cross-selling and up-selling: combining deals on roaming with local usage, in order to increase customer loyalty and stickiness. There is an increase in creative targeting, communication, and segmentation with regards to promotions. New tools are available such as SPARX http://www.starhome.com/sparx-campaignmanagement.html , which enables an advanced level of communication with their outbound roamers. To increase revenues and reduce CAPEX and OPEX, operators are turning to outsourcing to maintain the highest quality of service and, at the same time, reduce overhead. We are seeing more demand for hosted, managed service and centralized services. Regarding data caps, according to what we are hearing from operators, the data caps and transparency now offered to subscribers are paying off and they are experiencing increases in data roaming usage. Operators are able to detect the balance in real time. However, there are technical differences in how each operator reacts as the balance approaches the cap. The best solution is when operators send a notification to the subscriber, which also enables the subscriber to purchase more megabytes. In the second method, operators just cut off the subscriber when the data limit is reached. In the third method, operators simply slow down the speed of the connection as the limit approaches, so the limit is never actually reached.

Roaming revenues
Making use of customer intelligence, operators can capitalise on these opportunities. The ability to create roaming data bundles, and offer them to customers via SMS when they arrive at their holiday destinations, is one way to boost uptake of data services. There are other actions operators and their partners can take to encourage their customers to buy-in to roaming data for example, offering cut-price smartphone applications for translations and currency conversions or online weather reports. Mark Watson, CEO of mobile internet company Volantis, comments, Its well known that the smartphone boom has made it harder and more expensive for operators to service an increasing number of data requests through networks that were already somewhat overloaded. But its less well known that the boom has also made it harder and more expensive for those same operators to service an increasing number of customer care requests. "Phone hardware and software, and even billing plans, are all becoming increasingly complex, meaning customer care issues take that much longer to resolve. Thats why its essential that operators act to ease the burden on their callcentres by enabling customers to help themselves, especially when it comes to the more obvious enquiries, like those relating to data roaming, for example, which generate high call volumes from consumers who might easily be directed to the information they require by a selfcare system. Furthermore, beyond account management, self-care also provides opportunities for operators to widen existing key revenue streams such as selling additional accessories, or facilitating immediate upgrades to contracts. Consumers need greater autonomy, and to be given, at the very least, enough control over their account to make simple changes to their information via the mobile internet without having to waste time waiting for a rendered operator website to load. shock" that so many of us have felt. As such, the result of which could be a happy customer. Now, more than ever, telcos need to be forward thinking to stay competitive in such an aggressive marketplace. While Im sure the operators will feel the pinch with this added pressure, its up to them to respond and react accordingly to keep ahead in the current climate. As well as raising revenues, there is also potential to protect against losses, according to Giorgio Miano, VP Roaming Value Added Services, Syniverse, says, Assuring roaming revenue is vital, and to be successful, operators must ensure agreements and transactions are accurate at all times. Consequently, many operators have implemented anti-fraud and revenue assurance mechanisms that cover interconnection and billing. However, a number of recent cases have demonstrated substantial leakage in the roaming revenue generation chain, Miano says, So what to look for? Miano says that two common sources of leaked revenue are TAP files (files used for interoperator invoicing in roaming) that are missing or incorrect, as well as poor management of inter-operator tariff (IOT) discount agreements. To overcome these challenges, a combination of roaming traffic forecasting, advanced IOT discount management, and reliance on high-end statistical and data correlation models will enable operators to closely monitor potential leakage. When tightly integrated with operators' existing data clearing operations, these revenue assurance solutions will provide the highest benefits for operators, Miano concludes. Lars Pedersen, CEO of CommProve, adds that QoS monitoring can also limit the imact of revenue loss. If a continuous bad QoS is experienced by a roamer, they tend to make less calls or even reselect. Highlighting areas of consistently bad QoS for roamers allows operators to quickly fix the issues causing the problems, he says. We have a dedicated roaming solution as part of our CommProve Complete portfolio which is able to detect steering as well. Tthis gives end-to-end control plane and user plane with root cause analysis in one platform. So it seems form self-care, to revenue protection, there is still all to play for in roaming services.

Happy roaming,,,

A MAJOR US OPERATOR UTILISING VOLANTIS SELF-CARE SOLUTION FOUND THAT IT LED TO: T 30% reduction in customer service calls T 14% increase in customer engagement T 20% increase in customisation T 12% increase in search T 50% increase in featured downloads T 0.3% upgrade conversion This data, used in a real-time environment recognising the immediate needs of customers, can add real value to the customer experience - providing that wow factor to build loyalty. In this way, operators should be able to unlock far greater returns. Giles Nelson, deputy CTO, Progress Software, says, I see it that operators, should they wish to, can react positively to this. If, for example, they monitor customer activity in real-time, they could immediately spot if a customer is using their phone abroad. They network could then respond immediately, offering an upgrade package that includes international roaming, taking away that "bill
14 | Mobile Europe

MOBILE EUROPE

INSIGHT REPORT

Operator options for MOBILE BACKHAUL

Welcome to this Mobile Europe Insight Report into mobile backhaul. In this report we first take a look at the deployment options available to mobile operators as they face up to the bandwidth challenge facing them, and the need to evolve their networks from the legacy TDM to an IP/Ethernet model. We then move on to a series of illuminating executive interviews which shed light on the key concerns facing the industry right now. We hear how operators are changing their opinions on how to move to an IP/Ethernet model, and are adopting a pragmatic approach to network evolution. This is placing demands upon the vendor community, and leading to the need for a range of Ethernet-focussed products. Another major issue to surface has been that of assurance and monitoring in the backhaul, when that backhaul is carrying services over Ethernet rather than TDM. With test and monitoring standards immature, and operators lacking the people and processes to deal with Ethernet service turn-up and operation, this has presented itself as a key issue. We hope you enjoy this report on this critical issue, and thank all those involved for their participation. Keith Dyer Editor Mobile Europe

INSIGHT REPORT CONTENTS:

P16 Report/Mobile Backhaul P24 Interview/JDSU P26 Interview/Transmode P28 Interview/EXFO P30 Interview/RAD P32 Interview/DragonWave

REPORT AUTHORS:
Dimitris Mavrakis Senior Analyst Associate Informa Telecoms & Media Chris White Director Bristol York Ltd
For more information contact: Freda Benlamlih Director of Consulting Informa Telecoms & Media fredab@informa.com www.informatm.com

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INSIGHT REPORT

MOBILE BACKHAUL OPTIONS FOR OPERATORS

MOBILE MARKET OVERVIEW
ackhaul has always been upgraded in parallel to the RAN network in a linear fashion. This was fine for the voice-centric world where demand could be easily predicted

The shift in demand for data has put strain on the network.

and there was a direct correlation between traffic and revenues. However, the seismic shift in capacity and demand for data has

put such a strain on this relationship that a more radical upgrade is required. With this in mind operators are balancing their burgeoning OPEX costs against the CAPEX costs of upgrading. The perfect option would be a staged migration path where CAPEX could be kept in check whilst lowering OPEX over time. The transmission technology migration paths come in many forms however. The list includes E1 lines, fibre, satellite, Free Space Optics and microwave. Traditionally, the operator would simply plug in extra E1 lines but this linear approach to upgrade cannot cope with the step change in bandwidth. There is general consensus that although E1s are not going to go away soon, they are not really a viable alternative for the operator looking to prepare for the future. Fibre is the ultimate long-term

solution but prohibitively expensive for most operators in the short to medium term. Partnering with a cable player or fixed line incumbent who can justify the roll out costs by providing the backbone to several operators is increasingly attractive. However, microwave has been proven to be the most popular solution in the last 3-5 years, albeit as part of a wider backhaul mix including wireline. Informa estimates that 60% of last mile traffic in Europe is carried over microwave. PDH, SONET/SDH and ATM represent the legacy technologies in backhaul and are still likely to make up a significant portion of traffic for some time, gradually getting phased out. New methods of running Ethernet over PDH and SDH as well as ATM will ensure continuity over the transition period.

