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IN-BUILDING BROADBAND:
From femtocells to repeaters, Mobile Europes Insight Report details the capacity demands, solutions and technologies of inbuilding mobile broadband.

MOBILE
EUROPE
ALSO INSIDE:
FT-ORANGE AND DEUTSCHE GET CLOSER

WE HAVE A COMPETITION WINNER

EUROPES WIRELESS MAGAZINE S issue no. 215 S April/May 2011 S www.mobileeurope.co.uk

> National telcos

outline plans for merged procurement to save 1.3 billion a year.

A VOICE FOR LTE

> Now that VoLTE looks

to be the chosen tech, what happens next, and what other services could we see?

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ROUND TABLE

> Operators, analysts,

and industry players debate a crucial topic facing mobile operators.

P07

MOBILE VIDEO:
a road to nowhere?

P38

P42

Contents
April/May 2011
Synchronica intends to make NeuStar buy pay in Europe

Is high demand for video a burden or an opportunity?

NFC and mobile payments news.

REGULARS
EDITORIAL

FEATURES
DEALING WITH MOBILE VIDEO
Theres agreement that mobile video demand is set to rocket, but with what implications for mobile operators? Should the industry be wary in looking to content providers to pay?

04 06

Keith Dyer reflects on a stimulating and relevant round table debate on Customer Experience Management.

34

NEWS
Synchronica explains NeuStar acquisition and targets RCS in Europe; MetaSwitch launches ThruTu and acquires Colibria; Orange and Deustche Telekom announce procurement JV; WeFi claims ANDSF first; Telia Soneras LTE network put to the test; O2 launches 3G at 900MHz; Mobile Money Network launches service; NewBay says IP notifications can save revenue losses; SIMAlliance launches secure NFC API; Visa announces major NFC investment; Customer-centric approach to network monitoring.

A VOICE FOR LTE VOICE

The deployment of LTE brought with it the realisation that a full voice strategy would be needed. But will LTE voice justify investment in a range of other services?

38

EXCLUSIVE ROUND TABLE DEBATE

Customer Experience Management is about delivering the best possible experience to customers whenever they interact with your services. Get it right and you are rewarded with increased revenues and loyalty. But are operators missing crucial aspects - technical and organisation - of the CEM equation.

42

DIARY
A selection of the major mobile events and conferences in the weeks ahead and a look at some of the stories to have crossed Mobile Europes desk in the weeks past.

50

INSIGHT REPORT
INTRODUCTION AND FULL CONTENTS
Keith Dyer introduces this issues Insight Report into indoor broadband requirements. The report illustrates the priorities and technical decisions facing operators as they move to meet growing demand for indoor mobile data.

15

SPONSORS FOREWORD
Steve Kemp, of Alcatel-Lucent, explains why and how small cells are set to move from being viewed as bolt-on solutions to being fundamental to the next ten years of wireless operations.

16

CEM exchange at Londons Royal Exchange

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

Mobile Europe | 3

Comment
editor: keith dyer
Taking Customer Experience Management beyond the buzzwod This issue carries a round table debate that on the face of it looks like it could have been a bit of a dry one. Customer Experience Management. Im not even sure that the term really has a meaning. Does it refer to customer care and sales, or to managing the quality of service a customer receives on a voice call, or a data session? If an operator invests in more capacity in a busy cell, does that qualify as Customer Experience Management? If a call centre calls me by my correct name and seems to have some recognition of my past history as a customer and makes me an offer, then is that Customer Experience Management? What came out of the round table debate was that is is all of these, but also much more. The reason we held the debate was to try to raise the profile of Customer Experience Management as a discipline within the mobile operator. If you are working for an operator and your C-level team is not driving a Customer Experience Management model across all the business units in the company, then you are working for a company that is in danger of missing out. Despite Customer Experience Management being a bit of a current buzzword, its not just so much business speak or corporate deckchair rearranging. What the round table debate showed is that there are real benefits to taking an integrated approach to all the data you hold on a customer - whether that is the CDRs and billing records that you can mine for usage information, or whether it is the signalling and network element data that can tell you what services a customer has been accessing, where, at what times, and Why should operators do what exerience they got. Why should operators do this? Well, their competitors already do. Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, squeeze the data they have on their customers. They use it to drive recommendations, what other people who bought this also bought, to make offers, to link users to like-minded people, or to offer targeted advertising. Retailers such as Tesco, or any major chain, also mine customer histories to great effect. All of these players are moving, in one way or another, into the mobile operators revenue base. And yet they dont have the mobile operators customer base, the deep customer information that operators have. This data, which sits across different teams, elements and divisions in mobile operators, is often described as the unique differentiator of the telecoms market. We may be facing OTT threats, MTR cuts, competition on broadband, content proviers that wont play ball, but we do have customer data. Well then, lets use it. Lets use it to identify which customers could be making you even more money if you offered them an upgraded data tariff. Lets use it to find which inbound roamers are dropping off your network, losing you revenues. Lets use it to make sure that when you as an operator communicate with a customer, you do so in a manner that makes sense to that customer. Thats what we mean by Customer Experience Management. Its about using the capabilities that operators have right now to act more profitably. Its about changing the mindset that places engineers and technology teams over here, and marketing and product management teams over there. But how can it be done? Thats what our round table debate was all about.

MOBILE
EUROPE
Editor: Keith Dyer keithd@mobileeurope.co.uk Direct tel: +44 (0) 20 7933 8999 Web editor: Robert Riggs robert.riggs@stjohnpatrick.com Production Manager: Tania King Sales Manager: Shahid Ramzan shahid.ramzan@mobileeurope.co.uk Direct tel: +44 (0) 20 7933 8980 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

this? Well, their competitors already do...All of these players are moving into the mobile operators revenue base

Printed by Pensord Magazines & Periodicals, Pontllanfraith, 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
messaging l RCS l acquisitions

SYNCHRONICA EXPLAINS NEUSTAR ACQUISITION

HEADS FOR EUROPEAN MARKETS
Synchronica, the company that bought Colibria's mobile IM business last year and earlier this year picked up NeuStar's next generation messaging business for a song, wants to target European operators with an allround, RCS-compliant messaging and social networking platform. Although the company has had success in emerging markets, where smartphone penetration is lower and operators have more of a hold of the mobile services environment, the messaging platform providers CEO Carsten Brinkschulte said that the time had now come for European operators to offer advanced messaging services. He also said that the low price Synchronica paid for NeuStar's assets was not a comment on the value of the assets themselves, but instead a result of NeuStar wanting to make sure it sold to a company that could maintain its carrier relationships. Brinkschulte said that Synchronicas Mobile Gateway 6 product, integrated with NeuStars NGM platform, would allow operators to offer advanced messaging services that bring multiple IM, social media and networking iDs into a connected and presence-enabled address book. We have announced we are moving into Rich Communications Suite and unified messaging services with our Mobile Gateway 6 product. This is a pre-RCS solution that enables us to bring the additional connectivity of social networking and email, which links to the RCS concept. Our engineering team is now working on the next version of product that will deliver on RCS in the future. Its a product that matches the roadmap of the carriers. Many operators we see in Europe and parts of Asia are implementing IMS networks and one key aspect is the network address book and RCS functionality. I know there has been a little disillusion with RCS because it has not happened. It is one of these things that was initially over-hyped, but eventually it will be deployed and will be successful.
Synchronicas Mobile Gateway UI

Thrutu launches RCS-lite-lite app

Thrutu, a company spun out of MetaSwitch and backed by VC giant Sequoia, has launched an app that allows users to share location, photos and contact details within a call. The app, also called Thrutu, is currently available for Android devices, and its maker will seek certification for iPhone and Blackberry devices with an iPhone app expected by Q2 2011. Metaswitch, which markets SIP session routers, softswitches, media gateways, service brokers and app server products to carriers, is also intending to offer the app as a carrier-branded app. Thrutu said that its app allows users to share their location, take and share a photo, send contact information and prod the other caller with remote phone vibration. In future releases, Thrutu envisages being able to allow users to connect to their favourite social media channels, play games mid-call, share video in real-time, and develop a range of new buttons to enrich the conversation. If some of these sound a little like RCStype capabilities, without the RCS or the cross-device interoperability, thats because they are. But there are significant differences. The biggest, as mentioned, is full interoperability. That said, Liz Rice, VP of Thrutu, said that a user with the app on an Android device will be able to interoperate with a Blackberry or iPhone user, and so on. Rice also said that although Thrutu didn't have RCS in mind when it began developing the app, it began to see "interesting parallels with RCS" and now has interoperabilty with RCS clients "on the roadmap". The app works by gaining access to the location, presence and telephony applications on the phone, so that when a call is made it can set up a simultaneous data connection to allow the non-voice element of the call. There is no network or server-side capability required, according to Thrutu's Rice. Metaswitch Networks has announced the acquisition of Colibria, a provider of enhanced IM, presence and network address book solutions.

Brinkschulte said that NeuStar customers such as TIM, SFR, Vodafone, Turkcell, 3, and Beeline-Vimpelcom were all European carriers that Synchronica is new to and to whom the company would bring its vision for NeuStars platform and merger into the MG6 platform. So with the device manufacturers and OS providers offering cloud-based services direct to consumers, what is the operator advantage in offering RCS and pre-RCS type services? Operators have one unfair advantage, Brinkschulte said, and thats in the billing relationship, which gives them the ability to control and differentiate the price of services. One example is a customer of Synchronica that is zero-rating access to its own IM service, while charging for data used while consumers access other services. This is a very strong churn inhibitor Brinkschulte said, as it leads to the creation of iDs in the mobile operators own domain. So the obvious question is, if the connected address book and RCS-type services offer such a clear opportunity for carriers, and by implication Synchronica, why was NeuStar willing to let its assets in this area go for so little? The valuation of the assets takes into account why they sold the business to Synchronica. Our position is in messaging and not just the silo of IM. NeuStar did not have these other aspects and had too narrow a focus. So it was at the point of deciding either to branch out or to focus back on its core business, Brinkschulte said.

6 | Mobile Europe

News
shared procurement l WiFi traffic control

FT-ORANGE AND DEUTSCHE TELEKOM ANNOUNCE SHARED PROCUREMENT JV

1.3BN SAVING IN THREE YEARS
Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom-Orange have agreed to combine their procurement activities of customer equipment, network equipment, service platforms and - starting with four pilot-projects - IT-Infrastructure in a 50/50 joint venture. For this purpose they have today signed a non-binding Term Sheet which will be the basis for final contracts yet to be negotiated. The announcement forms "next chapter" in the Smart industry partnership the two operators announced on February 11, 2011 The companies claim the JV will achieve 1.3 billion Euros combined savings of annual run-rate after three years of implementation for both groups due to technology harmonization and economies of scale. Both operators are responding to a growing demand for more bandwidth and connectivity from customers, allied to competitive pricing pressures. They say they need to act more efficiently to allow them to compete with their global rivals, who can already operate on these economies of scale. The operators see a combined spend of 13 billion flowing through the joint procurement operation. The operators combined total spend at the moment would stand at around 40 billion, according to Olaf Swantee, Executive Vice President Europe and Sourcing at France Telecom-Orange. The 13 billion represent the current overlap on the four selected areas of networks, terminal equipment, service platforms and the parts of IT weve included into JV said D-Ts CTO Edward Kozel. Thats not accessible to us on day one. As contracts come up for renewal or are renegotiated then the 13 billion becomes accessible to the JV. The operators have outlined four areas of procurement co-operation network equipment, customer equipment, service platforms and internal IT through which they hope to drive 1.3 bilion in savings within three years. Swantee said that the largest single area of saving would be from network equipment procurement. However, he added that the operators would not have included terminal equipment if they did not think there was an opportunity there. The operators purchase 45 million customer devices between them currently, Swantee said. Kozel pointed out that both operators already purchase many of the same smartphones, for example.

WeFi claims first ANDSF network connection product

WeFi has launched a product that is intended to enable mobile operators to route traffic over the mobile macro network or a WiFi hotspot without the consumer having to manage their own settings. The product, from WeFi, enables operators to set network management policies using a 3GPP-defined function for the Evolved Packet Core called ANDSF Access Network Discovery and Selection Function. WeFi said that its WeANDSF is the first standardscompliant product on the market, although it added that as the standards are not yet fully finalised, the product is more accurately described as a pre-standards compliant product. ANDSF, specified in 3GPP standards 23.402 and 24.312, is intended to allow mobile operators to set network management policies and priorities, and to control where, when and under what circumstances a subscribers device connects to which wireless network, be it cellular or Wi-Fi. Operators may choose to route traffic according to application type to reduce network load, or to provide the best available customer experience. Although operators are increasingly looking at using WiFi for offload in congested areas, one problem for them is that once traffic is routed over WiFi control is lost over any traffic policies they have set for that user. ANDSF keeps a link to the operator's core network, allowing the operator visibility of traffic even when it is routed over WiFi. WeFi said that the product is already in trials with several mobile operators. As handset manufacturers are yet to include the device element of ANDSF, WeFi is also providing a device client, although it sees that role diminishing as handset vendors deliver ANDSF-compliant handsets, when these become available in the market by 2012. Amit Shaked, vice president of products and marketing, said that the company was building the connectivity solution upon the database it has built up of the usage and performance of 85 million WiFi hotspots. WiFi two years ago was seen as a lowgrade solution but now operators are finding they have to try to use it somehow. By using our technology they can integrate that with their control protocols, to allow them to set rules for where and when users connect to their 3G or WiFi networks, Shaked said. Our solution aggregates our back end database of 85 million hotspots with the client-side awareness of whats happening in every location. We analyse WiFi usage trends using statistical algorithms that allow us to provide simple management tolls with the back end.

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

Mobile Europe | 7

News
LTE tests in Finland l network sharing in Ireland

TELIA SONERA'S LTE NETWORK

LATEST TEST RESULTS SHOW GOOD SERVICE
Telia Sonera's Finnish LTE network delivered a peak download of 48Mbps in tests carried out by British network test company Epitiro. The tests also showed mean latency of 23 milliseconds meaning that the LTE network would be well suited, at present, to services such as HD video and online gaming. John Curley, CTO of Epitiro, said that although the company did not know when the LTE service was experiencing peak demand, download speeds of 10-15Mbps were recorded at times, suggesting there was some evidence of service contention. The mean download speed measured was 36.1Mbps. Epitiro said that LTE upload speeds averaged 1.7Mbps, which meets Skypes recommendations for Basic video calling (0.3Mbps), HD video calling (1.5Mbps) and Group video calling (0.5Mbps). Testing was completed over a 5 day period in March 2011 with over 20,000 data points being collected. A 3G test probe also measured services to enable direct comparison to 4G LTE services. Average results for 3G tests over the same period showed a mean download speed of 4Mbps and latency of 117 milliseconds, Epitiro said. The company also tested VoLTE VoIP quality, terminating a call originating in Finland over a Samsung USB device to a test probe on BT's 21CN network. Curley said that it showed quality to be "excellent", scoring ITU-T PESQ MOS (Mean Opinion Score) values of 4.2 or
I Movial has launche Movial Communicator on Android and the iPhone and is working with several operators to launch Android and iPhone VoIP applications. Movial Communicator, a SIP/IMS (RCS and MMTel ) application for operators provides HD voice, HD video telephony, enhanced address book and messaging along with advanced communication user experiences. I Sandvine has announced that it is now providing its policy control product to Telefonica in over 20 countries, providing I ZTE will deliver LTE infrastructure equipment to Hi3G, which plans to build the worlds first LTE TDD/FDD dual-mode networks in Sweden and Denmark. ZTE will deliver upgraded 3G equipment housing 3G and the two versions of LTE radio.

eircom Group CEo Paul Donovan

4.3, from a theoretical maximum score of 5. Tests were carried out using SIP control and the G.711 CODEC. The Call Setup Times recorded using the 4G LTE services were approximately 0.6 seconds, whichi Epitiro described as exceptionally fast, especially considering the call was originating in Finland and terminating in the UK. These setup times reflect the minimal network latency using LTE within Finland. Epitiro said that further examination of how the service performs as subscriber numbers increase would be of interest, as additional subscribers could cause congestion at the point of access or in the backhaul. In-motion measurements will also be of interest to see how real-time applications perform with challenges unique to those situations, including cell handoff. Tests were carried out from March 21st to March 25th 2011, with network measurement probes conducting testing at 30 minute intervals. Each test consisted of Epitiros automated mobile broadband test probes connecting to both 4G and 3G services and collecting a series of key performance indicators through active test sequences. Testing was conducted from environmentally controlled locations in Turku, Finland where strong radio signals were available. Genre Mobile provided the in-country logistics for the test project.
traffic control and management for the mobile operator. Telefonica is using Sandvine's Policy Traffic Switch to collect network data and present that to executive management functions to help them to make business decisions and to enforce new policies in the network.

eircom and O2 bring network sharing to Ireland

Telefonica O2 Ireland and eircom Group have said they want to provide the "best mobile network infrastructure" in Ireland, as a result of an agreement to share elements of their mobile networks. The two operators have said they will cooperate in areas including site equipment, power supply, technology and transmission sharing. That means that wherever possible, the existing sites of both operators will be consolidated. Where new sites are to be built, they will be built jointly and staff from the networks teams of both operators will work together in a single team to manage the day-to-day build and operation of the distinct networks. eircom Group, CEO Paul Donovan said, The current economic realities require all operators to think creatively on how to operate more efficiently. This new collaboration between two of the largest operators in the Irish market demonstrates how working together we can deliver tangible benefits for customers. Stephen Shurrock, CEO of Telefonica O2 Ireland, said, Todays announcement will enable us to not only deliver new and enhanced services, including faster broadband speeds, but also to do it in a much more efficient way, providing the best mobile infrastructure for the customer and the economy alike. There is a strong strategic requirement for greater collaboration and focus in the area of investment in helping to accelerate the introduction of new technologies and O2 is delighted to be at the forefront of this development.

8 | Mobile Europe

News
competition winner l LTE commitments

AND THE 2D BARCODE COMP WINNER IS...

In our February/March issue, we ran a barcode competition, with support from prize sponsor Zinwave, and from barcode platform provider NeoMedia. To enter, all users had to do was scan the code on the front of the magazine, enter a few details and be entered into a prize draw. Zinwave also held a more traditional business card draw for the prize on its MWC stand, as well as displaying the code. All the entrants were collated, and the winner of the competition is Gerry Feeney, of NEC. Many congratulations to Gerry, who wins a spanking new iPad, courtesy of Zinwave. Many thanks also to our competition sponsor Zinwave. Thanks also to NeoMedia, which provided the barcode platform, and also to Buongiorno, which actually ran the competition itself. We look forward to using barcodes to drive more reader interactions in the future.

