T-Mobile is to cut 900 more jobs

Deutsche Telecom’s US mobile operation, T-Mobile USA, is to cut a further 900 jobs, following the unit’s failed $39bn purchase by AT&T late last year. The latest cuts come on top of around 1,900 job losses announced earlier this year.

Last week T-Mobile USA said it has seen revenue and profit deteriorate over the past year, and is now stepping up its efforts in the market, bolstered by the rollout of an LTE network.

Revenue for the US operation during the first quarter of 2012 increased two per cent year-on-year to reach €3.8bn, while adjusted EBITDA grew 12.9 per cent to €1bn. However, this was in part due to exchange rate gains made by the US dollar. In local currency, revenue decreased by 2.3 per cent, although adjusted EBITDA increased by eight per cent.

“Relaunching the T-Mobile brand on the US market and significantly enlarging the sales network in the country are important steps in implementing the strategy,” the firm said in its statement. “In addition, initiatives for cutting costs and reducing churn are having a positive impact. There was a 0.1 percentage point improvement year-on-year in branded contract customer churn, representing a 0.5 per cent improvement on the fourth quarter.”

So it looks like the cost cutting initiatives are set to continue. Most of the recently announced job cuts are to come from the closure and consolidation of call centres.

“We are restructuring the organization and optimizing operations so that we can make critical decisions better and faster in response to market and customer demands. Further, by reducing our cost structure and streamlining operations, T-Mobile will be able to invest in areas where we anticipate the strongest return: modernizing our 4G network; aggressively pursuing the B2B segment; and re-launching our brand,” the company said.

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Phone sales showed a decline for the first time since 2009

Global sales of mobile phones declined on a qurterly basis for the first time in nearly three years, according to research firm Gartner this week. The two per cent year-on-year drop between the first quarters of 2012 and 2011 marks the first time the market has weakened since the second quarter of 2009.

Global handset sales reached 419.1 million units in the first quarter of 2012, with a decline more than expected due to a slowdown in demand from the Asia Pacific region, according to Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner.

“The first quarter, traditionally the strongest quarter for Asia – which is driven by Chinese New Year, saw a lack of new product launches from leading manufacturers, and users delayed upgrades in the hope of better smartphone deals arriving later in the year,” he explained.

The unexpected results have led the research firm to be cautious about sales for the remainder of the year, according to Annette Zimmermann, principal research analyst.

“The continued roll-out of 3G-based smartphones by local and regional manufacturers such as Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, Yulong and TCL Communication should help spur demand in China,” she said.

“In addition, the arrival of new products in mature markets based on new versions of the Android and Windows Phone operating systems (OSs), and the launch of the Apple iPhone 5 will help drive a stronger second half in Western Europe and North America. However, as we are starting to update our market forecast we feel a downward adjustment to our 2012 figures, in the range of 20 million units, is unavoidable.”

Samsung led in terms of global market share, displacing Nokia which had held the top spot since 1998. The Korean firm’s handset sales reached 86.6 million units, marking a 25.9 percent increase from last year.

Sales of smartphones continued to drive mobile device market growth, reaching 144.4 million units in the first quarter of 2012, up 44.7 per cent year-on-year. Apple and Samsung took almost half of the market share between them, with their combined share standing at 49.3 per cent, up from 29.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2011.

Worldwide Mobile Device Sales to End Users by Vendor in 1Q12 (Thousands of Units)

Source: Gartner (May 2012)

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HTC and Samsung are flying the Android flag

Android retains its lead position as the most popular smartphone OS, with HTC and Samsung dominating the market between them. According to handset sales statistics released by research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, Android’s global market share for the three months to April is just over 50 per cent, up from 44.6 per cent last year.

Between them, handset vendors HTC and Samsung are dominating Android sales, holding 86 per cent of the market.

As noted by Dominic Sunnebo, Kantar’s global consumer insight director, when it launched in May, the HTC One X became one of Britain’s ten best-selling smartphones within one week. Meanwhile, the release of the Sony Xperia S and the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy S3 also added to a surge of interest from consumers looking for their next upgrade.

Yet, despite the release of the Xperia S, Sony’s share continued to dwindle taking just 10.4 per cent of Android sales over the 12 weeks to mid-April, while LG holds less than one per cent. Both manufacturers have struggled to convince their existing featurephone consumers to switch to their smartphone ranges, with only 11 per cent of Sony featurephone users trading up to one of the firm’s smartphones over the past year. This figure is even lower for LG at just four per cent, Sunnebo said.