CAPEX FORECASTS
As a consequence of this data explosion, the amount spent by operators on backhaul has increased dramatically over the last three years. Backhaul CAPEX will level off over the forecast period as operators tackle their medium term problems with microwave and start build out fibre. The major pan European operators Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and Telefonica have spent heavily on upgrading their networks but are also entering into backhaul sharing agreements. Alliances between Vodafone and Telefonica as well as TMobile and 3 are likely to be the first of many and this will again serve to lower overall CAPEX and OPEX expenditures. Full scale merger is also underway in several countries (eg Orange UK and T-Mobile UK) and this will reduce CAPEX spend on backhaul. Cost savings will increasingly move beyond simple mast sharing to network sharing.
2009 2010

The mix of technologies will shift during this period with a move away from E1 to alternative technologies and a general move to Ethernet. Users of legacy equipment will increasingly find themselves at an OPEX cost disadvantage to Ethernet users on average 7-10 times the Ethernet equivalent OPEX cost and will thus be forced into the Ethernet camp.
2011 2012 2013

Right: European Backhaul CAPEX expenditure 20092013 ($million)

2,504

2,598

2,632

2,689

2,795

16 | Mobile Europe Insight Report

INSIGHT REPORT

MARKET DRIVERS
The principal drivers that are moving the backhaul market are demand related. The huge increase in demand created by upgraded RAN networks; new device types; flat-rate data contracts and laptop users using the mobile network is pushing data traffic to new highs. The fundamental correlation between traffic and revenue is diverging which means operators have to invest in different kind of backhaul to create a new cost/revenue equation. Looking forward, Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts that global mobile data traffic will increase at a CAGR of 76% from 238PB in 2008 to 4,105PB in 2013, representing an increase of 1587% from 2008 to 2013. Global mobile data revenues will increase 84% from US$175 billion in 2008 to US$322 billion in 2013, but will not come close to keeping pace with the network traffic boom. This will lead operators and vendors to significantly reduce costs through everything from outsourcing to network upgrades. With the growth of HSPA deployments and the upgrade path to LTE, new products and services will become available. Access to HSDPA, HSUPA and HSPA+ is increasing all the time in Western Europe and is expected to increase continually in the forecast period for this study through 2013 and beyond. Gradually, non-broadband data will be overtaken as the proliferation of HSPA mobile and portable devices increases. The worrying aspect of more widespread HSPA is that it creates a high peak to mean variance in bandwidth requirement sometimes varying tenfold or more in one cell. Very peaky traffic is becoming a challenge for mobile operators since it means they have to over-provision their network so that it is never fully utilised. One way to deal with this is to use technologies such as Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) to manage and prioritise data flows within the network or to use more flexible network configurations that allow cell offload of peak traffic. By introducing flat rate or all you can eat tariffs operators are effectively encouraging their customers to access the Internet in the same way as PC users - to access 'free' services, be they Internet mail, information and entertainment services or third-party e-commerce sites. This is a reversal of previous mobile operator thinking, which saw the operator trying to develop a revenue stream from Internet content as well as access and directing their users to their operator-owned walled garden.

TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
GSM and UMTS networks today generally use TDM and ATM, not Ethernet, as interfaces for base stations. Therefore, if these operators want to capitalize on the benefits of using inexpensive packet-switched transport (DSL, wireless, GPON), they need some means of emulating TDM or ATM over Ethernet. The basis for the solution comes in the form of pseudowire types of circuit emulation and pseudowire types of service emulation, which enable TDMand ATM-type traffic, such as 2G GSM and 3G UMTS, to run transparently over IP. As an interim technology with the main purpose being to help mobile operators bridge the gap between their legacy networks and their future all-IP networks, it is not seen as a long-term option. Therefore, as operators replace their legacy backhaul networks with more advanced technology, it becomes more likely that the need for pseudowire will dissipate in advanced markets. Backhaul Network Sharing Previously, sharing backhaul was going too far for many operators. Although there were plenty of companies sharing passively, using the same tower, this did not address the traffic issue. Active sharing, using the same boxes and transport facilities, is on the increase as operators look to spread the costs of backhaul upgrade. Up till now, most sharing has been done on a country by country basis but there are signs that pan European deals may come to pass. Vodafone and Telefonica are exploring options in multiple countries and it seems likely that second and third operators in most regions will look to reduce CAPEX and OPEX through similar arrangements. INCREASED USE OF PON A passive optical network (PON) is a point to multipoint, fibre to the premises network architecture in which unpowered optical splitters are used to enable a single optical fibre to serve multiple premises. Gigabyte PON represents a boost in both the total bandwidth and bandwidth efficiency through the use of larger, variable-length packets. PON is a more costeffective way to deliver fibre but the use of PONbe it GPON, EPON, or WDMPONfor wireless backhaul continues to be low scale. Informa does not expect PON to leapfrog microwave or copperbased technologies in the near term. GROWTH IN USE OF DPI Another technology seeing increased use is deep packet inspection (DPI) and deep content inspection (DCI). Until recently, DPI/DCI was mostly used for surveillance and other security applications but is now being used to analyse network, application and user behaviour, service control and traffic management, as well as security, peer to peer control (such as for VoIP), and distributed denial of attack mitigation. DPI software can intercept all incoming traffic and ensure each bit is
Mobile Europe Insight Report | 17

????????

INSIGHT REPORT
routed appropriately, even altering the way data is carried if necessary such as to accommodate a router that cant cope with MPLS. UNLICENSED & SPREAD SPECTRUM GAINS INTEREST Because of shortages in licensed spectrum in Europe, operators are looking at unlicensed and spread spectrum as alternatives for backhaul. Spread spectrum techniques (e.g. frequency hopping spread spectrum) mitigate security concerns in unlicensed bands but impose spectral efficiency overheads to process the signal. Interference is a big hindrance to unlicensed spectrum. Of the three technologies, licensed microwave produces the least residual noise and gives the greatest protection ("isolation") from interference. Unlicensed systems simply do not incorporate the level of interference protection that the higher cost licensed radios do, and that mobile operators require given their cost for time out of service and service level agreements with operator corporate customers. That and the lack of adequate standards mean that no unlicensed vendor will guarantee a single year of clear, interference-free operation. As such, unlicensed spectrum solutions are rarely deployed inmobile networks, except in cases where temporary, quickly deployed backhaul solutions are necessary.

MARKET TRENDS
Most mobile operators in Western Europe will currently be running a mix of technologies. Many will be leasing rather than owning the network but all are looking at new technologies to manage the high data growth throughout the region. Legacy technologies that were devised for voice, such as ATM, PDH or SONET/SDH, will continue to run alongside any upgrade or new rollout for the foreseeable future. Microwave continues to be the most popular form of last mile backhaul for European mobile networks, with a market share continuing at 60% or better of most European cell sites for the next 5 years or more. Fibre and microwave share is currently increasing at the expense of the only form of backhaul in decline, which is copper. However, Fibre and microwave have their challenges in Europe: Fibre is costly and time consuming to deploy. Conventional microwave is struggling to cope with ever-denser networks, which put strain on network architecture and spectrum resources. New microwave solutions are coming to prominence to deal with the issue. A lot of operators already have spectrum that they can utilise as backhaul with microwave and even unlicensed spectrum is being looked at. Balancing OPEX and CAPEX The major backhaul challenges facing mobile operators in Western Europe are as follows: T Preventing Operating expenses getting out of control while supporting exponential data traffic growth T Transitioning away from legacy to new backhaul technologies in a logical and efficient manner T Getting the technology mix right at the right time In order to deal with these challenges most operators are building a mediumterm plan to manage OPEX costs with an eye towards a move to fibre in the long-term where practical. The various tools at their disposal are market tools such as backhaul sharing or leasing and technology tools such as using new technologies and improvements in traffic management such as DPI and statistical gain. In order to effectively pursue a mobile backhaul strategy the operator needs to balance their CAPEX and OPEX expenditure and accurately assess the total cost of ownership (TCO) of deployment. In order to better understand the implications of these decisions Informa has built a series of matrices to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of each different technology options with regard to OPEX and CAPEX against performance gains. In the OPEX matrix, fibre is the most

In order to effectively pursue a mobile backhaul strategy the operator needs to balance their CAPEX and OPEX and accurately assess the total cost of ownership (TCO) of deployment.
Over the air backhaul has gained in popularity significantly in the last 2-3 years as the price points and performance improved. Virtually all Tier1 operators use microwave to backhaul their traffic to a greater or lesser extent.

