Ren Zhengfei pledged Huawei’s commitment to contributing to New Zealand’s digital economy

The CEO of Chinese vendor Huawei has spoken to the media at a press event in New Zealand. During his visit Ren Zhengfei pledged Huawei’s commitment to contributing to New Zealand’s digital economy. He also addressed comments from the US House Intelligence Committee claiming that the vendor is not to be trusted.

Last month Huawei won a contract to build Telecom New Zealand’s LTE network, which is expected to go live in October this year.  The vendor has also been selected as a core supplier for New Zealand’s Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) initiative.

“New Zealand is one of Huawei’s most important strategic markets and is very valuable to us,” he said. “Huawei has been selected to help build a 4G/LTE and the UFB network in New Zealand. We will continue to deploy world-class, advanced communications technologies here, delivering the safest, most advanced networks for the nation.”

Commenting on accusations from the US House Intelligence Committee, which warned the nation’s telecoms operators not to trust ZTE and Huawei, Ren voiced his confidence that none of Huawei’s staff would engage in spying, even if asked to by Chinese security agencies. He added that the vendor is not in a position to collect operators’ network data in the US in any case.

“Huawei equipment is almost non-existent in networks currently running in the US,” he said. “We have never sold any key equipment to major US carriers, nor have we sold any equipment to any US government agency. Huawei has no connection to the cyber security issues the US has encountered in the past, current and future.”

According to news agency The Associated Press, he also refused to allow photos at the event, international media were barred and Ren declined an interview with the agency.

Huawei said that it employs 120 people in New Zealand, 90 per cent of whom were hired locally. Over the last three years, Huawei’s total direct investment in New Zealand was NZ$139m. The vendor added that it intends to employ more staff and increase its investments in New Zealand in the future.

Australia’s National Broadband Network will eventually cover 93% of the country’s population with fibre

An additional 1.3 million Australian households are being added to the country’s ambitious National Broadband Network, bringing the total number of premises where NBN construction will commence or be complete by June 2016 to more than 4.8 million.

The country’s Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy, has released an updated three-year rollout plan for the NBN, stating that he and his party (up for re-election in September) “believe all Australian households deserve access to the NBN’s fast, reliable and affordable broadband”.

According to Senator Conroy, there are already over 50,000 Australians using the NBN today, with NBN fibre construction commenced or completed for almost 1mn homes, businesses, schools and hospitals in over 80 communities across the country.

Taiwan’s broadband infrastructure is holding the country back, according to Cisco’s CTO

Taiwan’s broadband infrastructure needs improving and is limiting the country’s business opportunities, according to the chief technology and strategy officer of networking giant Cisco.

The comments were offered up by Cisco executive Padmasree Warrior at a media briefing in Taipei for the ‘Cisco Connect’ seminar, according to a report by the Focus Taiwan news site.

When asked for her advice to the local government Warrior said that better broadband would enable Cisco’s customers and suppliers in Taiwan to operate more efficiently. Faster speeds would help, “transform industries” and “allow companies to have innovative power” in a wide range of sectors such as medicine, education and manufacturing, she said.

The remarks are surprising in that as a manufacturing hub for the computer and mobile industry, and home to the likes of HTC, Taiwan is thought of as a technology leader. The country currently has broadband penetration of 78.8 per cent, according to Informa WBIS statistics, higher than the 74.6 per cent of the US, and 70.29 per cent of Europe.

At the end of 2012, Taiwan has an average connection speed of 3.9Mbps according to the latest Akamai State of the Internet report figures, compared to 7.6Mbps for the US and 6Mbps for the UK.

According to the UK regulator Ofcom however, the UK had raced past the 12Mbps figure by May 2013.

The Broadband Asia conference is taking place on the 9th-10^th April 2013 at the Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel, Hong Kong. Click here to find out more about the event

Takehiro Nakamura, director of radio access network development for NTT Docomo, Japan

Takehiro Nakamura, director of radio access network development for NTT Docomo, Japan is speaking in ‘The Future of LTE’ track on Day Two of the LTE World Summit, the premier 4G event for the telecoms industry, taking place on the 24th-26th June 2013, at the Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands. Ahead of the show we learn about how NTT Docomo is taking a lead in the development of LTE, with many of its home-grown technologies forming part of the latest 3GPP LTE standards.