140 LTE COMMITMENTS

The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) has said that almost 200 operators are now investing in LTE. The report confirms 140 firm operator commitments to deploy commercial LTE systems in 56 countries. The number of committed operators is 118% higher than one year ago. A further 56 precommitment trials have been identified. The report covers both LTE FDD and LTE TDD modes. 17operators have commercially launched LTE networkds.

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

Mobile Europe | 9

News
3G at 900MHz l data volumes l change at ip.acces

O2 SEES 50% CAPACITY INCREASE FROM 900MHZ 3G

Nigel Purdy, Chief Technology Officer for Telefnica O2 UK, said, This 3G900 switch-on is the latest in a series of network enhancements for O2, and is a first for the UK and Telefnica. Weve acted quickly to bring the benefits of 3G over 900MHz spectrum to our customers and were thrilled with the results. Quite simply, on O2s network, more customers can use more data, and experience it quicker. O2 said that test company Siroda has released results of a survey of UK mobile networks, comparing the data speeds of five UK operators. The tests, conducted over a 60day period across 169 static test locations, measured mobile data connection speed at peak periods throughout the day. According to O2 the tests show that, between October 2010 and January 2011, O2 offered the "best" data experience in 12 out of 13 cities. On average, web page access on the O2 network was delivered in 1.4 seconds, over three times quicker than the slowest operator. Data performance was measured by testing the time to access a webpage and the speed of downloading a typical music file. Tests were conducted between 8am and 9pm Monday to Sunday. Cities covered included London, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield.

Mobile devices to generate data traffic equivalent to 18 billion movie downloads by 2015 report
According to new figures from Juniper Research, the amount of mobile data traffic generated by smartphones, featurephones and tablets will exceed 14,000 Petabytes by 2015, equivalent to 18 billion movie downloads or 3 trillion music tracks. Pressure on mobile networks however will begin to ease as 63% of traffic, nearly 9,000 Petabytes, moves across to Wi-Fi and femtocell networks, it says. Junipers new Mobile Data Offload & Onload Report finds that while data growth over the cellular network will be substantial, it will not be the data explosion that some have anticipated. However, the report notes that despite the implementation of offloading measures, migration of data traffic from fixed to mobile will exacerbate the strains on the cellular network. According to report author Nitin Bhas, It is important for network operators to be cognisant of the net impact that both offload and onload have on the total data traffic through the network. So even though data offload alleviates some of the operators network congestion, a significant proportion of the offload could itself be offset by fixed to mobile migration of data. Although currently WiFi accounts for over 90% of the traffic offloaded, Femtocells will account for a steadily increasing proportion over the forecast period and both will contribute to be a flexible solution that will co-exist and provide a big-win opportunity for the operators. The report suggests that operators need to view offloading solutions as complementary to their 3G/4G network providing opportunities to seize market share and revenues from fixed line operators, extending their reach beyond mobile and making their 3G/4G business case profitable.

O2 has said that it expects to achieve a 50% increase in network capacity and 30% faster download speeds by reusing 900MHz spectrum for 3G in London. The operator said it is the first carrier to have used the 900MHz band for 3G services. It announced today that it had switched on the new network layer in London, with the spectrum already carrying 3G services in Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester. Other cities are set to follow in the coming months, the operator said. O2 said that customer experience testing has shown that, on average, O2 customers on 3G900 compatible devices are now receiving data 30% faster than before the new spectrum was allocated for 3G use. Network capacity in the areas where 3G900 has been rolled out has also increased by 50%, the operator said.

MALLINSON OUT, BROWN IN AS CEO AT IP.ACCESS

Femtocell vendor ip.access has a new CEO, following the departure of Stephen Mallinson after 11 years spent at the helm
The new CEO is Simon Brown, known to Mobile Europe readers from past stints as CEO of SMS router vendor Telsis, and COO at messaging software company Followap before it was sold to NeuStar. Following that sale, Brown then headed NeuStar's Next Generation Messaging division (as it was then known) for a short period before moving to Telsis. He is also chairman of Movirtu. Andy Tiller, ip.access' SVP Product Management & Marketing, said that the "transition" period had taken place over three months, and had been amicable and orderly. All major customers have also been informed, he added. Brown has a good grasp of the mobile infrastructure industry, he said, through his involvement with Telsis and Followap, and with Nokia Networks. The change in CEO doesn't signal a change in direction, or strategy, Tiller added. Instead, it "signals a continued belief in the potential for ip.access to maintain its growth."

10 | Mobile Europe

News
mobile retail launch l use for notifications

MOBILE MONEY NETWORK LOOKS TO OPERATORS TO SCALE MOBILE RETAIL

The Mobile Money Network, a joint venture established by Carphone Warehouse, Best Buy Europe, and Monitise to help customers buy items using their mobile phones, has announced details of its first service. The service, called Simply Tap, will work like this. Users will register to be able to use the service. Registration details will be close to the usual online retail details: name, payment and billing details and a delivery address. Where a shopper sees an item that is offered by a Mobile Money Network Simply Tap partner, they will be able to enter that products code into a Simply Tap app, or enter the code in an SMS. Payment and delivery will be taken care of from that moment using the registered details. Products could be bought online, or from a print ad or article, or in person. Obviously, its scope will be determined by how many retailers sign up to be partners Carphone Warehouse investor Best Buy will be the first launch retailer. Retailers will pay a per-transaction fee to MMN if a product is bought through Simply Tap. John Milliken, MD of Mobile Money Network, said that he could not share what that fee would be at the moment. Milliken said the advantage of MMNs Simply Tap is that retailers can plug in to a central platform and integrate to the level they are comfortable with, with functionalities such as live stock and order checks. The MMN hopes that by being agnostic to the device, operator or bank, it will differ from capability- given they already have the scale and the cross-device capability? Milliken said that operator attempts to date, either to act independently of each other or to try and offer a universal payment mechansim had not really worked so well for the retailers. MMN announced the service launch by also announcing that Stuart Rose, former CEO of Marks & Spencer, had joined as non-executive Chairman.

THE BARRIER TO A BRIGHT IDEA IS THE ABILITY TO SCALE

many of the more vertically integrated mobile payment and retail applications. Milliken said the service was just the start for MMN, with financial services the next destination for the JV. He added that the company hopes to deepen its relationships with mobile operators, as he is aware operators add scale and reach. The barrier to a bright idea is often the ability to scale quickly, he said. So have operators missed a trick by not putting together a similar mobile retail payment

Carphone Warehouse, one of the backers of the Mobile Money Network

NEWBAY PUTS OPERATORS ON NOTICE OVER NOTIFICATIONS

Cross-platform protocol to offer fightback against OS-specific notifications
Newbay Software has launched a system that allows operators to provide IP-based notifications to devices independently of the platform the device is operating on. With SMS traditionally being used as the main tool for notifications, this was once a viable and profitable revenue stream for operators. Recently, however, the main OS platforms such as Android and Apple have offered their own IP-based notification protocols like C2DM (Cloud To Device Messaging) and APNS (Apple Push Notification Service) to developers and service providers. These protocols bypass the operator to deliver notifications direct to the user. Not only that but, as NewBay points out, they are able to carry rich application data and service-specific metadata as well as support WiFi only devices, and developers are offered an API that means they don't need to pay for access into operator SMSCs. But although there are advantages, the limitation for developers is that using APNS or C2DM doesnt gain them access to the widest array of devices. For that they would need an independent system that still offered the functionality of the other systems. This is where NewBays LifeCache Notifier system comes in. NewBay says that operators and developers using its proprietary BPP (Binary Push Protocol) will be able to extend battery life, reduce signaling load on the network, and use one API to provide notifications to all the major OS including Apple and Android. It will be up to operators which gateways they want to add to the product. Operators can then act as a curator of services across peoples devices. On a simple level, for example, it could allow a user to set up their preferences so they receive notifications to an Android handset during the day, but to an iPad during the evening. Jerome OFlaherty, Product Manager for the LifeCache Notifier, said, Up to now, even into last year, there were huge amounts of revenue generated from SMS. The trend were seeing now is that people with iPhone and Android applications use IP-based notifications, not SMS. So people who were previously paying the operator for access to the customer are now completely circumventing the operator and using other methods to communicate with the mobile customer. The operator, rather than abandon this whole area which would be disastrous, needs a platform with which they can take their existing partners on a journey.

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

Mobile Europe | 11

News
network monitoring l optimisation funding

NETWORK MONITORING?
LET THE CUSTOMERS DO IT FOR THEMSELVES
A network quality monitoring company called Metricell has launched a service that lets users track, by location and time, the quality of service they are receiving from their network provider. facts. Weekly, monthly summaries are provided to show metrics concerning the service performance they receive from their network provider. Low signal and dropped calls are pinpointed, services used, upload data speeds and more are summarised for all registered mobiles. An overall Global Service Quality measure is provided for users over any period. The service can also be made available to mobile operators, with the platform tailored to integrate with an operator's customer support services function. Metricell said that the use of smartphones to report the actual customer experience could enable major advances to existing operator customer support systems with efficiency benefits and cost reductions by eliminating most 1st generation drive test measurements. Steve Mockford, Metricells Managing Director said, Tracesaver uses smartphones to capture key data 24-7 to pinpoint network problem areas. Subscribers have a free service to

SMARTPHONES CAPTURE KEY DATA 24-7

The service, called Tracesaver, is available as an Android or Blackberry app (an Apple app is "coming" the company said) and is said to deliver continuous transparent tracking of phone usage and precise locations across the day. If it delivers on its promise, it could provide a service that lets users see exactly the quality they have received, and of course have the ability to share that with their service provider or operator. Tracesaver users are provided with encrypted access to an industry quality web site to review their call details, whereabouts and all other key

track their whereabouts and summarise all aspects of their mobile phone usage. Customer use cases include emergency location of family or general tracking of fleet vehicles. "Many users specifically want to pinpoint where they have unacceptable network service levels. From an operator point of view, tracesaver has targeted collection to report locations of poor quality or dropped calls." Metricell works already with MBNL, providing its Livetime NetView product. Livetime also acts as the project data warehouse for Everything Everywhere's network consolidation project.
I Movik Networks, a mobile content delivery and optimisation company, has received $25 million Series C funding. The funding, Oak Investment Partners with support from previous investors Highland Capital Partners and Northbridge Venture Partners, is intended to provide scope for further R&D. In February, Movik announced increased expansion in the European and the Middle Eastern telecom markets. Movik's Content Aware Edge product is an edge-based steering, optimisation and policy enforcement tool. I DellOro Group reported that mobile infrastructure market revenues increased 33 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010 to $11.2 billion. The report indicates that the market expansion was a result of continued strong WCDMA sales, as well as a pick up in the 2G market. In addition, vendors started recognising significant LTE infrastructure revenues during the fourth quarter. The report indicates that the positive momentum will continue in 2011, as the total mobile infrastructure market is forecast to grow 5%.

Altobridge gets 12 million for backhaul optimisation development

Altobridge, a company that specialises in providing wireless connectivity in remote areas, has won 12 million in series C funding from Intel Capital and IFC. As well as investing in products to meet the connectivity needs of remote communities, enterprises and schools in emerging markets, Altobridge said that the funding will allow it to commercialise its mobile backhaul optimisation solution called Data-at-the-Edge. Data-at-the-Edge incorporates smart routing and traffic management at the cell site, rather than at an MSC. It has been developed from Altobridge's voice optimisation solution which can, for example, identify a call between two parties on the same cell site so avoiding the call being backhauled into the core network. In remote environments reducing the amount of traffic that is backhauled is a top priority. Now Altobridge thinks that it could also be used for data backhaul optimisation in urban environments identifying local data traffic, as well as adding elements such as caching and least cost routing intelligence. The company said the product could reduce a sites backhaul needs by 50%. Peter Tuomey, Altobridge spokesperson, said that use of the technology could lead to a significant reduction in data bandwidth requirements on mobile networks. But he could not describe in detail how the technology works, saying, The specifics of the technology are patented and proprietary, and in that sense are unique. Nobody else has the capability to do it in the same way. Tuomey said there is no hardware element required at the base station. Instead, Altobridge is looking to offer its software licenses to OEMs or operators. Data congestion in urban area wireless networks and connecting remote communities in rural areas are major challenges for communication service providers, said Marcos Battisti, Director of Intel Capital Western Europe and Israel. Altobridge has developed the technology and is marketing products that address these issues in a cost-effective way.

12 | Mobile Europe

News
nfc l m-payments l security API

Visa to invest 100 million a year into mobile payments and e-commerce
Visa Europe has said it will invest 100 million a year into mobile and ecommerce payments and expects to see "commercial launches of mobile payments" before the end of 2011. To place this in context, Visa Europe said in its 2010 annual results that it had invested 1 billion in total on payment technology since its creation in 2004 - an annual average of roughly 140 million. It is now commiting 100 million a year to mobile and ecommerce payments integration. A spokesperson for the company said the 100 million is "new money", and "will continue to be invested each year until commercialisation is fully underway". Speaking at Visa Insight, Visa's partner and customer programme in Barcelona, Peter Ayliffe, Visa Europe Chief Executive, said, We are seeing strong double digit growth in the usage of Visa cards across Europe, particularly with debit, and will continue to do so in the next few years as electronic payments displace cash. But during this time we can now expect to see the emergence of contactless, mobile and even further growth in ecommerce. To realise this opportunity Visa Europe will invest 100 million annually. The first results of this will be commercial launches of mobile payments before the end of 2011, closely followed by a major launch in ecommerce payments. Ayliffe added, In just ten years we have moved from 1 in every 18 spent in Europe on a Visa card to 1 in 8.

SIMALLIANCE LAUNCHES OPEN MOBILE API FOR SECURE APPS

The SIMalliance has announced the availability of its Open Mobile API. The organisation says that the API, which allows application providers to access the Secure Element within a mobile device, is designed to combat a "growing number of malicious attacks on smartphone applications and operating systems". The API provides a means to use two-factor authentication to aid the secure delivery of NFC, payment and identity services. The SIMalliance said that single factor authentication where users log in to a mobile application or service using a password has been shown to be inadequate as attacks on smartphone and tablet applications "increase in number and sophistication". By connecting the application to the Secure Element via the Open Mobile API, many of the security breaches seen today will become preventable, the SIMalliance hopes. Created by the SIMalliance Open Mobile API workgroup, release v.1.01 of the Open Mobile API delivers the transport layer between the smartphone application and the Secure Element. The development of a standardised API is a very significant step towards reducing the threat of identity theft and fraud on todays generation of smartphones and tablets, says Frdric Vasnier, Chairman of the Board, SIMalliance.

The Google Nexus-S, one of the more recent NFC-enabled smartphones

Knowing their data is safe will increase consumer confidence and stimulate growing demand for new services and that is good news for the user, the mobile operator and the hundreds of brands that now recognise the opportunities of engaging with their consumers on the mobile. A position paper from SIMalliance highlights the need for a change in how security is approached on the connected mobile device. It focuses on the need to create security (and security policy) at the development stage, and highlights the telecoms industrys unique position of already having a solution to the problem.

Telefonica employees to take own medicine on NFC

One thousand employees on a Telefonica campus in Madrid will use mobile NFC services during their working lives, as Telefonica continues to promote NFC usage. A release from Telefonica said that employees at its District C site (to be renamed District NFC) campus would be given Samsung NFC phones and would be able to use them to gain access to the site and pay for food on campus. in time the number of participants in the project will be increased to include all 14,000 employees on site. Partners in the project include Autogrill,Bankinter, BBVA, G&D, La Caixa, Oberthur, Samsung, Sermepa and Visa. Telefonica said that its Mobile Shopping Sitges 2010 trial had resulted in customers carrying out 30% more etransactions, with a 23% increase in average purchase per user with their card.

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

Mobile Europe | 13

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INSIGHT REPORT

In-building wireless: THE BROADBAND CHALLENGE

Once upon a time, providing coverage in-building wireless meant just that. Demand was static, voice coverage was the driver, the industry had a range of solutions at its finger tips. Then came the mobile broadband data explosion. Operators are being forced to treat indoors as business critical areas of their networks. As data moves indoors, so does the revenue. With differing spectrum availability, service requirements, economic models and changing usage patterns, operators now need to see in-building wireless in the round. Reflecting the heterogenous approach to indoor wireless, this report takes a look at key aspects of the delivery of mobile serivces to indoor areas. A year ago we carried an entire report into the femtocell market, looking at operator deployments and strategies to date, and at which vendors were forming the ecosystem. This year we revisit some of those points, and we have an article from Peter Jarich of Current Analysis, author of last years report, that looks at developments over the past year. Jarich also provides some pointers as to where the femtocell industry might go next. We also provide the latest updates on service deployments and ecosystem developments. But we also move beyond just femtocells, into a wider consideration of what is driving the need for mobile broadband coverage and capacity. Monica Paolini, of Senza Fili Consulting, looks at the traffic drivers that operators are undergoing. And to place all of this into context, we have a piece from Dean Bubley, breaking down what the use cases are for in-building broadband coverage, the technology options available and what operators should be considering as they deploy indoor wireless. We hope you enjoy this latest Insight Report from Mobile Europe. Keith Dyer, Editor, Mobile Europe

INSIGHT REPORT CONTENTS:

P16 Sponsors Foreword P17 Indoor wireless evolution P22 Data moves indoors P23 Broadband DAS and LTE P24 Femtocell market update P26 Where now for femtocells?

REPORT CONTRIBUTORS:
DEAN BUBLEY Dean is Founder and Director of Disruptive Analysis. MONICA PAOLINI Monica Paolini, PhD, is the founder and president of Senza Fili Consulting PETER JARICH Peter Jarich is Service Director, Service Provider Infrastructure, Current Analysis.

INSIGHT REPORT

SPONSORS FOREWORD
Jean-Pierre Lartigue, Vice President, Marketing and Strategy, Wireless Division, Alcatel-Lucent, says small cells will soon be taken to the next level, boosting capacity in high density urban areas as well as providing coverage to remote rural communities. As they do this, they will solve the key challenges that operators face over the next decade.

magine fulfilling the exploding urban bandwidth demands of the next decade without having to build costly new infrastructure. Now, picture taking mobile service easily and affordably to the farthest corners of the globe, places once thought unreachable or completely cost-prohibitive.

