Strategies for Successful Evolution to LTE
Strategies for Successful Evolution to LTE
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3G wireless broadband networks have reached the saturation point in many markets as a result of the explosion of smart phone devices handling video-intensive, content-rich applications. To remain competitive service providers need to plan for 4G LTE-based wireless broadband evolution. Such evolution planning involves many factors including: when and where to launch LTE; how much to continue to invest in existing 3G wireless networks and when to decommission such networks; purchasing new spectrum and re-farming existing spectrum, how to support voice traffic; and subscriber management and migration. Mathematical modeling of the optimal partition of 3G and 4G coverage – for example where voice may be currently supported by GSM and data supported by UMTS, how and when to introduce a new technology like LTE– is essential for driving the right business strategy. Strategic and cost directional analysis help evaluate how spectrum should be used, which wireless broadband technologies to apply and when to introduce and overlay LTE, in order to support the projected growth of subscriber traffic while taking into account the end-to-end total cost of ownership (TCO) for the operator. LTE evolution is more than a move to a new technology. This evolution encompasses a shift in the service provider’s business model to a more sustainable and profitable one. By attending this webinar you will discover:
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Jay Berman, Senior Principal Consultant, Business Consulting, Alcatel-Lucent Services Group Jay Berman is currently responsible for developing and delivering network-focused, business consulting services. In particular, Berman developed Alcatel-Lucent’s LTE business consulting service offer for optimizing the return on a service provider’s 3G and 4G wireless. Previously, Berman spent six years in various Alcatel-Lucent and former Lucent professional services positions including business continuity and security services, product line management, new venture start-up, solutions development, and merger integration planning. Berman represented former Lucent Professional Services Division (PSD) in planning the integration of former Lucent’s and Alcatel’s professional services groups, including consolidated portfolio and associated staffing
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James Middleton, Managing Editor, Telecoms.com, Informa Telecoms & Media James Middleton is managing editor of telecoms.com. He has over ten years experience of writing and reporting on the telecoms and technology sectors and has been running industry focused websites for much of that time. |
Thank you all for your questions today but the Q&A session is now closed.
are operators becoming ‘dumb’ bit pipe providers? should they even try to get own services launched, or leave that to other parties like MTV or similar? I know this is a ‘sensative’ question, but you have a vendors view that is interesting to know.
Alcatel-Lucent is a major global telecom solutions player whose clients range from the largest Tier 1 operators down through the Tier 3/4 operators. Operators do not want to become ‘dumb’ bit pipe providers for it relegates such companies to what could be the low part of the end-to-end value chain. We have introduced solutions based on the highly leveraged network & application enablement (HLN/AE). We’re getting much traction in the marketplace from it. Then, there are regulatory issues such as net neutrality. Countries such as Brazil allow operators to charge premium prices depending on bandwidth usage, priority access across the Internet, etc. In the United States of course, the operators do not have as much “laissez-faire” as they do in Brazil.
What does LTE hold for developing countries like Nigeria? How will it effect the growing professionals in these countries?.
Nigeria holds great potential for LTE. In fact, Africa is the fastest growing region when it comes to data usage growth. Part of the challenge that we find in certain parts of Africa is the power grid to support the exploding demand for data & video services. I’ve been involved in one project in East Africa where telecommunications is absolutely a key part of the government’s economic growth plans for the future supporting local industry as well as professionals hubbed in different urban centers. And, it may make economic sense to leap from 2G directly to 4G LTE if there is not much of a 3G infrastructure already in place.
Are there any known deployments or considerations of moving to LTE from 2G-based networks? Is it feasible?
Yes to the second question (2G –> 4G LTE). I am not at liberty to discuss specific customer plans where Alcatel-Lucent is currently supporting LTE trials.
Options for introducing the LTE: near the Business Profitability and Growth there are also factors like Competition – what is your view on that? Being first in the market – is this a significant launch-driver for you?
Competition is certainly a key decision factor within the United States. Both Verizon Wireless and AT&T have announced LTE as a key part of their respective 4G strategies. Sprint Nextel is introducing 4G but with a different technology. And, T-Mobile USA is announcing 4G from a marketing perspective, but is actually using HSPA(+) to get the higher speeds initially as the 4G offer. From a technology and standards perspective, it’s not strictly 4G. But, T-Mobile USA believes that this is the fastest way to bring “4G” to its customers in response to what AT&T and Verizon Wireless is doing for its customers.
Is there an option to phase out 3G and stay with 2G and LTE?
This is an interesting option that I have not come across yet. But, we can use the same methodology that I had discussed in the presentation and apply it here.
1.What is Alcatel-Lucents plan for Voice over LTE ?
2. When do you think the LTE -3G/2G terminals/mobiles available ?
Voice over LTE is part of our LTE Solution roadmap.
LTE/3G/2G terminals/mobile device plans are driven by those who compete in the marketplace. We’ve seen more on LTE/3G.