Below: OPEX / CAPEX Decision Matrices

18 | Mobile Europe Insight Report

INSIGHT REPORT
attractive proposition. Fibre degradation is low so replacement or breakdown is likely to be infrequent and bandwidth can be improved via software upgrade rather than expensive hardware replacement. It is also an extremely high bandwidth solution 100Mbps in early deployments rising to 3Gbps in later versions. CAPEX is a different matter however and fibre is seen to be prohibitively expensive to deploy widely in Europe in the coming years. E1 replacement is the least attractive proposition from an OPEX point of view. Essentially adding more lines is a linear way to deal with something that needs a step change to a new technology. Very soon the costs of maintaining a network of E1s will put the operator at such a cost disadvantage it will be deemed non-viable. Depending on how the operator accounts for E1s the CAPEX can be relatively minor. Pseudowire or equivalent E1 over Ethernet technologies are an attractive proposition for operators looking to manage short-term resources effectively and cheaply. Both CAPEX and OPEX are relatively modest but over the years it is likely to become less attractive as it is restrained by the legacy networks on which it runs. It is likely to be used in Ethernet backhaul networks to support existing E1 interfaced base stations where the expense to upgrade the base station to Ethernet can not be justified. Similarly, software that enables better management of traffic can only go so far in managing backhaul. However, as part of the wider mix of technologies it is an as a backhaul medium has never really been tried thoroughly. Costs are likely to be low as the likelihood is WiMAX will have more than one use (ie backhaul will have to share with other services). However, for this reason there may be a performance trade-off as backhaul has to deal with the peaks and troughs of other services. WiMAX in its present form also has lower capacity capability than Microwave or Fibre. Satellite backhaul is expensive to maintain and largely impractical for the urban and suburban centres of Europe. It may have some in-fill applications in remote or rural areas however. Performance will be limited although in terms of distance it has no limitations. Microwave backhaul solutions come out better when looking at both OPEX and CAPEX overall. As a low cost rapid to deploy solution they are comparatively high performance and low overall cost. Of the Microwave backhaul solutions, Microwave Point to Multipoint (Microwave PTMP) sits in the advantageous top right quadrant in both matrices. PTMP uses less antennas than PTP and E-Band microwave and so has a lower OPEX cost in terms of maintenance and the cost of renting space for the tower. PTMP is also more spectrally efficient which is very important with Europes shortage in spectrum.

Pseudowire or equivalent E1 over Ethernet technologies are an attractive proposition for operators looking to manage short-term resources effectively and cheaply.

essential tool to maximise resources. It is also a low cost way of managing traffic in an effective manner. Despite being capable of sending up to 1.25 Gbps of data, voice, and video communications simultaneously through the air without requiring physical fibreoptic Free Space Optics has several things against it that are clearly the reasons for its lack of success in Europe. It has a limited range, it has deep fade in fog and rain, and it also suffers from a lack of commercial pedigree and proven deployment advantages. Operators are reluctant to add yet another technology, especially one with a short history, to their mix of backhaul technologies. WiMAX and next generation WiMAX

COMPARATIVE BENEFITS
This analysis is based on a 5 year timeframe using a tier 1 Western European operator as the case example. Obviously every country has a different topology and legacy network and every operator will have different priorities and strategic plans for its RAN network but in this case it is assumed the operator has an HSPA network and a mix of existing backhaul technologies including E1s and PTP microwave backhaul. In the case of spectral efficiency, wireline technologies automatically score 5 since they are subject to a much friendlier communications channel contrary to wireless which is facing a hostile radio environment and make full use of available bandwidth. PTMP MICROWAVE Overall, the technology most suited to deal with the current upgrade requirement in Western Europe is Microwave PTMP with 28 points. PTMP microwave scores highly on low CAPEX costs due to the reduced number of antennas required and on OPEX costs due to the need for less roof space and rental costs for those antennas. It also has excellent bandwidth performance due to its ability to manage traffic dynamically in a distributed architecture. Deployment time is less than half of PTP and the only issue it is facing is lower market penetration due to the predominance of PTP microwave in Europe. However, PTMP has now evolved to a mature, tactical and strategic technology and increasingly being considered for mobile broadband operators. A traditional point-to-point (PTP) network has two radios for each link compared with one for PTMP. This very simple fundamental difference between PTP and PTMP is one of the key reasons that PTMP is cheaper than PTP. Less equipment means lower CAPEX and lower OPEX (for example, roof right fees for antennae). PTMP systems have been designed both as single and bi-directional systems. A central antenna or antenna array broadcasts to several receiving antennae and the system uses a form of
Mobile Europe Insight Report | 19

INSIGHT REPORT
PTP MICROWAVE Traditional PTP microwave scores comparatively poorly on bandwidth and spectral efficiency with a total score of 23. Despite having a larger range and capacity per link, where a density of links is required in urban areas it does not perform as well. Its low initial cost per link however ensures CAPEX costs can be kept low. On the other hand, PTP microwave is very suitable in mesh networks when redundant links are included but is inefficient in its use of available spectrum and incurs high OPEX costs. Microwave is widely deployed throughout Europe and is a tried and tested technology. Compared with E1 connectivity the uptime expectations for licensed PTP microwave is much higher and this is an important factor for operators. PTP radios operating in the 7-15GHz bands often have far more capacity than is actually needed for a rural base transceiver station (BTS) link. The capital costs of these over-specified radios, combined with their installation costs, contribute to the significant increase in rural backhaul network costs. E1 E1 lines are still the mainstay of many European networks but they are increasingly being supplemented or replaced by technologies better able to cope with the explosion in data capacity required. For that reason E1 lines had a total score of 21 points. Although upgrades can be made, the long term viability of E1 is severely impaired which is why it only scored 1 when it comes to upgrade path. Similarly, bandwidth performance is poor as there is a limit to how many lines can be added. The cost of these lines is becoming prohibitively expensive for an OPEX budget. HYBRID E1/DSL Although the use of E1 lines is being reduced due to increasing costs, the availability of copper at the vast majority of base stations in Western Europe has allowed operators to take advantage of DSL to backhaul non-time critical traffic, in most cases HSPA

Above: Comparative Benefits Matrix

time division multiplexing to allow for the back-channel traffic. PTMP is increasingly viewed as a cost-effective way to serve areas of higher base station density in urban and suburban environments. The primary reason PTMP has not seen wider adoption in Europe is mainly down to the unfamiliarity of mobile operators with PTMP spectrum and concerns that future demands may not be met by available spectrum. However, PTMP spectrum is practically underutilised in Europe primarily due to the low penetration of PTMP - while PTP spectrum has become congested. Bundling by backhaul vendors and enhancements in PTP have managed to keep PTMP out of the market despite its success as a strategic backhaul solution elsewhere. However, several Tier-1 mobile operators have deployed PTMP in smaller scales, including Vodafone, TIM and T-Mobile. E-BAND MICROWAVE Microwave E-Band also scores highly on OPEX reduction and performance but suffers from higher cost on CAPEX and spectral efficiency. There is some doubt about its ability to give ubiquitous coverage due to constraints on distance. Similarly, it suffers from a lack of deployments on which to draw experience. Overall E-Band scores 24 points. Systems operating at the e-band frequencies have two unique characteristics not experienced by conventional lower frequency devices.

Firstly, the high operational frequencies of e-band systems make antennas highly directional, meaning systems communicate via highly focused "pencil beam" transmissions. Secondly, the 7176 and 81-86 GHz frequency bands are configured as two single channels, meaning traditional frequency planning does not need to be considered. Together, these two unique properties of e-band systems enable operators to realize networks with a high degree of frequency reuse, even configuring links close to one another without interference concerns. FIBRE Fibre also scores highly overall with 24 points and specifically in the categories of long-term applicability. Fibre is a long term solution that is too costly to roll out in most of Western Europe. The most likely scenario is that it will be deployed gradually over time with legacy technologies and microwave making up the largest share of the market until CAPEX costs are low enough for it to make sense. However, a case could be made to deploy fibre extensively in urban areas where there is already significant fibre presence if it is considered over a 10 year plus timeframe and network sharing could also make the technology more affordable. In terms of speed of deployment, fibre also performs poorly, with deployment times being dominated with requirement to dig up streets 90 to 180 days is normal, with some deployments being longer.

20 | Mobile Europe Insight Report

INSIGHT REPORT
traffic. Several infrastructure vendors are now bundling hybrid backhaul solutions with base stations and TDM infrastructure while mobile operators are starting to install DSL in congested base stations. Compared to E1 lines, DSL allows much higher data rates (up to 24Mbps and in most cases 16Mbps) at a fraction of the monthly cost. Although DSL can backhaul non-realtime data efficiently, it is currently considered a tactical short-term solution to alleviate backhaul constraints before a longterm solution is deployed in the next few years. Nevertheless, DSL is receiving tactical importance to reduce E1 costs and is being deployed in mobile broadband operators throughout Europe in the short term. For this reason we have not included Hybrid E1/DSL in our table due to the fact that it is not a long-term backhaul solution. SATELLITE Satellite backhaul scored 20 overall in the comparison matrix. Satellite is not particularly cost effective from a CAPEX and OPEX perspective in Western Europe. This is partly due to geography and the fact that wireline infrastructure is already well established. There may be a scenario eventually when satellite may make sense if it is shared by several operators and used in rural areas.