Femtocells used to be thought of for only boosting mobile coverage in residential homes. But already, theyre expanding beyond the home to offer greater coverage in workplaces and other urban centers. Femtocells, more specifically small cells, will soon be taken to the next level: boosting capacity in high-density areas in the face of skyrocketing demand. Ultimately, however, they will once again serve as a coverage solution, providing mobile service to rural communities and remote areas of the world that were thought cost prohibitively unreachable. The mobile landscape is changing dramatically. Projections are staggering: by 2015, the number of smart phones per square kilometer will multiply 32 times. That will place huge demands on existing networks, not just because there will be some two-and-a-half billion devices, but because each of them will be able to do more - more email, more internet, more video download, more on-line gaming. The result, mobile internet traffic increasing 30-fold in the next four years and video usage growth of 50x. The existing infrastructure struggles at times to cost effectively meet todays users demands, much less be able to handle future demands. Upgrades to HSPA+ and LTE will certainly help, but the cycle of bandwidth demand, as exhibited by wireline in the early days of broadband growth, has proven to be insatiable at times. In urban centers, the issue wont be coverage, but capacity. Without curbs in usage or network expansion, a growing number of customers will experience dropped calls and slow downloads as data demands grow. Expanding capacity through construction of more macro sites is not only costly and time consuming, but it is also insufficient to meet projected demand on its own. With small cells, a shortage of capacity can be filled cost-effectively. By establishing more small cells in businesses and urban metro environments such as shopping malls, bus and train terminals, outdoor plazas and arenas, capacity can be expanded at reasonable cost. A study by Bell Labs shows that within three years, its more affordable to solve capacity problems with small cells than by building more traditional macro infrastructure. The application of small cells provides the surest path to high rate mobile data access at low latency on a consistent basis. Such a path is needed as the line between fixed broadband access and mobile broadband access becomes blurred, particularly in the mind of the subscriber. Just as exciting is the potential for small cells to bring communications to places that were previously thought to be out of reach. Remote communities from small villages to rural communities can become part of a mobile voice/data network, connecting their increasingly bandwidth hungry devices to wireless services through a combination of low-cost radio access points and wired or wireless backbone infrastructure. Using a combination of small cells and other newer technologies, a wireless last mile becomes even more possible, and likely. Some people continue to think of small cells as a solution for home customers where coverage is spotty. But at Alcatel-Lucent, were excited about the prospect of small cells not just filling todays coverage gaps, but solving the challenges of the next decade: building urban capacity and creating coverage in places once too costly to serve. About Jean-Pierre Lartigue: Jean-Pierre Lartigue leads the Marketing and Strategy Global Function within Alcatel-Lucents Wireless Division. Formerly Jean-Pierre was the Vice President of Fixed Access Marketing and Communication and prior to joining Alcatel-Lucent in 2002, he was with the management consulting firm, Boston Consulting Group, and served as Deputy Director General of Vision 1250, the European group for the development of high-definition and digital television.
16 | Mobile Europe Insight Report

INSIGHT REPORT

INDOOR WIRELESS EVOLUTION

A number of factors are driving the need for increased indoor coverage and capacity. Each factor comes with a different solution whether that be enhanced outdoor solutions that reach into the building, the delivery of LTE at high spectrum bands, or the specific urban environment an operator is addressing. Dean Bubley analyses the evolution of indoor wireless.

FROM COVERAGE FIX TO COST CONTROL

In the past, mobile operators have had to build out indoor networks primarily to support coverage for voice services, particularly in large corporate offices or major public venues. Their customers and often their regulators expect as near-toubiquitous telephony coverage as possible, and lack of basic 2G voice availability is a key source of dissatisfaction and churn. Not only are there more technology and application variables, but future usage and demand patterns are highly unpredictable. Indoor wireless systems are no longer just being used to compensate for poor coverage from outside, or to drive incremental minutes usage and customer loyalty. Instead, some approaches are now being used to help operators reduce costs or congestion on their macro networks, especially for fastgrowing data consumption. Operators are now trying to juggle a wide range of priorities and pressures simultaneously: T In much of the world, 3G UMTS mobile broadband networks operate principally at 2.1GHz, which has comparatively poor indoor penetration and range compared to 900/1800MHz GSM. This means outdoor-in radio networks are largely unsuitable for large sites, or those near the fringes of coverage. 2.6GHz LTE will probably be worse still. T Some operators are experiencing congestion on their macro-cellular networks, and are unable to either add more transmitters (because of spectrum constraints) or acquire more normal outdoor cell sites easily. This drives the need for indoor networks to take the load off of outdoor cells. T Backhaul costs are escalating for many operators, especially where they do not have fibre to every cell-site. Offloading traffic to alternative infrastructure with cheaper or better still, free backhaul is very appealing. T Mobile operators are seeing saturation of existing markets, and are looking for new business models around mobile data. Indoor-oriented networks (perhaps using distinct new technologies or infrastructure) offer interesting potential for example in enabling new M2M (machine-to-machine) data services, location-based advertising, or femtozone applications in subscribers homes. However, these bring new challenges. Geo-specific services clearly need cast-iron connectivity even in-building (eg mobile coupons in a shopping mall), while an M2M vending machine clearly cannot stand by the window to get a better mobile signal. T Some telecoms regulators are now enforcing indoor coverage requirements as part of licence terms form operators, rather than just outdoor population-percentage criteria. For example, the Indian regulator TRAI is pushing hard on mandatory inbuilding implementations. T The concept of HetNets (heterogeneous networks) is also becoming a hot topic, involving operators knitting together

Such build-outs have typically been made on the basis of negotiation between operators, building owners and any tenant companies, with the larger installations typically involving DAS (distributed antenna systems), installed with dedicated and quite expensive infrastructure. However, except in venues with exceptional user density (eg sports stadia), the design has largely focused on adding coverage, rather than futureproofing for expected need for more capacity over time. Realistically, the volume of mobile phone calls in a shopping mall on its opening day will not be that different to a busy weekend, five years later. This has made the calculations (relatively) straightforward. But with the shift to 3G/4G networks, new devices and especially mobile broadband, the drivers and challenges have become much more complex and multi-dimensional.

Mobile Europe Insight Report | 17

INSIGHT REPORT
multiple tiers of network coverage and capacity, often involving different technology types. In-building solutions will play an important role here. T Requirements to support new mobile broadband technologies that do not work on older DAS systems, and also enable growing requirements for public-safety agencies radio systems to work indoors. T Some building owners are becoming much more savvy and well-advised around wireless. They see opportunities in billing and IT teams. Network outsourcing adds in further stakeholders. Various operators have deliberately chosen to differentiate their services on the basis of good indoor coverage. In Australia, Telstra has pointed to its Next-G service as working especially well in hard-to-reach places, albeit because of its 850MHz frequency band rather than dedicated in-building systems. Vodafone has been pitching its SureSignal femtocell product as able to offer premium business-grade coverage for small now increasingly grouped together as small cells. T WiFi either operated by the carrier, or by a third party network operator T Refarming of more penetrative lowfrequency 2G spectrum bands for 3G/4G use. T Deployment of an overlay 4G network such as LTE at 700MHz. T Use of advanced macro-cellular techniques such as MIMO or beam-forming that may enable more targeted outside-in coverage. T Remote radio heads and Cloud RAN technologies such as Alcatel-Lucents lightRadio. T Next-generation repeaters and signalboosters that are more friendly to macro radio planning. T Improved antennas and radios on devices, that help them maximise performance at weak signal levels. Each of these has its own pros and cons in terms of cost, applicability, future-proofing and fit with a given operators specific situation and their projections of future requirements. The concept of mobile data offload using WiFi (and in some cases femtos) is a good example of where opinions differ widely. Some operators are huge advocates of WiFi AT&T or Telefonica O2, for example partly because they now have huge user bases of Apple iPhones and iPads, which are very much WiFi-optimised products. Others such as Verizon Wireless and H3G are distinct sceptics, preferring cellular networks that they own, plan and manage tightly. Others are instead trying to control excessive data traffic on their 3G networks through clever pricing strategies, or restrictive network policy management (eg video compression), rather than offload indoor traffic. In essence, some are managing the supply of mobile broadband, while others are looking to control demand. [Disruptive Analysis believes that the winners will be those that manage to blend a holistic approach to integrating both, with a good user experience]. INDOOR WIRELESS NEEDS ARE FRAGMENTING As well as business drivers, is also important to recognise that indoor wireless is far from a monolithic concept in terms of the types of building under consideration. There are many separate domains that get

controlling and monetising radio airspace, while providing optimal services for their tenants and visitors. This is changing some of the commercial and technical arrangements for example, by working with neutral host providers that seek multiple operators paying access fees. It is also worth noting that these concerns are spreading more broadly across operators organisational structure, becoming strategic rather than merely tactical. Previously, RAN teams were concerned with filling specific coverage holes, while enterprise sales divisions looked at special indoor projects to win major customers. Now, in-building issues such as mobile data offload are tied into much broader questions of traffic management, tariff plans and network policy, while marketing and strategy groups are scrutinising new business models and applications. This means that indoor solutions are now relevant to everyone at an operator, from core network architects, to handset groups assessing connection manager software, through to
18 | Mobile Europe Insight Report

companies, although mostly for voice rather than data. TECHNOLOGY CHOICES ARE BECOMING BEWILDERINGLY WIDE Driven by these business imperatives, vendors and standards bodies have been innovating at a furious pace. There is now a huge variety of options for improving inbuilding coverage and capacity for mobile broadband, such as: Active and passive DAS systems. Femtocells and picocells of various types,

Indoor wireless will become enmeshed with much broader concerns about the nature of operators mobile broadband business models As an issue, it should be much higher on Clevel executives priority lists

INSIGHT REPORT
classified as indoor, with a variety of business drivers, technological pressures and competitive concerns. The main ones to consider are: T Large public venues: Typically involving substantial areas of space, crowds ebbing and flowing, and often various corporate sub-tenants or concessions. This includes shopping malls, airports, conference centres, sports venues and various transportation hubs. T Large single-company site: This includes campus-style buildings, corporate HQ offices, factories and warehouses. T Shared offices: Many office buildings are shared between multiple tenants, with an independent landlord owning the site. T Small / branch offices: Individual companies, or larger organisations with multiple sites, may look to improve network coverage or deploy dedicated solutions for pricing reasons. T Residential: Self-explanatory, although this also splits between individual houses and multi-tenant dwellings such as apartment blocks. T Structures: Not exactly in-building, but similar, are various other locations such as tunnels, metro systems and other areas with poor coverage, or especially high densities of people. Each of these have very different characteristics and rationales and again, may well be dealt with by different groups within a given mobile operator. A particularly important consideration is whether a given location has to support just a single mobile network operator, or many/all of those present in a given market. An airport or shopping mall owner, for example, will have little interest in a solution that just supports some visitors, leaving others with poor coverage. Conversely, homes or small businesses may either just use a single operators services anyway or may just experience coverage holes from one provider. While certain operators may ultimately wish to provide differentiated services at such locations, it is unlikely that the site owner will want to support anything which disenfranchises part of the general visitor base from obtaining at least basic 2G/3G coverage. Even the most extreme example Londons O2 Arena (the former Millennium Dome), sponsored by Telefonica O2, does not inhibit other operators signals, although it has its own macro cell-site to provide exemplary coverage on its own turf. (The operator instead focuses on differentiation through giving its own customers advance access to tickets for events the coverage aspect is more table stakes). Large enterprises are probably the hardest challenge for mobile operators. Ideally, operators want to sign long contracts with enterprises for their employees mobile service needs. Grudgingly, they will improve indoor coverage for that company, for example via a microcell and DAS system, if the business case supports it. But typically, they only fix their own networks problems, rather than working collaboratively with other operators on shared systems. This is likely to cause future issues with the growing trend of consumerisation of enterprise IT, with employees using their own smartphones or tablets for work purposes, across a variety of networks. Much-vaunted newer technologies such as femtocells are also problematic for large sites, as they mean that there is no clear demarcation point between the corporate LAN and security infrastructure, and the operators equipment and are also generally single-operator only. A PROLIFERATION OF CHOICES, BUT NO SIMPLE PATH The preceding sections have highlighted the growing range of technology options available for operators wanting to improve in-building coverage, as well as the plethora of business drivers, and the diversity of site archetypes behind their decisions. In addition, each operators starting point and market context is different, so there is no one-size fits all answer to which technologies or approaches get prioritised. In particular, each telco starts with a specific set of spectrum allocations, and operates in a market with new auctions timing largely outside its control. It may or may not be able to refarm existing 2G frequencies for 3G/4G mobile broadband, while additional cell-site acquisition may be subject to local planning-permission obstacles. There will also be practical considerations, such as the availability of fixed broadband for solutions such as femtocells or WiFi. Even something as prosaic as local construction practices will drive decision-making for instance, the use of wood, reinforced concrete or metallised windows will affect indoor signal penetration. Overall, this means that the in-building market will continue to become more complex, as mobile broadband evolves. Historically, investments have been extremely tactical, with choices made pragmatically by engineers and salespeople. Going forward, indoor wireless will become enmeshed with much broader concerns about the nature of operators mobile broadband business models, their target audience groups, dealing with local market characteristics and their philosophy around collaboration and outsourcing. As an issue, it should be much higher on C-level executives priority lists, as the decisions made will now assume strategic importance.

Mobile Europe Insight Report | 19

SPONSORED ARTICLE

HOW SMALL CELLS TRANSFORM COME A TECHNOLOGY WHOSE TIME HAS Jim Tavares is a Director for Strategy & Business Development in Cisco Services. Keith Dyer MOBILE PRICING STRATEGIES
By providing a more targeted means of delivering data services, the deployment and adoption of small cells could enable operators to implement data pricing strategies that recognise the real value of data to users, writes Alcatel-Lucents Steve Kemp.
KEITH DYER:
heJim, Cisco of course the cost of providing profit gap between is represented in the mobile data services to consumers and femtocell market through its MicroCellthe revenues that is most notably supporting device, which operators can gain from those services is already something of a clich think Cisco is AT&T's femtocell service. Why do you within the industry, but to meet carrier needs foritfemtocellreal well-placed that does not mean that is not a problem for mobile operators. deployment? As Figure 1 shows, if the business model is left unaltered the revenues operators generate from mobile JIM TAVARES: data services will soon be exceeded by thebecause we We are very excited about the market cost of transporting and supporting data traffic growth. The believe it leverages so many key capabilities we have twin factors of flat data revenue per user and increasing as a company. First, there is the long tradition of network costs produce only one outcome operating Scientific Atlanta to deliver carrier-grade CPE into the losses for carriers. To change is our position what is home. And of course there that outcome, within required is to change the that has only been network infrastructure - direction of both lines ARPU and traffic cost. the Starent acquisition. Femtocell strengthened by plays to both canceling network investments wont Delaying or segments, and our strength in both change themean we have the potential to support the segments direction of the curve, but merely delay meeting point of in the mobile industry. massive growth the two curves. Meanwhile there is a real danger that we believe we can a result of poor Importantly, users will churn as provide the end-toservice quality. Not only has the one of rich datafrom the end femtocell infrastructure as use company, applications end to the back-end provisioning side. of radio front increased in line with consumer adoption smart devices, butwith a best-in-class provider in of We've partnered consumer expectations of quality service have risen too.the RF piece, as that is not aAT&T ip.access to provide The early iPhone operators, in the USA and O2 in the for us. Of course, everyone traditional solution area UK, are well known examples of this, to think about merely theside, adopters, and not tends but they were the radio first but the unique. 3 UK suffered high churn well. Unless consumer provisioning side will impact as from customers who were attracted by large bundles but were then there's no deployment of femtocells is zero touch then disappointed canits network performance. Now 3 UKs to way carriers by scale - and we have the experience marketing is all about its network capability, rather than provide the whole integrated provisioning process. being price-led. KEITH DYER: the revenue line, one of the early As for changing steps operators took to mitigate the effect of this will You mention deployment, but how important revenue gap was to introduce tiered datafor carriers, ongoing management of femtocells be pricing, imposing caps on unlimited usage, and deployed? once they have thousands of femtocells designing tariffs that more accurately reflected a consumers actualTAVARES: JIM usage. That's exceptionallya important. To take one However, pricing is fairly crude tool with which to shape traffic profitability and operators soon ran into a example, in the USA you have got to have integrated marketing backlash. requirements, and carriers also in GPS to meet e911 When, in January 2010, T-Mobile the UKto know where cellsupper limit of they may want need unilaterally cut the are because its data cap from 1, 2 or 3Gb down to 500Mb in certain locations, to radiate on certain frequencies for all users, there wastake steps to avoid interference with The companyor or a swift and negative public reaction. other femto said thecells. So that means as well as GPS you also macro move was necessary to provide "a better experience for all ournetwork listening capability to need an integrated customers who use the internet on their phone". Yetis by determining its interactions know where a cell consumer forums cried foul and pointed out that some it. Customers may also self- in with the cells around users were facing an 80% cut their available datafemto is when they buy the cell. So report where the allowance for the same tariff. The

Figure 1: Mobile data margin

Caption CaptionCaption

Small cells offer crucial tools to enable operators to address the direction of their cost and revenue curves in the long term, and not merely to delay the inevitable

operator was forcedhave to adjudicate betweenonly you to backtrack and state that all new customers would be moved to the hard work. that data, and that's 500Mb limit. Aside from a hard cap on data use, a carrier have When you are operators offered tiered pricing on a usage cap basis, with a set deploying thousands of limit plus the next 500Mb will cost you 5 type macrocells, element deals. Slightly more sophisticated are is fundamentally management speed-based tariffs. Vodafone Germany, for example, offers four different from supporting tens tariffs that include a speed element. At one end of the or hundreds of thousands of spectrum the Mobile Connect Flat 3.6 all the femtocells. You still have plan offers 3GB at 3.6complexity24.99 per month, while the Mobile Mbps for of a 3G macrocell but the scale is Connect 21.6 offersof magnitude larger. The49.99 one to two orders 10 GB at 21.6 Mbps for problem per month. to solve is to have one platform carriers need managing all of this. Once again this plays to our Yet none of these approaches changes the fundamentalsupportingthe revenue and cost equation, heritage of nature of tens of millions of carrier class they merely push the inflection point in Figure 1 to the CPE devices. right of the graph, delaying the inevitable. KEITH DYER: tariffs and bundles is a tactical, rather Tinkering with than a strategic change. To truly change the not Does the adoption of the TR69 standard current economics ofmanagement issue, putting femtocells address the delivering the projected demand for mobile bandwidth, operators must addressbroadbandof onto the same footing as other in-home the slope the cost line and the slope of the revenue line. Small access devices? cells offer crucial tools to enable operators to address the direction of their cost and revenue curves in the JIM TAVARES: long term, really a framework delay the a whole lot on TR69 is and not merely to - there's inevitable. top of that to implement if you want to really be CHANGING THE COST are really nascent, so that zero touch. The standards CURVE leaves a lot of small cells offerathe opportunity ofsure Femtocells / work to do as vendor to make changingdeliver a truly zeroenabling the much more you can the cost curve by touch deployment cost-efficient delivery of broadband services. approach scale. Femtocells do not requireI new spectrum or licences in But I should add that think the adoption of which to operate. They positive, and both Cisco and standards is of course are designed to offer the lowest cost management and configuration overhead, Starent have been leaders in standardization. For with built Cisco was an active member in the such as example in Self Optimising Network features DSL automatic neighbour cell relations- and interference Forum - now Broadband Forum Working Group management. They are low power devices that do not that developed TR-069.