But there is some good news for the vendors, with Kantar expecting some big changes in manufacturer market shares over the coming months, with almost 22 million consumers aged 13+ changing their mobile device and almost 80 per cent upgrading to a smartphone.

The research suggests that Android’s stronghold is now becoming more prevalent across Europe, particularly in Spain where it holds 72.3 per cent of the market with year-on-year growth of 39.5 per cent.

With smartphone penetration in the UK at 53.1 per cent, the pool of featurephone users left to trade up is beginning to diminish, which according to Sunnebo, means smartphone manufacturers need to step up their game and find ways of stealing consumers from their competitors.

“Rich new content and features are a big driver for consumers looking to trade up.  However, convincing users to switch brands requires an emphasis on the user experience – an area in which Apple excels.  Consumers have come to expect top-end hardware and manufacturers are responding with innovative software, good services and exclusive content partnerships.  These expectations from tech-savvy customers are yet another obstacle for Asian manufacturers, such as Huawei and ZTE, who will attempt to make a splash by releasing high-end models in the coming months,”  he said.

OS (Operating System) Share – Smartphone Sales

The LTE Awards 2012 are taking place on May 23rd, at the El Xalet, Montjuic, Barcelona.

Now in its third year, the annual LTE Awards, in associated with Telecoms.com, are now established as the leading event of its kind. The LTE Awards are designed to recognise, celebrate and reward the great innovations that are being made in the industry, and this year are co-located with the LTE World Summit 2012, taking place on the evening of the 23rd, at the El Xalet, Montjuic, Barcelona. The event is sure to be a glamorous and entertaining evening for all participants.

The winners, from a varied selection of ten categories and 48 shortlisted companies, will be picked by an independent panel of judges, consisting of leading industry experts, during a two week assessment process.

To whet your appetite for the event here is a preview of Category 5: Most Innovative LTE Commercial Launch.

This award recognises the most innovative LTE commercial launch. The judges take into account the success of a network launch and what makes it stand out from others.

Huawei Technologies

In August 2011, Huawei and Wireless City Planning (WCP), a SoftBank group company, commenced deployment of the largest commercial LTE TDD network in the world – the first time LTE TDD has been adopted for a large scale commercial network deployment. The deployment uses technology such as SFN (Single Frequency Networking), 4x4MIMO, and the world’s smallest and lightest broadband RRU (Radio Remote Unit). This supports 40MHz bandwidth, offers downlink data speeds of over 400Mbps and increased site capacity by up to 1.2Gb/s. Each cell site can support 2,000 camping subscribers, 1,000 of which can be active at the same time. Further commercial launches are planned for parts of Tokyo and Osaka in November 2012. By March 2013, the deployment will provide 99 per cent of the population in Japan’s cities (an estimated 114 million people) with ultra broadband services made using Huawei’s LTE TDD solutions.

Nokia Siemens Networks

Nokia Siemens Networks and SKY, the largest cable and satellite TV operator in Brazil, launched an TD-LTE network using the 2.6GHz frequency on the 13 December, 2011. It is a unique 4G TD-LTE deployment with wifi an integral part of the solution. It includes one of the industry first TD-LTE based wifi wireless routers for consumers. The NSN technology includes its FlexiPacket Microwave transport platform and Evolved Packet Core (EPC), part of its Liquid Core architecture. In addition, NSN has provided its CPEi-lte 7212 wireless router. Nokia Siemens Networks has also provided its NetAct network management system to provide consolidated configuration, monitoring and network optimization. SKY plans to roll out services to new customers in other cities of Brazil, and other countries in Latin America, in the future.

Samsung Electronics

Samsung launched a network in with a major South Korean operator in January 2012. The network was located in the capital city of Seoul. As of March 2012 it cover 26 cities in Korea with about 28,000 cell sites and the ultimate goal in 84 cities covering 90 per cent of the country’s population. The Samsung network uses its SmartCloud technology and is the first LTE network that uses cloud computing. There are two key differences over other networks: centralizing hundreds of base station sites into one BTS site, and network-wide optimisation by connecting virtual server to all the radio units. SmartCloud is designed to create a flexible and high-capacity network for serving dense urban areas efficiently. A virtual server communicates simultaneously with all RRUs to mitigate interference across entire network, and help provide a better quality of experience to user irrespective of location to the cell edge or cell centre. It uses air resource management technology, to mitigate interference among cells. SmartCloud reduced CAPEX by 26 per cent and cut OPEX for the launch operator by 37 per cent by eliminating the need to operate hundreds of DU sites.