COST COMPARISON
This section describes the backhaul cost for a Tier-1 mobile broadband operator in the UK for various backhaul technologies. In order to get a grasp of cost involved with each technology, a direct comparison has been made between technologies, assuming that all backhaul traffic is transferred through a single technology. Although this is unlikely (due to terrain, copper/fibre availability), it outlines the overall cost of each technology to transfer the amount of traffic that goes through an advanced mobile broadband network. The traffic included in the calculation model is presented in the following diagram. Although voice and data traffic were of similar size during 2008, the explosion of mobile broadband fuels an exponential increase on data traffic which creates bottlenecks in both radio and backhaul networks as the end of the forecasting period is reached. The following diagram illustrates the cost of transferring the data traffic (voice traffic is assumed to be transferred through E1) through the backhaul technologies outlined above. As expected, the highest backhaul cost is leasing E1 lines, due to the extremely high cost per Mbps and the need for multiple leased lines per base station. As the end of the forecast period approaches, the cost of backhauling traffic with E1 increases proportionally with traffic, making its use extremely inefficient. The second most expensive technology is fibre deployment but due to its higher capacity and long-term usage, it may be an option for certain mobile operators compared with leasing E1. The most cost effective technologies are microwave technologies, with PTMP being more cost efficient than PTP. This is also accentuated by the trend to own infrastructure rather than lease it, making RF the most viable solution if owned fibre is not present. Naturally, it is not possible to generalise backhaul requirements for all mobile operators, but the analysis presented above outlines the cost of each backhaul technology and suggests that microwave (especially PTMP) is the most cost-efficient. Table 3 illustrates a realistic scenario, where traffic is backhauled through a variety of technologies, as in typical Tier-1 networks in the UK. The following table illustrates the segmentation of traffic per backhaul technology. The following graph illustrates the cost of transferring all data traffic through each of the backhaul technologies outlined above.
BACKHAUL TECHNOLOGY TRAFFIC PERCENTAGE

E1 Fibre (leased)
Hybrid (E1/Ethernet DSL)
BACKHAUL COSTS FOR TDM/LEASED FIBRE SCENARIO Table 4 illustrates the cost of backhaul if both fibre and hybrid technologies are replaced with PTMP microwave. Finally, the following diagram illustrates a direct comparison between the two scenarios outlined above and a third scenario where 20% of traffic is backhauled through TDM infrastructure while the rest is transferred via PTP microwave. KEY TAKEAWAYS Although both leasing fibre and hybrid

20% 40%
40%
Above: Traffic segmentation per backhaul technology

Left: Backhaul costs for TDM/leased fibre scenario

Mobile Europe Insight Report | 21

INSIGHT REPORT
backhaul technologies are considered costefficient, analysis shows that PTMP can provide better cost savings in backhaul, even compared to the widely established PTP microwave in Western Europe. Moreover, the operator owns the infrastructure rather than relying on a third party, making the use of PTMP ideal in Western Europe, where mobile broadband traffic is set to explode and create severe backhaul bottlenecks. The analysis here illustrates several attractive cost savings for the mobile broadband operator covered in this case study: T Cost savings of PTMP compared with TDM/fibre leasing for the total cost to transfer traffic amounts to US$497 million per year during 2010, increasing to US$2.8 billion per year for 2014 T PTMP is expected to offer cost savings of US$26 million during 2010 and this will increase to US$248 million during 2014 compared to PTP microwave. Although PTP microwave is considered the most cost-effective solution for densely populated urban areas, this analysis illustrates that PTMP is more cost efficient and can help mobile operators to reduce infrastructure costs while meeting mobile broadband capacity demands. The analysis presented here has been undertaken for an international Tier-1 operator running a mobile broadband network in the UK. Given that Tier-1 operator currently operate several networks in developed markets, cost savings of using PTMP in several market would amount to formidable OPEX savings in the 5-year period: T Assuming that mobile traffic across developed markets is similar, a Tier-1 mobile operator will be able to save up to US$10 billion in OPEX if PTMP is used rather than fibre. T The first year of operating PTMP would save approximately US$2.5 billion, a considerable amount for any Tier-1 mobile operator using leased fibre to backhaul data traffic.

Although PTP microwave is considered the most costeffective solution for densely populated urban areas, this analysis illustrates that PTMP is more cost efficient and can help mobile operators to reduce infrastructure costs while meeting mobile broadband capacity demands.

CONCLUSIONS
The following list outlines key conclusions that were an outcome of the research and calculations presented above: Capacity Requirements Continue to Rise The data explosion is the result of upgraded networks, higher end handsets and flat rate data plans. With higher network speeds planned and new and more sophisticated handsets in the pipeline the situation is set to become more acute. E1 is Not a Viable Option - It is universally acknowledged that simply plugging in more E1 lines is not a sustainable strategy in the new data age. The operator pursuing this strategy will be put at a major operating cost disadvantage.
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Fibre is Still too Expensive to be Rolled Out in Europe The cost economics of rolling out fibre mean that it is still too expensive to deploy widely. There will come a tipping point in about 8-10 years when costs have fallen and benefits of upgrading make sense. Mixed Technology Approach will be the Most Likely Strategy - Mobile operators do not have the luxury or the capital to upgrade their backhaul networks in one go. Instead they will use a mix of technologies with microwave likely to be widely deployed alongside legacy technologies. Over time fibre will become a larger part of the mix. PTMP is the Most Logical Short to Medium Term Choice for Mobile

Backhaul PTMP microwave is a relative newcomer to Western Europe but in terms of OPEX/CAPEX benefits performance gains it is the most attractive of the technologies on offer. According to the calculations in this white paper, PTMP can offer savings of up to US$5 billion over a 5-year period for a Tier-1 mobile operator with networks in 5 European developed markets. Informa estimates that PTMP can be deployed at 5% the cost of fibre and is 40% more cost effective to deploy compared with PTP microwave. Given that CAPEX is expected to reach US$2.6 billion during 2010 in Western Europe, cost savings from PTMP can become an important driver to reduce overall costs.

SPONSORED INTERVIEW

ASSURANCE IN A SERVICE-ORIENTATED WORLD

Operators are moving to LTE and Ethernet backhaul in an effort to reduce their cost per bit, and overall opex costs, but they face challenges to be able to monitor and assure services in the new environment. Jay Stewart, Director Ethernet Service Assurance, JDSU, tells Keith Dyer how they can meet those challenges
KEITH DYER:
Can you outline what the issues are with service assurance in Ethernet, and how that applies to mobile backhaul?

JAY STEWART:
The pressure to succeed at backhaul has never been greater for service providers the surge of mobile data traffic and associated cost of its transport has created a number of significant business challenges. The important, inevitable step of updating a backhaul network from TDM to Ethernet is not about if but about when. A big problem is that Ethernet was not originally designed for carrier-grade use. Backhaul brings a new dimension to the testing of Ethernet. The introduction of Ethernet to the backhaul adds new complexity, in terms of the physical speeds required and in terms of the new provisioning and set up for the service attributes of that space.

KEITH DYER:
What are the challenges that operators face and how can they overcome them?

JAY STEWART:
Service providers are facing difficult operational challenges with the deployment of Ethernet services for mobile backhaul. The turn-up of 3G and 4G is seeing the offloading of data on to Ethernet, with providers having multiple Ethernet Vitutal Circuits (EVCs) each one with different Class of Service (CoS) attributes. Those providers are being tasked to monitor that traffic and apply different shaping and management end-to-end across different network elements. Thats been the big change that backhaul has brought to Ethernet testing. In the past performance monitoring operated at the network level and was relatively simple but now with next generation elements, performance monitoring is a much bigger issue as operators deal with multiple QoS mechanisms. The concept has moved from being network based to being service based, which does not equate to what people have used in the TDM world. LTE for instance very clearly calls out nine QoS classification IDs, and how to manage that is also outlined in 3GPP. So as well as an increase in the amount of data the network has got more complex with more QoS mechanisms, and with everything being IP based.

Increased bandwidth demand to tower sites is driving the need for here and now solutions.

KEITH DYER:
So that puts operators in a very different place from where they were before. Can they lean at all on their prior methods of assurance?

JAY STEWART:
I think at a high level they can lean on things they have been used to doing but in going to Ethernet they are necessarily going to have to move to a services based approach to performance management, managing each EVC as a separate link, and managing the multiple QoS mechanisms within each EVC. In each case they must manage

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each one as if they were a separate SLA. Operators have found that they have been able to get the architecture to work, but being able to carry out their test and performance monitoring has not been completely thought through. One customer said to me that they have taken 30 years to build their network, and now they are asking me to convert that to Ethernet in three to four years with fewer resources. So they are facing more services over more circuits with fewer resources, meaning a focus on reducing opex and lowering the overall cost per bit.

