Bharti Airtel - Huawei

11/2012
Issue 14
Bharti Airtel
looks to make India
truly broadband
TalkTalk protects families online
China Mobile energizes
the LTE TDD market
STC brings three mobile
generations under one roof
StarHub: A cloud is born

Hear what operators want to share in person,
see how peers succeed in a fierce marketplace,
and delve into their secrets to success.
At WinWin, it’s all about success.
Sponsor
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Publisher
Huawei COMMUNICATE Editorial Board
Consultants
Hu Houkun, Xu Zhijun, Ding Yun
Yu Chengdong, Chen Wei
Editor-in-Chief
Gao Xianrui (sally@huawei.com)
Editors
Pearl Zhu, Xue Hua, Julia Yao, Jason Patterson
Michael Huang, Joyce Fan, Linda Xu, Xu Ping
Cao Zhihui, Li Xuefeng, Pan Tao
Chen Yuhong, Zhou Shumin
Contributors
Deng Taihua, Qiu Heng, Yao Jiajian, Yu Xiangyang
Zheng Yuanyuan, Liu Zhen, Yu Dan, Xu Caiming
Izawa Michiko, Li Pengcheng, Cao Haichen
Shi Tianlong, Lu Haomin
E-mail: HWtech@huawei.com
Tel: +86 755 28786665, 28787643
Fax: +86 755 28788811
Address: B1, Huawei Industrial Base,
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Publication Registration No.:
Yue B No.10148
Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 2012.
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ICT integration deepens
OTT players have been encroaching on operators’ core services ever
since Skype first went online, and their effect is ever growing, with users
of WeChat (China’s answer to WhatsApp) passing 200 million this past
September. A mobileSQUARED (a U.K. market research firm) 2011
survey of 31 global mobile operators indicated that three-quarters of
them were worried about losing revenue to these players, while onethird
were already seeing declines in terms of both revenue and traffic.
And what’s more, Google is no longer content to be just an OTT player,
as the Internet giant recently started into the pipe business by launching
a fiber network in Kansas City, which is claimed to offer broadband
speeds “100 times faster than today’s broadband.”
Needless to say, the lines are blurring as newcomers foray into telcos’
core business domains, and their bottom lines will be even more affected
as mobile Internet flourishes, networks transform to All-IP, smart
terminals diversify, and personal computing gives way to the cloud, all
of which represent a new phase of IT integration and development.
Informatization is the name of the game, bringing telcos challenges and
opportunities like never before.
In the big data era, telcos should consolidate their network
infrastructure and emphasize their pipes to the fullest, as neither
industrial nor social development will advance without them. This
means better planning and utilization of network resources, including
copper, fiber, sites, and spectrum, and data centers, supplemented
with the latest technologies. It also means the use of software-defined
mechanisms that enhance intelligence at each network layer and shorten
TTM so that operators can stay ahead of service providers of Internet
and enterprise applications.
Telcos should also fully utilize their scale and brand advantages in the
ICT arena, so that they can actively promote and establish cooperative
partnerships in the ICT industry, but this will require an open platform
that fosters harmony in the ICT ecosystem.
However, these steps alone will not determine who wins in the new
value chain. Ultimately, it comes down to a superb user experience and
who provides it. Telcos should be the ones filling this role, but this will
require not just courage and determination but, more importantly,
wisdom and vision.
For electronic version and subscription,
please visit www.huawei.com/winwin
Bill Zhang
President of Marketing & Solution
Carrier Network Business Group

11/2012
Issue 14
WHAT’S
INSIDE
Voices from Operators
01
Bharti Airtel looks to make India
“truly broadband”
Bharti Airtel launched its LTE TDD
services in April 2012, making it the first
and only operator in India to utilize this
technology. Considering the relatively
undeveloped state of the local market, this
move might seem premature, but not to
Jagbir Singh, CTO & Director, Network
Services Group, Airtel India & South Asia.
06
StarHub: A cloud is born
Telcos play a large part in how new
technologies play out, which makes their
conspicuous absence from the ranks of cloud
success stories all the more puzzling. Sunny
Tan, Assistant Vice President of Enterprise
Business Group – Solutions, StarHub, sits
down with WinWin to discuss how the
Singapore operator will remedy this.
09
NTT DOCOMO keeps Japan smart
NTT DOCOMO is in the midst of
enhancing its smartphone strategy,
primarily by focusing on Android
phones. Kiyohito Nagata, Senior Vice
President and Member of the Board of
Directors at NTT DOCOMO, discusses
the company’s device strategy.

Perspectives
13
15
On Huawei’s Pipe Strategy
Cyber security perspectives
Eric Xu, Huawei EVP: The pipe strategy
is Huawei’s core, and the pipe business
will remain our focus. As the digital flood
approaches, we commit ourselves to
enhanced pipe capacity, strengthened pipe
enablers, and optimized pipe management,
to deliver ever wider and more ubiquitous
pipes, and an even better user experience.
Winners
35
39
TalkTalk provides online protection
for families
China Mobile energizes the LTE TDD
market
China Mobile has been a champion of LTE TDD
in recent years, through efforts such as the LTE
TDD service debut at the World Expo in Shanghai,
and its trial network in Hangzhou city.
17 LTE TDD goes mainstream
Tao of Business
23 Huawei knows LTE TDD inside & out
43
SoftBank’s LTE TDD network
impresses in Japan
At ten months after its launch, the SoftBank
group’s LTE TDD network attracted more than
260,000 customers, and this number will continue
to grow as its coverage expands.
27
Monetizing the NBN: Strategies & services
47
China Telecom takes the drive out
of testing in Hangzhou
31
Frenemies: How can telcos get a piece
of the OTT pie?
51
STC brings three generations
under one roof

VOICES
FROM OPERATORS
Bharti Airtel looks to
make India “truly broadband”
Bharti Airtel launched its LTE TDD services in April of this year over broadband wireless access (BWA)
spectrum, making it the first and only operator in India to utilize this technology. Jagbir Singh (CTO
& Director, Network Services Group, Airtel India & South Asia) recently sat down with WinWin to
discuss the latest trends in the Indian telecom industry and how they have motivated the operator
to press forward into LTE.
By Jason Patterson
A billion mobile users
WinWin: What is the wireless technology roadmap
for the Indian telecom sector?
Singh: Presently, the Indian telecom sector is
undergoing a major transformation. The last decade has
seen an exponential growth of mobile users from a few
million to near a billion today. This growth was driven
by a latent demand for voice traffic. We are now moving
from a voice-only network to a “voice also” network which
will see huge consumption of data volumes, adoptions of
new applications & content-rich services, and a bigger
penetration of smartphones. Translating this to wireless
technology, this will mean a service-aware network that
is elastic for varying customer needs, and is flatter with
highly-scalable backhaul capabilities.
Given the spectrum pricing and the infrastructure
required for backhaul, the roadmap for the Indian telecom
sector is going to be a mix of technologies serving the
varying needs of the customer. Scarcity of spectrum will
cause a significant migration towards more localized
networks such as femtocells, picos, and Wi-Fi. This will
also require an infinitely expandable wired backhaul that
feeds into the core network. The service providers will
strive to serve the customer with the technology that is
most spectrally efficient and that can adapt to the customer
requirements. How to manage the seamless movement of
customers across technologies is also another challenge
that the industry will need to address.
WinWin: In what ways do you think regulators can
drive mobile broadband forward in India?
Singh: The key requirements for mobile broadband
are the availability of spectrum at affordable rates and
the availability of backhaul infrastructure to carry large
amounts of data traffic. Rational spectrum pricing &
regulation simplicity for issues like ROW (Right of Way),
as well as infrastructure sharing for both passive & active
1
NOV 2012

As the first operator to launch
LTE TDD service in India, Bharti
Airtel is leading the way in
bringing advanced technologies
to developing countries in an
affordable manner.
— Jagbir Singh, CTO & Director, Network
Services Group, Airtel India & South Asia
NOV 2012
2

VOICES
FROM OPERATORS
The Indian user is just getting to know the power of
mobile broadband with the advent of 3G services. Given the limited
spectrum available for 3G services in India, LTE TDD technology, which can
utilize alternate spectrum, is an obvious way forward.
elements, would be the key drivers for broadband growth.
Laying and maintaining multi-terabyte fiber backhaul
networks is a huge investment and is also inevitable. The
stakeholders have yet to reach an agreement that can contain
the costs in this area. Possibilities could include formation
of consortiums similar to those existing in the international
arena or formation of a government-funded subsidy similar
to the Universal System Obligation Fund (an Indian mandate
that levies telco revenues) for taking connectivity to upcountry
locations. As far as ROW is concerned, there are no pan-
India guidelines and every municipality and state government
makes decisions for its own reasons. However, this impacts
the national agenda of “connecting the unconnected,” so
there is a need to consolidate the laws around ROW.
WinWin: How would you envisage the mobile
broadband landscape over the next 2-3 years in India?
Singh: As per recently published results, mobile data
traffic in India is up by 54 percent in the first half of 2012.
With more than 100 million Internet users as of today, the
growth of data consumption is going to be exponential
both in terms of number of users and usage per customer.
Also, the National Telecom Policy 2012 envisages
“broadband for all” at a minimum download speed of
2Mbps. With the way smartphone adoption, data usage,
and app adoption trends are moving, it seems that very
soon even 2Mbps is not going to be enough, especially for
early adopters of technology in major cities.
Ready or not for LTE?
WinWin: As the market leader in India and the
world’s fifth-largest carrier, how is Bharti Airtel
contributing to LTE TDD ecosystem development?
Singh: We are a founding member and active
participant in the GTI (Global TD-LTE Initiative)
forum, through which we keep meeting and exchanging
knowledge with our peers from across the globe. Also, as
the first operator to launch the service in India, we are
leading the way in bringing advanced technologies to
developing countries in an affordable manner. We are also
engaging with device and chip manufacturers to influence
the availability of affordable devices for our customers.
WinWin: How do you foresee LTE TDD developing
on a global scale vis-à-vis LTE FDD?
Singh: Globally, the choice of technology by operators
is mainly governed by the relevance of technology with
respect to spectrum availability. Since both FDD and
TDD are at a very nascent stage of tech maturity, I believe
that the respective geographies will drive the evolution
of both FDD and TDD in parallel on a medium-term
horizon.
As of now, both the technologies seem to have gathered
equal momentum and operators worldwide are selecting
either of them based on the spectrum they manage to
acquire and the overall ecosystem development in their
country/region.
WinWin: Given that 3G is still in its infancy in
India, do you think the Indian market is ready for 4G?
Singh: The GSMA predicts that by 2016 India will be
the second largest wireless broadband market. This is not
unnatural, as fixed broadband penetration is not good
enough in India due to several factors like poor copper
coverage, high cost of laying the infrastructure, etc. This
pent up demand for data, especially in the youth and
3
NOV 2012

Airtel is placed at a very advantageous position by virtue of
having a significant footprint in the wireline domain which most
of the operators lack. LTE rollout would marry this footprint seamlessly
into the greater wireless architecture.
corporate segments, will be a big driver towards growth
of data for a mobile broadband bearer. With a limited 3G
spectrum, it is only natural that a more scalable option is
explored that can seamlessly handle this growth.
From a technology perspective, India has adopted
3G a little later than the rest of the world, which has
the advantage of creating a network with tried & tested
technology. Also, 4G, as a technology, is rapidly being
adopted in other markets and has obvious advantages
of efficiency and scale. Also, like I mentioned earlier, all
the technologies will have to coexist to enhance spectral
efficiency.
An uphill climb
WinWin: How will Bharti balance/prioritize 3G and
BWA (LTE TDD) network investment in the short-tomedium-term?
Singh: In the recent past, India has been moving
very fast on the digitization curve; this fact highlights
the growth potential for data services, especially mobile
broadband services. The Indian user is just getting to
know the power of mobile broadband with the advent of
3G services. Given the limited spectrum available for 3G
services in India, LTE TDD technology, which can utilize
alternate spectrum, is an obvious way forward.
LTE TDD, as a technology, is not as mature as 3G and
to tap the full potential of this technology, it makes sense
to start deploying it in a controlled manner, not only to
validate the capabilities, but also to influence the evolution
path which is suited to growing markets like India. With
increasing urbanization and mobility in metropolitan
areas, very soon even the typical 3G speeds will not suffice.
We plan to create a layered architecture in the metros with
coexistent 2G-3G-LTE-Wi-Fi mesh networks.
WinWin: What has been Bharti Airtel’s strategy on
the LTE TDD network rollout front?
Singh: LTE is one of the cornerstones when it comes to
true convergence of network architecture and topology, the
best of both wireless and wireline architecture, and a flatter
and more scalable transport network with ubiquitous radio
coverage augmented by a focused microcell mesh that
pushes the limits of the network closer to the user.
Airtel is placed at a very advantageous position by virtue
of having a significant footprint in the wireline domain
which most of the operators lack. LTE rollout would
marry this footprint seamlessly into the greater wireless
architecture, thereby creating a world class network
capable of providing a “truly broadband” user experience.
WinWin: What key challenges have Bharti Airtel
encountered in network rollout and how has it tackled
them?
Singh: Readiness and maturity in a robust product line
for LTE TDD is the foremost challenge at present. This
fact, coupled with a lack of available devices and challenges
around ROW for scalable backhaul architecture, are some
issues that we continue to face as we expand our LTE
rollout.
As is the case with any new technology, the learning
curve is very steep and the pace of innovation has
increased dramatically in the last decade. LTE is being
launched globally in several spectra and FDD/TDD
versions; add to this the complexity of coexistent 2G, 3G
and Wi-Fi networks, and you have a continuously evolving
technology landscape, which is a challenge in itself,
NOV 2012
4

VOICES
FROM OPERATORS
The future of telecommunication is data and LTE TDD is an investment
in that direction. We are fully convinced that the growth in data is bound to
happen and this platform is an enabler for data to take off in a big way.
especially when augmenting a new technology onto a live
network, because you don’t want to disrupt the existing
services.
We underwent detailed interoperability tests in order
to ensure minimal glitches in the launch of 4G services
and smooth integration with the existing network. From
an infrastructure point of view, the rollout so far has been
relatively less challenging as compared to the greenfield rollout
of 2G since most of our initial 4G sites were co-located with
existing sites. However, the launch of LTE needed a complete
upgrade and modernization of the backhaul system, which
meant laying new fiber in the cities and creating more sites to
support microcell layer architecture.
WinWin: What lessons/experiences from 3G service
development have Bharti Airtel found relevant for
promoting LTE services?
Singh: Making a heterogeneous network scale, interoperate,
and deliver the requisite quality of service is a
great experience we have picked up from our 3G launch.
We have learned how to connect and manage network
elements that cut across a wide range of technologies,
manufacturers, and standards. Handling a disproportionate
amount of data traffic growth is also a good problem
to have when it comes to creating a mobile broadband
network.
These lessons will go a long way in establishing a
4G network footprint that is service-aware, seamlessly
managed across vendor ecosystems, and scalable to handle
the data explosion which is about to hit India.
From a business perspective, after the launch of
3G services, the industry has been facing a “multiterabit
challenge” in which revenues are not growing
proportionately with traffic, unlike what used to happen
in the voice business. While the revenues don’t increase
proportionately, the spectrum requirement is proportional
to the data growth and becomes very expensive.
Another critical aspect on which we are working with
the regulators and government agencies is the ROW
permissions for laying fiber in the cities. Without a robust
and scalable backhaul infrastructure, it will not be possible
to deliver the speeds that the customers expect when they
adopt technologies like LTE.
WinWin: How does Bharti Airtel position its LTE
service and what will be the key factors driving LTE
uptake in the country?
Singh: The future of telecommunication is data and
this is an investment in that direction. We are fully
convinced that the growth in data is bound to happen and
this platform is an enabler for data to take off in a big way.
As of now, we are delivering 4G services via CPE
(customer premises equipment) and dongle. Apart from
the availability of the service, the other important factors
that will drive 4G uptake in the country are the content
and device ecosystem.
WinWin: How would you evaluate Huawei’s skills as
a vendor and as a partner for BWA (LTE TDD) network
rollout?
Singh: Huawei has been our partner in launching 3G
and then 4G in Bangalore and I would say that overall,
the experience has been quite satisfactory. Airtel has also
awarded Huawei projects for building a nationwide highcapacity
expressway. In addition to this, Huawei has also
supplied packet core for our network. I would rate my overall
experience of working with Huawei as satisfactory.
Editor: Gao Xianrui sally.gao@huawei.com
5
NOV 2012