When will you start trialling carrier aggregation and will you introduce it before the rest of LTE-Advanced’s other features?

Docomo has started to develop base stations utilising our own technology — advanced Centralized RAN (C-RAN) architecture for LTE-Advanced. These high-capacity base stations are capable of carrier aggregation and HetNet/eICIC, which will make them ideal for high-traffic areas such as train stations and large commercial facilities. These will be available around 2015.

Will the RAN enhancements that you’re planning for LTE Advanced also need improvements in backhaul?

Optical backhaul has been put to good use in urban and suburban area of Japan already and these will also be used for our high-capacity base stations. However, improvements in backhaul will be essential to meet the increasing requirements of the market in the future.

How are your plans progressing around VoLTE and RCS?

Commercial VoLTE service is under development at NTT Docomo, but no clear deployment plan has yet been decided.

How advanced are your small cells plans and what’s your strategy for integrating them into your network?

Our advanced C-RAN architecture will enable small cells (so-called “add-on cells”) for localised coverage to cooperate with macro cells that provide wider area coverage. This will be achieved with carrier aggregation technology, one of the main LTE-Advanced technologies standardised by the 3GPP. The add-on cells will significantly increase throughput and system capacity, while maintaining mobility performance provided by the macro cell. These add-on cell can be upgraded to improve mobility performance and other aspects, and these improvements are under standardisation for 3GPP Release 12, using the name “Phantom cell” – a concept proposed by Docomo.

The LTE World Summit, the premier 4G event for the telecoms industry, is taking place on the 24^th-26^th June 2013, at the Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands. Click here to download a brochure for the event.

Mock Pak Lum

StarHub is the second placed operator in Singapore, one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Mobile penetration in the market is just shy of 160 per cent and four operators (one of which, DNA Comms, is a small iDEN player) are battling in what is, figuratively and literally, a very tight space.

StarHub launched LTE service in refarmed 1800MHz spectrum during the third quarter of 2012 and, while the firm has not released recent subscriber numbers for the service, an estimate from Informa’s WCIS Plus put the number of LTE subscriptions at 1,750 for 1Q13.

Mock already has one eye on LTE Advanced and says that StarHub is keen to get as much spectrum in Singapore’s upcoming auction as possible with a view to implementing carrier aggregation solutions. The Singaporean Government has voiced plans for an auction sometime in the middle of 2013, which will see further 1800MHz spectrum and 2.5GHz spectrum made available to the market’s operators.

“We will try and get as much as we can and we will have to make sure we get spectrum in both bands so that, with aggregation later on, we are able to offer a better customer experience,” Mock says.

The firm’s GSM subscriptions are in reasonably steep decline, with Informa estimating the total at 556,300 for end March 2013, down from 701,600 for the same point in 2012. As in other markets, spectrum is a tight commodity, but the time is not yet right to run down the GSM network in order to harvest the spectrum, says Mok Pack Lum, StarHub’s CTO.

“We have not announced any dates for this,” he says, “and we are still monitoring the traffic. There are two categories of users that will continue to need GSM; the people who roam into Singapore from neighbouring countries and the foreign workers who tend to be either labourers or domestic workers and have GSM phones.”

Nonetheless, Mock says, StarHub is keen to migrate customers onto its 3G network. “GSM is still a significant portion of our voice traffic but we’re trying to see how we can move as many people as possible from 2G to 3G so we can free up more of the 1800MHz spectrum for our LTE offerings.”

Given the small size of the Singaporean market, roaming—both inbound and outbound—is a crucial revenue stream for local operators. But there is little urgency around provisioning roaming services for LTE, Mock says. “At this point we are not concerned about LTE roaming. We are talking to our partners about it and we are putting in our diameter infrastructure. But we think that 2G and 3G will remain the most significant source of roaming traffic,” he says.

He adds that StarHub is “engaging IPX providers” for roaming services but that the firm is also considering “other multilateral initiatives”. This may be a reference to South Korean operator SK Telecom, which has made clear its intention to act as an LTE roaming hub for the Asia Pacific region.

