Mobile World Congress 2013 Hit Record 72,000 Attendance

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,...

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Huawei's FusionNet for LTE-B Envisions 500% Gains

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....

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Telefónica Targets Seamless Wi-Fi + 3G/4G

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...

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Telefónica Sees Growth in Mobile Data (+12.8%), Latin America (+5.5%)

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.). Some 2012 highlights: Telefónica ended 2012 with a customer base that grew by +3% to 316 million accesses. Mobile...

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SFR Picks Cisco for Elastic Packet Core

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...

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NSN Announces LTE Wins in Germany and New Zealand

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...

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MedNautilus Deploys Infinera's DTN-X for 100G Services

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. “Mednautilus now operates the first submarine...

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Procera Selected by Orange Switzerland & U.S. Tier One

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...

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Commscope Offers Combined Fiber/Copper in Single Cable

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...

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Saudi Telecom Names ZTE as a Preferred Vendor

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. http://www.zte.com...

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IBM Pushes for Network Core Virtualization

IBM is endorsing the virtualization of network infrastructure to extend the benefits of a cloud delivery model to communications networks. Under its "Smarter Communications" initiative, IBM is working with business partners, including Connectem Inc., to deliver telecom solutions that run on its elastic, on-demand cloud platforms. The Virtual Core for Mobile (VCM) is a software solution from Connectem, an IBM Business Partner, which has the potential...

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DOCOMO's Mobile Base Station Hits 10 Gbps Uplink

NTT DOCOMO and the Tokyo Institute of Technology achieved an uplink rate of approximately 10 Gbps during a field experiment. In the experiment, a 400 MHz bandwidth in the 11 GHz spectrum was transmitted from a mobile station moving at approximately 9 km/h. Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology was used to spatially multiplex different data streams using 8 transmitting antennas and 16 receiving antennas on the same frequency. In light...

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NTT DOCOMO Selects NEC Base Stations for Proposed C-RAN Architecture

NEC confirmed that NTT Docomo has selected it to develop LTE-Advanced base stations for its new C-RAN architecture. NTT Docomo is proposing a new Advanced C-RAN architecture that uses small "add-on" cells for localized coverage that act in concert with macro cells in HetNet fashion.  Deep integration is achieved using carrier aggregation technology, one of the main LTE-Advanced technologies standardized by 3GPP. Under the Advanced C-RAN...

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DOCOMO, China Mobile and KT Announce Wi-Fi Roaming Deal

NTT DOCOMO,China Mobile International and KT agreed to lay out a joint Wi-Fi inbound roaming scheme covering Japan, China and Korea. The new arrangement will allow international mobile and/or Wi-Fi operators to roam into Wi-Fi hotspots in Japan, China and Korea through a single contract and a one-stop connection realized by hubs supported by the scheme. China Mobile International is named to be one of the hub operators. The companies hope to launch...

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Gigamon Turns Big Data into Manageable Data for Mobile Carriers

Gigamon is developing an innovative approach for dealing with the problems that Big Data creates for network visibility in the networks of mobile operators.  The aim is to deliver a cost-effective solution for connecting single or multiple 40Gb and 100Gb pipes to 10Gb and 1Gb analytic tools. Gigamon's technology essentially takes the network traffic flowing through the large pipes, and controls the volume of data being forwarded to the tools....

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Huawei Shows SDN-based Mobile Backhaul

Huawei introduced an SDN-based mobile backhaul solution that simplifies the operation and maintenance (O&M) and management of mobile backhaul networks and shortens the time to market (TTM) of new services. The solution helps operators resolve network issues during the evolution to LTE networks. Huawei said three large gaps persist in backhaul networks that operators must leap over during the evolution to LTE and LTE-A networks. First, a large...

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Ericsson Highlights SDN for Mobile Operators

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Ericsson is highlighting its vision for how software defined networking (SDN) vision will transfer Service Provider infrastructure. Ericsson said its Service Provider SDN vision expands the industry definition in three important ways to open new revenue opportunities and costs saving for network operators: Integrated network control, extending SDN control from the data center into the wide area network,...

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KPN Awards Five-year Managed Services Deal to ALU

KPN awarded a five-year managed services agreement to Alcatel-Lucent for the transformation of KPN’s fixed network in The Netherlands. In addition to managing the day-to-day operations of KPN’s network, Alcatel-Lucent will migrate existing Voice and Transport networks to next-gen Alcatel-Lucent technology. Under the deal, Alcatel-Lucent will plan, design and implement an end-to-end solution to provide KPN’s network with increased capacity, upgraded...

