The deal will bring fibre to Christchurch

Chinese vendor Huawei has been awarded a contract to supply fibre equipment for the Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) network being built in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand.

The multi-million contact was awarded by Enable Networks and involves the provision of all network equipment for the project, including fibre ducting, fibre optic cables and open access layer two network solutions.

It also involves the provision of service expertise required for the 3,500 kilometre UFB network that will extend across Christchurch and into growing centres in Waimakariri and Selwyn Districts.

This is the second major order Huawei has won for New Zealand’s UFB project, the first being awarded late last year and involving equipment for the network in the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki and Wanganui regions.

Other vendors which have won a role in the UFB project include Alcatel-Lucent, which is providing its IP/MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) solution for the areas of Hawke’s Bay, Rotorua and Taupo; and Ericsson, which has been selected to provide Gigabit Passive Optical Networking (GPON) technology for the Northpower Fibre Network being built in Whangarei in the far north of the North Island.

The UFB initiative has been set up as a public-private partnership, with the state-owned Crown Fibre Holdings representing the government and forming alliances with local partners, including Northpower, UltraFast Fibre (which awarded the contract to Huawei), Enable Networks and Chorus.

The New Zealand government has allocated public funds of NZD 1.5bn ($1.2bn) for the project, which aims to connect 75 per cent of the country’s population by 2019 and deliver speeds of 100 Mbps initially, with speed increases of up to 10 Gbps anticipated further down the line.

Du and Huawei invest in Dubai Metro

In the Middle East, UAE operator Du has announced that it has provided wifi access across the Dubai Metro, the majority shareholder in Orange Israel is looking to sell its stake in the firm and a Bahraini operator is left reeling after the Indian Supreme Court cancels its licence to provide 2G services in the country.

Du has teamed up with Chinese vendor Huawei on a project to provide wifi access across the Dubai Metro, which will deploy its transmission network solution across the rail service. The project will see passengers and small retail businesses able to access mobile services in the stations across 18 metro stops on the Green line.

Huawei admitted that it sees a lucrative opportunity among urban rail operators. The vendor said that it has completed a number of rail projects worldwide, and that the MENA region is currently the world’s fastest growing market for rail projects and is expected to double in size in the next decade. There is more than $250bn of planned investment in the railways sector in the region and Huawei said that rail is central to its growth in the region.

“Dubai is a great place to live, work and do business in, but as the city continues to grow, congestion and traffic are becoming more problematic,” said Dr. Liu Qi, president, Middle East for Huawei Enterprise. “Better public transport infrastructure is an added draw for businesses investing in the region.”

Meanwhile, the majority shareholder of Orange Israel, Scailex Corporation, is looking to sell its stake in the operator. In Israel, France Telecom’s Orange brand is operated by a company called Partner Networks, in which Scailex currently holds a share of approximately 44.5 per cent.

The company has appointed Deutsche Bank and Lazard Freres to oversee the sale of its stake and Deutsche Bank has confirmed that it will supply a credit line of up to $1bn to the winning bidder, if necessary and subject to certain conditions.

The company is considering options including a deal that would turn Partner into a privately held company, according to Scailex’s statement.

And Bahraini operator Batelco said that it is carefully studying the detailed judgement handed down by the Supreme Court of India with its legal advisers and STel Management, following the decision from the Supreme Court of India to cancel 122 spectrum licences purchased in 2008.

Batelco invested in STel in order to enter the Indian market and said that it did so after following a diligence exercise with the support of financial and commercial advisers. The company said that it also received certain representations and warranties from STels promoter regarding the validity of the licence. However, it stressed that it was not involved in the bidding for licences, which have since been found to be marred by corruption.

“Batelco was not involved in the STel licence application process nor had any knowledge of any of the events surrounding the granting of the 2G licences in January 2008,” the firm said in a statement.

Batelco will also review the sustainability of its business operations under the revised conditions imposed by the Indian Supreme Courts. It has held 42.7 per cent equity in STel since May 2009.

“As Batelco continues to grow and diversify its operations, it intends to explore all options to remain involved in the Indian telecommunications market,” the company added.

Huawei and Ericsson lead the market in LTE network launches with Huawei having built 23 LTE commercial networks and Ericsson 21. Nokia Siemens Networks has built 13 commercial networks, with Alcatel-Lucent and Samsung each having built 5 respectively.in trials, technology testing or studies.