Mock is similarly relaxed about VoLTE. For early movers to VoLTE the principal driver has been the need to consolidate to a single network technology. But for StarHub the technology is most interesting for the opportunities it offers in terms of enhanced services, Mock says.

“We are doing some [VoLTE] trials but I don’t know when we will be offering it,” he says. “The question today is which handsets are available. But the ability to combine voice with other IP applications is the most important impetus for us and that is down the line,” he says.

StarHub’s more urgent priority is extending the reach of its LTE network—and in Singapore this isn’t always easy. There are many high rise buildings and “the biggest challenge,” Mock says, “is providing coverage up to the 50^th floor.” Meanwhile all public housing in Singapore must contain a reinforced concrete bomb shelter with very thick walls, which presents a unique penetration problem.

“We’re hoping that, as vendors come up with integrated solutions, hetergenous networks and small cells, it will help solve our problems,” Mock says. StarHub plans to have nationwide outdoor coverage by the end of this year, up from around 60 per cent today.

But LTE is not StarHub’s sole network challenge . There are still coverage obligations to meet for the 3G network—the Singaporean government announced in April that the market’s operators were required to achieve 99 per cent outdoor coverage and 85 per cent indoor coverage and StarHub is awaiting confirmation that it has hit this target. It is in the firm’s interests to do so as it should help encourage users to move across from the GSM network, Mock says.

LTE has been simpler to deploy than 3G, though. Mock says that the most challenging aspect of deployment that the operator faced was refarming the spectrum—a challenge that was mitigated by the fact that the same vendor, Nokia Siemens Networks, supplied both the GSM and LTE networks.

Dependence on vendors is a reality for all operators and Ericsson’s head of LTE recently suggested that single vendor environments will provide better results in heterogenous networks, so does Mock Pak Lum agree? “Without having done any direct tests in this area, I would think that this would be so. Having a single vendor could be a more efficient and elegant way of providing coverage,” he says.

The LTE Asia 2013 event takes place in Singapore, September 18 – 19. For more information click here.

According to Coleago, potentially several billion dollars of benefit to the economy has been lost as a result of setting reserve prices too high

A consultancy firm specialising in the planning of national radio spectrum auctions has criticised Australia’s recent digital dividend spectrum for setting reserve prices too high.

Three Australian firms secured spectrum in auction, with 700MHz and 2.5GHz blocks up for grabs – generating revenues of nearly A$2bn ($2.06bn) for the Australian government.

Telstra paid over A$1.3bn for its 2x20MHz blocks of 700MHz spectrum and 2x40MHz of 2.5GHZ spectrum, while Optus Mobile won 2x10MHz blocks of 700MHz spectrum as well as 2x20MHz blocks in the 2.5GHz band, paying almost A$650m for its spectrum. Fixed line operator TPG Internet also secured 2x10MHz of 2.5GHz spectrum, for a total of A$13.5m.

However, 2x15MHz of 700MHz spectrum remained unsold and according to Stefan Zehle, CEO at Coleago Consulting, this is because Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) decided not to bid due to the extremely high reserve prices set by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).

Zehle explained that the switchover from analogue television services to digital frees up spectrum to be reallocated for mobile broadband. It was estimated to deliver a net benefit to the Australian economy of between A$7bn and A$10bn, he said.

“Of course this estimate assumed that all of the spectrum will be allocated to mobile,” he said. “In the event, one third of the APT band plan 700MHz spectrum remains unsold whereas 100 per cent of the cost of freeing up the spectrum has been incurred. Therefore potentially several billion dollars of benefit to the economy has been lost as a result of setting reserve prices above the level where weaker operators can earn a normal return of capital employed.”

He added that the damage the ACMA has inflicted on the Australian economy does not end there.

“Since VHA ended up without spectrum it will further weaken their relevance in the market. Since competition is likely to have been weakened this will reduce the “consumer surplus” from the digital dividend, in other words, the benefit consumers would gain in form of lower prices.”

The most direct impact of the high reserve prices is the lower auction revenue that the government receives, said Zehle. The government had budgeted to generate revenue at least equal to the total reserve; A$2.9bn, whereas the auction only raised A$1.96bn; 32 per cent below its target.

