The GSMA confirmed a record 72,000 visitors attended this week's 2013 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
“We are thrilled with the record results for Mobile World Congress 2013, in our first year here in Fira Gran Via,” said John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA Ltd. “Mobile is one of the most vibrant and dynamic industries in the world, and the innovation that is powering the sector was clearly evident throughout Mobile World Congress, in the exhibition, the conference, programmes such as App Planet and mPowered Brands and new event initiatives such as the NFC Experience.
There were more than 1,700 exhibiting companies and the show floor covered 94,000 net square meters of exhibition and hospitality space. More than 3,400 international media and industry analysts attended the event .
According to a preliminary independent economic analysis, the 2013 Mobile World Congress will have contributed more than 320 million Euros to the local economy. This represents an increase of approximately 19 million Euros over the economic impact of the 2012 event and is driven by the growth in attendance and number of exhibiting companies, as well as the increased footprint of exhibition and hospitality spaces.
At Mobile World Congress, Huawei outlined its "FusionNet" next generation network architecture for LTE-B.
The company believes it can improve Cell Edge User (CEU) throughput by at least 500% with a series of multi-RAT, multi-band and multi-layer HetNet enhancements.
Huawei’s FusionNet concept for LTE-B comprises several core technologies, including multi-stream aggregation, interference coordination, traffic adaption and spectrum efficiency optimization. Existing LTE and LTE-A deployments and technologies (including CoMP and carrier aggregation) will be coordinated.
Also at MWC 2013, Huawei unveiled its Ultra Node prototype design for future mobile broadband base stations. Huawei said its Ultra Node enhances the spectrum utilization and overall network efficiency to achieve a 50 Gbps peak data speed in a single node.
Huawei also noted that since 2010 it has contributed 362 LTE, LTE-A and LTE-B proposals for 3GPP LTE standards, accounting for nearly 20% of the global total and more than any other contributor.
At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Telefónica showcased Wi-Fi access working seamlessly with 4G.
Telefónica's vision is to enable smartphone and tablet users to move seamlessly between different wireless access technologies without losing coverage – leading the way to a wide range of next generation multimedia services. The carrier believes Wi-Fi will prove to be more useful when it is fully integrated with 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) based mobile technologies.
Telefónica’s demo at the MWC showcases highly advanced network features enabling seamless handover between Wi-Fi and LTE and also implementing a set of network policies easing the discovery and selection of the network, regardless of the access technology and transparently to the customer. WiFi and LTE networks in seamless integration enabling communication uninterrupted service sessions during handovers across access technologies.
The company also demoed voice over LTE, which offers approximately 40% improvement on voice quality and the ability to make connections in 0.25 seconds or 20 times faster than a standard 3G call.
Telefonica said a key advantage of VoLTE is that it can be combined with several enhanced IP-based services such as High Definition Voice, presence, location, and Rich Communication Suite (RCS) additions like instant messaging, video share and enhanced phone books. Moreover, VoLTE enables prioritization over other data streams to deliver consistently high quality service levels.
Thanks to growth in Latin America and mobile data services, Telefónica achieved a 2012 EUR 62.356 billion.
Mobile data revenues were up +12.8% year on year while revenues from Latin America rose +5.5%. Telefónica’s consolidated OIBDA grew by +5.1% in reported terms to EUR 21,231 billion , which places the OIBDA margin at 34% (+1.9 p.p.).
Telefónica ended 2012 with a customer base that grew by +3% to 316 million accesses.
Mobile customers totalled 247 million accesses at close of 2012 (+4%), with growth rates of +7% in the contract segment.
Between January and December, Telefónica reduced its financial debt by over EUR 5 billion to EUR 51.259 billion, which means that the net financial debt to OIBDA ratio is 2.36 times.
During financial year 2012, Telefónica invested EUR 9,458 billion, i.e. 14.2% of its revenue (excluding investments in spectrum). 81% of that investment was earmarked for growth and transformation projects.
SFR, which serves more than 20 million mobile customers across France, has selected Cisco to expand and enhance its mobile Internet network in order to accelerate the deployment of LTE services.
SFR will leverage Cisco's next-generation Internet architecture, including elastic packet core, mobile backhaul, and service provider Wi-Fi solutions, t odeploy the widest range of heterogeneous radio networks (2G/3G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi), capture new business opportunities, foster new business models and meet rapidly growing network demands.