20 | Mobile Europe

SPONSORED ARTICLE
require large site costs. Backhaul can be provided by any available means of connectivity, such as DLS or cable, and as such offers an efficient means for operators to offload or onload data traffic. Femtocell investments can also scale with take-up, rather than require a large initial investment. Additionally, because of their size, low power needs and flexibility, they can KEITH DYER: be efficiently targeted to areas of greatest demand. All What other issues do you think operators face of these elements improve the cost-effectiveness of in developing the data, lowering the delivering mobilefemtocell market? slope of the cost to serve line. example, 1.8 cents per Mb of off-peak delivery could change to 7 cents per Mb). With this type of dynamic solution, low margin data traffic is reduced, operator gross margins increase and customers retain a measure of control around their service level low price or high priority. money? Femtocells also lend themselves perfectly to the concept of smart downloading a means by which I also think price is impacted by operators' own operators can reduce peak-time bandwidth demand priorities around aesthetics, and physical to deliver content more efficiently to interested in integration. Some carriers are very mobile devices. By scheduling downloads of data for certain quiet aesthetics, as this is an item that will be going into times, or at certain low-cost of deliveryabout how to people's homes. Others are thinking locations, mobile operators access deliver and routerfavourite TV combine a WiFi could point podcasts, with a programmes or other favoured content toand you femtocell. Every carrier is very different users overnight, for that into account as well. the user have to take example, which then gives access to DYER: KEITH the content on their device throughout the next day. As the content operator concerns -the Stepping away from is stored locally on what do device, thewill drive does not then have to stream you think network consumer adoption of video as that user watches the TV programme on his femtocells? commute to the office in the morning. Such a service not only changes the network economics, JIM TAVARES: butI also offers additional revenue opportunities as think it's simply a fact that wireless and mobility users are offered timely, targeted and valuable years is so much more important than it was a few content how people live their lives. What we're ago to direct to the device of their choice. finding ispolicy-based measuresof how to build So for that traditional view and for concepts such as smart downloading, smallneed are a crucial a network to support that lifestyle cells is becoming service delivery enabler as it is theirUMTS is at 2.4GHz problem. In Europe, for example, inherent economic benefits that make such tariff andand steel. and home construction is often of cement pricing strategies viable for an operator. Without a 2G. So the RF propagation is not what it is in blend of appropriate example is that thean operator will beon a Another network resources whole busy hour unable to is changing.benefits of value based into the network exploit the It's moving back later pricing. In this way, femtocells become much then use their evening, as people come home and more than a bolt-on at home totactical coverage or customer care phone to address use high bandwidth applications. issues. They become a core part of an operators That means people are not getting the experience abilityhave come to expect a profitable service mix. they to be able deliver and demand as the networks are not optimised to those times and THE REDESIGN OF ALL YOU CAN EAT? and locations. Usage is being driven into the home, into different times of the day, and that's driving By changing the network economics, and at the same time as an option to support that need. femtocell enabling the introduction of new pricing mechanisms and service delivery methods, small cells could even lead to the re-birth of the all you KEITH DYER: can eat plans we thought were a thing of thefor So you are very positive about the future past. The difference would be that this time around all femtocell? you can eat (AYCE) plans will be made available as part of a more dynamic pricing structure, so that JIM TAVARES: consumersvery offered for one simplelong as the We are are bullish AYCE plans as reason. Most time, location and service typegrowth in terms of carriers are seeing geometric are right. This would still offer consumerson the network. They're of AYCE their wireless data the ease and attraction seeing plans, whilstgrowth annually, and if it keeps growing 100-200% offering operators assurance that such plans can be then the only way carriers can get more at that rate supported profitably. throughput you take the argument But if they not, a Whether is by adding cell sites. that far or take theres hierarchical approach then small cells can more little doubt that femtocells / small cells, by changing both the cost and revenue models, could handle a lot of that traffic. play a Imajor partwill the remodelingubiquity and small So think we in see macro for of mobile data pricing, with a subsequent because the physics isn't sites for throughput; and long-term impact on the profitability of the mobile operator. going to acquire going to change, and carriers aren't

JIM TAVARES: CHANGING THE REVENUEThe first is that as with I would mention two areas. CURVE
As well service or a different economic model any new as offering technology, there's an education compared to macro investments, small cellsunderstand issue. WiFi took a while for consumers to offer the ability it really was andchangeitthe revenues they derive what for operators to what meant. So you've got a from mobile data. Alcatel-Lucent has argued that smallas similar learning curve with femtocell for consumers, cell API exposure facilitates stores or customer support well as your retail staff in new revenue through new femtozone services, and the Femto Forum has taken agents on the phone. steps in this factor carriers need to be of femtocell API Another direction with the release very clear about standards. But small challenging typical carrier business is that femtocell is cells change the revenue line in an additionalCarriers areenableto subsidising through models. way, they used new revenue CPE for value based pricing. marketing reasons - not in order to generate capex Value-based driving traffic provide end users return reductions by pricing seeks tooff network. So thewith the flexibility to be driven by different to, and use of, on that subsidy is charged for access metrics from network resources in a means where they can control their usual model. theThat leads to another issue,the QoSis that femtocell amount of bandwidth and which treatment they receive at will. The organisational bills according toa crosses classes of operator then structure within usage and touches the operations team, marketing and carrier. It the treatment provided, taking in to account the time of day and type of network as customer service monitoring and assurance, as well (e.g., femtocell / small retail. That's a new paradigm to get their head and cell or macro). For example, an end user in a caf who wants to around. download a movie trailerto saydecide actually think But I would also like may that I to delay the download to later in the day when many of these and there has been great progress in off-peak charges will make itkey areas. Most importantly, there is a clear other less costly. However, that same customer may decide that peak time charges chipset providers to radio supply chain forming - from are acceptable for downloading a multimedia presentation that providers. software providers and end-to-end system is a key requirement forsupply chain it takes a while for every With any new an important customer meeting. To the end user, every level to drop into place, same. To the piece at the value of the bits is not the and you will operator, the cost of delivering the contentthere's by get inevitable interoperability issues, but varies been currentprogress. the network and by the type of network great load on used to deliver the service (e.g., macro vs. small cell). KEITH DYER: operators need a more dynamic To achieve this, policy control system,around price?small cell network How about issues a lower cost There was a feeling layer, vendors would have to createcertain price point in that and the operator must hit a economic incentives femtocellto mark their traffic as low priority order for for users to be viable. and permit it to be shifted to off-peak delivery in return for reduced charges or other perks, such as exclusion JIM TAVARE: fromunderstand that this is a nascent market and not I limiting caps. yet all that sophisticated,traffic as high priority people If users designate their so price is something operatorstheir hands onto deliver But over highest data can get must be able initially. it at the time, rate the network/device can support. If it is being to attention will turn to the benefits of being able delivered at large scale, with reliable,network operate at a peak period via macro zero touch infrastructure, If I save $5 on a component in order to deployment. then the end user has chosen to pay a higher some for peak servicepoint, but then have to be meet price arbitrary price and the operator should able to $50 on support callsusage accordingly (for spend track and charge for - then have I saved any

ABOUT STEVE KEMP Steve Kemp is senior director of product marketing for AlcatelLucent where he is responsible for the promotion of wireless access products worldwide.Formerly, he oversaw promotion of Alcatel-Lucents fiber-to-the-home, DSL, and loop carrier access products sold in North America.

Mobile Europe | 21

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INSIGHT REPORT

MOBILE DATA MOVES INDOORS

Monia Paolini examines the main drivers that are pushing mobile data traffic indoors, and asks what that means in terms of operators capacity strategies? he growth and usage models for wireless data have run counter most of our initial expectations. The major driver to growth did not come from established telecom players manufacturers or operatorsnor from the availability of technologies like 3G, but from a surprisingly successful and disruptive market entry of two companies, Apple and Google, that until then were only marginally involved in the wireless industry.

not work-related and their use peaks in the evening, around 9:00 pm--a time that is surprisingly consistent across cultures, countries, and operators. MOBILE WINNING OVER WIRELINE Perhaps even more surprisingly, subscribers do not see mobile data as the second-best alternative to be used where wireline broadband and Wi-Fi is not available. True, the cellular connection may be slower and more expensive than the DSL, fiber or cable modem line, but it is also more convenient and in many cases fasterno need to walk to the home office to de-hibernate the laptop to check email, Facebook or Twitter. VIDEO TAKES MOBILE DATA INDOORS The emerging usage patternsprevalence of entertainment applications, increasingly dominated by real-time content streaming mostly shifted towards the end of the day has an important consequence for mobile operators trying to accommodate this traffic: mobile data is predominantly consumed indoors, at home, in the office, or in public venues. In fact, most subscribers are not even mobile. They are at their desk, sitting on a sofa or on a bench. According to a study from Cisco, subscribers use mobile data services 40% of the time from home, 25% from work, and 35% from public locationswith at least 80% of the traffic coming from indoor locations. Jaime Lluch Ladron of Telefonica expects that 95% of data traffic will come from indoor locations in a few years time. The trend towards high indoor usage at peak hour is unlikely to change, even if the mix of applications may change through time, mostly because most data applications require a stationary location, preferably protected by glare or rain. Furthermore, in the evening, the peak time for mobile internet usage, people tend to be at indoor locations. Applications tied to social networking, email, and location-based that are more commonly accessed from outdoor locations, typically generate more modest traffic loads and they may be used frequently, but for short duration of time.

We expect to see a growth in traffic from applications that run in the background i.e., off-line content downloads, backups and software upgradesand this may reduce the proportion of indoor traffic. These applications are unlikely to have a substantial effect because they often run at off-peak times and, even then, the devices are most likely in indoor locations, simply because this is where we spend most of our time. INDOOR DATA: WHY DO WE CARE? The prevalence of indoor device location when using data services has a major impact on how mobile operators plan and deploy their networks. Initial cellular networks planned to provide wide area coverage for voice services have been very successful at establishing outdoor coverage from the beginning, but indoor coverage has required much more effort and investment from operators. Walls, windows, and other physical barriers make it more difficult for the wireless signal to penetrate buildings, and typically a less efficient modulation scheme has to be used to connect indoor devices to outdoor macro base stations. As a result, subscribers running the same application on the same device at an indoor location on average use more network resources than if they were outdoors. For a mobile operator, this means that the effective capacity of the existing network infrastructure decreases as indoor usage grows. MOVING BASE STATIONS INDOORS TOO With the explosive increase in data traffic, it is becoming increasingly difficultnot to mention expensiveto support data traffic generated at indoor locations with base stations located outdoors, especially if they are macro base stations mounted high on cell towers and therefore further removed from the indoor locations of subscribers that street level small cells. Operators have started to address this issue by deploying solutions for indoor coverage, such as picocells, Wi-Fi off-load, distributed antenna systems (DAS), or femtocells. By bringing the base station equipment closer to the subscribers, these solutions greatly

Smartphones take mobile data indoors

UNEXPECTED GROWTH PATTERN Similarly, the expectation that wireless data growth would be initially driven by business users and business applications, mostly confined to locations where a readily available connection was not available, and following a similar time-of-day distribution as voice traffici.e., peaking during business hours--did not match the actual evolution of mobile data. Instead, growth in data trafficalthough to a lesser extent the growth in data services revenuesis driven primarily by entertainment applications, with video contributing to an increasingly larger portion of it. Video accounts for almost half of the traffic at Clearwire, and about a third of traffic according to Sandvines data collected from mobile operators. Ciscos VNI forecast predicts that video will grow to 66% of overall traffic by 2015. While many of the subscribers are business users, the bandwidth-heaving applications on their smartphones and laptops are in most cases
22 | Mobile Europe Insight Report

INSIGHT REPORT
Operators have started to address the indoor issue

MULTI-MODE DAS AND LTE

The effect of LTE on indoor wireless is still a hot topic within the in-building wireless industry. As traffic moves indoors, so does revenue meaning that indoor coverage becomes business critical for operators. This becomes particularly important with data services, and with LTE licences being issued in frequencies as high as 2.6GHz with a promise of 100Mbps download and 50Mbps upload speeds per cell. Where LTE coverage may exist at lower frequencies, especially in the digital dividend, although that improves in-building penetration, it may not provide the capacity required for very densely populated buildings. For large buildings, DAS (Distributed Antenna System) has typically been favoured. A DAS is made up of a network of antennas placed within a building. Passive DAS consists of a network of coaxial cables, couplers and power splitters to distribute wireless signals throughout buildings. An active DAS takes service feeds from a base station or repeater and distributes amplified wireless signals inside buildings over fibre optic and RF cable, which connect to multiple remote antenna units placed in various areas of the building. The ability of active DAS solutions to support TDD and multiple frequencies simultaneously on a single hardware infrastructure used to be in doubt. But vendors such as Zinwave, ADC and Axell Wireless, have recently taken a wideband, active approach. This alternative DAS simultaneously supports combinations of wireless services, protocols, duplex schemes or frequencies on one system without the need for service specific overlays. The systems have the ability to support any service type, which future-proofsnew investments in in-building wireless infrastructure, allowing new services to be added without extra components or costly upgrades. The ability to support based on any wireless standard including 2G, 3G, LTE, PMR/LMR, DVB-H, TETRA, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, RFID, means that as services are added to a building, the in-building solution could provide multiservice support. Full management control over this spectrum allows new services to be added on-demand without deploying additional system components. This overcomes one of the difficulties that many see with femto and small cell solutions for in-building coverage - they tend to be deployed on a per-operator and perhaps per-service basis. A building manager or owner, therefore, is looking at hosting multiple small cells to ensure that all his tenants and users have coverage across the range of operators. (Keith Dyer)

improve indoor capacity and coverage, and can be deployed in a very focused way to transport traffic in the areas with the highest loads. NEW CHALLENGES AHEAD The deployment of indoor equipment has been somewhat slow to date. This is changing quickly as mobile operators are under an increased pressure to increase capacity in their networks and indoor coverage often provides the most costeffective solution, and as an increasingly wide, cheaper and more flexible mix of solutions have come to the market. Moving from the ad-hoc solution for a few airports or stadiums to a wider indoor underlay network that carries heavy traffic loads poses significant challenges to operators, and forces them to change the way they plan and operate their networks. And this makes the transition to indoor coverage necessarily slow, and in some cases painful. Indoor coverage requires a denser network of end-points. Operators need to manage a higher number of base stations, which increases the load and complexity on their core networks. This especially true of femtocells, which are being deployed in large numbers and reduced control from the operator on their location. Indoor equipment is cheaper not only on a per-base-station basis, but also on a per-bit basis, and it easier and less expensive to install and maintain, more locations need to be controlled, and in many cases these locations are more difficult to protect. The biggest worry for operators is often the backhaul, unless they happen to have access to their own backhaul infrastructure. Although most buildings offer connectivity options, they may not be sufficient, not available, or overly expensive to the mobile operator. Finally, physical access to indoor locations may be difficult to secure and subject to limitations that stricter than those for outdoor cell towers. The emergence of neutral host players offers an attractive innovative business model that can address some of these issues.

HITTING THE RIGHT PLACES Indoor coverage when carefully targeted is a very efficient way to increase network utilizationas opposed to increasing network capacity of the entire network, which may or may not be usedbecause data traffic is not distributed uniformly across the operators footprint. In Europe, only 7% of base stations in the Vodafone network are at or near capacity. Across all markets, a few subscribers account for a disproportionately high percentage of mobile traffic. In Europe, 6% of Vodafone subscribers account for 54% of overall traffic. The thriftiest 75% of smartphone subscribers use less than 200 MB per month and account for only 17% of traffic. A similar distribution is found across most mobile operators. In the US, for instance, 5% of users account for 68% of traffic, according to Sandvine. As a result, operators do not need to blanket their entire footprint with indoor coverage, but target it at the pressure points in their networks, which can be either public venues located within the coverage area of base stations running at capacity, or the homes of their heaviest users. The evening usage peak suggests a strong component of residential usage, which is concentrated in a relatively small number of households. Providing those with femtocells may allow mobile operators to postpone or avoid expensive network upgrades in residential areas where they typically have good coverage, but limited capacity.