StarHub: A cloud is born
Telcos play a large part in how new technologies play out, which makes their conspicuous absence
from the ranks of cloud success stories all the more puzzling. “How did we let a bookseller corner the
market?” asks Sunny Tan, Assistant Vice President of Enterprise Business Group – Solutions, StarHub
(Singapore’s second-largest info-communications operator) and the head of its business solutions.
By Julia Yao
Better late than never
Nobody who reads this magazine needs to be
reminded of the promise of cloud computing,
and yet, the key names in cloud computing
presently are either Internet or IT firms, not
telcos. Amazon Web Services hosts some of the world’s
most prominent sites, such as Netflix, Farmville, and
Foursquare, and its cloud service revenue is poised to top
USD1 billion in 2012, according to IDC.
So how did telcos miss the boat? Tan attributes this to
cultural barriers and a lack of profit pressure during the
key window of opportunity ten years ago. “Telcos used
to have a quite handsome profit margin in the traditional
businesses. Added to that is the cultural difference (telcos
are slower to act than Internet companies) in a highly
regulated market. So, the majority of telcos didn’t really
think innovatively enough to enter this market,” he says.
As an IT veteran, he has discovered that the skill sets in
the IT and telco worlds are different. “It’s almost like
talking a different language.”
However, despite this, he is very upbeat about the
competitive advantage that the telco industry enjoys. “Our
network touches everything. We telcos are in the center of the
connectivity space, without which a lot of the cloud services
wouldn’t exist today. SLA is our DNA. For wide adoption of
cloud, whether by consumers or enterprises, you really need
to have carrier-grade reliability. Besides, we have multiple
customer service and support touchpoints. Finally, we have
the billing relationships and aggregator abilities… for ISVs
(Independent Software Vendors), this is one clear advantage
when working with a telco. A lot of ISVs cannot simply scale
if they do not partner with someone like a telco and enter
into a billing relationship with the customers.”
Sunny Tan, Assistant Vice President of
Enterprise Business Group - Solutions (StarHub)
NOV 2012
6

VOICES
FROM OPERATORS
Our network touches everything. We telcos are in
the center of the connectivity space, without which a lot of
the cloud services wouldn’t exist today. SLA is our DNA.
Opportunity arises
StarHub is a quadruple-play carrier that operates
solely in Singapore, where two-thirds of its business is
in the consumer space. Compared with the incumbent,
StarHub previously had limited fixed access to commercial
buildings, greatly hindering its enterprise business. But
in 2010, an opportunity arose in the form of Singapore’s
Next-Generation Nationwide Broadband Network
(NGNBN), which has the laudable goal of wiring the
city-state with ultra high-speed broadband access of up to
1Gbps. Fiber rollout is scheduled to reach 95% coverage
by mid-2012. For businesses, this means choice, reduced
costs, and increased redundancy. For StarHub, it “levels
the playing field for us. We can have complete coverage
and access a bigger pool of customers, particularly business
customers.” With this impressive leap in bandwidth,
StarHub started to provide more data-heavy services, such
as telepresence and cloud computing. “We actually timed
the launch of our cloud computing initiatives until the
NGNBN was in the midst of rollout because you simply
cannot run a lot of cloud services on ADSL.”
For StarHub, the decision to enter the cloud was more
evolution than revolution. “It was a natural extension
of our data center business. We already had the space,
the facility; we knew how to build data centers and
redundancy. We saw a lot of telco-IT convergence; in
terms of customer purchase behavior, they wanted to buy
solutions from us instead of hardware and connectivity
separately. StarHub is a local trusted brand in Singapore.
Especially in the SMB space, familiarity with the brand is
very important. We have found that many customers are
actually coming to us, asking for SaaS applications as well
as infrastructure as a service (IaaS).” One ingredient in
StarHub’s recipe for consumer success is what the operator
calls “hubbing” (service combination). “By bundling
connectivity, IT services, and SaaS, we are adding a
differentiator via cloud hubbing.”
Getting started
StarHub took its first steps into the cloud in 2010
through the offering of SaaS solutions, including
accounting, HRM, and sales systems delivered through
a utility model to small businesses (SBs) and small-tomedium
businesses (SMBs). “Our success was OK, not
fantastic. We knew here was still room for improvement,
for example, an email/collaboration suite which would
be the central identity of the user.” StarHub beefed up
its portfolio later with the necessary security elements, so
that its customers could sleep easier. Education was also
necessary to win over the uninitiated. “We went through a
lot of trouble explaining to SBs and SMBs, especially those
that were not very familiar with IT, what cloud computing
was and how they could benefit.”
StarHub reached a milestone in 2011 when it entered
into a syndication partnership with Microsoft that allows
the operator to bundle Office 365 with its enterprise
broadband services, Microsoft’s second such partnership
in Asia. “This is a key step for us, because it allowed us to
provide a very important piece called Office 365. In a lot
of cloud service brokerage models, one of the critical pieces
is the email collaboration portion. This is clearly the first
piece any small business or even a mid-market business
will ask for when they go into a cloud.”
The market takeup for this caught Tan and his team by
surprise. “Even though we targeted the product at SMBs
initially, a fair number of customers are in the larger midmarkets.
For example, a well-known hospitality and resort
chain headquartered in Singapore, with operations all over
the world, actually deployed Office 365 throughout the
Asia-Pacific, covering multiple resorts and hotels.” Tan is
7
NOV 2012

more excited about the new business opportunities this
application signifies. “When the hotel HQ’s purchasing
decision is done in Singapore, we are in a good position
to provide services to the entire footprint that they have.
Only cloud enables us to do this… without cloud, we will
not be able to sell software, for example, to overseas markets.
So this is also changing how we address our market.”
The public cloud is advancing
StarHub’s pursuit in the cloud space has not stopped at
SaaS. In February 2012, StarHub, in collaboration with
Huawei, made a big step into the public cloud space by
launching their public IaaS cloud, branded as Argonar.
When asked about this name, Tan explained that the
element Argon glows green when ignited, rather like the
StarHub theme color. Argonar offers on-demand scalability
in computing and storage with carrier-grade connectivity.
“Thanks to the collaboration with Huawei, we now have
a highly-scalable public IaaS cloud suitable for all sorts of
cloud computing purposes. Combined with telco’s reliable
network connectivity and security, a lot of customers will
find it very advantageous to host mission critical services
with Argonar,” Tan adds confidently.
The service is primarily targeted at the SBs and SMBs,
allowing them to manage their computer resources with
ease without the hefty costs of infrastructure. While this
may sound familiar to anyone who has been exposed to
the hype of cloud computing, StarHub has added a telco
flavor to the service through innovative billing. “One way
to sell cloud services is that you go on a pure utility model
in which customers bill for every resource they use.”
Through experience and extensive interaction with some of
the customers and potential customers, StarHub found that
customers were not quite sure how much they would consume.
In fact, they were quite worried that the cloud would end up
costing more than traditional leasing or acquisition of hardware.
“So we decided that, while retaining some flexibility
in the utility model, we would use tiered plans similar to
mobile phone plans… for example, we have plans such as
744 computing units per month, which roughly translates
to a certain number of services running continuously for
24/7. IT managers would roughly know their normal
consumption, and pick the suitable tier. In case of a surge
in demand, they can subscribe to a turbo plan and pay
more for the excessive usage (similar to what a mobile
phone user would do).” This billing model has proven very
popular with customers. “It’s quite unique in the Singapore
market. For now, at least,” Tan adds with a smile.
Looking back at the public cloud journey, Tan feels very
fortunate to have had Huawei as a partner. As StarHub is
relatively new to the cloud, it was beneficial to have Huawei’s
support throughout the more than one-year journey from
preliminary business case validation to implementation to
post-launch marketing consultation. “Huawei worked with us
closely to develop the cloud infrastructure as well as our goto-market
strategy. As every operator is different, so is every
market and segment. We wanted to have a system that is not
too simple so that we can respond to certain demands; we
also didn’t want a system that is overly complex that would
drive up the costs. We eventually ended up with a system that
was just right… one thing that we were particularly happy
about was that Huawei was accommodating to changes.
As we learned more about the market, we decided to make
certain tweaks to our business model, which actually required
Huawei to change a fair bit, in terms of implementation of
the cloud. We are quite happy that this was done very quickly
and nicely. As a result, we were able to launch a product
which met all our requirements.”
More to come
So what’s next for StarHub? “Huawei has a very advanced
roadmap in enhancing (public cloud) services. We will be
working with Huawei on the enhancements, particularly on
storage as a service, through the second half of the year…
our customers can also expect more exciting SaaS solutions
targeted at verticals in both SMBs and enterprise base.”
Looking at the big picture, Singapore has proven
very receptive to cloud computing. The government has
been advocating cloud computing’s expected boost to
productivity, and formulated a strategy as part of a wider
effort under Singapore’s new e-Government masterplan
(eGov2015). “We were recently selected to be one of the
public service providers for the Singapore government.
That actually requires us, together with Huawei, to
go beyond the quality requirements and respond to
clarification requirements of the Singapore government.”
Tan concludes with lessons learned that he would like to
share with fellow telcos. “Know your customers and routes
to market. We focused on particular segments and sizes
of customers. So when we built our cloud services, they
were really for particular use. There is really no “one size
fits all.” We didn’t want to launch a cloud with enterprise
VM-based kinds of offerings. We wanted something that is
open, scalable, and ISV-friendly. Also worthy to note is that
cloud offers the telcos long-tail profit. In a cloud brokerage
model, you can have one app in your platform as SaaS and
it’s still profitable for you as a telco. Don’t miss the long-tail
opportunities.” One final note he adds, “Although it is not
the early days, it is not yet too late.”
Editor: Jason jason.patterson@huawei.com
NOV 2012
8

VOICES
FROM OPERATORS
NTT DOCOMO
keeps Japan smart
Japan’s smartphone market is expanding rapidly. Users open to new things have adopted
smartphones, and operators are finding ways to make users of feature phones join them. NTT
DOCOMO is in the midst of enhancing its smartphone strategy, primarily by focusing on Android
phones. Kiyohito Nagata, Senior Vice President and Member of the Board of Directors at NTT
DOCOMO, discusses the company’s device strategy.
By Pan Jiesun
A smartphone market in flux
Smartphones have developed rapidly in Japan, with
sales volumes far exceeding operators’ expectations.
As a leading player in the industry, NTT
DOCOMO planned to sell six million smartphones
in 2011, but ended up selling more than eight million.
Nagata noted, “While our sales volume of smartphones
far exceeds expectations, the growth of sales volume is
normalizing. It will become very difficult to maintain this
annual growth rate in the future. Smartphones have been
very popular among innovators and early adopters. In the
future, it is imperative to expand user groups.”
To this end, NTT DOCOMO has adopted a strategy
oriented around particular lineups. In 2011, the company
divided smartphones into the NEXT and with series, to
clearly distinguish target users, high-end and mid-range,
respectively. Nagata admitted that “some may prefer the
idea of meeting all user requirements with one product,
but we think otherwise. To attract mainstream users,
NTT DOCOMO launched the with series. Apart from
functions and specifications, smartphones should integrate
emotional and fashionable elements, and I believe users
will love this direction.”
In the feature phone era, NTT DOCOMO divided its
products into five series targeted at different user categories,
and this sort of strategic segmentation has continued into the
smartphone era, allowing users to choose the model that is
right for them. Although smartphones introduced by outside
vendors swelled the Japanese market for some time, this
wave eventually receded, as most recent bestsellers have been
domestic. These models integrate features rare outside Japan,
such as e-wallet, 1 SEG (a Japanese mobile TV service), and
infrared communications. And while the advanced state of the
Japanese market certainly puts it in Japanese vendors’ favor,
Nagata argues that “overseas vendors share the same competitive
environment with their Japanese counterparts. Indeed, the
recent market situation provides many opportunities for
Japanese vendors. However, in the era of i-mode (launched in
1999), vendors only needed to develop products according to
Japanese users’ requirements, while in the era of smartphones,
they must adopt global basic technologies as a basis and try
to add relevant functions. In this sense, overseas vendors with
global technologies now have more opportunities in Japan.”
NTT DOCOMO has been working with both Japanese
and overseas cell phone vendors; speed and cost are what
is expected from the latter. In Nagata’s view, most Japanese
vendors are not competitive internationally, as they are
losing their vitality, while overseas vendors’ comprehensive
strength looks more attractive to operators. “Overseas
vendors hold absolute advantages in resource allocation.
In terms of sales volume alone, overseas vendors have
outstanding cost competitiveness and strong fundamentals
in terms of development capabilities.”
In other words, the global vendors have an edge in being
9
NOV 2012

Some may prefer the idea of
meeting all user requirements
with one product, but we think
otherwise. Apart from functions and
specifications, smartphones should
integrate emotional and fashionable
elements, and I believe users will
love this direction.
— Kiyohito Nagata, Senior Vice President and
Member of the Board of Directors at NTT DOCOMO
NOV 2012
10

VOICES
FROM OPERATORS
In the globalized market, what is important is how many high-end
products a manufacturer makes and sells. Smartphones are a brand-new product
category, where experience counts.
able to utilize the industry’s fundamental technologies to
develop and customize their products, even in a highly
diversified marketplace, while Japanese vendors hold the
advantage in terms of customization for the local market,
but they have weaknesses in terms of cost and development
capability. Nonetheless, Nagata deems it meaningless to
distinguish vendors by nationality. “This is no longer about
the difference between Japanese vendors and overseas
vendors; rather, the difference lies in whether they see a
global market or not.” Nagata added that in the future, cell
phone vendors should focus on R&D capability, develop
fundamental technologies that can be applied worldwide,
and add localized elements as needed. This last element
might require the same amount of investment from both the
overseas and Japanese vendors, so the key to competition lies
in boosting cost competitiveness in the basic technologies.
Experience counts with smartphones
In the Japanese market, users expect the best, and they
purchase products from Japanese vendors believing that
they are so. However, Nagata thinks that this belief does
not extend to smartphones. “We can no longer assume
that Japanese products are high-quality while those from
overseas vendors are poor. In the globalized market, what is
important is how many high-end products a manufacturer
makes and sells. Smartphones are a brand-new product
category, where experience counts.”
Nagata would go on to note that the Japanese are
expected to be demanding when it comes to quality, and
yet in other developed countries, requirements for highend
smartphones are also very high. In Nagata’s opinion,
smartphones are a high-end product, so manufacturing
skills determine quality; vendors that take the lead and
develop new products in the global market and have a lot
of experience in mass production can manufacture highquality
smartphones more easily.
Another potential challenge for overseas vendors is the fact
that the Japanese are highly brand-conscious. In Nagata’s view,
it is difficult for overseas vendors to build brands in Japan, but
there are still ample opportunities. In the past, when Japanese
vendors were focused solely on phones intended for use only
in Japan, some overseas vendors launched cell phones with
GSM roaming functions, while others rolled out low-priced
phones to compete while the terminal prices of the Japanese
products remained high. Those overseas vendors succeeded
in boosting brand awareness and overcame the barriers in
branding by emphasizing unique advantages. Nagata notes
that “building a brand is indeed no easy job. However, in
the last few years, overseas vendors have successfully built
some brand awareness in Japan. By continuing to provide
outstanding products, they have been embraced by the
Japanese market. Compared with before, the Japanese are
now more receptive to overseas brands.”
At present, the Japanese market is basically saturated;
new subscribers will not grow sharply. At this point, the
opportunity for overseas vendors is to provide products
with a unique personality that other companies do not
offer. In other words, Japanese consumers are looking for
something different.
Huawei has withstood globalization
Huawei is gaining a foothold in NTT DOCOMO’s
product lineup thanks to the personality reflected in its
products. Huawei started providing digital photo frames
for NTT DOCOMO in December 2009, and unveiled the
HW-02C handset for children in September 2011, which
offered simple and limited functionality as well as increased
security. According to Nagata, “In the area of devices
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NOV 2012