KEITH DYER:
So operators need solutions that are specifically designed for this Ethernet service environment?

JAY STEWART:
That is right, and for instance our NetComplete Ethernet portfolio, which covers the entire Ethernet services deployment lifecycle, is designed to provide the necessary functions to ensure reliability during the mobile service provider's Ethernet backhaul transition. These functions enable not only the transition to HSPA, HSPA+, and LTE but also the accurate identification and troubleshooting of service-affecting issues, including Ethernet services turn-up testing and validation combined with service performance and SLA monitoring. By monitoring service performance and SLA conformance a mobile service provider can proactively monitor and manage the service and avoid costly service outages.

In the past performance monitoring operated at the network level and was relatively simple but now with next generation elements, monitoring is a much bigger issue as operators deal with multiple QoS mechanisms.

standards-compliant with RFC-2544, IEEE 802.1ag and ITU Y.1731, eliminating issues related to network element interoperability and provisioning.

KEITH DYER:
Which takes us into the thorny discussions around OAM standards development

JAY STEWART:
There has been confusion around the standards. Right now there are standards being developed through the ITU, but they are still not yet being put into network elements, and I think really that is still 12-18 months out. Were in that grey area of working our how to manage things while the standards gain approval and acceptance within the vendor community. One problem has been that a lack of standardised OAM tools and procedures, coupled with these more complex IP networks, have led to increasing numbers of technician dispatches for service turn-up, fault finding, troubleshooting, and resolution of service degradations.

KEITH DYER:
Do you feel that there is a danger that mobile backhaul decisions are being made to meet the imminent needs of operators, and that long term planning is taking a back seat?

JAY STEWART:
I think people are living in the now. They know they have got to get bandwidth out to the towers, and they cannot afford to really think about what happens when they move to 4G. LTE brings a big architecture shift, with new interfaces added. But I dont think it will take away any of the efficiencies we have identified in evolving the performance management environment. We see a roadmap that still needs a lot of work in terms of getting the architecture and services to work but the main driver is still to reduce the total cost of ownership. A lot of our work is consultation aimed at that by bringing an abstracted layer of management that doesnt have to change as our customers move forward we dont have to change the way we take data from the network elements. Its an automated and flexible approach that will stand the transitions that operators need to make.

KEITH DYER:
Do you have any customer examples of an operator making this transition from a network to service based approach within the Ethernet backhaul network?

JAY STEWART:
Im afraid client confidentiality means I cant name names, but JDSU does collaborate closely with its customers for innovative solutions to backhaul. We did recently publicly announce that we were selected by a major mobile communications service provider to support its mobile backhaul transition to Ethernet. So that is one major customer where our NetComplete Ethernet service assurance solution is enabling the quality deployment of bandwidthintensive mobile services and applications, including mobile digital video and streaming video. The NetComplete solution also gives the mobile service provider end-to-end automated service turnup testing and performance monitoring that is

ABOUT JAY STEWART: Stewart is Director Ethernet Service Assurance, JDSU.

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SPONSORED INTERVIEW

SUPPORTING THE ETHERNET TRANSITION

Operators have changed the way they are approaching the transition to IP/Ethernet in their backhaul networks, and that has meant vendors have had to respond accordingly, Sten Nordell, CTO of Transmode, tells Keith Dyer.
KEITH DYER:
Hello Sten. A year ago you told us of Transmodes policy of supporting TDM and Ethernet protocols natively over fibre to allow operators to have a flexible method of backhauling traffic through their network. How has that product policy worked out and what developments in the market have you seen since then? the network, and offloading much of their data using Ethernet. So the transition to the full IP environment is taking longer than expected.

KEITH DYER:
Do you sense that there has been a technical reason for that delay, or has it simply been about time to market of the technology that is available?

STEN NORDELL:
Hello Keith, It has been a very interesting and exciting year. Weve just launched our new products in June and we already have mobile backhaul customers in both Europe and North America using them. I think the biggest change in the market has been that two years ago it looked as though there was going to be a lot of implementation of all-packet based networks, but there is now the sense that those solely packet-orientated developments have largely been slightly held back. In line with our proposition, we have indeed seen a thrust for operators doing anything that is not solely TDM-based, and indeed 3G and LTE developments are still driving that. What has changed is that two to three years ago people thought a lot of operators would develop a packet-only based strategy. However, what caught everyone out is that they have simply not had the time to make that full transition. The bandwidth growth was simply too great in the short term to wait for complex, long term migration projects.

STEN NORDELL:
The reasons have been technical and time to market, as you put it. TDM runs all the signaling and sync for voice traffic, and by putting in a hybrid Ethernet architecture it eases the complexity of the implementation of an all IP network. Operators do not have to deal with the complexity of emulating that sync and signaling over Ethernet. They can focus on a targeted architecture for their packet switched traffic, and that is much easier to co-ordinate. So the sync discussion goes away by keeping the legacy mechanism, and you can still run Ethernet at the same time. Its faster to build your data-focused network this way, meaning operators can meet their immediate needs. Operators know that this is a temporary solution but it is better to do this than to wait.

KEITH DYER:
So has that meant that your previous product strategy, of natively transporting TDM and IP traffic over fibre, has had to be modified?

KEITH DYER:
So last year, although we talked about the fact that operators were running, or leasing, more fibre to base stations, in fact what has happened is that the need for bandwidth now outstripped that capability to do that.

STEN NORDELL:
Not really. Our model still fits because that flexible model is what people are doing. Our understanding is that it is too complex to deal with complicated Pseudowire and other approaches. So the basic idea of our product solution was, and still is, right. Its too complex to make that network change with the growth rates operators have. Our approach of carrying traffic natively over fibre gives operators the ability to put only their Ethernet traffic over fibre in the first instance. It also gives them the ability to remove their legacy access when they are ready, but also keep the legacy transport protocol. That allows a migration when they are ready, versus a straight overhaul to an allEthernet approach.

STEN NORDELL:
To an extent, yes. Were still seeing people talk about putting more fibre in the ground - but that takes time. So were also seeing providers use anything they can to offload that TDM traffic until they can roll out fibre, whether that is Microwave or whatever else is available. Estimates vary from about 30% to 50% for fibre deployments to base stations and if anything this is increasing due to the surge in bandwidth demand. What we see is that customers are using the assets they have where they have them, rather than redesigning their whole networks up front. They are using their legacy capacity just to get TDM traffic across

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KEITH DYER:
So has this approach led to any changes in the solutions you offer?

STEN NORDELL:
Yes, we have taken the decision to also offer enhanced Ethernet support for those customers that are initially deploying Ethernet only. Once you have made up your mind to keep the legacy network, then the way you design the packet network is subtly different. These enhancements can be found in the second-generation version of our Layer 2 Ethernet Muxponder (EMXP), the EMXP II, which includes increased processing power and support for a wider range of Layer 2 features. The enhanced EMXP II provides Layer 2 Ethernet service provisioning and aggregation for transport applications with extremely low sub 2 micro second latency and virtually zero jitter. This makes the unit ideally suited to Ethernet applications where latency and jitter are important, such as services for financial institutions, video distribution and of course mobile backhaul. To add to our Ethernet focus, weve also added a range of Ethernet Demarcation Units (EDU) to our TMSeries. These EDUs are also designed to help operators gain the lowest possible latency and jitter, making the units ideal for rich data applications. The range includes units that provide either demarcation of a single Gigabit Ethernet client signal or aggregation of up to 4 client signals onto a Gigabit Ethernet line within the compact CPE device. When I talk about enhanced Ethernet functionality the EDU is a good example. It includes service mapping, which allows providers to quickly create Ethernet Virtual Circuits (EVCs) and services can be mapped with advanced bandwidth policies that establish committed and excess throughput and burst rates as well as defined Ethernet & IP service priorities. Also as the hardware based units they can maintain up to 100 Y.1731 & 802.1ag OAM sessions per unit, enabling highly accurate and precise OAM performance monitoring for large-scale wireless backhaul and business service applications.

Transmodes TM Series products include enhanced Ethernet support

STEN NORDELL:
Its crucial that operators can perform SLA verification and assurance, which means operators must have OAM capabilities deployed at the edge, at the base station itself, to allow fast forwarding and fast packet reading, for instance. The EDU is where all of this happens. But its not a major cost to them, and pulling the fibre to the base station is still likely to be 98% of the cost. Perhaps operators hadnt envisioned having one device for terminating Ethernet and one for terminating TDM, but on the other hand its a lower cost than an all-IP approach and the complexity that brings, as we discussed earlier.