The Cisco Elastic Packet Core will provide 4G LTE Mobility Management Entity (MME), Serving Gateway (SGW), Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW), 2G/3G GGSN and SGSN applications. The MME is critical to the network function of the 4G LTE network. The Cisco MME manages multiple back-end functions, including authentication, paging, mobility with 3GPP 2G and 3G nodes, roaming and other functions. The Cisco Serving Gateway (SGW) and the Cisco Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW) are two essential elements to SFR’s 4G LTE mobile network. The Cisco SGW provides superior throughput and processing, while the Cisco PGW acts as policy enforcement, managing quality of service (QoS).
SFR is also deploying the Cisco ASR 901 and Cisco ASR 903 mobile backhaul solutions.
In addition to SFR’s 4G deployment, Cisco will also support the service provider’s 2G and 3G cellular networks with its Cisco Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) and Cisco Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN).
Germany’s E-Plus Group has selected Nokia Siemens Networks as a partner for its LTE rollout. Under the contract, Nokia Siemens Networks will expand E-Plus’ current HSPA+ capacity in the 2100 MHz band while modernizing its GSM network. NSN will supply its high-capacity Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station and its Liquid Radio GSM software suite, which enables operators to free GSM spectrum for LTE. Nokia Siemens Networks will also expand the capabilities of its NetAct network management system and deliver various services such as installation and integration, network optimization and build. Financials terms were not disclosed.
Separately, Nokia Siemens Networks confirmed that Vodafone New Zealand selected it to deploy an LTE network in the 1800 MHz spectrum band across the country. In addition, Nokia Siemens Networks in partnership with Vodafone New Zealand upgraded Vodafone’s 2G and 3G networks to ensure improved coverage and speed for subscribers. They also jointly completed GSM and LTE refarming so that part of the GSM spectrum can be re-used for LTE. This leads to enhanced speed and coverage, as well as a gain in capacity by up to 50 percent.
"The launch of the country’s first commercial 4G network is a major milestone for New Zealand. We’ve now joined other countries around the world which are already seeing the benefits of the increased speed and performance with 4G, and we’re delighted to lead the rollout of 4G service in New Zealand with Nokia Siemens Networks. With so much of our lives being driven now by the desire and ability to be connected to data wherever we are, this major network investment by Vodafone is really important,” Russell Stanners, CEO of Vodafone New Zealand.
MedNautilus, the Mediterranean operations of the Telecom Italia Sparkle Group, has deployed the Infinera DTN-X platform to boost its subsea network and deliver up to 100 Gbps international connectivity services.
MedNautilus operates the largest protected submarine cable network in the Mediterranean connecting Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel and Cyprus, and serves the growing capacity needs of the region.
Orange Switzerland has placed an initial order for Procera Networks' Intelligent Policy Enforcement solutions.
Procera's PL8820 PacketLogic Intelligence Center (PIC) and the PacketLogic Subscriber Manager (PSM) will be deployed throughout Orange's network as a replacement for an existing solution. Procera's solutions will be used to allow Orange to offer high value subscriber services. Procera expects to recognize most of the revenue related to this order in the first half of 2013.
Separately, Procera Networks also confirmed an initial order from a top five North American DSL operator. The carrier selected Procera's Intelligent Policy Enforcement systems to support detailed subscriber-aware traffic analysis and reporting across its fixed-line broadband network and for sophisticated network and subscriber analytics across its deployment footprint. Procera recognized revenue from this initial order in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Commscope introduced a new cable design to help MSOs incorporate fiber deeper into their plant as a bridge from HFC (Hybrid Fiber-Coax) networks to a fiber rich network.
CommScope’s E2O (Electrical to Optical) is a combination of the company's coaxial/fiber product lines that merges microducts and microcables, along with fiber and coaxial cable, in one sheath versus multiple sheaths.
“Because of this single sheath, E2O can help mitigate current and future installation costs while ensuring future migration strategies including PON, RFoG and other FTTx technologies. Whether an operator needs to reconfigure, maintain or replace their HFC residential services, deploying E2O helps ‘future proof’ their network for when fiber is eventually needed. If their strategy is to install coaxial cable integrated with fiber or conduit for future fiber blow-in, or both, operators can once again minimize expenses by installing all under one sheath at the same time," said Doug Wells, vice president, Outside Plant Solutions, Broadband, CommScope.
The STC Group, the largest telecom provider in the Middle East & North Africa, named ZTE as one its preferred global vendors.
The agreement between ZTE and STC Group, announced at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona, will allow ZTE to offer its portfolio of network infrastructure equipment through a global price structure based on total business located in Bahrain, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Turkey.