“The ACMA’s failure could hardly be more complete,” he concluded. “Yet, it was widely predicted that with these high reserve prices spectrum would remain unsold, in fact Vodafone said it would not bid unless the reserve prices are lowered.  The outcome says a lot about politicians’ lack of understanding of how investment decisions are made and also demonstrates an unwillingness to listen to the industry.”

Telstra, Optus Mobile and TPG Internet each secured spectrum

Three Australian operators have secured spectrum in the country’s digital dividend auction, generating revenues of nearly A$2bn ($2.06bn) for the Australian government. Telstra, Optus Mobile and TPG Internet each secured spectrum, regulator Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) announced.

Big spending operator Telstra paid over A$1.3bn for 2x20MHz blocks of 700MHz spectrum and 2x40MHz of 2.5GHZ spectrum, as it looked to consolidate its position as Australia’s market leader. The operator had 14.5 million subscribers as of December 2012, according to Informa’s WCIS.

Second placed operator Optus Mobile won 2x10MHz blocks of 700MHz spectrum as well as 2x20MHz blocks in the 2.5GHz band, paying almost A$650m for its spectrum. And fixed line operator TPG Internet also secured 2x10MHz of 2.5GHz spectrum, for a total of A$13.5m.

2x15MHz of 700MHz spectrum remained unsold. Each operator was not allowed to acquire more than 2×25MHz (50 MHz in total) in the 700MHz band or more than 2×40MHz (80 MHz in total) in the 2.5GHz band.

“The auction process itself ran smoothly and resulted in the allocation of spectrum to the companies that valued it the most,” said Chris Chapman, ACMA chairman.

“This decades-long process of spectrum reform has already transformed the television industry, delivering greater diversity and better technical quality of television services to viewers. It will be complete when the new licences in the 700 MHz band become operational at the beginning of 2015.”

Bharti Airtel has sold a five per cent stake in its business to Qatar Foundation Endowment

Indian operator group Bharti Airtel has sold a stake in its business to Qatar Foundation Endowment (QFE).  The Qatari investment group will acquire five per cent, almost 200 million new shares, of Airtel for $1.26bn.

The operator group said that the investment will help it to strengthen its capital structure and improve its flexibility, helping it to better implement its growth strategy.

Sunil Mittal, Bharti Airtel’s chairman, said that the strategic partnership demonstrates the confidence QFE has in the operator and in its strategy for growth.

“In addition, this agreement exemplifies further strengthening of the already deep economic and cultural relations between Qatar and India. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with QFE”.

Rashid Al-Naimi, acting CEO at QFE, added that the stake gives the investment group exposure to a high growth sector in key emerging markets.

“QFE looks forward to supporting Bharti in realising the full potential of this world class business.”

Goldman Sachs acted as sole financial advisor to QFE on the investment.

Telenor Connexion has inked a deal with KDDI to provide a global M2M solution for its enterprise customers

Norwegian operator group Telenor, through its M2M business unit Telenor Connexion, has inked a deal with Japanese operator KDDI to provide a global M2M solution for its enterprise customers.

Under the agreement Telenor Connexion will provide KDDI with access to Telenor’s roaming network in more than 190 countries. In addition, Telenor will provide global SIM provisioning and service provisioning, and around the clock technical support.

According to Telenor, KDDI has a large base of domestic M2M customers, particularly in the automotive, security and utility industries. The partnership will allow KDDI to offer its customers a one-stop-shop solution for overseas deployment including M2M monitoring and management, the Norwegian operator added.

Akihiko Yamaguchi, manager at KDDI, said: “The high quality of Telenor Connexion’s dedicated and reliable connectivity services as well as their proven track record of more than 15 years of experience in the M2M and telematics field, were decisive factors,” he said. “The competence and capacity to meet the needs of KDDI were impressive.”

Per Simonsen, CEO of Telenor Connexion, added that the partnership with KDDI is a seal of approval for Telenor’s end-to-end solution and comprehensive support.

“And it further strengthens our position on the important Japanese market,” he added.