Mobile Europe Insight Report | 23

INSIGHT REPORT

FEMTOCELL ECOSYSTEM & DEPLOYMENTS

In total there are now 21 femtocell deployments globally compared with nine at Mobile World Congress 2010. These include six enterprise offerings, two urban deployments from Vodafone Qatar and Telefonica Spain as well as an outdoor rural service from SoftBank in Japan. These demonstrate that operator interest is not limited to residential services alone. Nonresidential femtocell services focus on the highvalue enterprise market, public places such as metropolitan environments where they provide a capacity boost, and rural areas where network coverage has traditionally been uneconomical. Informa Telecoms & Media expects the

FEMTOCELL ECOSYSTEM
END TO END SYSTEM PROVIDERS Alcatel-Lucent Cisco Hitachi Huawei HSL ip.access Motorola NE Nokia Siemens Networks ZTE NETWORK ELEMENTS Acme Packet Airvana Alcatel-Lucent ALPHA Authentic Cisco Ericsson Gemtek Genband HSL Huawei ip.access LG-Ericsson Nokia Siemens Networks Samsung Sercom SpiderCloud Wireless Tatara Systems Telcordia ZTE PRODUCTS 2Wire Alcaltel-Lucent Airvana AirWalk Argela Askey C&S Microwave Ciscso Contela DTmobile D-Link Ericsson HSL Huawei ip.access Juni LG-Nortel Netgear Panasonic ADBBroadband Sagecom Samsung SpiderCloud Wireless Sumitomo Electric Thomson Ubiquisys ZTE COMPONENTS AND SOFTWARE Ablazr Wireless AuthenTec Broadcom Continuous Computing Freescale Lime microsystems MimoOn Maxim Node Percello picoChip Qualcomm Rakon Intel SigNav Texas instruments Wintegra femtocell market to experience significant growth over the next few years, reaching just under 49 million femtocell access points (FAP) in the market by 2014 with 114 million mobile users accessing mobile networks through femtocells during that year. Femtocell unit sales coud reach 25 million in 2014 alone. (Source: Femto Forum)

OPERATOR
AT&T, China Unicom, KDDI, MoldTelecom,

COUNTRY
USA CHINA JAPAN MOLDOVA

SERVICE NAME
3G Microcell 3G Inn au Femtocell Femtocell Unite

CAPABILITIES
$159, Up to 4 3G users Full cost of 1,200 or CNY10 per month, Up to 4 3G users Free, Up to 4 3G users, July 2010 Femtocell tariff addons: Unilimited 3G voice, Unlimited 3G network, Unlimited 3G Internet Up to 4 3G users 9/month service charge Requires 3MB DSL service from Movistar, Up to 4 3G users $10 per month, Up to 4 3G users 99 up front, 7.80 per month, Up to 4 3G users $60-240 upfront, depending on tariff 199 to buy, Up to 4 3G users Full cost S$323, S$53.50 per month, Up to 4 3G users Free, Up to 4 3G users $32.1 per month, Up to 4 2G users $4.99 per month ($10 for unlimited calling, $20 for family plans), Up to 3 2G users N/A $249.99, Upt to 3 2G users Free (>40 monthly contract. 75 (<40 monthly contract) 150 retail price, Up to 4 3G users $782.81 up to 8 devices, $240.97 for 4 devices Full price NZ$349, up to 8 users N/A, Up to 4 3G users 15 per month, UPt o 4 3G users Unsubsidised 160, to 5 per month bundle, Up to 4 3G users

LAUNCH DATE
September 2009 November 2009

November 2010 August 2010 November 2009 December 2009 April 2011 November 2009 January 2010 June 2010 November 2008 September 200 2010 January 2009 August 2010 April 2011 February 2011 Announced June 2010 June 2010 July 2009

Movistar, NTT DoCoMo, Optimus, Optus SFR, SingTel, SoftBank, StarHub Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, Vodafone, Vodafone, Vodafone Vodafone, Vodafone, Vodafone,

SPAIN JAPAN PORTUGAL AUSTRALIA FRANCE SINGAPORE JAPAN SINGAPORE USA UK USA GREECE ITALY NEW ZEALAND QATAR SPAIN UK

Mi Cobertura Movil My Area Signal On Optus 3G Home Zone Home 3G CallZone Femtocell Service HomeZone Airave (CDMA 1xRTT) Femtocells for business users Network Extender Vodafone Access Gateway Vodafone Booster Sure Signal Public access femto Voz y Datos Premium Oficina Sure Signal

24 | Mobile Europe Insight Report

INSIGHT REPORT

FEMTOCELL APPLICATIONS
Femtocells proponents say that they have an advantage over other systems in that they have a number of attributes which can be used to create compelling new mass-market mobile applications. They are location-sensitive so users can choose applications that automatically trigger when they enter, or leave, the home or office. The fast and low-cost data connection provided by the femtocell could also provide the ideal environment for services, such as fast podcast downloads or media streaming when the user is connected to the femtocell. Additionally, femtocells could act as a bridge between the mobile and home networks, giving the mobile handset secure access to all other connected devices on the home LAN, enabling media sharing and the ability for the handset to be used as a remote control for other consumer electronics devices and home automation. In addition to providing in-home access, the femtocell will also allow users to remotely connect to devices from outside their house via their mobile phone. The Femto Forum has announced progress in the development of femtocellpowered mobile applications. The body has published an industry-wide agreed set of API specifications that enable advanced mobile applications based on femtocell technology. The first applications have already been built based on these specifications by the Forums

vendor members for operator customers. Additionally, the Femto Forum has worked with the Broadband Forum to update the standard for femtocell management to ensure customer equipment can be remotely updated to support advanced applications. The API specifications are now available to the femtocell community and the Forum is keen to see other bodies implement the completed specifications into the dominant industry standard APIs. The specifications are for network-based APIs, which will allow operators to drive the development of femtocell-powered open access, enterprise and consumer applications. The API provides femtocell awareness information so developers can incorporate

The API provides femtocell awareness information so developers can incorporate enhanced presence, context and location-sensitive features into new and existing applications and can also take advantage of the lower cost and faster data connections enabled by femtocells.

enhanced presence, context and locationsensitive features into new and existing applicationss, and can also take advantage of the lower cost and faster data connections enabled by femtocells. In parallel to this work, the Femto Forum has worked with the Broadband Forum to update its TR-196 Femto Access Point Service Data Model, a global femtocell management standard, to enable support for femtocell applications. This is intended to allow mobile operators to use their standard management systems to remotely provision and configure advanced femtocell applications on their customers equipment as well as issue repairs and updates.

The Femtocell ecosystem continues to grow as the femtocell market itself moves from an early adopter phase, dominated by femto-specific companies and developers, to early market growth. The Femto Forum divides the eco system into T End-to-End solution providers: These vendors provide a complete femtocell solution which includes Femtocell Access Points (FAP), femto gateways, middleware and parts that complete a deployment. T Femtocell Access Point (FAP) providers: Vendors who offer FAPs. T Femtocell Core Network providers: Vendors that focus on provisioning femtocells in the mobile core network. T Software and Component providers: Vendors who focus on the software stack or provide the necessary silicon to power FAPs.

Source: Femto Forum

Mobile Europe Insight Report | 25

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INSIGHT REPORT

WHERE NEXT FOR FEMTOCELL VENDORS AND OPERATORS?

Peter Jarich of Current Analysis, who wrote last years Insight Report on femtocells, returns to take a look at where the femtocell market is now, looks at where the market is heading next, and delivers some recommendations. 2011 has been flagged by numerous pundits as the year in which femtocells finally take off in earnest. The skeptics among us will note that the same had been said about 2010 and 2009. The optimists (realists?) will note that the market has advanced significantly over the past few years. Indeed, there are reasons to believe that things will be different this year for the femtocell market. Unfortunately, there are just as many to suggest that theres still a long way to go before vendor visions for in-home small cells and data offload finally match up with operator plans and services. As we approach the mid-point of the year, then, where do things stand? THE GOOD NEWS Even if youve only been a casual follower of the femtocell market, it was difficult to ignore that 2010 ended on a good noteone that carried into early 2011. Per the Femto Forum, we went into Februarys Mobile World Congress with 19 commercial launches and 34 commitments. We can quibble over the exact numbers, and, compared with the commitments attached to technologies like LTE, the number might seem marginal. Realising, however, that we aside, estimates of somewhere between 1.5 and 2.0 million femtocells shipped by year-end 2010 argue that the scale issue is well on its way to being resolved. Of course, it takes more than commercial deployments and commitments to move a market forward. It takes vendor innovation and some indication that operators get it that they see the long-term value of a technology beyond todays tactical needs. Here, the signs are good as well. Mobile World Congress and CTIA, for example, provided examples of dozens of new femtocell models. Sure, we might scoff at the notion of anyone actually manufacturing or deploying Ubiquisys attocell, but it pointed to potential new low-power designs and compact form factors which could drive new business models. At the same time, where the hyped topic of offload previously saw operators focus on everything from their transport to their packet core assets, RAN offload has taken center stage with vendors of all stripes (femtocell and traditional macrocell vendors) preparing to support the space. THE NOT-SO-GOOD NEWS Though operators have begun to turn their attention to RAN offload, it doesnt necessarily mean that theyre connecting this focus to femtocells. Picocells and distributed base station architectures (including recent C-RAN momentum) are being looked at. WiFi hotspots are being deployed and will likely benefit from mobile packet core and back office integration efforts either driven by vendors or as industry efforts like the WiFi Alliances WiFi Certified Hotspot initiative. Put differently, operator interests may be aligning with the femtocell value proposition, but this is no guarantee of the markets long-term health. Consider, for example, three of the markets flagship femtocell deployments:

Realising, however, that we were looking at 10 commercial launches when last years femtocell feature for Mobile Europe Magazine went to press, the market momentum is impressive.
were looking at 10 commercial launches when last years femtocell feature for Mobile Europe Magazine went to press, the market momentum is impressive. Why do these numbers matter? Beyond any technical obstacles to making the femtocell business model work, scale has always been cited as a sticking point. Until femtocells approached the cost of WiFi access points (or, at least, the oft-cited $100 price point), it was argued, they would never be reasonable enough for your average consumer to purchase. More realistically, they would never be able to be subsidized enough by operators looking to drive them into the market. With every additional deployment comes the promise of added production scale and the implication of forward progress on the cost efficiencies necessary to support market growth. Implications

Femtocell momentum: impressive

26 | Mobile Europe Insight Report

SPONSORED FEATURE

GUARANTEEING SERVICE QUALITY AND CONSISTENCY ACROSS THE ENTIRE LTE LIFECYCLE
ts fast becoming clear that new strategies, processes and tools for test, measurement and service quality management are going to be needed if LTE and the new service and business models that it can support are to realise their full commercial revenuegenerating potentials in the shortest possible timeframes. While LTE presents its own unique all-IP engineering challenges a major discontinuity from the well understood 2G and 3G environments there are many other factors at work in the industry today that are accentuating the already intense pressure to roll out services quickly, cost-effectively and at high levels of quality and availability. For a start, the old walled garden mentality must be considered firmly dead. The emerging new world of content and applications-based services relies on being able to interconnect reliably and securely with an increasingly diverse range of third party entities. As this value chain gets longer and multi-dimensional, so too do mobile service providers become far more exposed to customer dissatisfaction and churn. In this context its essential that test and service quality management systems and procedures can cope not only with much more complex and data-heavy sets of performance feedback in real time, but that its also easy to drill down to examine specific services and applications - as well as individual customer experiences - in more granular detail. Throughput is of particular importance here as also is latency, where the absence of traditional Radio Network Controls in the LTE architecture presents its own particular set of new problems.

M5 TravelHawk Analyzer the only portable multitechnology product currently on the market

REENGINEERING THE SERVICE LIFECYCLE K

would in any other industrial sector be considered a complete reengineering of product, plant and supporting processes. The product itself now comes in a near infinite number of versions with shorter and shorter lifecycles; the factory has had to become largely automated and increasingly rely on third parties for both its raw materials and for product innovation while cost pressures continue to mount and the customers become more discerning. Its through this inclusive lifecycle strategy that EXFO is now supporting the LTE community. With its Nethawk portfolio of analysers and simulators to handle troubleshooting and its BrixMobile solutions to provide a full set of service assurance features, EXFO helps both vendors and service providers throughout the whole reengineering lifecycle from initial R&D conformance testing and rollout troubleshooting to mature service assurance and maintenance activities. Providing users with deep insight into network and service performance from a variety of different perspectives as appropriate and with the power and reach to correlate events and spot anomalies EXFO products deliver the kinds of scalability needed in such highly dynamic and complex value and technology chains. In addition, its portable test gear is currently the only multi-technology product on the market, simplifying the issues involved in supporting a more diverse but necessarily seamless access and core network environment.
EXFO Europe Ltd. Toll-free: +800 2255 3936 (+800 CALL EXFO; from most European countries) Sales: +44.2380.246.810 Email: Orders.EXFO.Europe@exfo.com

lajvaosjnvaopjnvaop In many ways these underlying changes add up to what okjnio;jnbpoijpobi

Caption CaptionCaption CaptionCaption CaptionCaption CaptionCaption Caption

DELIVERING CONSISTENT QoE ACROSS MULTIPLE ENVIRONMENTS

This issue of eroding boundaries extends to guaranteeing the customers own quality of experience as they move between the different wireless and network environments 2G, 3G, 4G and even WiFi with what is hoped to be a seamless experience. As far as most customers will be concerned, theyve paid for connectivity any time, anywhere and delivering that means that service providers need test and measurement solutions that can identify handover and interoperability issues quickly and transparently. With traffic patterns getting increasingly bursty in nature, thanks especially to the viral nature of much video content and the demands this places on finite spectrum and backhaul capacity, having the right tools and systems in place for service monitoring means that scarce resources can be allocated and optimised to provide the maximum return. Without information of this kind presented in appropriate ways to the appropriate decision makers it will become increasingly difficult to keep an ever more fickle customer base.

Customers have paid for connectivity anytime, anywhere service providers need test and measurement solutions that can identify issues quickly and transparently

Mobile Europe | 27

????????

INSIGHT REPORT

AT&T, SoftBank and Vodafone. Giving away femtocells, along with requisite DSL backhaul , SoftBank has been painted as a femtocell pioneer for good reason. AT&T and Vodafone tell a different story. Each deserves credit for making femtocells a core part of their customer care strategies; femtocells are integral to their efforts at addressing concerns over service quality. Vodafones rental and pricing options make them affordable for nearly anyone. AT&T proactively reaches out to disgruntled customers with free femtocells. This is, largely, where the story ends. Neither offers an open access option allowing subscribers to freely roam onto a users femtocell. Neither exempts data traffic running across the femtocell from a subscribers data package. Neither treats femtocells as anything more than a voice quality improvement tool for users that need the support. And whats wrong with femtocells being a tactical, customer care tool? Nothing. Its great that theres a clear application for in-home base stations and that they solve an operator demand. Care, however, wont raise femtocells to the status of strategic for operators or drive the market forward. THE WAY FORWARD Whats so important about femtocells being a strategic (vs. tactical) priority for operators? If femtocells are simply solving a voice quality problem, deployments will naturally be limited. Further, as data overtakes voice in usage (or subsumes voice as an application), femtocells as a narrow voice quality solution will be vulnerable to WiFi. What will signal, then, that femtocells are becoming strategic?
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What should operators do to move them in this direction? G Marketing. Some operators have aggressively advertised their femtocell offers. Others have been much more subdued presumably worried about the implied message theyd send about their network quality. It goes without saying, however, that if carriers want to grow their deployed base of femtos, marketing has to be an integral part of that effort. Customers need to know they exist, how much they cost and what they offer. If another year goes by and operators are still keeping their femtocells a public secret we cant hope for great things going forward. T Applications. The femtocell industry has been talking about so-called femto-zone applications for a few years. The concept is simple; tapping into the capacity delivered by the femtocell, along with the user location and presence information it possesses, a home base station can be used to support innovative data applications. Think automatic content downloads when at home or a specific business. Think notifications that your wife or kids have arrived home. For an operator, applications would serve to make a femtocell attractive to end-users whether or not they face voice quality issues and differentiate against offload via WiFi. With progress finally being made at solidifying the femto-zone application APIs and development environments, a lack of movement from operators will signal the extent to which they really care about making femtocells attractive or including them as a component of their mobile data strategy.

T Pricing. Again, operators have priced their femtocells to put them into the hands of subscribers who need them, giving them away in some instances. Service pricing is a separate topic. Operators looking to femtocells beyond customer care need to integrate them with their mobile broadband usage caps, exempting or discounting usage; otherwise the message is that these are separate businesses, or the operator simply doesnt care enough to integrate femtocells more deeply into their billing systems. Likewise, femto-specific service plans need to be delivered or, where they already exist, promoted. If an operator wants to drive femtocell uptake, they would incent usage with discounted data or voice (likely during off-peak hours) plans, right? T Fixed Integration. Not every operator can follow SoftBanks lead and leverage a fixed broadband business to drive femtocell sales. Where they do possess fixed and mobile networks, tighter integration is warranted. Already, its been noted that many operators require femtocell users to purchase their specific brand of fixed broadband. Carriers intent on moving the market forward should be more interested in carving out agreements with competitors to ensure service quality across diverse fixed broadband networks to open up new subscriber opportunities, while actively leveraging their own fixed network subscriber base for marketing and promotion purposes. T SIP Integration. Where SIP was initially proposed as a femtocell integration standard in the early days of the market, it quickly gave way to Iuh, based on the latters alignment with existing network architectures. Flash forward to 2011 and IMS has gotten an undeniable credibility boost as the core of operator Voice Over LTE plans. If this makes IMS a critical part of their service and application strategies (and, at least publicly, they argue it does) then pushing for SIP-based femto integrations would argue that femtocells fit into these strategies.

INSIGHT REPORT

FEMTOCELL RECOMMENDATIONS
G Vendors across the femtocell value chain need to drive sales discussions at an executive level. Today, customer retention departments might be charged with buying femtocells solutions and deploying femtocell services. The deployment volumes implied by such a tactical view of the technology, however, are a fraction of those implied by femtocells as a strategic initiative for growing revenues and long-term customer stickiness. Strategy, in turn, is drive by executive offices not customer care managers. G Outdoor small cell deployments need to be used to prove out the value of femtocells for data offload. While operators do not seem ready to embrace femtocells as a solution for managing in-home data traffic, they are preparing to launch outdoor small cells for capacity enhancement. Once deployed, these small cells should yield data points around the economics of RAN offload that can be extrapolated to the home. G Building off the last point, network vendors need to position femtocells as a part of their broader offload and traffic management strategies. From a sales perspective, this might not seem to make sense; this is not how operators are looking at femtocell deployments. From a marketing perspective, however, positioning femtocells alongside video optimization, core network offload and even WiFi solutions helps to highlight their ultimate potential as more than just in-home coverage adjuncts. G Device vendors need to begin investigating the role of connection managers as client-side offload tools for laptops and smartphones. Already, connection manager software is being used to support 3G-WiFi authentication issues with an eye towards device based policy support as well. These same functions, however, will be needed beyond the laptop. Whats more, device-side software could improve also femtocell performance by supporting improved handover (hand-out, hand-in) performance. G Femtocell vendors need to drive examples of content caching. Content optimization is gaining interest as traffic volumes continue their climb, with caching as one focus. Some vendors are looking to put the cache at the macro-cell base station or even on the device. The former is difficult in terms of CapEx and deployment cots, along with the loose content targeting that is available when focused on a relatively large area. The latter is complicated by diverse handset models and still, potentially, requires precious RAN spectrum to be occupied. Content caching on the femto should be easier to manage and could help to make femtocells a valuable beyond coverage. Again, where operators are focused on coverage, they need to see examples of new applications in order to see the possibilities. G Application developers should ignore the femtocell space for the time being. Until operators begin proactively pushing femtocells as a solution for data offload, the market will not be big enough to warrant a focus. That said, vendors looking to promote an interest in femtocell applications could be logical partners for gaining an introduction to the space. G Operators need to begin thinking about femtocells as more than just stop-gap customer retention tools. Yes, they can be used in this manner. Having built an infrastructure for deploying them, however, opportunities are being lost if revenue-generating or long-term stickiness (IE, competitive differentiation) strategies are not being pursued. For their part, vendors are ready (eager) to help execute on these strategies. G Sprint and AT&T need to look carefully at their femtospecific tariffs for insights into revenue-generating opportunities. You might argue that maintaining these rate options runs counter to a femtocell strategy centered on customer care. Regardless, they offer an opportunity for the operators to actually see if there is room in their femtocell strategies for an added ARPU component. At the same time, Verizon should consider some femto-specific tariff trials for the same reason. G Where near-term customer service satisfaction is the goal, AT&Ts strategy of proactive care represents a model to be mimicked; if competitors are not actively pursuing a similar strategy, they need to consider it. Already, operators have plenty of tools to identify high-value users that are likely to have service issues: number of calls to customer support, dramatic changes in usage patterns, known coverage gaps. Leveraging these tools to put femtocells into the hands of customers who spend a good amount of money should pre-empt calls to customer support lines, maintain customers who might switch carriers without actively complaining and potentially even make those customers feel special. G AT&T should not plan on abandoning the UMA service it inherits from T-Mobile when (if) the acquisition is complete. On one level, the two strategies seem mutually exclusive and AT&T has already abandoned a UMA strategy once before. On another level, AT&T has embraced WiFi for data offload and will gain an expended WiFi footprint from T-Mobile. Until it has a better handle on the UMA customer experience, deciding to pull the plug on the service would be a mistake.