In the area of devices oriented towards children, although NTT DOCOMO
is a latecomer, with Huawei’s help, it is able to roll out products of satisfactory
quality, color, and size at preferential prices, with excellent results.
required by us at the cost agreed upon, eventually becoming
our trusted partner. Huawei leads the world in cost and
R&D cycle. It has many impressive methods, such as those
for adding development resources, and in the use of human
resources, that have stood the tests of globalization.”
Looking forward to Huawei’s next hit
HW-02C, handset for children
oriented towards children, although NTT DOCOMO is
a latecomer, with Huawei’s help, NTT DOCOMO is able
to roll out products of satisfactory quality, color, and size at
preferential prices. The products are highly competitive in
sales, with excellent results.”
Nagata would also add that “at first we were not totally
confident as Huawei was a relatively new company in the
Japanese market, but the results proved we made the right
decision.” By partnering with Huawei, “We were able to
reduce the overall cost to the point where it would be difficult
to achieve it with our traditional partners. This enabled us to
offer our services at a price embraced by customers.”
“When introducing premier offerings, NTT DOCOMO
teams up with Huawei to provide quality functionality. When
rolling out a service that holds no particular advantage
at the moment, NTT DOCOMO utilizes Huawei’s fast
development model, resulting in net increases in subscribers
and contributions to the growth of sales revenue.”
When speaking of the partnership between NTT
DOCOMO and Huawei, Nagata noted that “despite
differences between the two sides in terms of development
philosophy and language, Huawei provided the quality
Now, NTT DOCOMO is pivoting towards its LTE
business under the Xi (crossy) brand name. “Compared
with other companies, NTT DOCOMO introduced LTE
smoothly. This is our advantage. Users will understand
LTE’s unparalleled speed of Internet access once they
experience it. We are stepping up publicity of Xi as a
flagship offering. DOCOMO is aiming to achieve 40
million smartphone subscribers by FY2015, and this will
expedite the expansion of the Xi product lineup.”
At CES 2012, Huawei unveiled the Ascend P1s, then
the world’s thinnest smartphone at only 6.68mm thick,
as well as a selection of LTE models. At the event, Nagata
was deeply impressed by the Ascend P1s. “The attitude
of fighting to reduce a mere 0.1 mm shows Huawei’s
enterprising spirit. Huawei understands what it should do
in the world market and puts it into practice. A latecomer as
it is, Huawei is very competitive in the smartphone market.
What comments and support the Ascend series will receive
around the world are very much worthy of expectation.”
As for Huawei’s future development, Kiyohito Nagata is
looking forward to any “surprising products” it might offer.
“The surprise may come from the creative way that Huawei
incorporates our requirements for the services we provide in
Japan into its global models, or in the form of a thoroughly
customized model for the Japanese market. Either way, we
are looking forward to a big surprise from Huawei.”
Editor: Gao Xianrui sally.gao@huawei.com
NOV 2012
12

Perspectives
On Huawei’s Pipe Strategy
Everything that we do will be about making the pipe wider in itself
and ubiquitous in its coverage, so that both our customers and ourselves have
greater market opportunities to seize.
By Eric Xu, Executive Vice President, Huawei
C
ompanies choose to position themselves
differently in the global ICT (Information
and Communications Technology) ecosystem.
Some focus on chips, some on basic software,
some on consumer devices, some on content, and others
on service operation. Huawei, however, chooses to focus
on the pipe, which will direct the development and
consolidation of all our businesses.
And by pipe we mean a digital pipe system for carrying
information, oriented by technology and sector (the
ICT sector). China’s water system makes for an effective
analogy. Network devices such as mobile phones can be
thought of as the taps. When a tap is open, water flows
through, with information generated and consumed.
Enterprise networks are like the tributaries or urban water
supply systems, while enterprise data centers function as
reservoirs. If these intermediate waterways are broad and
uncluttered, more water can be channeled into the main
pipe, enabling more information exchange and aiding the
proliferation of information technologies in the business
world. Mobile and fixed broadband networks (MBB and
FBB) are the principal rivers, like the Yellow and Yangtze,
while data center solutions function as flood basins such as
Dongting Lake. And finally, the backbone network is the
Pacific Ocean, processing and transmitting information
that flows in from tributaries. Together, these elements
form a complete pipeline that encompasses the generation,
aggregation, transmission, and switching of information,
all the way to an “Information Pacific.” In this system,
the services business also takes a part as they help manage,
maintain, and optimize the pipe network so that it runs
smoothly.
IP Video and SDP (Service Delivery Platform) are
enabling platforms that help customers generate revenue
from their information pipes, while BSS (Business Support
System) facilitates pipe operation and service billing.
Network power systems get the flow started and keep
it moving. All have a role to play in this pipe network,
making it easier to manage and use so that customers
enjoy enhanced revenue.
Huawei will focus unswervingly on the pipe. It is our
primary area of future investment. Some investments
will be made in products and solutions that enlarge
it, and support its effective billing, management, and
maintenance. We will not, however, invest in the content
itself (the water within the pipe).
At Huawei, we endorse the idea of “broadband for all.”
We are working towards a zero-wait customer experience
that features high bandwidth and service diversity. We also
actively support and participate in the cloud and M2M
ecosystem. Everything that we do will be about making
the pipe wider in itself and ubiquitous in its coverage, so
that both our customers and ourselves have greater market
opportunities to seize.
Huawei’s pipe strategy is a focused one. For consumers,
we only provide network devices that generate and
consume traffic; non-networked electronics are not our
business. For enterprises and industry verticals, we focus
on ICT infrastructure and position ourselves as a product
provider; we will not develop industry-specific application
software. For carrier networks, our focus is architecture,
from end to end, so that a high-caliber pipe that channels
surging traffic is achieved. The objective of carrier network
solutions is to deliver a zero-wait experience with high
bandwidth and diverse services.
Huawei has established three different business groups
(BGs) to provide ICT solutions to different customer
segments – carriers, enterprises/industries, and consumers.
However, network devices, enterprise networks, carrier
networks, and data center solutions are closely linked and
complement one another. Also, technologies used across
segments are vertically integrated and can all be traced to the
same origin, the digital logic design. Wireless technologies
are used for both base stations on carrier networks and
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NOV 2012

Huawei will focus unswervingly on the pipe.
It is our primary area of future investment. We will not, however,
invest in the content itself (the water within the pipe).
handsets used by consumers, while IT technologies are
applied to both enterprise servers and specialized equipment
(e.g., MSC and HLR) on carrier networks. The integration
and sharing of technologies makes it possible for us to
deliver more competitive products and solutions to each
of the three customer segments, at a higher return on
investment and lower cost. From this perspective, there are
two driving forces that fuel our company’s development.
One is customer need, which lies at the core of every
solution that we deliver, thus moving our company forward;
the other is technology, in that constant technical evolution
brings a better experience and lower cost, propelling the
industry ahead. These two drivers are interdependent and
complementary; neither can be ignored.
Huawei is committed to building a pipe oriented
towards technology and sector. We are also committed
to serving various types of customers that need such
pipes. The world we live in is ever changing, and so are
our customer base and their needs. While carriers will
certainly continue to invest in the pipe, the Internet
service providers may also build their own large-scale pipe
systems; enterprises and industry verticals will accelerate
their ICT investments as well.
Huawei continues to focus on the customer through
the quality that we provide and the services that we deliver,
to all customers who need a pipe and can build a win-win
relationship with us.
Huawei’s pipe strategy is the company’s core, and
the pipe business will remain our focus. As the digital
flood approaches, we commit ourselves to enhanced pipe
capacity, strengthened pipe enablers, and optimized pipe
management, to deliver ever wider and more ubiquitous
pipes, and an even better user experience. Huawei
is striving to build a connected society with endless
possibilities – a society where our life and work are greatly
enriched, made easier through communication.
Editor: Jason jason.patterson@huawei.com
Eric Xu, Executive Vice President, Huawei
NOV 2012
14

Perspectives
Cyber security perspectives
21st century technology and security – a difficult marriage
By John Suffolk, SVP of Global Cyber Security, Huawei
Our world has become truly connected.
During the past twenty years, we have
witnessed the blossoming of the commercial
Internet, which planted the seed of an
interconnected and global digital network that has made
such things from email to telemedicine to browsing and
social networks to online banking and retailing ubiquitous
and affordable.
Cyberspace is a new strategic domain, but it is unlike
the physical territory which we are used to. It has gradually
become the “nervous system” through which society
operates. Countries now attach significant importance
to the development of cyberspace technologies. The
development of networks helped to advance social
progress. Open networks have encouraged information
flow and sharing, provided more opportunities for
innovations, lowered the costs of innovation, and helped
improve the world’s health, wealth and prosperity.
Network technologies have turned out to be remarkable
innovations. Open networks have made it easier to
obtain and share information and have created untold
opportunities for people to invent. As technologies become
more pervasive, the costs of innovation are lowered which
means that consumer, small and medium-sized enterprises
and micro-enterprises have the opportunity to innovate on
the same platform as large enterprises.
The development of interconnected networks has
encouraged investment and has enabled new consumption
models that have driven global economic growth and fueled
the global economy. Open networks connect the world,
facilitate economic exchanges across regions, and promote
global trade. Information technology has become a key
driver behind economic growth. As reported by the World
Bank, for every 10% increase in broadband penetration, the
GDP in developing countries will increase 1.38%.
With the substantial growth in data and the use of
technology, we must adopt a positive attitude towards “data
floods” and technology – not merely looking at the ills or
Cyber Security Perspectives
21 st century technology and security
– a difficult marriage
John Suffolk
complexities that they create. We must utilize information
to bridge the digital divide, provide more people with
access to communications and information systems, and
allocate information resources more appropriately, so
that everyone on the planet can benefit from the use of
technology. The openness of networks makes it possible
for people to have equal access to information, improve
social justice, and balance development across regions. The
openness of networks has promoted cultural exchanges
and helped to soften many of the misunderstandings, acts
of discrimination, and cultural conflicts that exist between
people with different cultural backgrounds.
Yet, notwithstanding the monumental personal, social,
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NOV 2012

Cyber security is not a single country or specific company issue.
All stakeholders – governments and industry alike – need to recognise
that cyber security is a shared global problem.
and enterprise-oriented benefits that we have realised as
a result of the digital and broadband revolutions, ageold
real-world evils ranging from vandalism, theft, and
disruption to espionage and wilful destruction have
naturally gravitated to the new digital environment.
Huawei, a global organization doing business in
over 140 countries and connecting almost one-third of
the planet’s population, is actively engaged in meeting
these challenges head-on. As one of the world’s leading
ICT solution providers, Huawei has deep technical
understanding of how networks operate, and how
technology fundamentally underpins and drives the health,
wealth, safety and prosperity of citizens around the world.
Yet not a day goes by that we do not read or hear
politically – or competitor-inspired negative commentary
about cyber security. While worry about breaches of cyber
security is understandable and legitimate, the rhetoric risks
distracting from the wide range of challenges our industry
faces. Achieving an effective, global, industry-wide solution
is going to demand sober and fact-based dialogue, not
commercial or political jousting.
In a world where over 87% of the planet’s population
are mobile users, where the Apple App Store has seen over
25 billion downloads, and where the downloads of Google
Play Application Store have exceeded 20 billion, the stark
reality is that cyber security is a growing global challenge
demanding rational and universal solutions.
No longer is technology designed, developed and
deployed only in one country. No longer can any country
or large company claim to rely on a single sourcing
model, and no longer is it possible, with today’s complex
technology ecosystem and architecture, that we can stop
all threats from all threat actors.
As governments, enterprises, and consumers have
become increasingly reliant on ICT solutions that integrate
inputs designed, developed, coded, and manufactured by
multiple suppliers around the world, the scale of the cyber
security challenge has grown exponentially.
Cyber security is not a single country or specific company
issue. All stakeholders – governments and industry alike
– need to recognise that cyber security is a shared global
problem requiring risk-based approaches, best practices and
international cooperation to address the challenge.
With the recent publications of threats such as Stuxnet
and Flame, the world has reached a decision point: Does it
continue on its current path whereby any misguided actor,
regardless of motive, can operate freely in an unregulated
world and develop malware for any purpose? If we accept
this route, then we must stop complaining and accept the
consequences of the cyber race to the bottom of the pit and
the return of the Wild West. Or should we collectively step
back from the precipice, as we have done in other forms of
warfare, and establish laws, norms, standards and protocols
– accepting that trust has to be earned and continually
validated and also accepting that a lack of trust exists
between some stakeholders when it comes to cyber security.
In this scenario we must be realistic but determined.
This paper favours and supports international
collaboration, openness and verifiable trust as the
foundation for a world where technology can continue to
drive economic and social improvement for the majority of
the 7 billion citizens on the planet. We hope you support
this option too. At Huawei we make this commitment:
We will support and adopt any internationally agreed
standard or best practice for cyber security in its broadest
sense. We will support any research effort to improve cyber
defences. We will continue to improve and adopt an open
and transparent approach enabling governments to review
Huawei’s security capabilities. And finally, as we have
done to date, we warmly welcome the assistance from our
customers in enhancing our processes, our technology, and
our approach to cyber security so that we can provide even
greater benefits to them and their customers...
The complete Huawei whitepaper is available at:
http://www.huawei.com/ilink/en/download/HW_187368
NOV 2012
16