Dr J W Byun, the CTO of SK Telecom

Dr J W Byun, the CTO of SK Telecom, South Korea is speaking on Day One of the LTE World Summit, taking place on 24-26 June 2013 at The RAI, Amsterdam. Ahead of the show we speak to him about how SK Telecom has been able to extend its global lead in LTE and gives some insights into what he sees coming down the line for telecoms.

SK Telecom has a leading LTE deployment and has been one of the first to go live with VoLTE? Why do you think you were able to do so when other operators have not done so?

We were able to achieve nationwide LTE rollout at a rapid pace as Korea is a small but densely populated country. Moreover, Koreans are already used to fast internet speeds and their expectations are getting higher and higher in terms of network speeds and device features/capabilities.

As Korea’s top mobile carrier, SK Telecom has developed strong technological capabilities in mobile telecommunications and accumulated extensive knowhow in network operation over the past 29 years. Based on its long-standing partnerships with many telecommunications equipment manufacturers and device makers, SK Telecom was able to maintain its market leadership by developing the most innovative LTE technologies and securing the richest line-up of mobile devices.

After launching Korea’s first LTE service in July 2011, the company saw its LTE subscriber base expand rapidly thanks to its premium service quality and customer care. With the spread of LTE, the company shifted its focus to developing and providing diverse services specially designed to match the needs of LTE users, allowing them to get the most out of the LTE network. In addition, on August 8, 2012, SK Telecom has launched the world’s first nationwide VoLTE service to enable users to experience premium-quality voice services.

Are you also intending to be one of the first to pioneer RCS services and what impact do you think it will have on customers mainly using OTT services?

SK Telecom has already commercialized an RCS service named joyn.T. Launched on 26 December 2012 the number of joyn.T users reached 1.57 million in April, 2013. The strong growth of joyn.T is attributable to the fact that it

1) Enables joyn.T users to send free messages (SMS, MMS) to anyone including those who have not downloaded the joyn.T application.
2) Offers diverse differentiated features such as live video sharing and location sharing.
3) Can become interoperable with RCS services of other mobile carriers throughout the world.

The LTE World Summit, the premier 4G event for the telecoms industry, is taking place on the 24^th-26^th June 2013, at the Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands. Click here to download a brochure for the event.

Where are you with LTE Advanced and carrier aggregation in particular?

At Mobile World Congress 2013, SK Telecom showcased Carrier Aggregation using a smartphone for the first time in the world and we plan to commercialize LTE-Advanced by launching Carrier Aggregation (CA) in the second half of this year, using a combined total of 20MHz (from the 800MHz and 1800MHz bands).

However, last year, in July 2012, SK Telecom became the first company in the world to commercialise Multi Carrier (MC) – a technology that enables operators to choose one frequency band from multiple carriers to provide more seamless and reliable LTE services at faster speeds – by building 1.8GHz base stations. Going forward, these MC-capable base stations can be easily turned into CA-capable equipment through software upgrades so as to support LTE-Advanced from the second half of 2013.

Do you believe that RCS services can genuinely help the industry compete with OTT?

RCS service sets itself apart from the traditional OTT offering through its unique features. It provides guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS) since it is offered over the managed IP network of the operators and hence is carrier-grade. In addition, it can be grown into a more comprehensive service with the addition of diverse features developed based on the global RCS standards. SK Telecom plans to add attractive features that are combined with communication services, such as HD Voice (VoLTE). Furthermore, as many mobile operators around the world are promoting the development of RCS services based on the same specifications, these services are expected to become a universal service that can be enjoyed by all customers around the world regardless of network and carrier.

Is VoLTE part of your plans and what benefits will it bring both to operators and consumers?

For customers, VoLTE improves voice quality over 3G voice calls by 40 per cent by utilising a wider bandwidth (50~7000Hz) compared to 3G voice calls (300~3400Hz) and Adapted Multi-Rate Wide Band (AMR-WB) codec, which handles 2.2 times wider frequency bandwidth than that of 3G voice calls. Moreover, the call connection time is less than 0.25 to 2.5 seconds, two to 20 times shorter than 3G voice calls. VoLTE also provides seamless conversion between voice and video calls.

Moreover, VoLTE has helped mobile operators strengthen their competitive edge over third-party players, while paving the way for the creation of new and creative all-IP-based business models.