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SPONSORED INTERVIEW

TESTING FOR THE BEST INDOOR EXPERIENCE

The integration of small cells into heterogenous networks, and the increasing importance of in-building coverage and capacity, will change the way operators test and validate in-building wireless networks. Michael Carlberg Lax tells Keith Dyer what changes are required, what is driving them, and why they are important to next generation network performance.
KEITH DYER: What are the changing requirements KEITH DYER:
that your customers are is represented in the of their inJim, Cisco of course undergoing in terms femtocell building through coverage? market wireless its MicroCell device, which is most notably supporting AT&T's femtocell service. Why do MICHAEL Cisco is well-placed Certainly, carrier indoor you think CARLBERG LAX: to meet I think needs has become a hot topic recently, and for good reason. for femtocell deployment? Network operators have publicly stated that the biggest challenge in their networks is dealing with the dramatic JIM TAVARES: increase in data traffic. Not only that,market because we We are very excited about the traffic is increasingly moving indoors, and this many key capabilities we is also believe it leverages so in turn means that revenue have moving indoors. This has become the main driver for as a company. First, there is the long tradition of network investments. As M2M carrier-gradeas more users Scientific Atlanta to deliver traffic grows, CPE into the adopt smartphones, as application and service use increases, home. And of course there is our position within all of this is forcing the operatorshasinvest in HSPA and 4G network infrastructure - that to only been solutions to keep up. We are also seeing operators today strengthened by the Starent acquisition. Femtocell offloadingboth segments, and our strength in both of plays to traffic to WiFi, to cope with dense populations users and also to cope have whatpotential difficult radio segments mean we with the can be a to support environment. Providing all that in industry. massive growth in the mobile indoor environments, with theImportantly, we believe we canhave on signal end-toeffect modern building materials provide the propagation, for infrastructure asoperators have additional end femtocell instance, means one company, from the complexity to cope with. back-end provisioning side. radio front end to the All these things exist in macro networks, of course, but on a completely provider scale. We've partnered with a best-in-class different in ip.access to provide the RF piece, as that is not a KEITH DYER: Where do for us. Of course, everyonein traditional solution area you see operators heading their network mix for in-building, to deal with these tends to think about the radio side, but the demands? provisioning side will impact as well. Unless consumer deployment of femtocells is zero touch then there's no MICHAEL CARLBERG and we have the the way that to way carriers can scale - LAX: Worldwide experience operators the coping with their capacity challenge is provide are whole integrated provisioning process. different, particularly in an indoor scenario, and that is one of the keyDYER: KEITH challenges. That's why we try to provide the broadest toolset for the networks, because important will You mention deployment, but how none of the operators we work with has yet seen all of the problems that ongoing management of femtocells be for carriers, they are likely to encounter. of femtocells deployed? once they have thousands I think we will most likely see a place for many different components, at least while the market settles and explores JIM TAVARES: new ways exceptionally important.of data, how and That's to cope with the problem To take one where to offload it.USA you have got to have integrated example, in the There are a number of possible scenarios for coexistence;e911 for capacity in an office environment GPS to meet DAS requirements, and carriers also with high know where traffic,are because coverage inwant need to demands on cells picocells for they may more sparsely populated buildings with more certain locations, to radiate on certain frequencies in open space and possibly femtocellsavoid interference with other femto or or take steps to for home or small business applications. macro cells. Soalso be followingwell as GPSdevelopment I think we will that means as application you also in the femto space quite closely,listening capability to need an integrated network as well as how LTEAdvanced is introducingby determiningnetworks that know where a cell is heterogeneous its interactions include picocellsaround it. Customers may also selfwith the cells and femtocells, often at high frequency spectrum bands. femto is when they buy the cell. So report where the you have to adjudicate between all thatoperators to try We want to provide solutions that enable data, and different approaches, to explore all their options, and find that's hard work. the right you are a When combinations. One carrier deploying aspect of this thousands of approach to finding macrocells, element the right network mix management is is that operators need fundamentally to be mindful of the different from concept of perceived supporting tens or quality of service. For hundreds of example, WLAN is not thousands of always embraced still femtocells. You by as something that is used if a 3G As traffic moves indoors, users; it's viewedhave all the complexity of and when it's so do operator revenues available. But users trust in 2G and 3G networks to give macrocell but the scale is one to two them a more consistent of magnitude larger. The orders connection and a more graceful decline in service. I think the WLANneed to solve is to problem carriers experience will improve in general as network operators try to put it to betterall of have one platform managing use for offloading traffic. A more Once again this plays to our this. carrier-grade type of WLAN might help clear its name and make it more dependable heritage of supporting tens of and more seamless, so that users will not necessarily know if millions of carrier class CPE they are connected to a WLAN, femtocell or macro devices. network. Seamless connectivity also has implications in terms of the users perceived experience. This, of course, KEITH DYER: means that operators mustadoption ofunderstanding of Does the have a firm the TR69 these user experienceaddress the management issue, standard not issues. Caption CaptionCaption putting femtocells onto the same footing as other inTEMS Pocket: Ascoms handheld verification tool KEITH broadband access devices?the changing nature home DYER: What impact does of indoor traffic have upon network performance?

JIM TAVARES: MICHAEL really a framework -Besides thewhole lot on TR69 is CARLBERG LAX: there's a migration of
data and voice to indoor environments is of course the top of that to implement if you want to really be whole touch. The standards are with location-based that zero mobile applications boom, really nascent, so or augmented reality apps beingas a vendor to make sure leaves a lot of work to do very interesting. We will surelycan deliver a truly zero touch deployment you also see more around healthcare and M2M services, which means more devices and subscriptions per user to approach scale. manage. should add that an increasing issue around But I There will also be I think the adoption of device diversity. I course positive, and both Cisco has standards is of don't think the success of Android and escaped anyone, and leaders in standardization. For Starent have been there are other readily available operating systemswas an active member in the DSL example Cisco out there, with some vendors still preferring now Broadband Forum - Working Group Forum - to go their own way. that developed TR-069. even aspects such as different RF Different device OS, and front ends, behave quite differently, so test equipment such as Ascoms has to cover these different scenarios. As device KEITH DYER: manufacturers behave differently it is not always face in What other issues do you think operators straightforward to femtocell market? developing the manage those differences within a network.

If there is a key point to understand in all of this, it's that indoor and outdoor are no longer separate items on the agenda. There will need to be a "one network" approach.

JIM TAVARES: KEITH DYER: Whattwo areas.changing is that as with I would mention does this The first network
environment and traffic mix mean in terms of your any new service or technology, there's an education customers testing requirements? issue. WiFi took a while for consumers to understand

32 | Mobile Europe

SPONSORED INTERVIEW
MICHAEL CARLBERG LAX: When you are looking at
an increased amount of traffic moving indoors, then you need to take into account building materials, propagation, and reflections as well as account for the relationship with the macro network. Coping with a lack of GPS coverage for measurement positioning is another area that has become what it because device what it meant. So you've got a essential, really was and location is the element that ties all similar learning is crucial to femtocell of consumers, as this together. This curve with the successfor location-based well as your retail staff in stores or customer support services or mission-critical communications, for example, agents on the phone. leading to new testing methodologies where indoor tools willAnother factor carriers need to be very clear about differentiate from the classic drive test tool. There are is that femtocell is facing operators, as result business also procedural issues challenging typicalacarrier of the models. prioritisation of operating cost efficiencies. increasingCarriers are used to subsidising CPE for The marketing reasons - been to handle generate capex previous approach has not in order tooutdoor and indoor reductions testing separately, off two different teams. optimisation by driving traffic withnetwork. So the return on is becoming is driven by different metrics from This that subsidyincreasingly difficult to manage in a costtheir usual model. effective manner. It also doesn't make sense logically in That leads to another issue, which is that femtocell terms of the network. Operators are designing networks crosses classes of and outdoor, as one entity, so your that co-exist, indoororganisational structure within a carrier. It network the operations team, deal with view of the touches needs to reflect that. Tomarketing and monitoring and assurance, as well as customer service device diversity, what is required is a full range of solutions and retail. That's a new the complete network to offer a one-stop shop forparadigm to get their head around. environment. Adopting new devices and testing But I would something say that I actually think methodologies isalso like to we at Ascom have been there has been great progress in many of these and practicing since day one. other key areas. established a tool set there is with the Once you have Most importantly, to deal a clear supply and device diversity, data collection in itself is radio network chain forming - from chipset providers to no software challenge: making it efficient, correct and longer the providers and end-to-end system providers. With any new next step is to combine while for complete is. The supply chain it takes a the indoor every piece at every level coexists with the outdoor network data so that itto drop into place, and you will get inevitable interoperability key point there's been micro/macro site data. If there is aissues, butto understand great this, it's that indoor and outdoor are no longer in all ofprogress. separate items on the agenda. There will need to be a one KEITH approach, network DYER: and this places a lot of requirements on theHow set that issues around price? There was a feeling tool about you use. The constant cost crunch can be that vendors would have to hit a certain price successfully addressed by ensuring that the solution point in order for femtocell to be viable. portfolio you choose efficiently integrates all the different aspects. Now, with that said there is still a need in an indoor JIM TAVARE: scenario to distinguish the macro network from the indoor I understand that this is a complex indoor network, so with an increasinglynascent market and not yet all that this will require testing solutions to adapt to environment sophisticated, so price is something people can get must be presented and visualised. will also need how data their hands on initially. But overIttime, attention will turn to the benefits of being able to to account for the vertical factor, giving the overall network operate at a 3D scale, with reliable, zero to what presentation large style approach as comparedtouch can deployment. If I save $5 view. be considered a 2D outdooron a component in order to meet some arbitrary price point, but then have to KEITH $50 on support callsus then have I saved any spend DYER: Can you tell - about Ascom, and the solutions it has to meet these challenges? money? I also think price is impacted by operators' own MICHAEL CARLBERG LAX: Ascom is a Swisspriorities around aesthetics, and physical integration. headquartered company whose products and solutions this Some carriers are very interested in aesthetics, as are used in situations will be reliable monitoring, fast response is an item that where going into people's homes. times, high security standards and error-free transmission of Others are thinking about how to combine a WiFi data are point and router with a femtocell. Every carrier access essential for our customers. Our Network Testing division leads the worldyou have to take operators is very different and in helping mobile that into measure, analyse, and optimise their wireless networks. The account as well. TEMS Portfolio offers a complete set of trusted solutions for drive testing, benchmarking, monitoring, and analysing network performance. These state-of-the-art offerings facilitate the deployment, optimisation, and maintenance of mobile telecommunications networks. We have over 500 employees in 20 countries fully dedicated to servingDYER: KEITH more than 500 customers across 180 countries, including the away from mobile operators in the world. Stepping top twenty operator concerns - what do Through the use of our troubleshooting, monitoring, and you think will drive consumer adoption of benchmarking tools, we enable operators to maximise femtocells? network performance and customer satisfaction.

JIM TAVARES: KEITH DYER: So what is the scope of the TEMS I think it's simply a fact that wireless and mobility
Portfolio in indoorimportanttesting? was a few years is so much more network than it ago to how people live their lives. What we're MICHAELthat traditionalLAX: of all starts buildTEMS finding is CARLBERG view It how to with Pocket whichsupport that lifestyle and powerful hand- a network to is the most advanced need is becoming held tool on the market forexample, UMTS is at 2.4GHz problem. In Europe, for verification, maintenance, and troubleshooting of mobile is often ofThis makes TEMS and home construction networks. cement and steel. Pocket the ideal portable solution for customer-facing So the RF propagation is not what it is in 2G. activities such as site commissioning, acceptance, and a Another example is that the whole busy hour on verification, and for coverage analysis in scenarios where network is changing. It's moving back later into the accessibility ispeople come notablyand then use their evening, as limited, most home indoor testing, which also extends to trains, ferries, off the road trails, subways phone at home to use high bandwidth applications. or other pedestrian scenarios. When not acting as a That means people are not getting the experience network testing tool it functions asdemand as the they have come to expect and an everyday cellular phone. Later this quarter, for example, we will be networks are not optimised to those times and launching TEMS Pocket on the latest Android smartphone locations. Usage is being driven into the home, and from Sony Ericsson, the Xperia Arc. into different times of the day, and that's driving The amount of data and support generated femtocell as an option tosignalling that need.in wireless networks can be staggering, so it is critical to quickly beDYER: pinpoint the trouble area, analyse the KEITH able to root cause and very positive about the future foris clear So you are report the network status so that it and understandable to many different functional layers femtocell? within an organisation. The other half of our indoor testing solution, TEMS Discovery is a highly configurable JIM TAVARES: and user-friendlybullish for one simple reason. interface We are very post-processing solution for air Most measurement data such as that collectedin terms of carriers are seeing geometric growth by TEMS Pocket. It allows engineers tonetwork. They're seeing their wireless data on the easily assess wireless performancegrowth annually, and if it keeps growing 100-200% and quickly pinpoint network problems. With TEMS Discovery, the user has the flexibility to more at that rate then the only way carriers can get configure a wide range of items,sites. But if they take a throughput is by adding cell from simple view layouts to sophisticated report templates and user-defined key more hierarchical approach then small cells can performance indicators (KPIs). handle a lot of that traffic. Thesethink we willused macro for ubiquity andthem So I tools can be see separately, but by using small as a combined test and and because the physics indoor sites for throughput; measurement solution for isn't network testing, customers can automate data to acquire going to change, and carriers aren't going collection, analysis, and reportingthink it's going effectivelycarriers more spectrum, we processes more to force to reduce overall cost, save time, improve workflow and to look at smaller and smaller cell with femtocell optimize resourcetechnology. So this isn't going to be being the ideal utilisation. niche statedabsolutely in line with carriers' spectrum As I - it's before, the key point when considering the changing indoor reduction programmes. reuse and cost environment is that it is now part of one network, and that is a view that needs to to see how We are very excited and interested be replicated throughout evolves over technical and marketing much this an operator's time. We are already seeing functions. Our tools and solutions help establish, provide some different business models and we think that's and manage that single proof of view. the market great. That's the true network it - let

MICHAEL CARLBERG LAX is Product Manager, Ascom, for the TEMS Pocket product line, part of Ascoms Test and Measurement product area.

Mobile Europe | 33

Dealing with video

THE VIDEO OPPORTUNITY

With mobile video predicted to be responsible for 60% of mobile data bandwidth by the end of 2011, Keith Dyer asks if video is necessarily the problem it is made out to be, and if operators can indeed profit from phenomenon.
he growing demand for video was confirmed in a report released earlier this year by Cisco. According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 20102015, fully two-thirds of the worlds mobile data traffic will be video by 2015. Mobile video will more than double every year between 2010 and 2015, and it has the highest growth rate of any application category. Other data sources back up the trend that Cisco identified. The Mobile Minute Metrics report from Bytemobile for Q1 2011 shows that during any given 24-hour period, 9% (or just 1 out of 10) subscribers are consuming video content on their mobile devices, yet generating 38% of total data volume on the network. Bytemobile has already claimed that videobased mobile content will account for more than 60% of network traffic by the end of 2011. Growth is being driven by the increased availability of devices such as the iPhone, Android smartphones and tablets such as the iPad. The report also found that 10% of mobile data users generate approximately 90% of total traffic, and that 40% of total video data volume on wireless networks is generated by the top 3% of videos requested. Overall, video demand on network resources is consistently high for the greater part of the day, whether from the small screen or the large screen. Ronny Haraldvisk, VP Global Marketing, Bytemobile, says that operators are not just facing demand for video alone. It just happens to be that video came out of nowhere in the last nine months, and we saw that one thousand fold increase in data trafffic, Haraldvisk says. He also points out that the growth in vido usage is a harvest of a crop that operators themselves sowed. Video growth is a challenge, but its a behaviour that was conditioned by their [operators] own advertising. Its not like its a behaviour they didnt invite, he says. Video optimisation company Mobixell has said that it is now optimising a petabyte of mobile video traffic a month and has predicted that its one petabyte will grow to five petabytes a month by the end of 2011 growth that doesn't reflect absolute growth in mobile video traffic, but rather the increasing role of mobile video optimisation within mobile operator networks, and Mobixell's own contracts coming on line. (A

Mobile video: a bandwidth hog?

petabyte is 1,024 terabytes, or a million Gigabytes. A statement from the company claimed that is roughly equivalent to 350 million YouTube minutes of video.) Mobixell added that mobile video traffic is predicted to reach more than 70% of all mobile traffic over 2011, which means every operator, large and small, should be exploring creative ways to reduce that volume of traffic, as part of a wider traffic optimization strategy in 2011. Companies with an interest in selling mobile video optimisation platforms will of course highlight the need for traffic optimisation, and all this data is sourced from those companies themselves. But a figure of about 35-40% of mobile data being mobile video traffic accords with what some operators have told Mobile Europe over the past year. And many expect the overall volume to double through 2011, as more devices come on line with better video capabilities. So, if operators are indeed faced with this increase in video usage, what are the associated problems. After all, if most video is being consumed by a minority of users, is it possible that operators can provide targeted network investments, or polic-based solutions, instead of treating video as a network-wide problem. Up until now, there has been a focus on optimisation from many of the vendors - addressing the issue of bandwidth demand at source. Noam Green, Associate Vice President of Corporate Marketing at Mobixell, told Mobile Europe that optimising the traffic in the network saves about 30-

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Dealing with video

PERSONAL BROADCAST VIDEO FROM AND TO ANY DEVICE Mobile video is not just about streaming from YouTube or other content owners to users. It will also increasingly be about users sharing live video with others - increasing the demands for interdevice and inter-network interworking and interoperability. Korea Telecom (KT), the countrys largest fixedline operator and its second-largest mobile network operator, is deploying a mobile video broadcast service that is interoperable across every 3G and 4G network and device, as well as PCs. This service is delivered by Syniverses whitelabel Mobile Video Broadcast Service for mobile. It works a bit like a livestream, with a users video being streamed on the uplink to a central web server, from where it can be accessed by anybody who has been alerted to the stream. So a user could be at a party or a meeting, send a group text containing a url that he is about to start sharing a video, and then users click through to that url to see the video. The solution gets around the problem of peer to peer device interoperability, or of incompatibility between networks or services, says Syniverses CEO Tony Holcombe, who sees the solution as the first step towards interoperable mobile video. Both consumers and the mobile industry have been readying themselves for mobile video communications for some time, but the key to unlocking widespread uptake is fullscale interoperability, says Holcombe. Proprietary systems that only work within the walls of devices or networks have significantly limited the reach and adoption of mobile video communications, but research shows that consumers want ubiquitous video capabilities on their mobile devices as they look beyond communicating via voice, text, data, and photos, Holcombe explained. Our solution makes video communications available anywhere, regardless of network or device. Recipients dont need any special downloads to view the video, and we perform on-the-fly dynamic transcoding to adapt screen resolution for each stream, optimising performance for any network. One upside for operators of such a solution is that they would be automatically creating cloud content for users. A stream could be disposed of immediately, of course, but its not hard to see a feemium model developing for storing captured content for archive access. The solution also obviates, or delays, the need for compatible communications clients on devices as is required with other approaches, like RCS.