Perspectives
LTE TDD goes mainstream
Mobile ecosystem puts support behind the standard
LTE TDD has gained wide ecosystem acceptance and backing from leading infrastructure and device vendors. LTE
TDD holds promise when it comes to providing small cell backhaul and fixed broadband service. Its biggest market
opportunity, however, should be in helping mobile operators meet the growing demand for data network capacity.
By Daryl Schoolar, Principal Analyst, Infrastructure, Ovum
LTE TDD applications
Currently, operators
looking to deploy
LTE TDD are
focused on three
areas – mobile broadband,
fixed broadband access, and
backhaul.
Mobile broadband
The application that will
drive the largest market
opportunities for LTE TDD
is support of fully mobile networks. China Mobile plans
to deploy LTE TDD for its 4G network, and to grow its
trial network to 20,000 base stations in 2012 and extend
it to 200,000 base stations by the end of 2013. Some
mobile operators, such as SoftBank (Japan), STC (Saudi
Arabia), Optus (Australia), Hi3G (Denmark & Sweden),
and China Mobile HK (Hong Kong), either currently
have or plan to support both LTE FDD and TDD along
with their existing GSM or WCDMA networks. Bharti
Airtel has launched LTE TDD as its primary 4G network
technology. Clearwire (U.S.) and Mobily (Saudi Arabia)
provide good examples of operators migrating from
WiMAX to LTE TDD to take advantage of the bigger
ecosystem the technology can bring them. The availability
of LTE (FDD & TDD)/WCDMA/GSM smartphones
later on this year will be the catalyst for mobile broadband
development.
Fixed wireless broadband access
Many areas of the world still lack wireline networks,
and many of these areas will never see copper or fiber
deployments. For these areas, wireless networks remain
the best option. Operators such as UK Broadband, SkyTV
(Brazil), Zodafones (Nigeria), and Blueline (Madagascar)
are using LTE TDD to build out fixed-line networks.
Small cell backhaul
It is LTE TDD’s support of point-to-multipoint that
has some operators looking at the technology as a backhaul
solution. Plus, as LTE TDD is part of the larger LTE
ecosystem, it should also provide cost savings through the
overall economies of scale expected to come from LTE.
Other point-to-multipoint backhaul systems don’t have
this benefit because they are proprietary systems. Backhaul
may not be the biggest application for LTE TDD, but it
should play a role in helping the technology to scale.
TDD spectrum: An untapped resource
Spectrum is a finite resource; there is only so much
available. AT&T’s failed acquisition of T-Mobile was
driven by AT&T’s desire to increase its spectrum holdings.
The LTE standard, while more spectrally efficient than
WCDMA or HSPA, still isn’t enough on its own to meet
the spectrum needs of all operators. Small cells are one way
of dealing with this issue.
Small cells help operators deal with spectrum
limitations through carrier Wi-Fi solutions and through
increased spectrum reuse with pico- and microcells using
licensed spectrum.
The most obvious method for an operator to expand
its spectrum position is through the acquisition of more
FDD spectrum. This, however, is not always that easy.
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NOV 2012

Spectrum is a finite resource; there is only so much available. The LTE standard,
while more spectrally efficient than WCDMA or HSPA, still isn’t enough on its own
to meet the spectrum needs of all operators.
Government regulators, as in the case of AT&T and
T-Mobile, may block the deal. Purchasing spectrum at
an auction may not always be an option because of either
the cost or the availability. Another option, and one more
operators are looking at, is deploying LTE TDD over
unpaired spectrum.
Mobile operators can deploy a multi-mode LTE
network to increase their overall network capacity. LTE
TDD can be deployed in dense metro areas to provide
capacity injection into areas where the LTE FDD network
is strained. Part of the capacity benefits LTE TDD bring
comes in the size of available spectrum blocks.
Unpaired or TDD spectrum bands often come in large
blocks. It isn’t unusual to see TDD spectrum auctioned
off in 30MHz slices. From a capacity perspective, this is
an advantage over the typical 2x10MHz configuration
found in FDD spectrum. LTE Release 8 has a theoretical
maximum speed of 16bps per hertz; the more hertz an
operator has, the faster the network.
TDD spectrum costs much less
The biggest advantage of TDD over FDD spectrum is
its cost. Mobile operators have historically been able to
purchase TDD spectrum at a lower price than FDD. This
has primarily been due to the fact that mobile operators
have had limited options for using TDD spectrum.
Until now, many of the systems that were available for
TDD spectrum were proprietary, and not part of a larger
ecosystem. Even with lower spectrum costs, the proprietary
nature of those network systems that used unpaired
spectrum have limited operators’ interest in networks using
TDD. LTE TDD is changing that.
With LTE TDD, operators can use lower cost unpaired
spectrum with a networking technology that is part of a
larger ecosystem than that for paired spectrum. This makes
the overall cost of the network lower than those using
paired spectrum. From a competitive position, this lower
cost can make it easier for an operator to rollout a network
and achieve a return on its investment. It can also use the
lower cost of network ownership to offer lower-priced
service and gain a competitive advantage in the market.
However, mobile operators do need to be aware that the
current spectrum cost advantage may not last. As interest
in LTE TDD increases, so too, most likely, will the cost of
unpaired spectrum.
LTE FDD spectrum challenges
Despite the popularity of FDD spectrum, it comes
with many challenges. One of those challenges is that
unused spectrum suitable for LTE FDD may not be
readily available. In the U.S. there are ongoing LTE
FDD deployments in 700MHz. This spectrum band’s
propagation characteristics provide good coverage over
large geographic areas. However, 700MHz is not readily
available in all markets.
In some markets, TV signals still transmit over
the 700MHz band. It will take time for those bands
to be cleared out and made available for mobile
communications. Competition for FDD frequency brings
its own problems as well. The most obvious problem
competition brings to FDD spectrum is cost. As has
been discussed already, bidding on prime FDD spectrum
can be expensive due to high levels of competition for
that spectrum. Competition for that spectrum can also
lead to it being divided up into small allotments among
multiple operators. These allotments can be small in size
in terms of MHz or geographic coverage. In either case
this will make it difficult for an operator to be successful.
NOV 2012
18

Perspectives
Eastern Europe 16%
Asia Pacific 44%
Middle East & Africa 18%
North America 7%
South & Central America 4%
Western Europe 11%
Source: Ovum
Figure 1 Regional distribution of LTE TDD network commitments
Another solution for gaining FDD spectrum comes from
refarming.
With spectrum refarming, an operator uses existing
2G and 3G spectrum for LTE FDD. There has been
significant interest in using 1800MHz for this. The
problem here is that spectrum refarming can take a long
time to achieve, slowing down the deployment of LTE.
Because of these different challenges with FDD spectrum,
the interest in TDD has risen.
LTE TDD has broad support
Global interest
As discussed previously, one of the factors in LTE
TDD’s success has been the fact that it has grown beyond
just being a ‘China-only’ technology. Ovum has identified
45 LTE TDD network commitments, only one of which
has been made by China Mobile. It is also worth noting
that the first commercial LTE TDD networks did not
come from China, but from operators in Japan, Europe,
and the Middle East.
As shown in Figure 1, the global distribution of LTE
TDD network commitments will help the technology to
grow. It provides reassurance that deployment won’t be
dominated by one country. In fact, the size of the Softbank
deployment in Japan could make it the largest LTE TDD
deployment until China Mobile goes commercial. In
terms of just numbers of deployments, India appears to be
well ahead of China, with seven different Indian operators
committed to the technology.
Strong device support
Strong device support and wireless technology adoption
are very much related. Without strong device support,
end users will not adopt a technology. In this regard, LTE
TDD appears to have a bright future. Chipset and device
vendors have come out in support of the technology.
Mobile operators should not be worried that deploying
LTE TDD will limit their device choices.
Multi-mode LTE FDD & TDD is promising
Even more promising than just broad LTE TDD
support is the support for multi-mode LTE FDD and
TDD devices. Devices that support both types of LTE
will help drive up device volumes, which will bring prices
down, and allow for roaming between FDD and TDD
LTE networks.
Chipset vendor Qualcomm, for example, markets
a chip that supports both FDD and TDD LTE. These
chipsets are also multi-standard with GSM, WCDMA/
HSPA, and CDMA support. Multi-standard support
is very important, as there will be very little interest in
devices that support just LTE TDD within the mobile
operator community. Hisilicon, which has multi-mode
and multi-band chipsets, already supports category-4 LTE
TDD chipsets with 150Mbps in the downlink. On the
device front, Huawei introduced the world’s first multi-
19
NOV 2012

800,000
700,000
600,000
500,000
400,000
300,000
200,000
100,000
2011 2012 2013
2014
2015
2016
LTE FDD
LTE TDD
LTE FDD/TDD
Source: Ovum
Figure 2 Global LTE FDD and TDD connections in thousands, 2012 – 2016
mode personal hotspot device in December 2011 and a
category-4 version will be available soon. Other multimode
chipsets and devices are expected to follow from
other vendors.
LTE TDD commitments coming from leading
operators in Brazil, Russia, India, and China will generate
the scale needed to sustain long-term multi-mode device
development.
25% of LTE connections by 2016
LTE connections can be segmented into three
categories – FDD, TDD, and FDD/TDD. Of the three
categories, LTE FDD has been more widely deployed and
adopted. LTE FDD’s greater number of connections, versus
those that involve TDD, can be attributed to two things.
First has been the historical trend of most mobile operators
preferring FDD spectrum over TDD spectrum. The second
comes from LTE FDD’s initial commercial deployments
coming in 2009, versus LTE TDD’s coming in 2011.
Figure 2 shows Ovum’s forecast for LTE connections
that are only FDD, TDD, or a combination of FDD and
TDD.
Despite the head start LTE FDD has over TDD, LTE
connections using TDD will account for a significant
percent of all LTE connections by the end of 2016. Ovum
estimates that around 25% of all LTE connections will
either be purely TDD or a combination of FDD and TDD
at that time. Of the two, connections that are primarily
TDD will account for the majority of those connections.
Most mobile operators for the near to midterm will opt for
either FDD or TDD in their existing network, not both.
Infrastructure support is key
Infrastructure vendor support is just as important as
that of the chipset and device community when it comes
to the long-term success of LTE TDD. Networks are a
major investment by mobile operators. Service providers
want assurance that the infrastructure community shares
their commitment to a technology before deploying it.
LTE TDD has support from all the leading infrastructure
vendors. In fact, their LTE FDD solutions also support
TDD. This allows them to provide operators with a choice
between types of LTE along with the option of deploying
both.
Market leadership involves many factors
Deploying a network can be a major undertaking
that costs millions, if not billions, of dollars. Selecting a
network partner is not something operators take lightly.
The infrastructure partner plays a major role in the success
of the network. That is why a thorough understanding
of how different vendors stack up in terms of market
leadership is important. It gives mobile operators much
needed insight to help guide them in picking their
network partners.
One of the most obvious ways to judge market
leadership of vendors enabling the underlying
infrastructure is to measure equipment shipments. But
shipments, especially in the early stage of a market, can
NOV 2012
20

Perspectives
As mobile operators add LTE TDD to their existing LTE FDD networks,
those initial LTE FDD wins provide a good indicator of who will win the LTE TDD
deployment, especially as those LTE FDD networks also support the TDD variant.
be misleading when it comes to true market leadership. A
vendor successfully landing one or two early deployments
could be a market share leader in the short term, but that
position may not hold for the long term. When looking
at market leadership in the early stages of a market, other
factors beyond market share need to be examined. For LTE
TDD, Ovum has identified the following factors when it
comes to judging market leadership:
LTE TDD commercial wins – While market share
shouldn’t be the only indicator of market leadership, a
vendor’s ability to win LTE TDD deployments certainly
remains an important indicator of market leadership.
Commercial wins provide an indicator of the vendor’s
ability to sell its LTE TDD solution to operators. It also
provides guidance when it comes to operators’ acceptance
of that vendor as a network partner.
Combined LTE commercial wins – Like LTE TDD
commercial wins, success in selling LTE FDD is another
important indicator of operators’ perceptions of the
vendor as a network partner and the quality of the vendor’s
network solutions. Furthermore, as mobile operators add
LTE TDD to their existing LTE FDD networks, success
in gaining those initial LTE FDD wins provides a good
indicator of who will win the LTE TDD deployment,
especially as those LTE FDD networks also support the
TDD variant.
GSM/WCDMA/HSPA market share/experience – A
vendor’s previous success in gaining GSM and WCDMA/
HSPA market share will impact their success in winning
LTE deployments. Vendors have seeded the market
for some years with multi-mode base stations. Those
base stations help ease some of the pain that operators
will face as they transition from 3G to LTE. Being the
incumbent 2G or 3G vendor certainly gives that company
an advantage when the mobile operator starts to look for
LTE network partners. Furthermore, 2G and 3G success
gives vendors credibility with mobile operators in terms
of technology development and their ability to support
network rollouts.
Unpaired spectrum experience – Prior to LTE TDD,
the most common network technologies to use unpaired
spectrum were TD-SCDMA and WiMAX. Experience in
deploying these technologies gives infrastructure vendors
important experience in deploying networks that use time
division duplexing. Not to be overlooked is the trend with
WiMAX operators like Clearwire (U.S.) and Mobily (Saudi
Arabia) to deploy LTE TDD. Having a WiMAX customer
base gives vendors increased sales prospects for their LTE
TDD gear.
LTE TDD device support – End-to-end LTE network
support is common with the major infrastructure vendors.
All of them can deliver base stations, backhaul, and
packet core solutions to operators. But, device support
can be a real differentiator for a vendor, especially in the
market’s early days when device availability can be limited.
Being able to deliver devices, along with infrastructure,
can ensure that operators can sell services on their new
network. Having control of chipset development also helps
here.
2G/3G leaders should dominate LTE TDD
For 2011, Ovum estimates that Ericsson, Huawei, and
Nokia Siemens Networks generated over 70% of global
base station revenues. This includes revenues for all the
major wireless standards – GSM, WCDMA/HSPA, LTE,
CDMA, and WiMAX. Because of these vendors’ existing
mobile infrastructure positions, they should be in the best
position to capitalize on LTE TDD in the long run.
Editor: Jason jason.patterson@huawei.com
21
NOV 2012

NOV 2012
22

Tao of Business
Huawei knows LTE TDD inside & out
Mobile data services are quickly becoming key profit drivers for operators. LTE TDD, through its ability to
exploit unpaired frequency bands, can be the technology that brings these services to life, and its utility is
being demonstrated through its growing ecosystem, where Huawei is well represented.
By Deng Taihua, President of LTE TDD & WiMAX & TDS Network, Huawei
A GAS-powered technology
LTE TDD is a global, asymmetric, synergistic
(GAS) technology.
Global: Large sections of contiguous unpaired
spectrum are readily available in most countries.
The mainstream TDD bands are at 1.9G/2.3G/2.6G/3.5G
and total over 700MHz of bandwidth, bringing high peak
rates and global LTE roaming within reach.
Asymmetric: LTE TDD does not need the same
bandwidth for downlink and uplink, and this bandwidth
need not be constant. Both of these properties better
reflect the real-world needs of mobile users, where irregular
consumption with the occasional upload is the norm.
Synergistic: LTE TDD shares 90% of its technology
with LTE FDD (based on 3GPP standards), enabling an
easy evolutionary path from WiMAX or TD-SCDMA, as
well as interoperability with GSM, UMTS, and CDMA.
At least half of the world’s top 150 operators possess
TDD spectrum, and its value keeps increasing. In 2011,
the average price of 2.6GHz spectrum was thirteen times
what it was in 2009, a year that saw 90MHz of 2.3GHz
bandwidth go unsold at auction in Hong Kong, only to
sell three years later for USD60 million to three different
competitors after fierce bidding.
23
NOV 2012