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Ixia Introduces GTP-Session Awareness Visibility

Ixia introduced a network visibility solution to help mobile operators gain better insight and control over individual user sessions in order to increase customers’ quality of experience. Highlights of the Ixia Anue GSC include: GTP-session awareness -- Offloads GTP session correlation from monitoring tools while keeping GTP sessions together across multiple probes. The Anue GSC understands GTP protocol and can deliver all packets from a single...

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Meru Expects $12 Million in Secondary Offering

Meru Networks announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 3,000,000 shares of its common stock at a purchase price of $4.00 per share. Gross proceeds, before deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses payable by Meru, are expected to be approximately $12 million. http://www.merunetworks....

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Mobile World Congress Award Winners

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the GSMA announced the following winners of its 18th Annual Global Mobile awards: Best Smartphone Samsung Galaxy S3 Best Feature phone or entry level phone Nokia Asha 305 Device Manufacturer of the Year Samsung Best Mobile Tablet Google and Asus for Nexus 7 Best Mobile Infrastructure Samsung Electronics for Smart LTE Networks Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough Accuris Networks for AccuROAM Wi-Fi: Making...

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Telstra Picks Ericsson for Optical Backbone Upgrade

Telstra has selected Ericsson to upgrade its national optical transport to 100 Gbps technology.  Specifically, Ericsson will provide its SPO 1400 metro optical family and the MHL3000 for long-haul applications, including support for 100Gbps services. Ericsson's next generation optical network solution includes the latest in 100Gbps transmission, ROADM (Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexer) and DWDM technology with Multiservice DWDM and...

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F5 Builds SDN into Mobile Traffix Signaling Delivery Controller

F5 Networks is enhancing its Traffix Signaling Delivery Controller (SDC) product is optimized for software defined networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) architectures. Specifically, throught a new software release F5 delivers Diameter and control plane solutions that have the ability to run in virtualized environments with increased programmability and integration with network orchestration systems. F5 noted that a new standards...

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Huawei's Single Radio Controller Supports 120Gbps, Multi-RATs

Huawei launched a Single Radio Controller (SRC) solution that supports a maximum data traffic capacity of 120 Gbps while offering multi-RAT network synergy. Huawei's SRC handles the centralized coordination of network resources for multi-band control. The solution includes Huawei's high-capacity, multi-RAT controller platform for GSM, UMTS, LTE FDD, LTE TDD and Wi-Fi networks.  Its signaling processing capacity supports 64 million busy hour...

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Small Cell Forum launches Release One

The Small Cell Forum announced Release One with a focus on providing operators with all the information they need to successfully launch small cells in the home. Release One also contains significant advanced work on future releases, including enterprise, metro, and rural small cells. Release One provides mobile operators with business case analysis for deploying small cells , including recommended equipment specifications for RFPs, together with...

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Ericsson and SAP Target Cloud-Based Machine-to-Machine Solutions

Ericsson and SAP will jointly market and sell cloud-based, machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions and services to enterprises via operators around the globe.  The solutions will be based on a combined software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering from Ericsson and SAP within M2M. The alliance combines Ericsson's Device Connection Platform & Service Enablement Platform with enterprise business solutions powered by the SAP HANA platform.  Ericsson...

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Ericsson and China Mobile Complete Dual Mode HD Voice over LTE Call

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, China Mobile in demonstrating the world's first dual mode HD voice over LTE (VoLTE) call between TD-LTE and LTE FDD based on ST-Ericsson's multimode modem and Renesas Mobile' quad-mode chipsets. Ericsson supported the demonstration by supplying its LTE TDD/FDD converged radio solution and IMS platform. The companies said the demonstration further paves the way for the ultimate commercial launch of Voice over...

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P&T Luxembourg Tests Alcatel-Lucent’s Zero-Touch Vectoring

P&T Luxembourg is testing Alcatel-Lucent's Zero-Touch Vectoring to evaluate how the technology can help the operator meet the national government’s "Ultra High BroadBand" plan - which aims at providing all Luxembourg residents with broadband speeds of 100 Mbps downstream and 50 Mbps upstream by 2015. VDSL2 Vectoring is a noise-cancelling technology that removes the interference between the multiple VDSL2 lines, so that each VDSL2 line can operate...