KEITH DYER:
So when do you see operators moving to this enhanced Ethernet solution, and what do you think Transmodes advantage is in this market?

STEN NORDELL:
Weve just made both the Native Ethernet and TDM Multi-Service Mobile Backhaul product that we discussed last year and the enhanced Layer 2 Ethernet product commercially available this summer. So its a bit early for us to talk about shipping in volume, but we already have mobile backhaul customers in both Europe and North America, as I mentioned earlier. . In terms of the advantages that Transmode brings to the market, we can help both those that have integrated their networks via the Multi-Service approach and those that havent. Those mobile operators that have not integrated their networks, are out shopping for solutions and most of them are not after Pseudowire, but are after pure Ethernet. They are also not after Enterprise-optimised products that have been tweaked to the carrier market. Our focus is on carrier class, enhanced Ethernet solutions, and I think thats the difference we provide.

KEITH DYER:
You mention performance monitoring there. It seems to be a high value topic around Ethernet services at the moment. Is that an additional cost that operators perhaps didnt envision, in their backhaul plans. ABOUT STEN NORDELL: Nodell is CTO of Transmode.

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SPONSORED INTERVIEW

ASSURING ETHERNET SERVICES IN MOBILE BACKHAUL

The introduction of IP/Ethernet solutions into mobile backhaul networks gives operators not only new opportunities but also new challenges as they need to validate and assess the performance and the quality of their services. Vikas Arora , CTO of EXFO, tells Keith Dyer how using the right test and service assurance solutions will be crucial to the success of operators backhaul migration strategies.
MOBILE EUROPE: Vikas, what are the overall priorities of your customers, the network operators and backhaul network providers, as they consider migrating their legacy mobile backhaul infrastructure to IP/Ethernet? VIKAS ARORA: The key thing is cost reduction. Currently
backhaul is predominantly carried over T1/E1 lines and that represents the single largest area of OPEX spending operators have within their networks. We tend to hear a fairly constant number from operators that somewhere around 25-30% of their overall OPEX goes into the network operations, with backhaul forming a significant part of that. So its not a secret that operators are looking to reduce the cost of mobile backhaul, and as a part of that they are looking to move to a more scalable and cost-efficient technology like Ethernet to support future bandwidth requirements and to protect future investments. Operators also know that most outages originate from the mobile backhaul network, with backhaul accounting for 4060% of problems, compared to 15% due to the base station and just 5% in the RF. So alongside the drive to lower OPEX, operators also need to increase the reliability and availability of their backhaul networks. So in terms of operators requirements, as they move to packet-based IP/Ethernet backhaul networks, they need to make sure that they have three things. First, access to the right tools to help them manage this new environment. Second, they need to train field and operations staff to ensure their expertise and thinking evolves from TDM to IP/Ethernet. Thirdly, they need to update their service turnup test and troubleshooting procedures to align them with the IP/Ethernet service activation requirements.

MOBILE EUROPE: You have mentioned that operators will need new capabilities to be able to manage the introduction of this new service environment. What are the tools they will require to ensure SLAs across their IP/Ethernet networks? VIKAS ARORA: Well, I think it pays to step back a bit
and have a look at the full network life cycle, from network construction and service turn-up, through the burn-in period, and then to operational service monitoring and trouble shooting. Some predictions are that backhaul bandwidth requirements per tower will grow from 10Mbps in 2009 to 100Mbps by 2014. To deal with this exponential growth in data demand, we are seeing the deployment of more fibre to towers. As operators drive this fibre to the towers, they then need the right tools to be able to characterise the fibre and validate the link performance, to ensure that IP/Ethernet services can be delivered properly. The next phase is the service turn-up and burn-in. In this phase, with the transition from T1/E1 based backhaul to Ethernet, operators need to test and troubleshoot a lot more parameters than they test when turning up T1/E1 circuits. This is the totally different environment I referred to earlier. Lets look at an example. For T1/E1 connections, service turn-up involved testing the Bit Error Rates (BER) and round trip delay measurements. Yet for Ethernet-based backhaul services the tests required are much more detailed. The parameters operators need to consider in this environment are, first of all, measuring throughput, frame delay (latency), and burstability. These elements are all critical for interactive voice, video and many data

MOBILE EUROPE: Yet as they do that, they are faced with renewed challenges in terms of assuring and validating services, which are encapsulated within Ethernet in a very different manner from TDM networks. VIKAS ARORA: Yes, IP/Ethernet presents operators with a
totally different environment from TDM, meaning that operators need to move from just testing network performance, which was acceptable within TDM, to testing network and service performance within Ethernet. Additionally, despite the fact that operators are introducing this new networking technology, they know they cant afford to take too much time to stabilise those networks, and they also cannot have the technology take too high a financial toll on their methods and procedures. That means they need to look at whether they have the ability and the tools to manage the user experience across the network in a centralised and scalable manner, whichever architecture they have chosen.

Our end goal is to deliver a futureproof, standardsbased, solution to the operators to help reduce OPEX, improve productivity and deliver operational efficiency and intelligence.

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applications. The time sensitive nature of non-buffered video, and other data applications such as VoIP, also means that the measurement of frame delay variation, or jitter, is vital. Then there are frame loss measurements. Frame loss ratio is crucial for voice and video quality and the capability to measure it over time will provide an idea of the long-term integrity of the service. You cannot do this with a simple ping test of the network. Finally, Ethernet brings with it the need for VLAN and Class of Service (CoS) validation. Each Ethernet virtual circuit (EVC) will support more than one class of service to handle different types of IP services, so the testing and validation needs to be done for each VLAN and class of service simultaneously. This means that to assure quality of service within an Ethernet environment, operators need the tools to be able to, first, validate the network configuration for each defined service (traffic shaping, rate limiting, etc) and, secondly, to validate Quality of Service KPIs and prove SLA conformance. The output of this phase is a service birthcertificate with all the service parameters tested and the SLA signed off. The next phase is to move beyond that initial birth certificate into long-term, post turn-up operational performance and SLA monitoring and troubleshooting. This phase deals with the need to provide 24x7 measurement of KPIs, alerts and alarms on service degradation, and aggregation and analysis of KPIs.

fault is, and link trace messages to find the affected path. All these checks need to be done for each VLAN/CoS within an EVC, so its clear that operators need a scalable solution which leverages these standards and provides an ongoing service assurance system, with the right technology support, to monitor SLAs and rapidly reduce the time-to-fix in troubleshooting.

MOBILE EUROPE: Where is the industry in terms of

ITU-T Y.156sam adoption?

VIKAS ARORA: Its still early days, but because Y.156sam

addresses operators needs to speed up service turn-up and reduce OPEX, we are seeing widespread support. There have been some very good contributions from the industry to make sure the Y.156sam recommendations address all the operators key needs and that this standardised approach becomes part of operators service turn-up methods and procedures. This standard is currently in draft form and is expected to be ratified by early 2011.

MOBILE EUROPE: So youve built up a picture of why

operators must consider a new approach to their rollout of Ethernet backhaul, allowing them to have optimised turn-up procedures and ongoing performance monitoring for multiple classes of service in a cost-efficient manner. How would you sum up EXFOs role in meeting those goals?

VIKAS ARORA: There are two clear messages we want MOBILE EUROPE: I understand there is some movement
in Ethernet testing methodologies, to be able to provide service activation and ongoing service assurance. to deliver. First, at EXFO we look at the full network life-cycle and are delivering the right tools and solutions with the right level of automation and standards support. We are also playing a leading role in the standard bodies to help evolve the methods and procedures which address Ethernet mobile backhaul needs as operators move from one phase to another. Secondly, to improve operational efficiency and productivity, we are working with operators to provide solutions which help capture and store field test, troubleshooting and service turn-up birth-certificate data right through the life-cycle so that this can be correlated with the service performance data collected during the operational performance monitoring of the Ethernet service. Our end goal is to deliver a future-proof, standards-based, solution to the operators to help reduce OPEX, improve productivity and deliver operational efficiency and actionable intelligence.
EXFO is a leading provider of next-generation test and service assurance solutions for wireless and wireline network operators and equipment manufacturers in the global telecommunications industry. For more information, visit www.EXFO.com Contact: EXFO Europe Ltd., Sales: +44.2380.246.810; isales@EXFO.com.