ZTE Corporation

ZTE launched a CS Fallback solution together with CSL in Hong Kong in February 2012.  The solution brings high quality voice services for LTE users, reduces the pressure on the 3G data network and; enhances the operator’s reputation in a very competitive market. It mitigates the need to migrate CS service to IMS for voice, maximising the existing 3G investment and smoothing evolution to CSFB service thanks to a lower TCO. The launch used a unique “Proxy MSC” solution preventing the need to upgrade all the MSCs in the CS network. ZTE and CSL will optimise the network in the coming 12 months. The LTE network will be inter-connected with other vendors to support CSFB roaming. In the future, the user experience will be enhanced to absorb more and more smartphones onto the LTE network.

The LTE World Summit is taking place on the 23-24 May 2012 CCIB, Barcelona, Spain. Click here to register your http://ws.lteconference.com/interest.

Thierry Dupont is telecom project manager, for TDF Group

Thierry Dupont is telecom project manager for TDF Group, the largest broadcast network operator in Europe with 11,000 sites. Ahead of his speaking role at the LTE World Summit 2012, taking place on the 23-24 May 2012 CCIB, Barcelona, Spain, we speak to him about the impact of LTE on TDF’s operations.

What are the main milestones you have reached with relation to your LTE deployment?

As far as TDF is concerned, we have setup an LTE trial showcasing the opportunity to build a shared network using Multi Operator Core Network (MOCN) concepts.

What are the main challenges you have faced, or expect to face, as you roll out LTE?

Using the 800MHz, one of the main challenges was to get a plethora of devices from the infrastructure manufacturers due to the need to maximise Inter-operability Testing (IOT). The other main challenge was to get network elements, as this can help provide dynamic QoS and consequently help with implementing VoLTE.

With so much attention paid to the radio access network is there enough focus on backhaul?

As TDF is also a broadcast operator, we have already upgraded both our backhaul and transport networks. We are aware of the necessity to design the backhaul network due to the traffic increase and the idea was to segment broadcast and telecom output within a single link.

What’s your view on FDD vs TD-LTE spectrum?

It will not have to be an either or situation. We see them as two complementary sources for offloading data traffic. Key issues will be first to define clear engineering rules for the deployment of these two heterogeneous networks and then to have dual-mode devices coming from the market.

Do you think that VoLTE will have an impact and if so in what time frame?

MNOs will first deploy and tune their LTE Networks and then implement IMS enabling them to propose RCS services (if standardisation occurs) like VoLTE.

Is there enough innovation occurring in the mobile network industry? Can you provide some examples?

Rich Communications Services (RCS) and Location Based Services (LBS) services are innovations coming in the mobile network industry.

What changes would you hope to see in the industry in the next five years?

On the infrastructure manufacturer side only two or three players will survive. On the engineering side, evolution of the RAN towards base-band clouding will force MNOs to dramatically upgrade their backhaul networks but also to become and/or work with Content Distribution Network (CDN) operators.

Why are you attending the LTE World Summit and what are you looking forward to most?

I am firstly looking forward to presenting TDF’s work on the LTE network sharing and then to exchange ideas with major players in the market from MNOs to device manufacturers.

The LTE World Summit is taking place on the 23-24 May 2012 CCIB, Barcelona, Spain. Click here to register your http://ws.lteconference.com/interest.

Free Mobile reveals it has won 4 per cent of the French market in just 80 days

French low-cost 3G operator Free has managed to acquire nearly four per cent of the country’s market share in just 80 days.

Having launched on January 10, 2012, the operator said during its first ever quarterly results announcement that it had acquired 2.6 million mobile subscribers by 31 March 2012. Free offers coverage to  about 30 per cent of the population via its own network and relies on a roaming agreement with Orange for extended coverage.

Success came at the expense of its rivals – SFR, for example, admitted that it lost 620,000 mobile subscribers in the quarter. Orange France lost 615,000 mobile customers.