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P&T Luxembourg Tests ALU's Vectoring

P&T Luxembourg is testing Alcate-Lucent's Zero-Touch Vectoring innovations to help meet the government's "Ultra High BroadBand", which aims at providing all Luxembourg residents with broadband speeds of 100 Mbps downstream and 50 Mbps upstream. P&T Luxembourg is already deploying Alcatel-Lucent’s GPON and P2P-based fiber access solution, and is now investigating how to leverage its existing DSL infrastructure to reach the government’s 100...

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Narus: Time to Out Innovate Cyber Attackers with Cyber 3.0

Narus, which develops big data analytics for cyber security, is setting its sights on Cyber 3.0 -- a new approach to cyber security whereby machine learning serves as the foundation of next-generation security products that protects devices, organizations and people. Narus, which is a Silicon Valley-based subsidiary of Boeing, said a new approach to cyber security is made possible by the semantic web.  Instead of just reacting to new cyber...

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IBM and Nokia Siemens Networks Develop Mobile Edge Computing Platform

Nokia Siemens Networks and IBM are developing a mobile edge computing platform that can run applications directly within a mobile base station. The idea is to accelerate application performance and rich media services by running directly at the base station, driving down latency. Nokia Siemens Networks Liquid Applications and IBM’s WebSphere Application Service Platform for Networks (ASPN) together a solution for running applications at the mobile...

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Altera to Build Next FPGAs on Intel’s 14 nm Tri-Gate

Altera's next generation FPGAs will be based on Intel’s 14 nm tri-gate transistor technology. These next-generation products target ultra high-performance systems for military, wireline communications, cloud networking, and compute and storage applications. Under a partnership deal announced by the firms, Altera’s next-generation products will now include 14 nm, in addition to previously announced 20 nm technologies. "Altera’s FPGAs using...

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Telefónica Pursues Firefox OS

The first Telefonica Firefox OS devices are expected to launch in Brazil, Colombia, Spain and Venezuela during mid- 2013 with initial launch devices from Alcatel One Touch, LG and ZTE. Telefónica is pursuing Firefox OS, the new, open mobile operating system from Mozilla.  The first Firefox OS handsets to launch in these initial markets will be manufactured by Alcatel One Touch, LG and ZTE, featuring Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor.  Telefónica...

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Bharti Airtel to offer GSM Voice Services to LTE Customers

Bharti Airtel has selected Nokia Siemens Networks to launch voice services for its TD-LTE customers in Pune, India, through its existing GSM network. Specifically, Bharti Airtel has selected NSN to deploy its Circuit Switched FallBack (CSFB) voice solution in the operator’s live TD-LTE network in the city. With CSFB, the network can transfer customers to GSM platform to make and receive voice calls and access voicemails while retaining the experience...

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KDDI Picks Cisco ASR 5500 for Mobile Multimedia Core

KDDI of Japan has selected the Cisco ASR 5500 mobile multimedia core platform as a core element of its mobile Internet network. The Cisco ASR 5500 will be a foundational element for KDDI’s LTE network.  Financial terms were not disclosed. Cisco noted that its ASR 5500 provides intra-chassis virtualization capable of allocating resources on-demand across transactions, throughput and sessions over heterogeneous networks to support multiple control...

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Octasic Intros Industry’s First Dual-Mode Small Cell Platform

Octasic introduced its newest Small Cell platform, the SDR4000, supporting simultaneous multi-standard operation over a cell range of 20 km. Octasic's OEM-ready platform includes baseband hardware and software, three RF front ends, and an application processor.  It enables simultaneous 2G, 3G, and 4G operation in a compact (170x170 mm) form factor that can be powered over Ethernet with passive cooling. Capacity ranges from 16 to 100 active...

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Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile Co-Develop lightRadio Metro Radio

Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile are jointly developing a lightRadio Metro Radio designed for deployment in China. Available now for large-scale commercial deployment in China Mobile’s first trial TD-LTE network, which spans 13 cities in China, lightRadio Metro Radio will bring 4G services to residents in densely populated areas of Shanghai, Nanjing and Qingdao. In China, lightRadio Metro Radio will be deployed in busy indoor and outdoor locations,...