Where do small cells fit into your plans, and what benefits will they bring?

In the LTE-Advanced environment where data traffic is expected to increase dramatically, small cells will become the most crucial part of mobile operators’ strategy. Small cells enable operators to expand network capacity using their existing frequency resources in the most cost-effective manner. SK Telecom has deployed 50,000 femtocells including 3,000 LTE femtocells. To realize the true benefits of small cells, SK Telecom plans to develop and apply cell virtualization technologies such as Super Cell. Super Cell enables mobile operators to use cell virtualisation technologies to enhance network capacity by minimising inter-cell interference, ensure seamless call quality by removing handover, and benefit from cost-efficient operation of networks.

Are there any other key innovations in your network compared to others operators?

SK Telecom’s premium quality LTE service is supported by innovative LTE network technologies like Multi Carrier, LTE femtocells, Downlink CoMP (Coordinated Multi-Point) and SON (Self-Organizing Network), all of which were commercialised by SK Telecom for the first time in the world. The application of these advanced technologies, combined with SK Telecom’s long-established know-how and experience in network operations, is making the company’s networks even stronger, faster and smarter.

The company is also making constant efforts to keep developing core LTE-Advanced technologies to lead the full-fledged opening of the era of LTE-Advanced. It has successfully demonstrated, for the first time in the world, core LTE-Advanced technologies like Enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (eICIC), Uplink Cooperative Multi-Point (CoMP), Carrier Aggregation (CA) and Transmission Mode 9 (TM9).

Pricing for LTE is a controversial subject. Are operators getting it right?

LTE operators around the world are introducing many different types of price plans for their LTE subscribers. As for SK Telecom, it is offering a wide variety of LTE price plans in order to meet the diverse needs of customers and to encourage them to experience the advantages of the ultra-fast network in the most convenient and cost-effective manner. They include flat-rate plans, specialised plans for different age groups such as the elderly and teenagers, and optional data-only plans.

For instance, the company’s most recently launched (March 22, 2013) fixed-rate price plan named ‘T&T Sharing’ provides customers with unlimited intra-network voice calls as well as unlimited intra-network and inter-network texting. The company also modified its existing LTE data plans to lower the cost burden on customers by allowing them to add one data-only device to use the same data pool for free.

Moreover, in January 2013, SK Telecom introduced the ‘LTE Data Gift Program’ that allows customers to give their remaining data to other LTE users through a simple process.

How will affordable LTE roaming be achieved?

LTE roaming costs are expected to become as affordable as that of 3G roaming through close partnerships between mobile carriers. This will occur as LTE services spread across the globe. Recently, the members of the Bridge Alliance reached a consensus that LTE auto-roaming takes an important role in the future direction of next-generation roaming services, thus calling for strategic partnerships between carriers around the world.

After launching the world’s first LTE auto roaming service under partnership with Hong Kong’s CSL on June 1, 2012, SK Telecom has launched the service in Singapore by joining hands with M1 (October 1, 2012) and SingTel (March 1, 2013). Recently, SK Telecom has also started the service in the Philippines (April 1, 2013) by partnering with Globe Telecom.

What are the biggest changes you see coming down the line for mobile telecoms?

It has long been their dream of mobile operators to create mobile networks strong and smart enough to provide optimal network quality at all times. In the world of ever-increasing data traffic, they have been making heavy investments in their network infrastructure to prevent worst-case scenarios involving network overload. As a pioneer in the development of the global mobile industry, SK Telecom has already launched and refined its LTE network and is currently moving rapidly towards the era of LTE-Advanced.

Along with its efforts to realise unprecedented network speeds, SK Telecom also plans to promote the development of the Software-Defined Network (SDN) and network virtualisation technologies to make its network more powerful and attractive. SDN and network virtualisation technologies hold great promise for mobile carriers and will have a huge impact on the industry over the next five years. With SDN and virtualization technologies applied to the existing mobile networks, operators will be able to significantly reduce their network investment costs as they can install a number of software services within a single system, and flexibly adjust the amount of resources needed for each of them. Moreover, they will be able to offer optimal network quality for a particular service being used by customers located in a highly-congested area.