The operator offered two low-cost commercial mobile plans at launch: the €2 per month no-contract offering (€0 per month for Freebox subscribers) for 60 minutes voice and 60 SMS per month; and the €19.99 per month no-contract offering (€15.99 per month for Freebox subscribers) with unlimited voice, SMS, MMS and internet, with a 3GB fair use policy.

Parent group Iliad, said in a statement: “With its commercial and price innovations, Free Mobile has liberated conventions and galvanized a market that had been at a standstill for many long years.”

Dennis Sverdlov is the CEO of Yota

Dennis Sverdlov is the CEO of Yota and is speaking on Day Two of the LTE World Summit 2012 taking place on the 23-24 May at the CCIB, Barcelona, Spain. Ahead of the show we speak to him about the challenges the Russian network operator has faced during its transition from WiMAX to LTE, on getting FDD and TD-LTE networks to interoperate and his view on unlimited data tariffs.

What are the main milestones you have reached with relation to your LTE deployment?

Yota was the first operator in Russia to showcase a fully built LTE network in Kazan, Russia with whole-city coverage in 2010. This year we started a first commercial LTE network in Novosibirsk, Russia. Currently we’re in the process of WiMAX to LTE transition in our five existing markets, including Moscow and Saint-Petersburg.  Yota is also rolling out Greenfield networks in three more cities in Russia. To date, we’ve built about 2000 LTE base stations across the country, including more than 1200 in Moscow.

We were also the first in Russia to successfully implement the LTE wholesale model, with partners such as MegaFon and Rostelecom due to start their commercial services using our radio infrastructure in April 2012. This deal required changes to both the mindset and processes of the big “traditional” operators.

What are the main challenges you have faced, or expect to face, as you roll out LTE?

The biggest challenge has been to go through regulatory approval of the new standard in Russia. The technology itself, given its “all-IP” nature, poses quite a challenge for the regulator, and approving this new standard required heavy changes to existing laws. Thankfully, we have seen very positive feedback and necessary changes has been made lightning-fast.

Another serious issue of a more technological nature was the preparation of WiMAX swap. We made a very deep TDD/FDD coexistence analysis and its results required us to develop a very sophisticated technical and commercial swap solution in order to minimise the threat to customer experience.

To what extent can LTE provide an insurance against declining revenue streams from voice and SMS?

Declining revenue streams from traditional services are not caused by customers’ evil intent, but are signals of underlying technological change. The reality is that communications are migrating to IP. In this sense, LTE, given its potential for high-quality real-time multimedia services, could secure revenue streams. However, we believe that traditional operator business models will have to change accordingly.

Is there a place moving forward for unlimited data tariffs? Are they sustainable?

We have always believed in maximum openness and honesty when it comes to customer experience. Our point of view is that complicated tariffs with unclear data caps hurt customers and harm their experience – after all, nobody wants to count megabytes while watching a movie. It’s exactly for that reason that Yota always offered unlimited volume tariffs, with a huge range of different maximum speeds.

The key to the sustainability of this business model is the approach. We think that the cost structure of any operator’s packet data is not in any way bound by the amount of megabytes sent, but rather is determined by the maximum speed capacity of the network. Therefore, changing the operator business models to revolve around “elementary speed units”, such as “megabit per second” helps to make the whole business sustainable. Of course, this requires very intelligent traffic and congestion management technologies, with clever and sophisticated policy control designs, but we are absolutely sure that such an approach benefits both the operator and the customer.

With so much attention paid to the radio access network is there enough focus on backhaul?

We see the transition from relatively slow backhaul technologies such as microwave into faster technologies such as fibre. However, we feel that this transition should happen at a much faster pace.

What’s your view on FDD vs TD-LTE spectrum?

Both technologies will co-exist, however TD-LTE will be used mainly across Asia and India.

Where do you stand on the issue of OTT players contributing to the costs of deploying networks?

Recently we started our own VoD service under the brand “Yota Play”. We strongly believe that OTT services will prosper in the era of fast mobile broadband, and it is our feeling that operators should create strategic partnerships with this kind of service provider.

Do you think that VoLTE will have an impact and if so in what time frame?

Yes, we believe that VoLTE with SRVCC is the future of voice services. However, further evolution of standards and equipment is certainly required for commercial deployment. We expect mass deployments to happen no earlier than 2014.