Brightcoves video experience for iOS devices

40% of the bandwidth required without optimisation. Patrick Lopez, CMO of Vantrix, adds his company can achieve bandwidth reductions of up to 70%. As well as squeezing more from existing network capacity, Green said that optimisation can help operators increase their brand perception, by giving users a quality of service appropriate to the network conditions they are experiencing. For instance, a user trying to download an HD video may see the video buffer or fail to load, whereas one looking at a compressed video gets the video first time. Optimisation can also allow operators to monetise content, Green said. He claimed that in a survey conducted for Mobixell last year in the UK, 48% users said they would be willing to pay for optimised content. Lopez said that optimisation was not just about volume, but about understanding the impact that optimisation is having upon the user. It's easy to talk about the amount of optimisation you are achieving. After all, if you removed the video from a video, leaving only audio, then you've achieved a 90% optimisation! Vantrix has recently launched two new metrics that look at optimised content from the point of view of the user - providing a scientific look at the output of the video quality versus the original, according to Lopez. This will give operators the level of optimisation they need to enforce without alienating users. Bytes Haraldvisk points out that with smartphone prices possibly due You cant look for a fix to stop to reach sub 100 unsubsidised, this this. Its about how you best will drive incremental behaviour manage the network and look to across the network, with users using video applicatios for chat, to improve the networks overall efficiencies, leveraging the existing broadcast live to Facebook friends, and for other applications that will investments you have in place. place a tremendous uplink strain on the network.
Mobile Europe | 35

Dealing with video

You cant look for a fix to stop this, Haraldvisk says, Its about how you best manage the network and look to improve the networks overall efficiencies, leveraging the existing investments you have in place. This means applying intelligent optimisation when you need it. What about taking video and instead of treating it as a potential earner? If video is to be the dominant network bandwidth application, can operators apply advertising or marketing around the delivery of that video? RGB Networks Ramin Farassat says, Its not just a tax on the network but a means to differentiate and generate additional revenues. RGB insists on making the operator capable of ad insertion into the streaming environment. So the operator can take advantage of ad insertion technology to deliver ads to different devices. VIDEO IN STATS (source: Bytemobile) In any given 24-hour period, 9% of subscribers are consuming video content on their mobile devices. 9% of subscribers consuming video content are generating 38 percent of total data volume on the network. 10% of mobile data users generate approximately 90% of total traffic. 40% of total video data volume on wireless networks is generated by the top 3 percent of videos requested. Consistent with 1Q 2010, internet videos average approximately five minutes in length, but users watch them for an average of less than 60 seconds

Ciscos VNI stats on mobile data bandwidth.

BrightCoves Whatcott: says that the industry needs to work from accurate assumptions

However, Jeff Whatcott of video platform provider BrightCove says, Operators will have to be very careful about how they do that. Content owners are not going to be very happy that people are making ad revenues on their content, it could open up a whole saga of legal issues. Whatcott also dissens from the prevailing view that mobile video inecessarily brings with it a heavy network burden? Whatcott says that ComScore stats show that at the moment the average American watches 30 minutes of online video a day - a number he thinks is high. Even if that all goes to mobile, lets look at the actual bandwidth requirements. A 200-300kbps stream makes about 1.5Mb of data per minute, and if you do that for 30 minutes a day for 30 days, thats 1.3Gb per month, per user. So even if all current video usage per user moved to mobile, that would still leave a lot of data left in a 2Gb data plan, Whatcott says. That should tell us something, and what it tells us is that this is in the realms of the possible. It seems to me there must be a way to make this work, and then have restrictions i place to handle the most extreme scenarios. Whatcott thinks this is important because we have seen telcos talk of bandwidth taxes and traffic prioritisation for certain content providers, due to the revenue gap operators are undergoing around mobile data, bringing with it issues around net neutrality. Governments need to be taking a long look to prevent counter-productive market behaviour. Regulators have to make sure that the industry is using accurate assumptions and that pricing and policy is built for the maximum good of everyone.

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A voice for LTE

How important will voice be to the LTE and IMS business case? Now voice is being hitched to the LTE wagon, will it prove to be the workhorse that drags in other IMS-based services behind it?
t Mobile World Congress, Ericsson, Verizon Wireless and Samsung made one of the world's first LTE voice calls over a smartphone with an IMS client for Voice over LTE (VoLTE) according to GSMA specifications. The calls were carried out over Ericsson's LTE demonstration network based on commercial products and using Samsung's 4G LTE smartphone, which will be available through Verizon Wireless in the United States later this year. VoLTE is said to be designed to provide consumers and users with rich communications services and outstanding call quality. The demonstrations are said to be among the many steps toward commercial availability of interoperable, global devices and network infrastructure supporting voice services over LTE Based on established industry standards, at its most basic level VoLTE will give network operators the ability to offer enhanced voice services on LTE networks globally. The race to provide standardised voice over LTE networks came about when the industry realised that offering a mobile broadband network without the benefits of an operator led communications experience would leave carriers and operators even more exposed to over the top providers than they currently are. If the voice service was patchy, with voice clients peforming differently across differing handset types, or sesions poorly handled from a call control point of view with poor handover or inter-network interoperability, then VoIP providers, using the bandwidth provided by the operators, could take the value from the network. Put simply, the industry needed a voice and communications solution for LTE. Voice over LTE, the set of specifications defined by One Voice and added to in 3GPP with the support of the GSMA, looks at the moment like it will be that standards. The World Congress demonstrations were important because operators need to start making strategic decisions about how to maintain and develop their current voice and SMS businesses when launching LTE mobile broadband networks, said Johan Wibergh, Head of Ericsson's Business Unit Networks. VoLTE allows operators to provide telecom grade voice services, along with enriched multimedia services, using an interoperable, global standard. The operator that is perhaps furthest down the LTE and VoLTE road is Verizon Wireless. Verizon Wireless has always been an innovator in the technology industry, and VoLTE is the most recent example, said Tony Melone, chief technology officer,

VOICE THE CART OR THE HORSE?

A

The GSMA and others demonstrated VoLTE calls at Mobile World Congress

Verizon We're working hard this year on this technology and expect to have commercial VoLTE services available in 2012. Not every carrier can be so bullish. For Verizon, its commitment to LTE is a commercial necessity, and with it came the IMS core that makes VoLTE a possibility. On top of that, there then opens up the possibility of additional mobile services such as presence, video and chat, which can be available from any device, location or service provider in both mobile and fixed broadband data networks. The thinking goes like this: VoLTE underscores and generates voice revenues for LTE operators. That justifies an investment in IMS, for so long delayed, as other rich communications services have not offered acceptable likely returns. But, as you now have the IMS architecture installed, you can then use it to deploy the rich communications services the industry has been promising for so long, but in a manner that places much less importance on revenues from these services paying their way. Instead, operators can deploy such services to boost their brand, or act as telco-based over the top providers, even. There is also the opportunity to enhance brand perception through the use of VoLTEs high-definition codecs which enable high quality voice. This raises the question of whether mobile operators might be able to generate incremental ARPU with high-definition branded voice services, or at least fight OTT providers with a high quality offering. VoLTE services could also be priced in the context of the emerging threat from these OTT providers - either as a prmium service or bundled with other

38 | Mobile Europe

A voice for LTE

KNOW YOUR VOICE VoLTE - Voice over LTE: The specification for carrying voice calls over LTE networks using IP based switching and control elements. CSFB - Circuit Switched Fall Back: As it sounds, a call falls back to circuit switched networks where no packet switched network is available. VoLGA - Voice over LTE using the GAN (Generic Access Network) GAN: Another way of defining circuit switched voice over packet switched. services to enhance loyalty. Nor do operators need to necessarily view IMS/VoLTE as a pure defence against OTT providers. Verizon Wireless made this very point during a briefing at MWC. Certainly the carrier is strategically committed to VoLTE and the evolution to rich media RCS-like services using IMS. But its additional aim is to embrace third parties and extend the user experience by adding to the reach, quality and overall usefulness of these services. Verizon in fact, sees its IMS core as both a means to develop its own services, but also to act as a bridge between non-interoperable communities such as Skype, Google Voice, or Facebook. Over the longer term, as the Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer model matures, there is also potential, according to Verizon Wireless, to expose network QoS to third parties via standardized APIs, to allow applications to move from best-effort performance on default bearers to a guaranteed service class on par with the carriers own offerings. This vision is of course similar to what carriers intended with instant messaging, and then RCS. It puts a lot of value on the ability of carriers to provide interoperability across communities - assuming that this is something that users themselves actually want. It didnt fly for instant mesaging, so why would it fly for crosscommunity voice, video or other communications? So with all this riding on it, the deployment of VoLTE represents a major commercial and strategic investment, and the decision of how to fund VoLTE will of course depend on the specific characterisitcs of an operators own network plans, user base and service mix. It seems likely, regardless of the type of operator, however, that voice traffic will continue to drive ARPUs for many years, despite the decline in service revenues being experienced in mature markets. Over the long term, companies must

consider whether voice traffic will continue to generate sufficient revenue to justify their VoLTE investment. So what are those investment decisions? The investment decisions for providing VoLTE includes LTE radio access equipment as well as Evolved Packet Core, policy control, Multimedia Telephony (MMTel) deployed in the IMS core as the service engine for voice over LTE and fixed services. Operators will also need to manage the transfer of services to legacy networks, and source and ship multi-radio handsets. Lets not forget that operators will also have to maintain their 3G and 2G networks for many years, as they carry the bulk of their revenue generating traffic. There are some in the industry Could IMS voice bring who think that the operators are making a mistake by other rich comms apps making investment in IMS the price they have to pay for in behind it? providing voice over LTE networks. Other approaches, they say, offer more cost-efficient ways to prvovide voice services to LTE users. Chief among these are proponents of VoLGA, a body that had proposed a differing means to provide voice over LTE but which is widely regarded to have lost out, as operators committed to a path combining Circuit Swtich Fallback and VoLTE. Kineto Wireless Steve Shaw, writing on his voiceoverlte blog, is a fierce supporter of the benefits of VoLGA, but he claims hes not the only one. First, in nearly every meeting with vendors involved with bringing voice over LTE devices to market, there was a universal look of panic/dread/despair. It seems that while these vendors keep up a good front to their perspective (and current) customers, when talking off-the-record, its clear there are some major issues When talking off record, its with CS-Fallback (not really a clear there are some major issues surprise), and that IMS is a lot with CS-Fallback (not really a farther away than anyone really wants to say. surprise), and that IMS is a lot Second, were starting to farther away than anyone really have the panic discussions wants to say with the mid/low level folks at the service providers the
Mobile Europe | 39

A voice for LTE

people who actually have to do the work. They are under the gun to deliver something that looks increasingly difficult. Who knew you may have to align your LTE cell plan with GSM cells to meet acceptable handover delays? Who knew that you end up with a much higher signaling load on the HLR with CSFallback? Who new you needed to Meanwhile, the first ever upgrade your existing GSM MSCs to MSF/GSMA VoLTE Interoperability support CS-Fallback? Who knew that Event is scheduled for September falling back to GSM would introduce unacceptable levels of call drops? 2011 in the Vodafone Test and Finally, I was amazed at the number Innovation Centre in Dsseldorf of analysts who came by to say Dont worry, VoLGA may be dead, but the concept is still the fastest, cheapest voice solution for LTE. Just wait, they said. Give the industry another year or two to really work into a panic, and then re-launch it as a different river. There is no doubt in my mind that VoLGA is the fastest, cheapest, most effective way to deliver voice over LTE. So, will we see VoLGA launched as a different river? It seems unlikely now, given the public commitment of operators to VoLTE. And though voice over LTE (VoLTE) is still a year away from making its debut on any major carrier, the technical work that's required to make that transition possible is well underway. Acme Packet, for example, has announced an enhancement that will bridge carriers' circuit-based frameworks for 2G and 3G technology with these emerging IP-based LTE networks. The overall goal is to deliver on the customer expectation for ubiquitous call coverage and a lack of call drops, Kevin Mitchell, director of solutions marketing at Acme Packet, told RCRWireless. Acme Packet has incorporated the newly defined features of 3GPP Release 10 into its session border controllers, which are deployed in access networks to deliver VoLTE and other IMS-based services. We think that's the superior location for these IMS functions, Mitchell said, adding that control elements at the access network level will make for more smooth call handovers. This does need to be something that's a part of the initial LTE rollout, he said, but added, I don't know of any service provider with LTE plans that doesn't have a plan for launching voice. Meanwhile, the first ever MSF/GSMA VoLTE Interoperability Event is scheduled for September 2011 in the Vodafone Test Centre in Dsseldorf. The test event will focus on validating key network interfaces to ensure multi-vendor deployment strategies for LTE/EPC/IMS. A key objective of the testing is to validate the GSMA's technical recommendations for IMS-based VoLTE. Test scenarios include VoLTE basic interoperability, roaming and interconnection, non-LTE Access to EPC (e.g. GERAN/UTRAN), handover/relocation and Self Organising Networks (SON). That new river better surface soon.

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CEM roundtable
KEITH DYER Editor, Mobile Europe Keith has been covering the European mobile industry since 1998, and has been editor of Mobile Europe since 2003. Mobile Europe focuses on the strategies mobile operators must adopt to become increasingly competitive and protable. JAMES DOYLE Vice President of Strategy & Innovation, Arantech. James spent his early career with Nortel and Olivetti in the UK and Italy, before he joined a Dublin-based start-up, Aldiscon, in 1993, where he was responsible for product management and marketing. After its successful sale in 1997 to Logica, he left to become the founder and CEO of AerSoft, a technology company specialising in wireless messaging products. After AerSoft, James worked as an independent consultant for a number of high-growth start-up companies including Red Circle, Accuris and Anam, before Joining Arantech in 2006. CHRISTOPHER AUTRY Director, Global Consulting Services, Arantech. Chris was a key part of the management team at Vivid Studios, responsible for the build up and sale of the company to Modem Media in 2000 for $63M. In early 2000, he joined The Boston Consultancy Group (BCG) in the London ofce as a key member of the IT and Telecoms practice. In 2005 Chris held a two year stint as Managing Director of Fhlame one of the fastest growing digital consultancy and design agencies in London prior to being appointed CEO of Tailgate Technologies in 2007. NEIL MONTEFIORE CEO, StarHub. Neil joined StarHub on 1 January 2010 as its CEO and Executive Director. He was CEO of M1 in Singapore from 1 April 1996. Prior to that, he was the Director, Mobile Services at Hong Kong Telecom CSL Limited, the largest cellular operator in Hong Kong. Neil joined The Cable and Wireless group in 1976, and has also held posts in Cable and Wireless Systems Ltd in Hong Kong and with PakNet Ltd, a joint venture owned by Cable and Wireless PLC and Vodafone PLC which developed and launched the world's rst public packet radio data network. PHILIPPE BERNARD EVP Sales and Care Europe, Orange Philippe is responsible for sales support and customer experience excellence. He looks after commercial performance on territories, sales transformation plans and Customer service in Europe, including Call Center activities. Philippe is responsible for MVNO activity in Europe and developing monetized services to customers across the FT Group footprint. Philippe held the role of EVP Orange Business Solutions from 2003. Previous experience includes CEO of Transpac and Senior VP Global One. SIMON HUDSON Regional Director, Arantech, Singapore Simon Hudson is APAC Regional Director for Arantech. With over sixteen years of industry experience, almost ten of which have been spent in APAC (Hong Kong and Singapore).

DEVELOPING A
BARRY HOULIHAN, CEO, Mobile Interactive Group Barry has worked for companies including EMAP McClaren, Genie Mobile and O2s Mobile Interactive Division, initiating partnerships for interactive broadcast events including Big Brother and Im A Celebrity: Get Me Out of Here!. MIG ranked No.1 in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 and EMEA Fast 500 in October 2010. Barry has overseen new business launches within MIG, to broaden the groups technical, product and consultancy capabilities, and to offer integrated mobile solutions on a global scale. SUSAN McNEICE Vice President, Yankee Group Susan McNeice is vice president of software research with Yankee Group's Anywhere Network team. Her areas of expertise include OSS/BSS, subscriber and policy management, customer care, selfservice, RT charging, dynamic cataloging, business intelligence/ analytics, revenue assurance and service assurance. Prior to joining Yankee Group, she led the OSS/BSS group at Stratecast. She also led several teams for AT&T in OSS/BSS strategic planning and program management. TERESA COTTAM Research Director, Telesperience. Teresa has more than 17 years industry experience and was previously an Associate Principal Analyst with UK-based telecoms consultancy Analysys Mason, covering the billing, CRM and service delivery sectors. Before that she was Research and Publications Director at Chorleywood Consulting, a specialist BSS/OSS consultancy which was acquired by Informa Telecoms and Media. Prior to this she was Managing Editor at industry analysts Ovum. TOM WHEADON TMT Partner, Simmons & Simmons. Tom advises a wide range of clients within the TMT sector. He specialises in the law, regulation and policy of telecommunications, satellite, media, the Internet and e-commerce. Prior to joining Simmons & Simmons in 1996, Tom was an inhouse lawyer with Videotron Holdings plc. He has been a partner since 1997 and is joint author of Tom is the joint author of Telecommunications - The EU Law and E-Commerce Law (Palladian Law Publishing) HUGH GRIFFITHS Director, Digital Potential. Digital Potential is a telecoms and media consultancy that assists with strategy and implementation for businesses within the TMT sector. Hugh is former head of mobile for Microsoft UK, where he was responsible for all aspects of online mobile services. Prior to that, he was VP of Data Products, Services and Content at O2, managing the operators data services portfolio.