LTE TDD does not need the same bandwidth for downlink & uplink, and this
bandwidth need not be constant. Both properties better reflect the real-world needs
of mobile users, where irregular consumption with occasional upload is the norm.
Of course, M&A works just as well as auction if not
better, as has been seen in a slew of such moves over
the past few years, such as SoftBank’s 2010 acquisition
of Willcom and Optus’s more recent acquisition of
Vividwireless. TV whitespace spectrum below 700MHz
will also prove suitable for LTE TDD, if available.
The pieces are in place
As integration becomes the industry norm, multi-mode
chipsets that cover a diverse range of frequencies have
come online. In April 2012, Qualcomm unveiled its fifthgeneration
chipsets, which support GSM/CDMA/UMTS/
TD-SCDMA/LTE TDD/LTE FDD, spanning seven
simultaneous radio frequency channels, while Hisilicon
has released multi-mode chips that support simultaneous
GSM/UMTS/TD-SCDMA/LTE TDD/LTE FDD, and
other vendors are following suit.
LTE TDD terminal development is also taking
shape. According to GSA statistics, a total of 67 vendors
introduced 417 LTE devices by June 2012. Among
them, a total of 53 LTE TDD devices support Band 40
(2.3G), while 64 devices support Band 38/41 (2.6G).
Thus far, these devices have taken the form of dongles,
Mi-Fi hotspots, and CPE, but LTE TDD-compatible
smartphones finally joined in the game this October.
The first small steps
LTE TDD, with its robust compatibility and capacity
(on par with fixed broadband), can satisfy a diverse body
of network operators. SoftBank, Bharti Airtel (India), STC
(Saudi Arabia), and Optus are aggressively developing
this technology for mobile broadband (MBB) so that
those aforementioned data services can be delivered at
higher speeds, while RIL (India), Mobily (Saudi Arabia),
and UKB (U.K.) are focusing on it as a low-cost lastmile
option for wireless broadband (WBB), and Vodafone
(Europe), and Bell Canada are strongly interested in using
it as a microwave supplement.
Presently, there are some big-time LTE TDD rollouts
either in progress or on the horizon. SoftBank currently
has the largest commercial deployment in the world, one
that will utilize its 160,000 existing base stations (acquired
from Willcom) in the near future. China Mobile has even
bigger plans, as it looks to expand its network from 20,000
trial stations to over 200,000 commercial ones over the
next few years.
More mainstream operators will soon join the LTE
TDD development game. It is estimated that more than
70% of sizable sales of LTE TDD gear goes to traditional
GSM and UMTS operators, which has helped motivate all
the major vendors to offer LTE TDD solutions, including
the names normally associated with LTE FDD, as the
aforementioned 90% overlap keeps its time-divisionduplex
cousin from being too much of a stretch.
Huawei leads the way
An army of experts
LTE TDD is a priority investment at Huawei. In
addition to the 14,000 employees and 11 R&D centers
that we devote to wireless technologies, Huawei has more
than 4,000 engineers researching and developing LTE
TDD full-time. Since 2010, Huawei has put forward over
260 proposals that were eventually adopted as LTE core
standards (20% of the world’s total).
All these efforts have given Huawei an unsurpassed
NOV 2012
24

Tao of Business
LTE TDD is a priority investment at Huawei. With an unsurpassed
authority in LTE TDD, Huawei offers solutions that boast the best performance, best
convergence, and best end-to-end innovation on the market.
authority in LTE TDD that reflects in our relevant
solutions, which offer the best performance, best
convergence, and best end-to-end innovation on the
market.
Best performance
Huawei LTE TDD technology has been tried & tested
in some of the world’s most complex and strenuous
traffic scenarios (think Tokyo). Key technologies in these
instances include our multi-antennas, which improve cell
edge speed through beamforming (BF), from single layer
to double layer, as well as to multiple users.
Single-layer BF can improve cell edge rate by 30% in
real-world scenarios, while our single frequency network
(SFN) technology can boost this by a further 50%. Our
intelligent baseband array (IBA) can enhance inter-cell
performance as well. Huawei is the first to put uplink
coordinated multipoint (CoMP) technology (a feature of
LTE-Advanced) into commercial use, leading to an over
7% increase in average uplink rate.
Best convergence
Huawei SingleRAN makes LTE TDD compatible with
any mobile commercial network. This has been seen with
the likes of SoftBank (UMTS), STC (GSM/UMTS),
China Mobile (GSM/TD-SCDMA), Mobily (WiMAX)
and Aero2 (LTE FDD).
This solution also makes Huawei the only vendor in
the industry to support LTE TDD and all other wireless
modalities through a single BBU; different modalities can
be engaged and interact as coverage, location, workload,
SPID, and PLMN dictate to maximize integration
25
NOV 2012

As of end of June 2012, 29 LTE TDD networks were deployed
or were being deployed worldwide, and Huawei was involved in 21 of them,
often in the operators’ most valued regions.
performance.
Best end-to-end innovation
Huawei provides a complete lineup of LTE TDD
terminals, which boasts several industry firsts. In 2011,
we released a LTE TDD/LTE FDD dual-mode data card,
multi-mode data card for GSM/UMTS/LTE TDD, indoor
CPE, multi-mode mobile Wi-Fi for GSM/UMTS/LTE
TDD, and outdoor CPE, all world’s firsts. In 2012, we have
followed these up with our first LTE TDD smartphones.
A large number of other LTE TDD innovations
have also joined the party. In May 2012, Huawei’s TD-
Fi solution found its way into a commercial trial on a
bus line in Hangzhou (a Chinese provincial capital),
delivering an average speed of 40-50Mbps for offload.
Moreover, our eRelay solution, based upon LTE TDD,
can provide backhaul for macro and micro base stations
and support both point-to-multipoint and non-line-ofsight
transmission, while our eMBMS technology helps
the offering of live IPTV services or push video over LTE
TDD by allocating additional downlink resources for
broadcasting.
We’ve got references
As of end of June 2012, 29 LTE TDD networks were
deployed or were being deployed worldwide, and Huawei
was involved in 21 of them, often in the operators’ most
valued regions.
As the world’s No. 1 provider in terms of ARPU for
mobile Internet data services, SoftBank focuses on LTE
TDD as its major evolution route to LTE. In September
2011, the operator selected Huawei as its strategic partner
to build its LTE TDD network in Tokyo, Osaka, and
Nagoya. According to an evaluation of Tokyo’s four
newest networks by the ICT, a well-known professional
evaluation agency, “SoftBank’s AXGP (LTE TDD) by far
outperformed all other networks.”
As China Mobile’s partner, Huawei has deployed
networks single-handedly for world-class gatherings such
as the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, the 2010 Asian
Games and the 2011 Universiade Games. As a key partner
in the Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI), Huawei works
closely with the GTI to jointly hold global events and
other activities, such as “TDD Nights,” that promote
industry development.
Huawei is also dedicated to promoting the development
of the industry ecosystem. Hisilicon has introduced LTE
TDD single-mode chips and LTE TDD/LTE FDD multimode
chips ahead of the competition. Its latest GSM/
UMTS/LTE multi-mode chipsets support LTE with a
single-user rate of 150Mbps. Huawei has also opened
multiple LTE TDD interoperability testing labs in
cooperation with other chipset vendors.
At the June 2012 GTB Innovation Summit, SoftBank’s
LTE TDD commercial network in Tokyo won the award
for LTE TDD network innovation.
At the May 2012 LTE World Summit, Huawei won the
awards for Most Significant Development for Commercial LTE
Networks by a Vendor and Best LTE Core Network Element.
These awards have joined our numerous others from 2011,
demonstrating our leadership in LTE TDD, as attested to by
the likes of Ovum, Dell’Oro, and the GSA.
Editor: Pearl Zhu zhuwenli@huawei.com
NOV 2012
26

Tao of Business
Monetizing the NBN
Strategies & services
National Broadband Networks (NBNs) are being planned and rolling out around the world,
promoted by a strong convergence of interests, with governments looking for macroeconomic
benefits and telcos looking to satisfy their subscribers’ demands for improved services. The problem
for telcos is how to cover the costs of building these next-generation networks.
By Nigel Bruin, Director Business Consulting,
NBN Competence Center, Huawei Singapore
The foundations matter
The structure of a national fiber
broadband network and the
regulations that govern it have a
big influence on the opportunities
for revenue-generating services. The broadest
marketplace is always going to be based on an
open-access or wholesale model supporting
many service providers.
There are different structural models and
the choice is usually dictated by the practical
and necessary concerns of the existing operators, perhaps
including a state-controlled incumbent. There is no single
regulatory structure suitable for all situations, but the most
important layer is that which provides wholesale network
access to the retail service providers (RSPs). This is where
innovation and competition drive the large-scale benefits.
Managing CAPEX
The biggest financial issue is the high capital cost of
network construction, especially the civil works. Digging
roads is expensive, aerial wiring less so, but last-mile
connections will still account for around 50% of the project
cost; money that is spent in advance of any revenue earned.
Government grants, subsidies, or loans designed to promote
the project have the strongest effect here.
The other major factor affecting the
return on investment is the take-up rate by
subscribers; sharing the cost of the last-mile
infrastructure as widely as possible lowers
the per-connection costs dramatically. The
competitive environment influences takeup
rates but so does regulation of elements
such as the decommissioning of legacy
infrastructure. Once built, a passive optical
network (PON) is cheaper to operate
and maintain; in Japan, NTT estimates a
60% OPEX savings over DSL. PON also,
crucially, offers the lowest cost-per-bit
transmitted, which is ever more important each year as
data volumes surge on both fixed and wireless networks.
The Internet is fixed
Fixed and wireless operators have been drifting apart for
years by divestiture, but mobile operators’ successes with
UMTS and now LTE highlight the pressing need to get
all this data onto fiber as quickly as possible. It has taken
a while for operators & subscribers to realize that Internet
access is the major killer app for mobile phones, but since
the Internet is a wireline network with a thin wireless edge,
there are pressing requirements to deploy fiber backhaul to
base stations, Wi-Fi offload, and residential small cells, all
of which can benefit from a national fiber infrastructure.
Telco substitution
27
NOV 2012

Operators of POTS networks have seen steady declines
for years; a 7% annual revenue loss is occurring now in some
markets. Globally, the number of mobile lines surpassed
fixed ones in 2003 and it is now numerically dominant. It
is true that for some, fixed-mobile substitution is an option,
but the bigger issue is one prompted by the latest fast fiber
connections providing 50Mbps and often more, as their
ability to substitute all traditional telco services, including
voice & video, with Internet-based alternatives heralds an
era of credible telco substitution.
Shifting revenues
Fiber networks are enabling rapid and disruptive shifts
in services (revenues). For a basic broadband provider,
these are challenging times. Broadband was once sold by
speed (1Mbps, 4Mbps) or in some markets by monthly
data volume (5GB, 10GB); neither is a satisfactory way
to manage NBN as both have the effect of depressing
use, and yet if the service is being sold on a fixed monthly
tariff, applying limits seems like a rational response.
A third way, charging for every byte transmitted, is
seriously flawed as the value of each byte varies greatly
depending upon the application, and consumers have
become comfortable with predictable monthly bills. The
challenge is granting reasonably generous access to data
and gaining revenue from the value that it represents.
Less telco, more Internet
There is an industry-wide transformation currently
taking place that perhaps rivals the other great industry
change (where the telephone companies became ISPs)
where charging for access is being replaced by the offering
of value-added services (VAS), either directly or indirectly,
on a wholesale access network. The end goal is much closer
to that for an ICT company as opposed to a traditional
telco. In a sense, this places the operator in competition
with the entire Internet, a daunting prospect and one
that cannot be won outright; OTT services cannot be
eliminated or defeated, so how does a telco develop a
successful monetization strategy for fiber access?
OTT triage
The initial approach is to triage (separate into three
categories) the major services that subscribers use and
decide how to offer each one. Operators can:
• Compete using an in-house version (Access
Independent Services).
• Cooperate with a third-party provider.
• Leave it to the OTT market.
Clearly, this must be mapped against one’s organizational
capabilities & strategies such as the technology roadmap,
product development capacity, and risk-revenue assessment.
The pace at which an operator can challenge OTT services
depends not only upon its ability to take on new skills but
also its willingness to displace legacy services. Incumbent
operators tend to view these risks differently from new market
NOV 2012
28

Tao of Business
OTT services that pass through the network are a serious
challenge and the telco should decide for each category whether to develop
a competing VAS or enter a cooperative partnership.
entrants, as even the perception of value destruction may be
harmful to shareholder interests. However, market disruption
is tough, and courage is required to move forward boldly and
disrupt your own services before the new ones gain revenue.
Revenue capture
An operator has a core set of services, voice, data, and
often video, available on the fiber network. OTT services
that pass through the network are a serious challenge and
the telco should decide for each category whether to develop
a competing VAS or enter a cooperative partnership.
The form of such an alliance depends on what value the
telco is offering. If the value is simply the access network,
then it is a form of managed wholesale. If the telco is adding
further resources such as CDN or compute servers, then it
is a hosted model. More intriguing are the opportunities to
manage data flows using QoS, or to add ancillary functions
such as billing, providing a classic two-sided business model
and putting the telco firmly in the middle of the value chain.
Many major operators have developed their own
products, keen to address competition in basic voice
services by upgrading to VoIP services and Internet video
conferencing through well-known OTT players.
Pay TV
Streaming video is a major revenue opportunity but it is also
costly to transport. Pay TV is a little different from many OTT
services as it already has a natural two-sided business model, with
operators providing the hosting, distribution, and marketing
for content providers. Operators have been following a model
closer to that used by cable TV providers through partnering
with either content owners directly or with an Internet-based
distributor. Either way, by improving service quality over OTT
through less buffering, assured bandwidth, and perhaps a
sophisticated home terminal, operators can add significant value.
The latest hybrid home terminals that present multiple
video sources in a single, consistent user experience are an
opportunity for telcos to become the common platform
for home video.
Expanded market reach
As operators develop VAS services beyond simple access,
they have the opportunity to offer them across the entire
NBN, and even to Internet subscribers. It only seems fair
that, in developing services to compete with the Internet,
one can expand the addressable market and become a
reverse OTT service provider.
Competitive voice
POTS voice is in slow decline in terms of both penetration
and revenue, but it is still a core telco service and one with
plenty of innovation left in it. Voice revenues are not going to
collapse due to OTT VoIP providers as they find it difficult
to compete with the telcos due to issues of numbering, call
quality, and ease of use.
Operators are responding by maintaining legacy voice services
and enhancing them with Unified Communications (UC).
By focusing on legacy strengths and certain OTT weaknesses,
voice can be transformed into a competitive offering through
initiatives such as Rich Communication Suite (RCS), marketed
as joyn. Building on an IMS platform, RCS is a telecom-based
UC solution, offering multiplatform clients, presence, and
media sharing, backed up by carrier-grade implementation
and familiar numbering. The enterprise market places great
emphasis on call quality and such an in-house solution can meet
their expectations, but it faces strong competition from Internet
services; so for incumbent operators, this helps to reduce churn.
Quality of experience
29
NOV 2012