VIKAS ARORA: That is a very good point. RFC 2544 is

the current Ethernet service turn-up testing methodology yet RFC 2544 was designed for network device testing in the lab and not for service testing in the field. It does not include all the required measurements for todays service SLA parameters, like jitter, out-of-sequence, QoS measurements for multiple concurrent service levels, etc. Moreover it provides a snapshot view, and does not adapt to long term measurements. As it is a sequential test methodology, it is also very time consuming. To address these limitations and to reduce the operators OPEX, we, working with number of other industry players, have proposed a new Ethernet testing recommendation called ITU-T Y.156sam (service activation methodology). For on-going service assurance, OAM standards play a critical role. The OAM standards, 802.3ah and 802.1ag/Y.1731, are just being adopted by the equipment vendors. 802.3ah deals with the link fault management whereas 802.1ag/y.1731 deals with connectivity fault management and performance monitoring. It provides us with connectivity check messages to monitor the heartbeat of the network, loopback messages to determine where a

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SPONSORED INTERVIEW

A MOBILE MARRIAGE MADE IN HEAVEN: CAPACITY MEETS INTELLIGENCE

Ronen Guri, director of business development, mobile backhaul, RAD, tells Keith Dyer that operators need to add sophisticated traffic management, performance monitoring and timing over packet technologies to their packet switched backhaul networks to enhance their end-to-end mobile SLAs.
KEITH DYER:
Ronen, what changes have you seen recently in the way your operator customers are addressing their backhaul requirements?

RONEN GURI:
Our main proposal, which works both in the case of a wholesale transport provider and for operators with self-owned backhaul, is to equip transport networks with Mobile Demarcation Device (MDDs). These are located at each and every point of interface between the mobile operator and the transport operator depending on the network topology they can be at a cell site, a hub site or an aggregation node. These MDDs are devices that can do all that is needed to guarantee the SLA of the network: hierarchical traffic management, sophisticated performance monitoring, threshold testing and turn up, timing over packet and service validation tools.

RONEN GURI:
Well if you were to go back a bit, clearly we would have seen mobile backhaul on a TDM/SDH infrastructure using T1/E1 interfaces. But then, as we all know, came 3G and the move to HSPA, which brought with it a change in the volumes and types of data traffic. So then we started to see more and more mobile operators move to Ethernet to handle packet-switched backhaul. Some started operating a hybrid model, switching voice over those legacy connections and data over the packet switched network. But we are actually now seeing more and more mobile operators moving today to take all their traffic, voice, data, and signaling over the packet-switched network. However, this move to packet-switched backhaul has seen an emphasis on providing a fat pipe, not a smart pipe with enhanced class of service (CoS) and traffic management support. In some cases you will see some basic CoS support in the backhaul network but not end-toend control. We have observed in all cases that allied to this, is the fact that mobile operators will require SLAs for their backhaul networks. SLAs were an inherent part of TDM technology, second nature to it. For historical reasons, they arent in packet technology and need to be recreated. This is done by deploying equipment engineered to support performance standards, high availability and throughput thresholds and monitor backhaul network behavior at all times so that both the mobile operator and the mobile backhaul provider, whether it is a wholesale carrier or the transport division of a fixedmobile operator, can assure the end-to-end SLAs that they are commited to, before they impact subscriber services. The big question facing everyone is how the backhaul transport provider can guarantee an end-to-end SLA for the mobile operators network.

KEITH DYER:
Hold on a moment. Most regional mobile operators have thousands, if not tens of thousands of cell sites. Can transport providers afford the CapEx for MDDs?

RONEN GURI:
Id say they cant afford not to. The alternatives dont have the technology to support iron-clad SLAs. Of course, the MDD has to have all the technologies required at a price point that enables transport providers to deploy in the tens of thousands of cells that you mentioned. Thats not trivial

The big question facing everyone is how the backhaul transport provider can guarantee an end-to-end SLA for the mobile operators network

KEITH DYER:
When you talk of monitoring SLAs in the backhaul network, what is required to do that?

RONEN GURI:
You need to build parameters to provide SLAs for

KEITH DYER:
So if the move is from fat but dumb connectivity to smart backhaul, how does the industry equip itself to do that?
The ETX-204A: RADs carrier Ethernet SLA assurance demarcation device

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three or four or eight different classes of service, so each and every CoS has guaranteed availability, packet loss, delay and delay varation. In order to do that you need to provide traffic management and scheduling for all CoS across each and every EVC in the network. If you can guarantee the SLAs in this manner then you can allow sophisticated traffic handling in the network, and that allows wholesale providers with several mobile operator customers to provide different SLAs according to what they all require. Another aspect that is required is the ability to be able to provide endto-end monitoring and fault detection of the network itself. That requires an end-to-end view so that if any device has a problem, you can use an alternative path in the network. The requirements here are for fast detection times to boost the resiliency of the network itself as we are talking about measuring delay, delay variation, packet loss and the availability of the network, amongst other parameters, across every CoS within every connection.

The role of the ETX-204A in a mobile transport network

KEITH DYER:
So you have enhanced SLA assurance, timing over packet functionality and traffic management features across the backhaul network, and that translates into the ability for operators to be able to manage their networks more efficiently and profitably.

KEITH DYER:
When you talk of assuring services across all packetswitched architectures, that always raises the question of timing and synchronisation. Does the MDD provide a solution to that issue as well?

RONEN GURI:
Absolutely. The important thing to realise is that when it has come to validation of services, it is the backhaul that has been the tricky part. The role of the MDD is to make available in the backhaul all the capabilities operators are used to having within the RAN and the core.

RONEN GURI:
Yes, since packet-switched networks do not include inherent synchronisation mechanisms, they require complementary clock transfer solutions and nowhere is this issue of greater importance than in mobile backhaul. To ensure service quality for mobile traffic and avoid dropped calls, mobile networks require exceptionally stringent phase and frequency accuracy, which calls for equally exceptional high performance clocking capabilities. We have announced that our MDDs build on RADs position as a leader in timing over packet. RADs MDDs are equipped with the SyncToP suite of synchronisation and Timing over Packet technologies, which includes Synchronous Ethernet, IEEE 1588v2 (1588-2008) Precision Timing Protocol and NTR that are designed to provide clocking accuracy at SDH/SONET levels over packet transport. One reason why this versatility is crucial in an MDD is that for various reasons the mobile operator and the transport provider may be using different synchronization technologies in their respective networks. Therefore the MDD must be equipped for every contingency. Another possibility is that the transport provider might want to sell timing capabilities and for that he needs timing support and interfaces in the MDD. On the other hand, if the timing is provided by the mobile operator, the transport provider needs to have 1588-TC support in-order to provide a better timing transport network.

KEITH DYER:
And finally, what changes to the backhaul do you think we will see with the introduction of LTE?

RONEN GURI:
Its still too early to tell , but with LTE deployment its important to note that the topology can change completely to a mesh architecture. More cell sites will be deployed and they will be talking to one another as well as to the network core. Data traffic patterns will change in the backhaul and transport networks will have to be optimized to respond to these shifting patterns. This is definitely not a problem that can be solved by capacity alone -- with our focus on smart pipes and on end-to-end SLA assurance, its clear that LTE and MDDs make enormous sense together.

ABOUT RONEN GURI: Ronen Guri is the Director of Business Development, Mobile Backhaul, for RAD Data Commumications.

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SPONSORED FEATURE

UNLEASHING MICROCELLULAR NETWORKS WITH MICROWAVE BACKHAUL

Operators have taken short term measures to address the wireless capacity gap, but longer term solutions are required. DragonWave argues that smaller microcellular networks, supported by microwave backhaul, offer a flexible and cost-efficient option.
e have all heard how end user demand for everything wireless is pushing many mobile networks to the limit. What is most interesting is the unpredictable nature of future demand market analysts and service providers alike have consistently underestimated the disruptive impact of new devices and applications, with the iPhone being a prime example. In order to slow the pace of an increasing capacity gap, service providers have responded in a variety of ways including adding new spectrum (where it is available) or by imposing usage caps. These short-term solutions will however become cost prohibitive or greatly restrict users, leading to unhappy customers and higher churn. 4G networks are often hailed as the solution, but these network upgrades alone will not provide sufficient throughput for media rich applications in high tele-density areas. For many operators, the long-term solution will be a fundamental shift in network architecture, moving towards smaller, more efficient cells as an underlay to their macrocellular network. Operating below the clutter level, these microcells can significantly improve coverage while offloading traffic from the over-burdened macrocellular network. Existing microcell deployments typically consist of a micro-base station with some kind of wired backhaul. Looking forward, microcells are evolving towards fully integrated units containing a micro-base station, battery backup, backhaul components and in some cases switching all within a small pole-mounted enclosure optimized for urban environments. Unlike other distributed wireless networks such as femtocells, microcells typically extend up to 1-2 KM in size and are deployed at street level, on street light poles, the sides of buildings or other suitable structures. In addition, microcellular units remain part of the service provider network and are transparent to the end user.