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Ericsson to provide UK 4G/LTE network for O2

O2, a Telefónica brand serving 23 million mobile subscribers in the UK, named Ericsson as sole supplier to provide an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) for its LTE network.  In addition, Ericsson will transform 50 percent of its nationwide network by supplying and deploying the latest RBS 6000 multi-standard radio base stations. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deployment includes Ericsson's Evolved Packet Gateway on the SSR 8000 Smart Services...

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Nokia Siemens Networks Appoints Eva Elmstedt to Head Services Business

Eva Elmstedt has been appointed to lead the services business at Nokia Siemens Networks. She has also been chosen to join the company’s executive board. Elmstedt joins Nokia Siemens Networks from Ericsson, where she recently held the role of Vice President, Product Related Services responsible for network implementation, care services and optimization services. In this role she was responsible for a significant portion of Ericsson’s revenue, managed a large, global organization, and drove significantly improved revenue and profitability. Before...

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Symantec at Mobile World Congress and RSA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjkQEUjVtDU This Google Hangout covers: 0:00 -- Trusted Network Services -- Paul Shaneck, Global Business Development Director, Symantec1:42 -- Next Generation Network Protection -- Jason Blackwell, Senior Principal Telco Architect, NGNP Solutions, Symantec2:43 - Telco Business Models -- Ray Greenan, Global Marketing Director, Symantec4:50 - Value-Added Information Protection, Frank Bunn,...

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Nokia Siemens Networks' MWC13 Focuses on Flexi Zone, Small Cells, VoLTE

At this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia Siemens Networks is launching a series of new products, upgrades and services for mobile broadband operators.  Areas of focus include its new Flexi Zone architecture for addressing street level small cell deployment challenges. Also as part of its small cells offering, Nokia Siemens Networks will exhibit its new indoor enterprise and public HSPA+ and LTE Femtocells. Qualcomm and Nokia...

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Symmetricom Positions Edge Master Clocks for Small Cells and LTE Ne

Symmetricom introduced a set of Edge Master Clocks for delivering precise time at the network edge, especially in 3G and 4G/LTE small cell deployments. The TimeProvider 2700 and 2300 Edge Master Clocks are IEEE 1588 (PTP) synchronization solutions. In addition to locating a grandmaster clock at or near the edge, the platforms can be used to overlay the network with advanced boundary clocks at specific locations. Support covers both LTE-TDD and...

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Fujitsu Ships Multimode, Multiband LTE Transceiver, Plans LTE-Advanced Single IC

Fujitsu Semiconductor Wireless Products has begun commercial shipment of its second LTE multimode product -- a 2G/3G/4G transceiver. The single chip multiband, multimode transceiver supports all wireless communication modes including LTE (FDD & TDD), HSPA+, DC-HSPA, WCDMA, GSM, EDGE, CDMA and TD-SCDMA. The transceiver incorporates envelope tracking (ET) and antenna tuning (AT). Fujitsu's LTE-focused multiband transceivers have been certified...

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Qualcomm's New RF Front End Chips Target LTE Band Proliferation

Qualcomm introduced a silicon Front End Solution that addresses cellular radio frequency band fragmentation.  The goal is to create a single, global 4G LTE design for mobile devices. Qualcomm calls band fragmentation the biggest obstacle to designing global LTE devices.  There are some 40 cellular radio bands worldwide. The Qualcomm RF front end solution seeks to mitigate this problem while improving RF performance and helping OEMs more...

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Huawei and Qualcomm Demo Scalable UMTS

At Mobile World Congress, Huawei and Qualcomm will demonstrate a Scalable UMTS solution that improves spectrum utilization by using a half bandwidth channel. Many mobile operators are looking to re-farm their GSM 900MHz spectrum.  However, more than half of these operators own less than 5 MHz bandwidth of contiguous spectrum. Huawei and Qualcomm said their Scalable UMTS helps this movement to spectrum re-farming. Huawei and Qualcomm have successfully completed end-to-end testing of a Scalable UMTS prototype in November 2012 at Huawei’s...

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Cambium Networks Deploys IP Wireless GIGATOWER with 1 Gbps Capacity

Cambium Networks introduced its "GIGATOWER" wireless broadband access solution for enterprise and triple-play service deployments. Based on the Canopy point-to-multipoint (PMP) 450 platform, the GIGATOWER enables service providers to further expand capacity to existing customers and offer high capacity broadband to new customers in urban, suburban and rural environments.  The PMP 450's modular design allows the GIGATOWER to provide more than...

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