It is common practice to tier Internet access plans by
speed and/or data cap. Next-gen fiber access permits further
differentiation to monetize the experience using quality
of experience (QoE) to control traffic speed & priority,
not just statically but on demand (Turbo Button). This
capability is not unique to fiber, but GPON’s very high line
speed and fully-configurable traffic shaping make this an
attractive and achievable proposition. This opens up a world
of possibilities for optimizing user experience to immediate
needs, and hence a new set of chargeable features.
Advantage: Operator
Competing effectively against new services is a challenge
but operators have significant advantages over OTT providers.
Firstly, operators have an existing subscriber relationship,
supported by their brand. This should make marketing,
service activation, and billing a smoother process.
Secondly, GPON provides excellent bandwidth and
traffic control functions and the ability to differentiate based
on QoE, which an OTT provider cannot equal. Thirdly,
operators often have internal assets such as caching, storage,
computing, and billing, that they may leverage to develop
new services either by themselves or in collaboration.
Because market disruption favors first-mover advantage,
partnering to compete with OTT is a feasible and, indeed,
recommended way to reduce the time to market.
Telco cloud
Moving computing resources and their applications onto
the network is a defining transformation of our age that has
been accelerated by widespread availability of broadband
access. Telcos are very well placed to offer cloud services, but
this is a medium to long-term development project, best
taken in phases since it involves a lot of technology; building
the skills and competencies takes time.
Successful cloud deployments need to acquire scale
to be cost-effective and a typical approach is to start by
virtualizing existing services and growing from there. Some
of this infrastructure may exist already, often from CDN and
enterprise products. Offering a full stack of software products
can be approached by beginning with an infrastructure
product (IaaS) and then partnering to provide applications
(SaaS). Operators can compete effectively against the major
global SaaS offerings by providing local support or training to
local SMEs who are quick to appreciate their benefits.
Bring it all together
The strategic challenge for operators is to choose how
QoE is a subjective concept that covers the
following attributes at the minimum:
Speed – This encompasses not just the
allocated network bandwidth (pipe size) but the
perception of speed (response time). The usage
pattern of an individual user is often very bursty
and the challenge for the network designer is to
engineer an end-to-end capability that meets this
expectation.
Quality – Media quality for high-definition
(HD) video & voice, augmented reality, and other
aspects of the user experience are readily perceived
and appreciated by consumers.
Equivalence – This means having the same
content or capability in different places or on
different devices. Whether we are in a post-
PC world or not, consumers are already using a
variety of fixed and mobile devices to suit their
needs and tastes.
Simplicity – Consumers want to communicate
in simple and natural ways and the user interface
(UI) should reflect this desire. Fortunately,
effective touch and voice interfaces are available.
far to go in addressing the OTT value chain; while the
opportunities are considerable, so are the risks. If an operator
focuses on their traditional revenue stream and tries to grow
organically, there may be less internal & financial risk but
competitive pressures from disruptive competitors may
prevail. As operators balance these issues, the deployment of
an NBN acts as a catalyst to market change. Thus, a wait-and
see approach is unwise as it risks a dangerous convergence of
exploding costs and revenue stagnation.
Broadband access is becoming a commodity and fiber
networks promote and accelerate this trend, expanding the
full potential of the Internet directly into homes. Fortunately,
NBNs also offer the solution to the disruptions they
introduce through a platform for innovative, next-gen services
and finely-tuned user experience. Their speed, latency and
bandwidth permit even more exciting solutions and business
propositions.
Telcos must steer a course through these uncertainties.
According to an Ovum study, globally, new telco products
are expected to grow at 9% annually compared to only 3%
for traditional telecom services. This revenue opportunity
should act as a lighthouse when crafting business and
technology strategies, drawing the operator towards a
brighter future.
Editor: Jason jason.patterson@huawei.com
NOV 2012
30

Tao of Business
Frenemies
How can telcos get a piece of the OTT pie?
As the Internet is increasingly dominated by video, OTT will further cripple the telco industry
unless both sides learn how to work together for the benefit of all. It will probably be the operators offering
the first olive branch, but such is the burden of leadership.
By Mike MacDonald, CTO and Executive Solutions Consultant, Huawei Southeast Asia
For many, the phrase “over the top” may simply mean
“to the extreme.” But, in telecommunications, it is
a phrase that cuts the air like a knife and takes our
wallet while doing so. Wikipedia defines it as the
“on-line delivery of video and audio without the Internet
service provider being involved in the control or distribution
of the content itself.” In present terms, OTT has been
extended to encompass virtually any service or content
delivered over infrastructure not controlled by the owner
of that service or content. As such, it typically bypasses an
operator’s ability to apply bandwidth management, quality
of service, billing, etc.
For the time being, the OTT and telco realms act like
teenagers at a middle school dance - boys on one side, girls
on the other, everyone acting skittish. Basically, this is the
result of the rapid rise of the webscape and telcos’ inability
to successfully retrain layoff targets to be whiz-bang
software designers. As a result, the services that subscribers
actually want to access are not directly linked to data plans
offered by most telco marketers.
Clearly it makes sense that a subscriber who wants to
download a movie for a few dollars needs to consume
an appropriate amount of bandwidth, but how much?
Even the best engineers struggle with this as video can be
encoded using one of many codecs, and can sometimes
change on the fly through a process called transcoding.
In addition to the sheer number of bits consumed, the
width of the data highway needs to be wide enough to
support the screen in question (10-inch tablet to 40-inch
flatscreen). Already you can see how difficult it would be
for a subscriber to purchase a movie and then figure out
exactly which data plan makes sense to use.
Fair seems foul
31
NOV 2012

Interestingly, most telcos already have investments in application-aware
networks, policy control & charging, and sophisticated billing, yet for some
reason these aren’t leveraged to align with subscriber usage.
If we extend the example to assume subscribers are
starting to sign up for monthly subscriptions such as
Netflix, now we come head to head with the dreaded “Fair
Use Policy,” which perhaps, contrary to consumer logic,
protects fair use for other people while limiting your own
bandwidth if you happen to watch all eight seasons of
How I Met Your Mother in one month. A quick search for
“Fair Use Policy” in Wikipedia actually redirects to the
incredibly disheartening “Bandwidth Cap” entry. Let’s
digress a bit and investigate a paraphrased definition of
unreasonable use from a leading telco’s terms of service:
“The unreasonable use of data services where your
use of data services is reasonably considered to adversely
affect the network or other customers’ use of or access to a
service or the network.”
So basically, if you use the service too much and that
use adversely affects other users, even though you have
subscribed to a predetermined bandwidth package, the
telco reserves the right to “suspend or limit the Service (or
any feature of it) for any period We think is reasonably
necessary.”
This is getting scary, especially as the definition of
“too much” seems to mean “your usage is affecting other
subscribers.” This is all well & good, except for the fact
that it depends as much on what other subscribers are
doing as on what you are doing, and the statistics indicate
that both you and them are probably watching a True
Blood marathon.
The future is now, and it’s in HD
Internet video traffic is expected to consume 54% of
all consumer Internet traffic in 2016, up from 51% in
2011, and this does not even take into account video peerto-peer
(P2P) file sharing. All forms of video (TV, VOD,
Internet, and P2P) are expected to total 86% of global
consumer traffic by that time. And that’s not all – twothirds
of the world’s mobile data traffic is expected to be
video by 2016; this would account for a 25-fold increase
from 2011 levels.
The monthly subscriber, who after happily paying thirty
dollars per month for a 10Mbps connection and another
seven dollars monthly for Netflix, now stands a very high
likelihood of his bandwidth being throttled back to a
few hundred kbps because his insatiable Stargate fetish is
adversely affecting the little old lady across the street trying
to selling tea cosies on eBay.
This dilemma extends to VoIP, IPTV, streaming audio,
and pretty much anything else that isn’t text or voice.
Interestingly, most telcos already have investments in
application-aware networks, policy control & charging,
and sophisticated billing, yet for some reason these aren’t
leveraged to align with subscriber usage.
We’d better dance before the
music stops
OTT players don’t know networks, and telcos don’t
know applications. There are network performance
problems that can be fixed through better code and there
are web performance issues that can be fixed with a better
network, yet both factions choose to go it alone, thinking
they are closer to the holy grail than the other. The truth
of the matter is that the customer trumps all and in his
mind the application or content is intimately linked to the
NOV 2012
32

Tao of Business
Offering data packages that align with subscriber usage likely won’t prove
sustainable with fickle users. Instead, telcos must make assets available to web
developers, even if it means handing the reins to a younger generation.
network over which it rides. But when the two don’t jive,
it’s usually the suits at the telco that get blamed rather than
the hipsters at the web service.
However, things are not as bleak as they seem. Some
operators are changing their ways and offering data
packages that align with subscriber usage in the form of
a dollar a day for Facebook, a dollar a day for WhatsApp,
or forgoing a data charge altogether if a preferred OTT
service is used such as Skype (Verizon). While this model,
which aligns pricing to services consumed, is a good start,
it likely won’t prove a sustainable revenue stream in the
face of a fickle crowd, as a firm can go from hipster to
whipping boy in less time than it takes to say Facebook.
Instead, telcos need to make their assets available to the
web developer community, even if it means handing the
reins to a younger generation.
Of course there will be some services that can be more
localized such as VoIP, IPTV, and mobile money, provided
they still offer the ability to tap into the offerings of global
players. I recall the sole reason that a Thai friend told me
for choosing an Android tablet rather than an iOS product
was simply that a credit card was required to create an
account for the latter’s application store. It may sound
simple, but we can’t dismiss the fact that connecting the
next billion will not be as easy as connecting the first.
What got us here won’t get us there.
Forward-thinking operators are now realizing that
their leverage over OTT players is limited. A relatively
large dustup happened in May 2012 when KPN and
other Dutch operators announced their plans to surcharge
for OTT applications, including Skype and WhatsApp,
leading the Minister of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and
Innovation to put on his Net Neutrality hat and announce
that “Dutch telecom law will be amended to ensure free
access to the Internet.”
Telefónica, the sixth largest telecom operator
worldwide, has announced a partnership with Google,
Facebook, Microsoft, and RIM for carrier billing which
will enable subscribers to use their mobile credits to
purchase applications and other virtual goods made
available at OTT stores, effectively making the purchase
of virtual goods and applications much more accessible to
subscribers.
In June, TELUS signed an agreement with Skype that
“will revolutionize how TELUS smartphone customers
use Skype, including the ability to purchase Skype Credit
through their existing TELUS accounts.” Just a few years
earlier, TELUS was also one of the first to extend their
IPTV service to the Microsoft XBOX.
In the middle of these two extremes, we have other
operators that are trying to find a sweet spot between their
home grown applications and those of OTT providers.
Comcast thinks it can benefit from Skype (which now
reaches well over 800 million subscribers), albeit in a
limited fashion, by enabling calls to and from set-top
boxes through an adapter but forgoing support for calls
to and from actual phone numbers, which will instead be
supported by a Comcast in-house solution.
Now what?
Dr. Hugh Bradlow, CTO of Telstra, Australia’s largest
mobile operator, recently announced that operators must
stop competing with OTT and instead focus on working
with them to benefit all.
Some applications make more sense for near-term tieups,
such as mobile money. In countries where credit card
penetration is under 10% and bank account penetration
is under 40%, subscribers simply don’t have the local
payment facilities available to enable the full webscape
experience. Instead, local operators can leverage their
thousands of paypoints in combination with strong
relationships with local banking institutions. At the end
33
NOV 2012

One thing is certain, if we wait for OTT to come knocking on
our door, we will definitely miss the party because ultimately our role in the
future of the webscape is ours to lose.
of the day, employees are paid either in cash or via direct
deposit into a bank. From there, the existing facilities
allow them to purchase a load card and, if lucky, carry an
additional balance that can be used for other transactions.
Mobile money will be quickly followed by VoIP and
IP messaging tie-ups as operators are forced to replace
their traditional voice and SMS revenue with more youthfriendly
versions sporting emoticons and SNS integration.
In fact, the first carrier-based IP communication apps will
effectively be the first IP apps to support carrier billing.
Assuming we can get full alignment from the content
sources, IPTV seems like the next logical step for several
reasons. First, video takes up more Internet traffic than
water does the human body. Second, because video is so
dominant, it is the driving force behind the data surge.
The problem now is that the OTT technologies available
today are predominantly based in the U.S. and thus have
more direct access to a lot of the content owners. They
also are better at finding that sweet spot between adsupported
applications and customer-billed applications.
This June, Netflix celebrated the milestone of serving one
billion hours of video in just one month, spread across a
user base of 26 million people, making it the largest VOD
provider in the U.S. Combine this success with Apple’s
recent expansion into 12 new markets in Asia and it won’t
be long before the Netflix market is extended globally.
Let the right ones in
Finally, all those other OTT-developed apps that seem
like fads or are otherwise hard to fit into a partnership
model can still be leveraged in a professionally-managed
carrier development environment. This sandbox is where
the carrier API is exposed and young people looking to test
their coding prowess can create a developers’ account and,
after passing a qualification process, make an application
available to that carrier’s subscriber base. While care must
be taken in how telcos open these APIs, it is easy to see the
immediate benefit of Farmville integration with a carrier’s
billing API so that players can purchase their way onto the
leaderboard.
However, a problem here is that OTT players have been
groomed through sites such as Mashable and Kickstarter
to think that their only mission is to get VC funding and
ultimately exit via IPO or buyout. Perhaps telcos can allocate
some funds to an autonomous business development arm
that could fill this function, choosing several applications
to invest in, with the exit strategy being real sustainable
revenue. Granted, this may not be as cool as a milliondollar
payday, but a steadily growing monthly income that
is ten times more likely to be realized is a great alternative,
provided telcos can hold an OTT player’s attention long
enough to enunciate the reasoning here.
Clearly there is an opportunity for OTT providers to
work with telcos, even if the other guys don’t realize it yet.
Much like a good coder managing the CPU and memory
resources of a computer, a good web application developer
should similarly ensure that the infrastructure is capable
of delivering the service with the intended customer
experience. Change will require a concerted effort on
our part to educate the OTT players on what they don’t
know and make them aware that the applications they
are creating do impact the underlying infrastructure, and
an alignment between telco priorities and OTT business
cases. More importantly, it will require a high level of
autonomy for business development teams, to enable
them to properly motivate OTT players and ultimately
capitalize on the dynamic nature of the application-based
Internet. One thing is certain, if we wait for OTT to come
knocking on our door, we will definitely miss the party
because ultimately our role in the future of the webscape is
ours to lose.
Editor: Jason jason.patterson@huawei.com
NOV 2012
34

Winners
TalkTalk
provides online protection for families
HomeSafe, the U.K.’s first and only network-level broadband security service provided by fixed broadband
operator TalkTalk, is a parental control and anti-malware solution for all devices that use the home Internet
connection – including PCs, tablets, smartphones, and even game consoles – putting parents in charge of
what their children can visit online and when.
By Michael Huang
Editor: Jason jason.patterson@huawei.com
35
NOV 2012

Giving parents peace of mind
As the father of two young netizens in
Great Britain, Mr. Smith knows that
broadband is an integral part of family
life but he does have concerns about his
children being online. After they come home from
school, they promptly start browsing the Internet
and talking to friends online rather than doing
their homework. He is also worried about them
stumbling across inappropriate content. To ensure
that their homework gets done, he even resorted to
turning off the modem, but this also hindered his
own Internet access.
Mr. Smith needs a flexible parental control
service, one that can filter out the online junk food
and ensure his children’s studies. He also needs
it to be user-friendly, as he doesn’t have the time
or the inclination to deal with a lot of jargon and
configuration. A security suite would also be nice,
one that can weed out viruses, malware, and other
intrusions.
TalkTalk: The family operator
Since its founding in 2002, TalkTalk has steadily
grown into the U.K.’s leading value provider of
fixed broadband and voice telephony services,
serving some five million customers. TalkTalk offers
a clear and simple tariff structure, competitive
prices, and innovative services. Examples include its
£6.50 unlimited broadband & calls a month bundle
and its superfast (up to 76Mbps) fiber broadband.
TalkTalk’s customers are primarily households,
where children are likely to be sharing the same
Internet connection as their parents, and a lot of
that time is unsupervised.
TalkTalk’s own Life Online study has shown that
about half of children’s time online is unsupervised,
and at least 14% of children aged 6-10 have
encountered adult content on the Internet. Web
attacks at home are also increasing. According to
a Symantec report, the spam level in the U.K. in
June 2012 was 67.2% and 1 in 210 emails was
identified as malicious.
TalkTalk identified a need in the marketplace
for a simple, effective security service for multiple
device categories. They already offered a PC-based
solution, provided by a third-party supplier and
marketed as the Super Safe Boost, but given that
the average TalkTalk home connects seven unique
devices to the Internet a month, they realized that
their customers needed a new kind of solution.
TalkTalk decided therefore to offer an alternative
– a network-level security solution that simplifies
operation & management (O&M) expenses while
enhancing functionality. In late 2009, TalkTalk
started its own research on safer broadband
NOV 2012
36