Is there enough innovation occurring in the mobile network industry? Can you provide some examples?

The recent development of 3GPP standards is certainly one of the many examples of mobile industry innovation. We also think that there are a lot of changes in the policy control area, leading to new innovative technological and commercial solutions.

What changes would you hope to see in the industry in the next five years?

In order to be faster adopters we think that the industry needs to streamline and simplify internal processes to be able to deliver new technologies to customers faster. They deserve that.

Why are you attending the LTE World Summit and what are you looking forward to most?

We feel that we have some important experience to share with respect to our (quite unique) deployment, and would like to get insights into recent industry developments – to understand the general outlook of operators, and the plans of vendors.

The LTE World Summit is taking place on the 23-24 May 2012 CCIB, Barcelona, Spain. Click here to register your http://ws.lteconference.com/interest.

LightSquared has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US

US wholesale player LightSquared has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection amid efforts to resolve regulatory issues that have prevented it from launching its satellite service.

The carrier has been planning to build a ground-based LTE network, supported by satellites, but the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) blocked the project, stating that the proposed mobile broadband network will impact GPS services and that there is no practical way to mitigate the potential interference.

It has now commenced “voluntarily reorganisation cases under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code” and will also file a recognition proceeding in Canada.

“The filing was necessary to preserve the value of our business and to ensure continued operations. The voluntary Chapter 11 filing is intended to give LightSquared sufficient breathing room to continue working through the regulatory process that will allow us to build our 4G wireless network,” said Marc Montagner, interim co-chief operating officer and chief financial officer of LightSquared.

“All of our efforts are focused on concluding this process in an efficient and successful manner.”

The filing was made in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York and the carrier said it intends to work with all key stakeholders to conduct its restructuring process and exit Chapter 11 as quickly as possible. Its current management team will continue to lead the company throughout this process.

“The company fully expects to continue normal operations throughout this process,” the firm said in a statement. “All LightSquared distribution partners and customers, including public safety, emergency response, government and military users of LightSquared’s satellite-based communications services can continue to rely on LightSquared to provide them with mission critical communications services.”

Dimitris Mavrakis, principal analyst – networks, at Informa Telecoms and Media, believes that future looks bleak for LightSquared.

“LightSquared’s plan was very optimistic from the start. From deployment strategy to business model, LightSquared would be an interesting case study, but very different than anything else in the mobile market today,” he said.

“In my opinion, LightSquared is unlikely to overcome the challenges its facing now, including interference issues and also lack of investor trust especially towards its CEO, Phillip Falcone. It is not entirely clear what will happen with LightSquared spectrum, but if the company folds, it’s very likely that it may be leased to a third party satellite provider.” 

LightSquared had recently defaulted on a payment of $56.25m to British satellite firm, although it eventually made the payment and struck a deal with Inmarsat to suspend further payments until 2014. It also recently announced plans to cut 45 per cent of its staff in order to save money, and even hired well-known solicitor Theodore Olsen in a bid to save the project.

Dr. Oscar Cicchetti, is chief strategy officer for Telecom Italia

Dr. Oscar Cicchetti is chief strategy officer for Telecom Italia. Ahead of the LTE World Summit 2012,  taking place on the 23-24 May 2012 CCIB, Barcelona, Spain, we speak to him about the telco’s use of spectrum,  the future of VoLTE, and where he sees innovation occurring in the industry.

What are the main milestones you have reached with relation to your LTE deployment?

Telecom Italia has already started a multi-frequency LTE deployment leveraging the spectrum resources acquired in the recent auction.

10Mhz in the 800MHz spectrum will be key to ensure good indoor performance and coverage of suburban and rural areas. This spectrum will be available from January 2013.

15Mhz at 2.6 GHz will provide peak throughput in the highly concentrated areas and will support micro and pico cells deployment to allow superior radio performance. Also, this frequency should be fully available from January 2013.

The already available spectrum at 1800MHz will have a crucial role. As a matter of fact, 1800 MHz is a promising trade off among coverage, peak throughput and capacity.

What are the main challenges you have faced, or expect to face, as you rollout LTE?

Telecom Italia was the first operator in Italy to launch LTE customer trials in Turin in February 2012 and thereafter in Rome and Milan. Currently, we are working hard to launch LTE commercial services on a national scale as soon as frequencies become available countrywide. The major cities will be properly served and end-to-end performance will be in line with the customer expectations. We plan on having 40 per cent of the Italian population properly covered by the end of 2014.