The point about retaining “old technologies” to support roamers is a very interesting one. However will this not be resolved with multi standard handsets?
Yes, it could. But, we need to see the wide scale availability of multi-standard handsets. And, two, it needs to be considered as part of the overall business case for handsets are typically subsidized by many operators. Then, there are regulatory issues. One operator in Canada, for example, is still required to provide coverage for its 2G base (two different technologies) as well as 3G.
Thanks Jay and James. My question for Jay is about the point Jay made about cost-effectiveness of LTE being dependent on “traffic symmetry”. As the share of data rises in the overall traffic, isn’t the trend going to be more towards more downlink traffic than uplink traffic as we have witnessed on the Web as well where downlink traffic far exceeds uplink traffic. How significant is this factor going to be in the future success of LTE? Thanks for the presentation again !!
Hi – Is the immediate cut over to LTE really practical – most n/w need to support 3G for roaming and falback in poor coverage situations – Thanks
Hi Jay, what about the challenges faced by the service providers with respect to spctrum allocation which would be different in each country?
That is an excellent question. At Alcatel-Lucent, we have an innovative tool developed by by Bell Laboratories called WSO that focuses on solving spectrum allocation problems for our customers. It differs not only by country, but even by markets served.
How important is the role of IT in launching successful LTE services?
what do you see MVNO’s doing? they do not have the network, but might be interested to offer specific ‘lte’ (better data) centric services
IT is absolutely critical. There is an OSS/BSS transformation aspect in going from 3G to 4G. Also, Alcatel-Lucent has developed a specific LTE security solution for there are certain risk exposures that could be introduced by moving to an All-IP network which LTE helps drive.
Thanks for the Lacture.
How is LTE more energy efficient? I think you need more LTE base stations then 3G?
Shai,
Actually, depending on the overall network traffic requirements, split of 3G vs. 4G by markets, the total number of base stations can drop. And, the LTE base station is designed as being more energy efficient (or “greener”).
Thanks for the webinar – very interesting. What do you see as the main services and applications that drive subscriber traction – or is it just speed, speed and speed?
We’re watching very carefully what Alcatel-Lucent’s announced LTE customers are deploying as their main services and applications for LTE. It’s not just necessarily speed particularly since HSPA(+) theoretical download speed is roughly 40% that of LTE. Of course, the actual speeds depends on the network configurations involved, and how much upgrading would be required for an existing HSPA installation vs. going to LTE.
Can you elaborate on why is the Capex lower for LTE versus UMTS deployments.
During the presentation, I had mentioned that LTE opex would be lower. There is an initial capex investment for going to LTE (RANs, OSS/BSS upgrades, integration into IP core which could include IMS, etc). All needs to be evaluated as part of the business case for LTE compared to staying and upgrading with 3G UMTS/HSPA.
Hi – could you please elaborate on why efficiency is enhanced by voice services? Thanks
does lte require an IMS infrastructure, or can a ‘best of breed’ IP infra be used?
The IP infrastructure could be ‘best of breed’ or IMS, or a combination of both during a transition period. It depends on the services and associated appls that would be running over LTE. As an example, we were just working with a European carrier responding to a question on whether to migrate existing ISDN services to IMS or ‘best of breed’ IP infrastructure. This problem had to deal with optimizing fixed wireline assets and not LTE at this time, but as my talk demonstrates these type of questions involve an analysis that focuses on both business and technology levers driven by the weightings of the KPIs as decided across the different stakeholder organizations.
AT&T is planning to depoy HPSA+ in future, how they will compete with Verizon and Clearwire in future?
I’m not at liberty to answer this question. Please note that AT&T is one of our announced customers for LTE.
What is the best way to solve business problems?
Please feel free to contact your Alcatel-Lucent sales representative, and we can look at the particular business problem that you are trying to solve for your corporation. The slide that I had presented showing the relationship of business value generated to the mapping of the appropriate business and technology levers that are impacted by a particular solution is one methodology that we have successfully used.
How do we migrate from 3G to 4G?? Where do we keep 3G and where do we upgrade??
At Alcatel-Lucent, we recommend going through the up-front business & technical analysis against the levers presented. Ultimately, it will come down to the key performance indicators (KPIs) established across the senior management committee: marketing for driving which geographies offer the fastest growth prospects for data applications; financial for understanding the investments and cash flows projected to be generated; technology for ensuring a smooth architecture migration from the current 3G configuration in place; and operations to understand the ramifications and impact on moving from 3G to 4G. Alcatel-Lucent also offers a number of technical services involved in migrating from 3G to 4G such as our WSO tool for determining effective spread and utilization of spectrum in both a mixed 3G and 4G environment across the enterprise.
What percentage of data usage is due to VOIP
It varies by service provider. We found a typical composition of 70% voice/30% data today in a 3G environment for example. But, the voice here is not running as a VOIP application. It would be part of an application under the 30% data component. As LTE is implemented, the 70%/30% split composition would change with data significantly rising and voice being another data application.