Winners
Huawei SIG facilitates the launch of value-added
services such as parental control. Through the operator’s
portal, parents can subscribe to or cancel service plans,
and configure their online policy at will.
connections, and its efforts in this area have not
ceased. In early 2010, TalkTalk partnered with
Huawei to jointly develop a solution that provides
safer broadband access for homes, with parental
control as the key element.
Huawei SIG
Huawei provided its Service Intelligence
Gateway (SIG) solution, which can be deployed
on a fixed (between the broadband remote access
server and international gateway), mobile (at the
Gi, Pi, or ASN-GW egress), or converged network.
Its architecture is simple, consisting of a front
end, back end, upgrade center, and cloud security
center.
The front end is responsible for analysis,
reporting, and policy enforcement, while the back
end manages SIG systems, users, and policies.
The back end automatically receives the latest
knowledge base and URL classification statistics
from the upgrade center and cloud security center,
without service interruption, while providing
SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) interfaces to
enable/disable services and configure policies. Based
on its interfaces, service providers can develop selfservice
portals by themselves or through Huawei,
while operators can use the SIG to deliver AoS (Alert
of Security) messages to customers.
With its carrier-class router platform, Huawei
SIG performance is assured through its ASIC
and multi-core network processors – service
throughput can reach 120Gbps on fixed networks
and 100Gbps for mobile. Reliability is another
key feature, thanks to redundancy in SIG’s design
for boards and key components, both on the front
end and the back. The system is also equipped with
professional-grade bypass devices, to protect links
against anomalies. During upgrade, operators need
only replace the interface or service board (overhaul
is unnecessary).
Huawei’s SIG solution facilitates the launch
of value-added services such as parental control.
Through the operator’s portal, parents can subscribe
to or cancel their service plans, and enable/disable/
configure their online policy at will. Parents can
also restrict access to online gaming and social
networking sites at specified times of the day,
helping to keep distractions during homework time
to a more manageable level.
SIG boasts a library of over 65 million URLs
in 43 categories, which operators can customize as
required. Based on an industry-leading malicious
code detection technology, SIG can filter malicious
URLs dynamically, keeping viruses and other
malware out of the home. If something is detected,
the system can send alerts to users.
Great feedback
In May 2011, TalkTalk officially launched its
HomeSafe solution (which integrates Huawei’s SIG
37
NOV 2012

platform). TalkTalk provides three primary parental
control/network security functions through
HomeSafe. The first is dubbed Kids Safe, and allows
parents to choose websites for blocking by category,
including those devoted to dating, drugs, alcohol,
file sharing, gambling, gaming, and pornography;
blocked websites can also be self-defined by filling
the web address in a box. Homework Time allows
parents to set a timeframe during which children
cannot access online gaming and social networking,
while the last function, Virus Alerts, blocks access
to infectious websites. All of these services are
free of charge to TalkTalk customers. TalkTalk
additionally offers a higher-level PC-based security
service, dubbed Super Safe Boost, that is offered for
£2 per month or free of charge as part of a highertier
package.
As a satisfied TalkTalk customer, Mr. Smith can
now log into his account and switch on HomeSafe
in about a minute. He can then be confident that
his children now have far fewer opportunities for
online distraction, while other family members
are able to benefit from improved safety online
through various measures.
Since its launch in May 2011, HomeSafe has
enjoyed positive feedback from children’s charities,
parents groups, and the British government. For
example, Justine Roberts, co-founder of the U.K.-
based Mumsnet, and the U.K. Children’s Minister
Tim Loughton have expressed their appreciation
of HomeSafe. Tim Loughton praised TalkTalk for
leading the way when it comes to Internet safety.
Liska, a popular parent blogger, has noted that “this
really is a great product and is a breath of fresh air,
to what is otherwise a very confusing industry for
customers: that of online security.”
HomeSafe is now a key differentiator in
TalkTalk’s service lineup, having made the operator
the first in Great Britain to provide network-level
broadband security as well as the first to support
government efforts to provide what the U.K.
government calls active choice where customers are
prompted to set up parental controls when signing
up for broadband. It has also helped the operator
win two industry awards for innovation and
network security.
With a claim to being the U.K.’s safest
broadband connection, HomeSafe is gaining
increased popularity among customers. Eight weeks
after launch, it attracted over 100,000 customers
and since TalkTalk introduced this active choice,
roughly one in three new customers has chosen to
use the parental controls. Less than a year and half
after launch (May 9, 2012), HomeSafe users hit
over 500,000, and this number is expected to reach
one million by March 2013.
In Q4 2011, TalkTalk CTO Clive Dorsman
granted the operator’s Smooth Delivery Award to
the Huawei SIG team, recognizing the vendor’s
efforts and professionalism in delivering the key
element in HomeSafe. As a partner, Huawei is
ready to strengthen its cooperation with TalkTalk
in broadband security, as well as other fields of
mutual interest.
NOV 2012
38

Winners
China Mobile
energizes the LTE TDD market
China Mobile has been a champion of LTE TDD in recent years, through efforts such as the LTE TDD service
debut at the World Expo in Shanghai, its trial network in Hangzhou city, and the world’s first demonstration of
seamless roaming between LTE TDD and FDD technologies, all of which will lead to a 13-city pilot rollout.
By Ma Yanzhe
Editor: Xu Shenglan xushenglan@huawei.com
39
NOV 2012

A
t the 2012 Hangzhou TDD Night
ceremony on June 18, 2012, senior
management from China Mobile
Zhejiang and China Mobile Hong
Kong successfully demonstrated roaming between
the former’s LTE TDD network in Hangzhou and
the latter’s LTE FDD network. Onsite services
included video calling and HD VOD, featuring
real-time interaction through clear, smooth images.
Li Zhengmao, Executive Vice President of China
Mobile, stated his approval of this demonstration,
as it proves that customers can enjoy the benefits of
both LTE technologies from a single device, while
also proving that LTE TDD does not play second
fiddle in the LTE market.
Huawei has made significant contributions to
China Mobile’s LTE TDD achievements, as the
vendor’s Mobile Wi-Fi (Mi-Fi) device, the first of
its type in the industry to support LTE TDD and
LTE FDD inter-frequency roaming, was employed
for the aforementioned demonstration, which also
utilized a Huawei-constructed LTE TDD network.
Vigorous LTE TDD growth
Since 2009, China Mobile has been actively
engaged in the application of LTE TDD. At
global industry summits such as the Mobile
World Congress (MWC), Next-generation Mobile
Networks (NGMN) Conference, ITU Exhibition,
and Mobile Asia Expo, China Mobile has offered
LTE TDD services for a variety of scenarios.
At the 2010 World Expo, China Mobile’s LTE
TDD network dazzled international audiences with
the Chinese debuts of such LTE services as mobile
HD conferencing, mobile HD video surveillance,
shoot-and-transmit functionality, and HD VOD.
As China Mobile’s strategic partner, Huawei
played a crucial role at the expo through the first
large-scale field demonstration of LTE TDD in
China. Huawei independently built an LTE TDD
network for the Expo Park, covering 5.28 square
kilometers, which comprised 17 LTE TDD base
stations, making for an intelligent, converged
Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network. Moreover,
Huawei was the first in the industry to launch
LTE TDD Customer Premise Equipment (CPE)
devices, all of which were employed at the expo.
Huawei’s competence at the expo helped
convince China Mobile to let the vendor act as
the exclusive supplier of LTE TDD equipment for
the 16th Asian Games, which Guangzhou hosted
in November 2010, where Huawei provided a full
NOV 2012
40

Winners
These successful trials have greatly boosted industry
and government confidence in LTE TDD. China Mobile will
soon expand its pilot networks to 13 cities, with more than
20,000 base stations expected to be built.
E2E solution, including base stations, an EPC
network, a Packet Transport Network (PTN)
bearer network, and various service platforms for
telepresence and video surveillance. This solution
proved to be a hit, both to industry experts and
the general public, as China Mobile would again
select Huawei for the 2011 Universiade games,
held in Shenzhen in August of that year. Thanks
to the stability of the network in place, a live HD
broadcast of the torch relay was available, as were a
variety of other HD features.
LTE TDD commercial trials
In 2011, China Mobile officially kicked off
large-scale testing of LTE TDD. It deployed trial
networks in six cities, including Hangzhou and
Shenzhen, and they have been well received by
users, operators, the government, and the industry
at large.
In March 2012, Hangzhou’s B1 bus line became
the first to support LTE TDD, giving its fortunate
passengers free online surfing through Wi-Fi.
Presently, LTE TDD traffic on this line reaches
500GB a day, proving the service a major success
with some of China’s long suffering bus passengers.
In the meantime, the China Mobile Hangzhou
service center has started to provide LTE TDD
subscriptions to the public, where users receive a
compatible device after paying a deposit, enabling
them to enjoy the LTE experience throughout the
city’s roughly 200 square kilometers.
On May 16, 2012, one day before World
Telecommunications and Information Society
Day, China Mobile Shenzhen (Shenzhen Mobile)
initiated LTE TDD operations at the Kingkey 100
tower in Shenzhen’s Luohu district. By deploying
and optimizing 102 distributed indoor systems in
an area of three square kilometers, Huawei assisted
Shenzhen Mobile in covering a large number of the
area’s major commercial buildings and residential
premises, facilitating a superior user experience for
its upscale users.
For the outdoors, 100 base stations were
deployed at 50 sites, with station spacing averaging
269 meters (80-meter minimum). This coverage
area spans official buildings, commercial centers,
financial hubs, train stations, and ports, and should
pave the way for smooth LTE network applications
such as HD video surveillance and VOD.
LTE TDD takes off
These successful trials have greatly boosted
industry and government confidence in LTE TDD.
China Mobile will soon expand its pilot networks
to 13 cities, with more than 20,000 base stations
expected to be built.
Xi Guohua, Chairman of China Mobile, has
explicitly noted that China Mobile attaches great
importance to the effective utilization of TDD
spectrum resources. By leveraging the advantages of
TDD technology in mobile Internet application,
the operator will promote the integration of LTE
41
NOV 2012

TDD and LTE FDD, and develop integrated solutions.
China Mobile is also striving to build a global industry
chain so that economies of scale are achieved. Mr. Xi
predicts that with the concerted efforts of the Global TD-
LTE Initiative (GTI) operators, the global number of LTE
TDD base stations will exceed 500,000 in 2014, covering
some two billion people.
However, government support is pivotal to local LTE
TDD development. Top officials at China’s Ministry of
Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) have spoken
highly of China Mobile’s achievements in LTE TDD
testing and have resolved to step up nationwide efforts in
this area. The government is also working to improve the
frequency distribution scheme and industry chain, while
earmarking more capital for LTE TDD deployment.
As a vendor, Huawei is also confident of LTE TDD’s
prospects. Wang Tao, President of Huawei’s Wireless
Network Business Unit, has asserted the company’s
strategic determination in LTE TDD development.
Huawei has been making consistent investments in
this area, especially in its R&D, while its E2E solutions
(which encompass systems, chips, and devices) have
been highly recognized by the industry.
In terms of systems, Huawei SingleRAN supports
platform sharing for both flavors of LTE, as well as GSM
and UMTS. It has also introduced the industry’s first
multi-mode dongle for LTE TDD, LTD FDD, UMTS,
GSM, and CDMA, as well as the first multi-mode devices,
namely CPE and Mi-Fi. The latter in particular has
distinguished itself with its roaming functions, enabling a
quantum leap in LTE integration and convenience, and a
brighter future for LTE TDD.
By leveraging the advantages of TDD technology in mobile
Internet application, the operator will promote the integration of
LTE TDD and LTE FDD. The operator is also striving to build a global
industry chain so that economies of scale are achieved.
NOV 2012
42

Winners
SoftBank’s
LTE TDD network impresses in Japan
At ten months after its launch, the SoftBank group’s LTE TDD/AXGP (LTE TDD) network attracted more than
260,000 customers, and this number will continue to grow, thanks to its expanding network coverage and the
introduction of multi-mode data cards.
By Yu Xiangyang
Editor: Michael huangzhuojian@huawei.com
43
NOV 2012

Tokyo Shiodome building, headquarters of SoftBank
Mobile data traffic is expected to
increase eighteen fold over the next
five years, representing a compound
annual growth rate (CAGR) of 78%.
Yoshioki Chika, CTO of Wireless City Planning,
a member of the SoftBank group (SoftBank),
has stated that the data traffic over the Japanese
operator’s mobile network has been doubling each
year and will increase 32 fold over the same period
(65% of its ARPU stemmed from data services in
2011, among the highest percentages in the world).
This increase in data services is creating a need
for spectrum, which LTE TDD can meet for the
next decade, not only in Japan but globally as
well. At the Mobile World Congress 2012, China
Mobile confirmed that it will have over 20,000
LTE TDD base stations in operation by the end
of 2012. In India, Bharti Airtel is launching LTE
services in four telecom circles. In Japan, SoftBank’s
LTE TDD service went online commercially in
November 2011, and the network is expected to
cover 100% of the population of 12 major cities by
2013, making the operator a model for others to
follow.
Consolidated leadership
After SoftBank’s 2006 acquisition of Vodafone
Japan, its mobile customers doubled over the next
five years to 30 million by November 2011. In
2010, its 3G penetration passed 100%, far ahead
of the global average of 22%. In the same year,
SoftBank took aboard WILLCOM, a Personal
Handy-phone System (PHS) operator with TDD
spectrum & site resources, and promptly founded
Wireless City Planning (WCP) by reorganizing
the team that had been developing the eXtended
Global Platform (XGP) network at WILLCOM.
WCP took over the development of XGP and
upgraded it to Advanced eXtended Global Platform
(AXGP), which conforms to the LTE TDD
standard.
With WILLCOM now under the SoftBank
flag, the operator had the site resources and the
spectrum to move ahead. WCP then assigned
WILLCOM’s 1.9GHz spectrum to its PHS service,
with 1.5GHz/2.1GHz assigned to 3G and 2.6GHz
(30MHz) assigned to LTE TDD.
According to SoftBank CEO Masayoshi
Son, LTE TDD has two unique advantages –
asymmetric uplink/downlink and abundant
spectrum resources, which he believes can fully
meet the needs of mobile Internet service and
enhance user experience for the foreseeable future.
Tokyo: As crowded as it gets
NOV 2012
44