To what extent can LTE provide an insurance against declining revenue streams from voice and SMS?

The declining revenue streams from Voice and SMS is a natural trend in the mobile industry. Handsets and tablets are not just phones. They are cameras, wallets, newspapers, books, video players and many other things. Voice and messages are just two of the infinite mobile apps and they are those with the highest price per byte. Traditional revenue decline is unavoidable.

LTE can be the foundation for new business models and for new revenue sources. MNOs should move from price per bit, to value per bit. The starting point will be high performance broadband access for end users.  but we should move towards differentiated QoS offerings to users, and through NetAPIs content and service providers will be able to develop premium content and services for consumers such as m-wallet, m-gaming, m-cloud as well as professional services for businesses such as corporate apps and collaboration tools.

Is there a place moving forward for unlimited data tariffs? Are they sustainable?

All you can eat schemes should be carefully managed by the operators in order to maintain the sustainability of the mobile business. It’s a matter of the marketing mix: segmented offers, bundled with traditional as well as innovative services, such as premium content and apps.

With so much attention paid to the radio access network is there enough focus on backhaul?

Not in my view. Backhauling is key for mobile broadband and it’s a headache for the pure mobile operators. We’re familiar with it from our operations in Brazil. In Italy we have the largest fibre network that will be further extended with our NGN plan in the main 100 Italian cities. So we can deal with it.

What’s your view on FDD vs TD-LTE spectrum?

We decided to bid for FDD in the Italian LTE auction because the coverage regulatory constraints were the same for FDD and TDD. FDD is a more mature and well known technology as far as network equipment and devices are concerned.

I believe that LTE-TDD ecosystem is getting more mature thanks to deployments in China, India, Japan, Middle East and some European countries. I don’t exclude Telecom Italia from being interested in TDD in some countries.”

Where do you stand on the issue of OTT players contributing to the costs of deploying networks?

There are many viewpoints on the contribution of over-the-top players to the telecommunications industry and it has been argued whether they represent a disruptive threat or an innovative opportunity. We believes both are true and consequently we are ready to compete and open to a cooperate in order to offer better quality and remunerate our services

Do you think that VoLTE will have an impact and if so in what time frame?

VoLTE will really start from 2014/2015, We are working with other operators, GSMA, chipset manufacturers, software and hardware companies to transform VoLTE into an opportunity. The common goal is to build up enriched communication suites that integrates voice, messaging, images, video, applications, and context awareness.

Is there enough innovation occurring in the mobile network industry? Can you provide some examples?

There is innovation in the mobile networks even though the most disruptive changes and paradigm shifts are at the edge of the networks: terminals and clouds.  As far as networks are concerned I believe that standardisation continue to be crucial.  Just to give you an example, current network equipment are based on 3GPP Release 8 (completed in March 2009) but we’re working on release 11 and planning for Release 12.

Here the issue is that operators keep standardising a huge number of options partially implemented by vendors. Due to that, interoperability becomes more and more a key issue. Having said that, I believe that there are some very interesting innovation roadmaps for the network industry: Carrier Aggregation, Heterogeneous Network, Active Antenna System and Beam forming, CoMP and MIMO 4X4.

What changes would you hope to see in the industry in the next five years?

What I expect is that billions of objects will be connected and the Internet of Things will become a reality. HD video, virtual and augmented reality will invade our everyday life, networks will gather a huge amount of data about individuals, while communities, objects, places, contexts, and clouds will transform that data into information. What I hope, as an individual, is that all those changes will turn into a better quality of life for everybody. As a professional I hope and feel confident that carriers will be up to catch the related business opportunities.

Why are you attending the LTE World Summit and what are you looking forward to most?

The LTE World Summit represents the opportunity to have a worldwide overview of LTE key solutions currently in field and collect the experiences of operator that have already launched LTE services. This event is also an opportunity to share information about LTE ecosystem in terms of market perspectives, technological innovation, standard evolution and new services development.

Michele Palermo, vice president for Standards and Fora will be speaking for Telecom Italia on the subject of ‘Moving towards true 4G – LTE Advanced’, at the LTE World Summit, taking place on the 23-24 May 2012 CCIB, Barcelona, Spain. Click here to register your interest.