42 | Mobile Europe

MOBILE CEM CULTURE

CEM roundtable

What happens when you bring together operators, ex-operators, analysts, technology providers, a lawyer and one journalist to discuss Customer Experience Management? A big old debate, thats what. More than that, you get real insight into why CEM should be a telco priority right now and you get practical suggestions, derived from real experience, as to how the industry can move forward in this crucial area.
Keith Dyer: We know that were here to discuss customer experience management (CEM). Its a topic that gets a lot of coverage at the moment so it might be worth, because its a bit of a catch-all term, discussing what we mean by CEM in terms of todays debate. James Doyle: I think it means a lot of different things to different people and clarifying that is hopefully what were going to come to some conclusions on today. Arantech has spent the last 10 years putting in what we call CEM solutions, and really they are very granular databases of customer behaviour at the network level. What weve learnt over time is that data is hugely important to help operators get a better network experience, but its also just as powerful over in the business space. So if youre wanting to understand the experience of your customer as they buy, use services and move about, this level of data is a huge missing link that isnt being used today. A lot of the business applications tend to use high level data, stuff thats been stored or taken by inventory management systems, but this low level experience data is a very powerful set. Now there are a lot of challenges in getting that data out so it can be used, and thats one of the topics it would be good to hear discussed. Theres a bit of a silo going on in carriers where the business side of the house is separated from the OSS side of the house. And really that data thats sitting in the OSS side of the house is very business pertinent and needs to be used. How do you cross over that divide? Our view is that it needs to be C level driven, because if you dont have it from the top down it doesnt happen. It also needs to be bottom up, so the two meet in the middle. Keith Dyer: Is CEM something thats identified within operators as a separate, distinct discipline? Neil Monteore: I think it is. Certainly I came across it many years ago with M1 when we adopted it, and I think yes it has to be adopted at CEO level, otherwise it doesnt work in the organisation very well. But I think many operators dont do it this way; its in little silos within the business. I think it has to be top down because every function and department in your company has to work together to deliver the results.
Royal Exchange London, venue for this exchange of ideas.

Philippe Bernard: Yes, just to agree on this point, we run our CEM within Orange Group at European level, and these programmes definitely should be managed by the CEO. Its a governance issue. Our CEM has a VP who is directly connected to the CEO and in charge of this end-to-end approach. Its about KPIs and other very basic things that Ill come back to, but its mainly about governance. All these CEM databases are only enablers. For us the most important thing is having the governance to execute in the field and to engage people in the front line. Chris Autry: I think one of the clear distinctions that needs to be made is the difference between the data, and the various forms in which it comes, and the dissemination of that information throughout the organisation. You can take databases and generate reports, and that may mean something to somebody in network operations yet it may not mean anything to anyone in marketing. So theres an issue with collecting and presenting the information in a relevant and meaningful way to the business divisions. Thats a big issue.

If youre wanting to understand the experience of your customer as they buy, use, move about, this level of data is a huge missing link that isnt being used today

James Doyle: And this concept of having a crossfunctional team thats responsible for CEM is the way to get over these issues. If you leave it to track across the organisation it gets lost.
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CEM roundtable
High Griffiths, formerly head of data services at O2, makes his point.

consider A) Is there a vision of understanding at that level? And B) Where do you start with data? If you had an order of priority, where do you start? I worked at a carrier for five years, and believe me carriers do things in order of magnitude and the ones at the top of the list carries the most number of pound signs against it. Tom Wheadon: Back in 1995 Don Cruikshank was Director of the UK regulator Oftel, and he gave a speech to the cable industry in which he told them they were in the construction industry, and that some day they would have to wake up and realise that there are customers out there. The operators would have to talk to customers, rather than deal with the challenges of building out networks. Since then it has taken a very long time to end up with a customer focus at the heart of the business. The ones that Ive noticed that have succeeded are brand led. If you think about Virgin, the impact it had on Virgin Media, I think that was a successful adjustment from the construction business into a customer focused business. And what that led to is that not just the CEO and the management team, but the entire organisation, being obliged to transform itself so that it lives and breathes the brand. Chris Autry: Ultimately and ideally what you want to do is use the data to support whatever your vision happens to be say the brand vision in Toms example. But youll find that its quite difficult to do that. So what ends up happening is that people end up being led by the data, and react to the data.

Susan McNeice: I find there is a fundamental awareness issue. In a lot of firms I have found myself educating marketing executives on the network: Do you know your network collects this data? Do you know what a signaling network is and what kinds of things you can get from it? Thats not to suggest it is easy to get to that data, but in some cases theres lack of awareness that this level of specificity is even available. Chris Autry: And thats where it goes to the CEO level, because the Csuite in the organisation needs to be responsible for making it known that the data exists. Philippe Bernard: If I can take the example of network quality: its very interesting, in many countries we have had 99.9% quality of service, so the CTOs were very happy. But when we measured the net promoter score (NPS) for networks in these countries there was a 20% gap between us and the best in class. So 20 points is huge. And the CTOs said, No come on, my ratio is OK. But they havent measured at the best point to be able to judge. We have to measure what we call the black BTS the base stations where we have a dropped call issue. So we then just measured where people lived when they called the call centre about network issues and said, We have to invest there. And in six months we filled the gap to the best in class. It was a governance issue: the KPI was not good, the CTO was really happy with the network and CEO didnt care. Thats the point. Barry Houlihan: Thats where carriers are today in the same position as you describe. Im aware of carriers who know what theyre doing really well, so they run a really good network. They put more emphasis on that because thats the key KPI for them, but that means they put less emphasis on everything else. Youve all jumped straight in with data and talked about CEO ownership and leadership, but Id ask you all to
44 | Mobile Europe

Simon Hudson (left) and Tom Wheadon. Progress has been glacial, according to Wheadon

Barry Houlihan: We work with carriers with a huge brand vision, but the actual reality of this at a technology level is that when a brand is driving the business, you really dont engage the CTOs and COOs, and theyre just not not visible. You get this big frustration where the brand is driving the business forward, and its often the creative agency, and its really running away with itself. The technology business just cant keep up and deliver what the brand wants.

James Doyle: I think it comes down to this gap Phillippe talked about. If you measure a network asset, the network may be working but the customer may not be due to a badly configured phone or whatever. Its the treating of the customer as an asset, and the systems you We measured only the NPS, require to measure that, that is missing. Normally customer management is driven the net promoter score, and for by the business side of the house, the networks in these countries there marketing and brand teams. Yet it is the was a 20% gap between us and the network that has the customer-centric data that enables you to manage the best in class. It was a governance customer as an asset. When you join issue: the KPI was not good, the those two things up then you are able to CTO was really happy with the manage your customer individually at a technology level. Thats the 20% gap of network and CEO didnt care. dropped calls you dont see.

CEM roundtable

THE CUSTOMER VIEW OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE: GETTING PAST PRICE

Susan McNeice We completed a study of what CEM means to the customer. We gave several thousand US consumers a list of ingredients that go into the customer experience, and asked them to rank them for us. What came out first for them was competitive price; the point being they dont want to leave money on the table. Network service came second, customer care came third, billing fourth. Things such as digital content, retail stores and devices came way down. They want the basics of good service at a fair price, the simplicity and transparency of an easy to consume relationship. Barry Houlihan: I totally agree. We launched MyO2, the care product for iPhone customers, and its the single most successful product O2 has ever had. 90% of its iPhone base There needs to be a shift of downloaded it within four days. Ive never seen uptake like that and its the mindset to be much more dynamic least glamourous product out there. and understand customers a lot Meeting the consumer appetite to have more. And that comes back to access to information about what they are doing as customers, telling them customer data. what they are consuming, was phenomenally successful. Philippe Bernard: If I may just highlight your point. We are all talking about moving from acquisition to retention, but this is purely blah blah blah. When I look at my distribution channels, they are still in a pure acquisition mode, and we have to change that. The second point is that in my acquisition model more than 80% are independent dealers and these guys are faced with a profitability issue in many countries (Poland, Spain, Slovakia, Romania) because volumes are going down. The unit price is based on ARPU and ARPU is going down. So what do they do? They call their customer directly without any control from me, so I dont control anything. The second point is, the key point is to fix the basics, to ask why do I have such detractors and churners? 50% is about price, only 10% about the network and 5% about the quality of the call centre or retail experience. Yet with price I am not in a position in my frontline to propose the best value proposition and the best offer. We are not equipped with the best CRM tools, we dont know how to manage the value. So this is pure CEO stuff, to say I want to align all my company in a controlled way to manage value for my customers. Neil Monteore: The whole industry has moved from being enjoyed by
46 | Mobile Europe

5% to, in Singapores case 150% penetration. So people regard what we deliver as a utility, a must have, and thats why when you do a survey price always comes up. Youre not going to change that. The other thing is, as operators get into more heavily penetrated markets they have to move away from dealers. They use dealers to get fast penetration. Once youve got the customers you have to start owning every experience that customers have with you. In my case only 20% of customers are serviced by dealers. Teresa Cottam: Some customers never feel theyre understood by the service provider. In research we have conducted some said that they were understood at the point they were signed up and then ignored, and only a very tiny proportion said, My operator continues to meet my needs and delight me. Theres a very static relationship which is built around point of sale. There needs to be a shift of mindset to be much more dynamic and understand customers a lot more. And that comes back to customer data and understanding the customer. Tom Wheadon: I must say I regard this process as virtually glacial in terms of its speed. My view is price will continue to be the top issue for a very long time. Susan McNeice: Not alone, though, its a proxy for value Tom Wheadon: MVNOs have sold just on price, for example, and Ofcom research into prepaid calling cards has shown that there are a vast amount of people who are buying on price and are then unable to get value for money. The Ofcom research showed a dramatic amount of mis-selling going on,and reduction in value for money. Primarily consumers are focused on price: are they getting value for money? Teresa Cottam: In fact weve just done

James Doyle (above) and Neil Montefiore (below). You have to own every experience that customers have with you, said StarHubs Montefiore.

CEM roundtable
another survey and quality has leapt right up. Consumers say they want price but not the lowest possible. They want the best value. Hugh Grifths: Susans research talked about competitive pricing. People know what they want, they are not prepared to accept second best. Look at the fundamental shift in the way 3UK carried out its marketing once it realised it had a problem with its network. After that realisation, 3s marketing wasnt about music or services or anything else, it was all about the network. It recognised it was churning customers at a rate that was unsustainable. If organisations just focus on price at the expense of customer experience they are on the road to nowhere. Teresa Cottam: Its actually when things go wrong when it becomes fundamental. Thats the measure of the service provider, how quickly could they solve that problem? Because a cheaper or OTT provider has not invested in customer care channels. together the other stakeholders from customer service and marketing. With StarHub its the head of customer service Ive given the main responsibility to, supported by the head of mobile technology. The first objective Ive had is the quick wins cost savings and revenue gains. The M1 investment paid for itself in about nine months and StarHub Im hoping will do the same. The easiest win has been inbound roaming, knowing where you lose your customers. The other area was fixing settings on the phone; so you can correct them and customers dont even know youve fixed it for them. James Doyle: From a technical perspective what this means is you put a new data set together that is taking raw transactional data out of the network, then aggregating it and overlaying the customer iD so youve got a customer record for every event that has happened with the customer every 15 minutes. Then you can group those and stakeholders that use that data can use it to gain insight on a perlocation, device, or service basis. Youve got this granular, per-customer real time information. So it does tend to be managed by the CTO within the OSS group but the value can be distributed to any of the stakeholders. Its slow because each guy you go to youve got to evangelise the idea, but from top down to bottom up, its not meeting yet. Chris Autry: One way of overcoming that is if you can start tying numbers to strategic initiatives. Thats where you start win teams around within the business.

Mobile Interactive Groups Barry Houlihan. Where do you start with data? Carriers do things in order of magnitude.

WHERE TO START WITH CEM

Keith Dyer: So weve touched on the cultural aspects required, the importance of aligning sales teams and the management of customer value. How else can operators really differentiate around customer experience management, using the data they have? What operators have seen some success, and if they have had success why has it taken so long to introduce these elements across the industry? Simon Hudson: I think what weve done successfully is to sell that vision of CEM, and weve identified some key issues that you can solve very quickly for some quick wins. All operators have that information available, so it then becomes a matter of accessing that information and doing the right things to address that issue. In StarHubs case it was customer care that really drove the pre and post sales process. There are numerous stakeholders involved but if you can get a key stakeholder involved then that really drives things in a step by step process. Over the past four years there was a very strong operational sponsor to pull together those groups to make sure that each of the groups were having their needs met. Neil Monteore: At M1, after me it was our CTO who took it and put
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Teresa Cottam. CEM tools bring back that closeness to the customer.

THINK LIKE A RETAILER

Keith Dyer: I want to ask what else do operators have in the game? We talk about price, but how can an operator get a better view of me as a customer? Teresa Cottam: The touchpont at the moment is sale, and then

The first objective Ive had is the quick wins cost savings and revenue gains. The M1 investment paid for itself in about nine months and StarHub Im hoping will do the same. The easiest win has been inbound roaming, knowing where you lose your customers.

CEM roundtable
customers are abandoned. We have to move that relationship. If you look at a retailer they are changing the ball game. They know who their customers are and what they want and they have lots of data and use it well. Maybe with smaller operators they are closer to the customer. But when you get to be a bigger company you lose that relationship with the customer. What these tools do is bring that closeness back again. They provide insight so that the large operator can act more like an independent retailer and understand you as a customer, what you like, your preferences. James Doyle: The retail business understands the power and importance of the customer and they put in the systems to manage that. I dont think telecoms carriers have seen it like that so theres not the investment in those sorts of tools to manage the customer. Tom Wheadon: Part of the reason for that comes from denying the consumer a dynamic relationship. If Im on a 24 month contract Im going to get hit with a big cost if I move. Theres been a history in the market of fixed term contracts tying customers in. And again change is glacial. Philippe Bernard: The point comes from the fact that mobile operators are not retailers and thats the key issue. Or rather, we are retailers but we are not organised like big retailers. The mobile operator has to delegate the retail element, the management of the customer base, and this is the big issue Im faced with too. Were talking about the marketing of the operator, understanding the base, shaping the value management and so on, but at the end of the day the people in front of the customer are in a retail attitude, and retail is about price, product and service. Thats it. Price is managed by marketing but service is managed by retail. So for me there is a dichotomy that makes it difficult to address this point. The key issue about price, its not about price competitiveness, its because people in front of the customer are not in a good position to make a better proposition for customer retention. Neil Monteore: Yet you can put in place, and I have put in place, the cost to serve of every customer pretty accurately now, and thats available at every touchpoint. Youve got to remember that 15% of customers on any operator dont make you money over their lifetime. So you need to know the cost to serve of every customer. realise the benefits they can gain from deploying more joined up CEM strategies, using the data and tools they have available to meet their own strategic priorities? James Doyle: The demand and need is still there. Its a complicated environment but I do think theres a real need and that hasnt diminished. Teresa Cottam: I think we need the revenues. Theres a great opportunity to reduce costs, increase revenues and keep the customers happy. In a wider market context, now is the time that we really need to do this stuff. We cannot continue to tolerate ignoring these revenue opportunities any more. We keep hearing that data is the USP of telecoms, so maybe we should start treating it like that. Tom Wheadon: For me its very telling that you have the CEO of a quad play provider saying there are quick wins to be had, so CEM is very important I would say. Neil Monteore: Its also about the changing use of the mobile. The smartphone revolution that has made people more conscious of their actual experience, and operators really need to know about that in real time. Hugh Grifths: With that smartphone revolution theres a huge increase in the cost of running networks and theres downward pressure on revenues through price competition. If operators havent taken CEM seriously before, it was possibly because they were living in a time when they could get away with it. The other influence for me will be the extent to which Google and others have built businesses off the back of such data. Operators are realising that they actually have a rich source of data as well, and theyre not using it. It would seem to me that there are a number of things aligning that would make the next ten years more successful for CEM than the last ten. Susan McNeice: The financial services companies and consumer goods retailers have led the way in exploiting transactional and customer account data, and been leaders in applying analytics technologies to understand their customers. These are all things that we have the capacity as an industry to do and so its time to get on with it.
Mobile Europe | 49

Chris Autry and Susan McNiece. Its time to get on with it, was McNieces call to action.

CONCLUSIONS AND NEXT STEPS

Keith Dyer: So what can we conclude from this discussion, if anything? Do we think we will see the industry move to

This Round Table is sponsored by Arantech. We thank them for their generous support to allow us to host the event. The discussion at the event and this report have remained independent and editorially-led.

Diary & Notes

April/May 2011
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M2M FORUM EUROPE

6 - 9 June, London M2M Forum Europe offers an exclusive opportunity for you to come and engage with fellow experts in the machine to machine market from across Europe and Scandinavia. Come and discover first-hand how to capitalise on machine to machine solutions. Hear from leading operators including: Deutsche Telekom; Everything Everywhere; Orange FT Group/ETSI; Terra Mobile; Telekom Austria Group www.m2mforumeurope.com

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6-9 June, Vienna Mobile Network Optimisation will gather together experts from operators across Europe and Middle East, and offer the best opportunity for you to network with your peers and gain expert advice how to optimise network capacity and performance to manage the unprecedented growth in data traffic. www.mobilenetworkoptimisation.com

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Around the mobile world in 300 words

Last issue in this space we highlighted Nokias three solid performances in its business sectors. If youll remember, Nokias three solid performances were, respectively, a 16% drop in earnings year on year, a 94% drop in profitsand losses of 19 million. This time around we see the results of such solid performances. 3,000 Symbian software employees get a free transfer to Accenture. Theyre the lucky ones. 4,000 other empolyees, mostly in Finland, Denmark and the UK get the elbow. "At Nokia, we have new clarity around our path forward, which is focused on our leadership across smart devices, mobile phones and future disruptions," said Stephen Elop, Nokia president and CEO. Leadership in future disruptions, Stephen? Theres currently 7,000 people wishing you hadnt meant that quite so literally. Dodgy PR survey of the month: Steal a phone. According to the results of a new study, not all Britons are honest with lost and found gadgets; as it has been revealed that just over a quarter, 26%, admitted that they would keep a mobile phone if they found it on the street. The study, conducted by GoodMobilePhones,polled 1,765 people aged 18 and over from across the UK as part of a study into peoples attitudes towards current technology. Respondents to the study were asked "Which of the following gadgets would you keep, if you found them discarded on the street?" Respondents were

able to choose multiple answers, with the top five most popularly 'kept' items being as follows: 1) Mobile Phone 26% 2) Camera 22% 3) MP3 Player 19% 4) Tablet Computer 18% 5) Laptop 15%

YOUR STOLEN PHONE IS CLEANER THAN A PAYPHONE

Really dodgy PR survey of the month: Your stolen phone is probably cleaner than a payphone. More than 60% of people questioned in a new survey are worried about bacteria on pay phones. Bacteria including Escherichia. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Shigella species (faecal bacteria), Klebsiella pneumonia, Salmonella typhi, Streptococcus species and Enterococcus species can be found on the buttons of phones in public places.

50 | Mobile Europe

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