Winners
Before its commercial launch, SoftBank’s network performance
tests were quite impressive. The average network entry and
inter-cell handover success rate exceeded 98.8% and 99%,
respectively, while the packet loss rate was below 0.25%.
Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka have been
the starting points for SoftBank’s LTE TDD
network. As a megacity in one of the world’s
most demanding mobile markets, Tokyo’s wireless
communications environment is both extremely
dense and extremely complex. Many of its residents
are accustomed to web surfing, online video, and
online gaming on the go; all require high network
throughput and access success rates.
SoftBank plans to deploy 50 to 100 base stations
per square kilometer, with a site spacing of 100
to 150 meters in certain areas of Tokyo. In a city
where a hotel room might be scarcely bigger than
a telephone booth, the CAPEX involved in this
sort of density will give the bean counters sleepless
nights. However, if uptake is sufficient, all will be
forgiven, and SoftBank will be able to replicate this
process in other regions.
SoftBank grouped its coverage scenarios into
three classes – dense urban areas that will use
distributed base stations with four transmitters
and four receivers (4T4R) for seamless coverage;
hotspots such as shopping malls and other centers
of gravity that may adopt picoRRU for network
access; and suburban and rural areas that need not
require such elaborate planning.
Joint innovations
Joint innovation efforts have been taking place
between Softbank and Huawei with the aim of
simplifying network deployment; Single Frequency
Network (SFN) and Intelligent Baseband Array
(IBA) have been among the fruit.
The latter is scalable (supporting the interaction
of dozens of BBUs), coordinated (enhancing base
station-cell coordination, reducing interference,
and increasing the gain for both transmission
& reception), and reliable (supporting mutual
backup of baseband data), leading to spectrum
efficiency enhancements of up to 30%, while
the SFN technology effectively inhibits inter-cell
interference; users can enjoy 38.7% faster Internet
speed at cell edges.
User experience has also been enhanced thanks
to the 4T4R and beamforming technologies, with
the latter changing array directionality to ensure
optimal signaling. SoftBank has also used antenna
sharing and reused all of its existing 1.9GHz PHS
sites to accelerate network deployment.
Before its commercial launch, SoftBank’s
network performance tests were quite impressive.
The average network entry and inter-cell handover
success rate exceeded 98.8% and 99%, respectively,
while the packet loss rate was below 0.25%. In the
Ginza district of Tokyo (that neon-lit shopping
district that finds its way into pretty much every
travelogue or Hollywood movie set in Tokyo), an
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interior user could enjoy downlink/uplink rates of
11Mbps/5Mbps, respectively; while 60Mbps could
be enjoyed near a window and up to 58Mbps
(30Mbps average) could be achieved outdoors. All
these figures greatly strengthened the operator’s
confidence.
Enhanced terminals &
services
On February 24, 2012, SoftBank officially
launched LTE TDD services in its three target
cities. The operator evaluated the UMTS and LTE
TDD networks at Ginza, and the results were
impressive; LTE TDD delivered nearly ten times
the speed (34.13Mbps) that UMTS did, and
service handover between LTE TDD base stations
was smooth.
Mr. Son was also further convinced that LTE
TDD could help achieve Softbank’s strategic goal
and its rollout pace could be sped up.
SoftBank had enjoyed exclusive distributions
rights for the iPhone until October 2011, but
as a lot of users around the world found out the
hard way, the iPhone did not yet support LTE.
SoftBank’s first commercial LTE TDD Mobile
Wi-Fi terminal uses the category-3 chipset, which
delivers a downlink rate of 76Mbps and uplink rate
of 10Mbps, while supporting simultaneous LTE
TDD access for up to ten Wi-Fi devices. In May
2012, the operator launched another LTE terminal
based on the category-4 chipset. In addition,
SoftBank launched a number of LTE TDD
smartphones in Q3 of this year.
SoftBank has used an LTE TDD tariff plan
similar to its 3G plan – users can enjoy faster
services for almost the same pricing, with a
monthly package running JPY3,880 (USD50).
Each user’s data cap is 5GB, with the network
speed reduced to 128Kbps until the next billing
month if it’s exceeded. If users want their regular
speed back, they must pay roughly USD33 per
2GB of traffic.
In its marketing efforts, SoftBank has
highlighted its network as the country’s fastest,
with high-speed Internet access available anywhere,
anytime; ads have been sent out through customer
service centers, subway screens, broadcast TV,
and other channels; the operator also markets
through service centers, handset outlets, and home
appliance stores.
Thanks to the expanded terminal and network
coverage, SoftBank attracted 260,000 LTE
customers by August 2012, and more can be
expected as the operator strengthens its leadership
in the mobile Internet landscape.
NOV 2012
46

Winners
China Telecom
takes the drive out of testing in Hangzhou
When it comes to network optimization, China Telecom Hangzhou (Hangzhou Telecom) has moved beyond the
usual game of drive tests and KPIs. Through call record analysis, the operator has significantly enhanced its
ability to sniff out latent issues and elusive flaws in its network coverage, leading to a troubleshooting process
that is far less troublesome.
By Zhu Xiaoming, China Telecom Hangzhou
Editor: Joyce Fan joyce.fan@huawei.com
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The old way doesn’t cut it
anymore
The traditional network optimization
process is a tedious ordeal where
highly-skilled, highly-paid engineers
spend their time analyzing dry key
performance indicators (KPIs), riding around in
vans for hours on end, and scouring the nooks
& crannies of buildings and tunnels for network
bugs, as if they were high-tech exterminators.
The situation was no different at China Telecom
Hangzhou (Hangzhou Telecom), a branch of the
Chinese incumbent located in Zhejiang’s provincial
capital. The operator found that the majority of
its O&M man hours and resources were being
expended on routine optimization tasks, with
O&M engineers optimizing based on the usual
KPIs such as dropped call rates and other forms of
traffic analysis, as well as user complaints.
KPI analysis for network elements (NEs) is
usually based on their signaling point statistics,
which neglect QoE and QoS management. If 200
out of 100,000 users experience a call drop, the
call drop rate is 0.2%. If you are an optimization
engineer, this might be cause for a bonus, but if
you are one of those unlucky users, this might be
cause for a complaint, and it may not prove terribly
helpful anyway unless you have an uncommon
knack for precisely remembering time, place, and
circumstance.
Assuming enough complaints come in,
as opposed to the mere silence of a lapsed
subscription, a drive test (DT) may follow, but
such methods are anecdotal. They also can’t
simulate the conditions that occurred at the time
a call failed (the signaling storm generated by a
rock concert can’t be recreated at 10:00 a.m. on a
Tuesday). What’s worse, more time is wasted if an
engineer has to leave the van to scan for an indoor
fault, which may or may not be detected thanks to
IP network opacity and traffic dynamism.
One particular Hangzhou Telecom user filed a
complaint regarding poor signaling and frequent
call drops at a certain housing development.
During the initial DT, the project team could
not contact the user and therefore could not get
access to the fault site itself. Not surprisingly, the
problem was not found. Therefore, the team had
to make a second trip to the user’s front door.
After complicated entry formalities, the team got
into the user’s residence and found the problem
to be coverage overlap coupled with some missing
neighbors on site. The team therefore adjusted the
antenna and optimized the neighboring cells –
problem solved.
However, not every single-point optimization is
consequence-free. To strengthen coverage for Road
X near West Lake, a famous local tourist attraction,
Hangzhou Telecom adjusted one sector’s azimuth
for a nearby base station (BTS) and got good DT
results for Road X, but this led to complaints of
call drops on Road Y.
Both of these examples illustrate how time
and resources can be wasted during network
optimization, and what’s worse, the typical gear
that a field engineer will have with him cannot
anticipate ripple effects of the sort seen in the West
Lake example. A network simulator could be used,
but Hangzhou Telecom wouldn’t have been able
to get its hands on one at the time this story began
(2010). Even today, one would be bulky, expensive,
and possibly inconvenient if it is not from the same
vendor that provides your field tools.
In December 2010, Hangzhou Telecom
decided to add a little more scientific rigor to the
optimization process. The operator joined forces
with Huawei to analyze its reams of call data and
lump its fault incidents into certain categories,
which were then modeled and incorporated into its
optimization equipment
NOV 2012
48

Winners
To strengthen coverage for Road X, Hangzhou Telecom
adjusted one sector’s azimuth and got good drive test
results for Road X, but this led to complaints of
call drops on Road Y.
The devil is in the details
For certain areas, call drop rates can be very
high, with the worst offenders even reaching
100%. For such dead zones, a large number of
fault records will accumulate, especially when you
multiply them by the sheer number of base stations
needed to cover a city of eight million such as
Hangzhou.
The data in question stems from call detail
records (CDRs), which contain a wealth of
information to be sure, but finding the exact data
that you want for a certain BTS is real “needle in a
haystack” territory, and even if you do find it, you
still need to know how to sew.
In light of the characteristics of CDMA
networking, Hangzhou Telecom’s project team
opted to use time difference of arrival (TDOA)
coupled with user behavior analysis as its methods
for CDR-based fault location, with the latter being
utilized because user responses to faults do show
certain patterns – after a call is dropped, users
will normally redial, and CDRs before or after a
dropped call can in fact be used to help pin down a
fault location.
For Hangzhou Telecom, a certain user
complained about a call drop inside an office
building. CDR analysis before and after the drop
indicated that the redial connected to indoor cells
that were different from the outdoor cells that
had carried the original call. It seemed that the
outdoor cells did not recognize the indoor cells as
neighbors, a problem that is easily remedied across
Hangzhou’s numerous towers and high-rises.
As the numbers of successful diagnoses
increased, certain models were formulated for
such problems (missing neighbors, coverage
overlap, pilot pollution, etc.) over the course of
three months. This involved network optimization
experts pooling records from different CDR levels
(BSC, cell, and user) and categorizing call drop
patterns accordingly. This data was mapped out
so that engineers could get a clear picture of what
measures to take for optimization of both neighbor
and coverage cells.
These models eventually became algorithms
that could effectively label each dropped call with
reasonable accuracy (improving the experience).
They were eventually incorporated into Hangzhou’s
Telecom’s network optimization gear, with KPIs
improving soon after.
Statistical significance
With its customized optimization equipment
in place, Hangzhou Telecom’s troubleshooting
efficiency and efficacy have both improved. And
what’s more, faults that were once stealthy can
now be detected. Thanks to the aforementioned
map, which presents all call drops at a certain site,
engineers can figure out the proportion of each
type of call drop, find out the root causes, and
resolve them comprehensively & effectively. For
example, these methods can guide antenna feeder
adjustment based on overall coverage status for a
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certain site, thus eliminating the aforementioned
problems that can ripple out from single-point
optimizations.
A certain Hangzhou Telecom BSC had a high
call drop rate that could only be reduced to 0.34%
using conventional optimization methods. The
operator’s customized gear helped elucidate some
previously hidden faults, leading to an improved
drop rate of 0.21%. These elusive problems often
relate to rivers or high-traffic areas such as tourist
attractions or towers, and Hangzhou has plenty
of all three. They might take the form of coverage
overlaps, which can be difficult to detect using
conventional tools; CDR analysis is a big help
here. Moreover, Hangzhou Telecom engineers can
now extend their analysis to the cellular level, thus
enabling a degree of fine-tuning never before
enjoyed.
Such precision enables the operator to nip
potential problems in the bud, before they
affect VIP users. Furthermore, the time needed
to sort out the problem children (spots with a
0.5% drop rate or above) is now reduced from
two days to one hour, while the DT workload
has dropped 70%. Hangzhou Telecom’s overall
call drop rate has also declined from 0.24% to
0.17%, raising the operator’s overall ranking
from the No. 10 to No. 3 among China Telecom
Zhejiang subsidiaries and providing a model for
other branches to follow in a climate that is only
getting more competitive as China modernizes
and urbanizes.
Hangzhou Telecom’s overall call drop rate has
declined from 0.24% to 0.17%, raising the operator’s
overall ranking from the No. 10 to No. 3 among
China Telecom Zhejiang subsidiaries.
NOV 2012
50

Winners
STC
brings three generations under one roof
Thanks to the seamless integration of LTE TDD with its GSM/UMTS networks, the Saudi Telecom Company (STC)
has substantially enhanced both its mobile broadband services and overall network efficiency, keeping the
operator and its customers on the cutting edge.
By Li Pengcheng
Editor: Xu Shenglan xushenglan@huawei.com
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Saudi Arabia has a total population of 28
million, with urbanites (who have an
average age of 25) accounting for over
80%, and this percentage is still rising.
With living standards also on the way up (GDP per
capita reached USD24,000 in 2011), this young
consumer base is becoming increasingly demanding
when it comes to communication – a challenge
that extends to STC as well as its competitors.
High market penetration
According to the Saudi Communications and
Information Technology Commission (CITC), at
the end of 2010, Saudi Arabia had more than 51.6
million mobile subscriptions, marking a 186%
mobile penetration rate, with heavy throughput per
user and long busy hours to boot. In 2011, Saudi
Arabia had more than 10 million MBB subscribers,
with users of pure data services accounting for nearly
70%. Streaming video, P2P download, and Facebook
have been the three most sought-after mobile Internet
services, but all are both time- and resource-intensive,
putting heavy strain on the network. Quality and
stability are a must. A CITC survey in 2010 indicated
that 48% of households were inclined to accelerate
their Internet speed, but this is not the end of the
story. Operators will need to do more than simply
offer more bandwidth if they wish to improve
network accessibility, video buffer times, and P2P
download speeds, as users demand.
Forward with LTE TDD
STC provides mobile voice, MBB, fixed voice,
fixed broadband and value-added services to more
than 160 million users across ten countries from
the Middle East to Southeast Asia.
Legacy networks in Saudi Arabia could fully
satisfy STC’s 24 million domestic subscribers thirst
for voice, SMS and Internet connection, but they
lagged behind in terms of mobile Internet. A 2010
CITC survey showed that customer satisfaction
with MBB in Saudi Arabia was rated at 2.72
(on a 5-point scale), with 70% of churned users
yearning for higher Internet speeds and packages.
With video services exploding across the Internet,
LTE deployment had become a must for STC
to complement the existing UMTS network. As
to spectrum resources, the operator had 15MHz
at 900MHz, 17MHz at 1800MHz, 15MHz at
2.1GHz, and two blocks of 40MHz and 12MHz
at 2.3GHz at its disposal; the 40MHz continuous
block proved ideal for LTE TDD deployment,
enabling a network of great capability and efficiency.
LTE TDD development in
tandem with GSM/UMTS
STC plans to combine the LTE TDD with
HSPA+ to accommodate higher throughput
demand, with its GSM infrastructure continuing in
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52

Winners
With its technologies seamlessly integrated, STC has
dramatically improved its MBB services, giving credibility
to the name it chose for its MBB brand, QuickNet.
service for a long time to come and developing in
conjunction with LTE TDD, with all technologies
upgraded as needed.
After evaluating the relevant solutions in terms
of overall technical strength, network performance,
comprehensiveness, and ease of evolution, STC
adopted Huawei’s SingleRAN solution for eastern,
central and northern regions such as Dammam, Al
Qasim, and Ha’il. With this solution, the operator
was able to update its GSM hardware and upgrade
its legacy UMTS network to HSPA+ (with four 3G
carriers), all during LTE TDD installation.
Thanks to SingleRAN, STC can share sites,
cabinets, and transmission resources among all three
networks, while GSM+UMTS or GSM+LTE TDD
networks can also share baseband units (BBUs),
reducing the site space, transmission resources
consumed, power consumption, and CAPEX &
OPEX.
If STC ever deploys LTE FDD on 1.8GHz or
2.6GHz, only a software upgrade is needed for the
BBUs, as GSM, UMTS, LTE TDD, and LTE FDD
(if added) can share sites, cabinets, BBUs (where
UMTS, LTE TDD, and LTE FDD networks share
the main control boards), and transmission resources.
In other words, the new LTE FDD network only
needs a new radio frequency (RF) module, without
additional hardware in the baseband, making for
greatly improved deployment cost and efficiency.
As for the LTE TDD RF elements, Huawei’s
Radio Remote Unit (RRU) features four
transmitters and four receivers (4T4R) and multicarrier
architecture, which combine to ameliorate
both network capacity and coverage considerably.
Currently, STC only uses 20MHz of spectrum for
its LTE TDD network, yet the maximum singlesector
downlink rate exceeds 100Mbps. As users and
traffic grow, the remaining spectrum can be utilized
as needed for multi-carrier base stations, which will
elevate network capacity by 50%.
In conjunction with SingleRAN, Huawei’s core
network solution SingleEPC allows STC customers
to access GSM, UMTS and LTE TDD networks
simultaneously, reducing investment in the core
network while improving network interoperability,
while Huawei SingleOSS enables STC to effectively
manage its GSM, UMTS, and LTE TDD networks
concurrently, making for greatly reduced labor
costs and improved overall upgrade efficiency.
Improving user experiences
through data distribution
STC’s LTE TDD network is currently focused on
high-traffic zones, while its UMTS covers urban and
some suburban areas, handling low-volume data and
voice services. Its GSM network covers the entire country
and provides voice and a few low-volume data services
through GPRS and EDGE. This coverage enables those
with multi-mode Wi-Fi devices or USB data cards to
switch between network technologies as needed.
Since its commercial launch in September 2011,
STC has been aggressively expanding its LTE network
to cover all major cities and high-traffic zones. With its
technologies seamlessly integrated, STC has dramatically
improved its MBB services, giving credibility to the
name it chose for its MBB brand, QuickNet.
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