Macrocellular coverage with microcellular underlay network

MICROCELLULAR DRIVERS
Microcellular architectures offer a combination of better coverage and more base stations which result in a dramatic increase in network capacity; an area previously covered by a single macrocell can see an order of magnitude increase in total network capacity with the addition of a microcellular layer. Another significant driver is the need for greater inbuilding coverage. By deploying base stations at street level

Microcelluar networks present a compelling solution to this spectrum shortfall. Smaller cells [enable] operators to re-use RAN spectrum within the microcellular network layer.

(below the clutter level), microcellular networks offer much greater inbuilding penetration at lower transmit powers. This is particularly relevant to operators who are using higherfrequency access spectrum, such as 2.5 GHz and above; the lower propagation characteristics of these bands mean that in-building penetration would suffer significantly in traditional macrocellular architectures. Service providers must also find new ways of maximizing one of their most precious resources: spectrum. A recent study by Rysavy Research projects that service providers will need over 200 MHz of spectrum in order to meet the bandwidth requirements of their users in 2016. With most operators holding between 50 and 100 MHz of spectrum, there will clearly be a shortfall based on current architectures. Microcelluar networks present a compelling solution to this spectrum shortfall. Smaller cells allow for a large reduction in transmit power, enabling operators to reuse RAN spectrum within the microcellular network layer. In addition, for those deployments using microwave backhaul, operators have the ability to reuse the same backhaul spectrum for the higher elevation macrocells and the street level microcells potentially leading to significant licensing savings.

DEPLOYMENT CHALLENGES
With microcellular networks operating at street level, operators cannot rely on traditional telecom deployment sites. Structures such as street light poles, traffic light poles, bridges and the exterior walls of buildings are well suited for microcell deployments. In order for the microcell units to operate in these locations, they must be fully integrated environmentally hardened outdoor units containing the base station, backhaul radio and modem (in the case of microwave), battery backup, environmental alarms, and in many cases local switching capabilities.

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SPONSORED FEATURE
Due to the high visibility of microcell units in these street level deployment locations, operators must comply with a range of city zoning requirements. These generally dictate that street light pole-mounted equipment must be within a single enclosure with strict space and weight requirements. In addition, aesthetics are an important element the units must blend into the urban environment. One of the most important considerations is the microcell backhaul solution. The unique locations where microcell units are installed mean that operators need to have a flexible backhaul strategy. The primary microcell backhaul options include fiber, in-band wireless and microwave. Given that most microcells are deployed in high teledensity urban areas, fiber would seem to be an obvious, future-proof choice. In reality, while fiber is typically abundant in urban regions, it is rarely present where microcell units are deployed; street light posts and the exterior walls of buildings rarely have fiber in place and running fiber to these locations presents significant challenges in terms of cost, time-to-deploy and city permits. Another backhaul option is the use of in-band wireless, where a portion of the access spectrum is used for backhaul traffic. The advantage here is the ability to leverage existing spectrum asset; the disadvantage is that such spectrum is extremely valuable and typically best reserved for delivering revenue generating services. Moreover, most operators simply do not have any access spectrum to spare.

Network capacity relative to cell size

MICROWAVE BACKHAUL
Microwave backhaul offers several benefits in microcellular architectures. By using dedicated backhaul spectrum, operators can maximize the use of their highvalue access spectrum to deploy new services and increase revenue. In areas where fiber is not present, microwave backhaul links can be established quickly and cost effectively, with complete integration of all radio, modem and antenna elements within the microcellular unit. The unique characteristics of a microcell deployment call for specific microwave backhaul requirements, including: Hardened all-outdoor units Microwave backhaul solutions for microcellular networks must be rugged polemountable units with radio, modem and power supply fully integrated into an urban-landscape-friendly microcell package. Flexible frequency support The need for small microcell packages, optimized for street light polemounting and compliance with city zoning restrictions, drives a requirement for small (typically sub-1 foot), highgain antennas. This, coupled with the need for minimal interference, generally leads to licensed frequency use ranging from 23 GHz and above. Operational simplicity Microwave systems for microcellular deployments should offer simple remote

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dr. Alan Solheim is Vice-President of Corporate Development for DragonWave

scalability to several hundred Mbps capacities particularly for aggregation links. In addition, advanced Ethernet OAM (802.3ah, 802.1ag, Y.1731) support is paramount to ongoing operations. Advanced radio features Advanced radio features such as adaptive modulation and support for high modulation modes in all channel sizes are essential in meeting the requirements of next gen access networks. Packet-based systems With the majority of microcell deployments expected to leverage 4G mobile technology, packet-based backhaul systems offer the most attractive performance and economics for these networks. Advanced architecture options The nature of microcellular deployments, and the line of sight requirements of microwave, will demand flexibility in the backhaul network architecture. Links will either zigzag along streets, from street corner to street corner or they will connect back to a high point (such as the top of a building) in the network. Depending on pole availability and line of sight options, a combination hub and spoke, daisy chain, ring and mesh topologies will be required. In addition, ring and mesh support enables carrier grade (fivenines) availability.

CONCLUSION
Just as we have seen a trend towards distributed architectures in computing and content delivery, a similar shift is taking place in wireless networks. Microcellular networks will provide better in-building coverage, maximize the use of precious spectrum, and scale capacity to levels previously seen only on wired networks. As with any network deployment, operators will rely on a combination of technologies to solve their backhaul challenge. Flexible deployment options in non-traditional deployment sites and the need for rapid and cost effective installations means that microwave will play an essential role in the rollout of microcellular networks.

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Diary & Notes

August/September 2010
MOBILE PAYMENT SERVICES
27 - 30 September, Barcelona Featuring an executive level, cross-industry speaker panel, you will learn from strategic insights from all players in the m-commerce value chain. http://www.iir-telecoms.com/I2PUAMOEU

MOBILE MARKETING FORUM

MANAGED SERVICES WORLD CONGRES

28-29 September, Berlin The Managed Services World Congress is a global event focusing on strategic developments in growth and mature markets. Put your questions to the industry leaders, and discuss ways to work around the market issues that you face every day. http://www.managedservices-world.com

5-6 October, London This years MMA Forum in London aims to bring together leading marketers from across the world to share their experiences, challenges, learnings and successes in the mobile channel. The speaker line up will include the largest and most diverse group of speakers from global brands ever assembled. www.mobilemarketingforum.com

you read it here first MWC 2013 Cologne

4G WORLD
18-21 October, Chicago 4G World is the largest event in the world covering the entire ecosystem of next-generation technologies that enable the mobile Internet revolution, including mobile network infrastructure, advanced devices, applications and content. http://4gworld.com/

APPS WORLD
30 November - 1 December, London With three simultaneous streams the Apps World event aims to address the entire app ecosystems. The event draws in parallels between the emergence of the TV apps store and the challenge to pay tv operators, and the challenges mobile operators face, device manufactures and the emergence of the tablet apps marketplace. www.apps-world.net

The GSMA announces it has shortlisted six cities to host Mobile World Congress from 2013.
A crack team of investigators will spend months checking out the quality of the bars, restaurants and hotel facilities (and simulating 50,000 people trying to get a free WiFi connection at the same time) in Amsterdam, Paris, Cologne, Munich, Barcelona and Paris. After a rigourous process involving checking under the beds for dust in some over the most over-priced three star hotels in Europe, trying to find a working 3G signal inside a conference hall basement at 11am, and testing for the requisite curl and dryness in a 9 ham and cheese sandwich, the winning city will be announced. Taxi touts, laptop thieves and laptop dancers in the winning city will be ecstatic as they face a five year windfall through to 2017. But which city would Mobile Europe readers like to see win the vote? We at Mobile Europe asked our readers to vote in an online poll, and here are the results. Barcelona 21.9%; Amsterdam 19.2%; Milan 19.2%; Paris 19.2%; Munich 17.8%; Cologne 2.7%.

Now, these are percentages of a pretty small sample compared to the 40 odd thousand people that traipse to the show every year, but they still dont show a great desire to move the show. Although you could argue that about 80% of people would like to see the event moved, given that only 22% voted for it to remain in Barcelona. On the other hand, the rest of the votes are so split, you wouldnt exactly say theres any burning desire to up sticks to a specific destination. Poor old Cologne, though. What did it ever do to be so unpopular? Anyway, following the successful transfer from Cannes to Barcelona it probably doesnt much matter where the event heads off to next - at least among the given candidates. So lets get a campaign going for Cologne. Remember, you read it here first. MWC 2013, Cologne.

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