With the world’s first LTE commercial network, the report lists Europe as the fastest-growing region for LTE. The GSA lists 24 operators in Europe that have launched LTE commercial services, about 50% of the total numbe. In Europe, Huawei has partnered with Deutsche Telekom, MTS, Telefonica, Telenor, TeliaSonera, Vodafone and other leading operators to launch commercial LTE networks. Ericcson and Nokia Siemens Networks each have 8 deployments in Europe.

In North America GSA counts six commercial LTE networks, of which five are deployed by Ericsson. Interestingly the report also highlights that 285 operators, over 30% higher than 6 months ago, have committed to commercial LTE network deployments or are engaged in trials, technology testing or studies.

Huawei and Ericsson Build over 80% of Global Commercial LTE Network

The Nokia Lumia 900 and Sony Xperia S

Device manufacturers Sony, Nokia and Huawei have each announced new handsets at CES in Las Vegas, as competition in the smartphone market hots up.

Sony dropped a bombshell, announcing that Sony-Ericsson will be renamed Sony Mobile Communications after its decision to part ways with Ericsson last year. The company also unveiled its first own-brand handset, the Xperia S, which will be launched globally in the first quarter of 2012. The handset will initially feature the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system, but will be upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS during the second quarter.

The Xperia S has a 4.3-in HD display and a 12-megapixel camera. It runs on a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and has 32GB internal flash storage. It is also near field communications (NFC) enabled.

The handset gives a glimpse into Sony’s intentions in the smartphone market as it looks to offer an ecosystem of devices to consumers. The Xperia S is PlayStation-certified, which means that the smartphone offers a PlayStation-like gaming experience, as well as access to the PlayStation online store. In addition, it benefits from access to Sony’s music catalogue, Music Unlimited, which offers 12 million songs, and Video Unlimited, which offers the latest Hollywood blockbusters and TV shows from major studios.

According to Sony, the device also enables connectivity with multiple screens for consumers looking to share content on whichever screen they choose, whether it’s TV, smartphone, laptop or tablet.

Nick Dillon, analyst at Ovum, said that with the Sony-Ericsson buyout still pending regulatory approval, the launch is a bold move by Sony but one that the company needed to make.

“The launch of the own-branded smartphones marks the start of a new era for Sony, as it positions itself to battle with other multiscreen players in the increasingly competitive and interlinked consumer electronics markets,” he said.

“As we enter 2012, Ovum believes that it will become increasingly important for top-tier consumer electronics vendors to offer a complete portfolio, not only of devices, but also the services which run on them. Despite having many of these components in place, Sony now faces the challenge of knitting them together to create a compelling integrated offering – an area in which it has yet to excel.”

The company also revealed a Bravia engine-powered smartphone, the Sony-Ericsson Xperia Ion, which is also LTE-enabled and will be available exclusively on US carrier AT&T in Spring.

Meanwhile, Nokia has launched its first Windows Phone handset to support LTE, the Lumia 900. It has a 4.3in screen with an AMOLED ClearBlack Display, which is Nokia’s largest smartphone screen to date, and runs on a 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.

The device comes preloaded with Nokia Drive; Nokia’s GPS navigation software, as well as the ESPN sports hub, which provides sports news, videos and scores and the CNN App for Windows Phones, which provides the latest news and video from CNN and will be free to Nokia users for 90 days. The Lumia 900 will be exclusive to AT&T and will be launched in “the coming months”, according to Nokia.

Meanwhile, Chinese vendor Huawei also unveiled what it claims is the world’s slimmest smartphone. The Huawei Ascend P1 S is 6.68mm thin and runs on the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system.

The device has a dual-core 1.5GHz processor and features a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen with Corning Gorilla Glass.

The Chinese firm also unveiled another smartphone, the Ascend P1 which is part of the same smartphone series and boasts the same functionality, but is not quite as slim, measuring 7.69mm.

Both handsets come with an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, and will be available in Europe, Asia-Pacific, North America, Australia, Middle East, and China from April 2012.

With AT&T clinching exclusive deals with Nokia and Sony for new handsets, the US operator has made a clear statement that it is serious about LTE. As well as Sony and Nokia, the firm has announced new LTE devices from Samsung, HTC and Pantech. According to Jan Dawson, analyst at Ovum, as LTE continues to gain momentum, the battle between the top US carriers will make for compelling viewing.

“Impressively, AT&T has launched a wider range in terms of price points, operating systems and form factors than Verizon, which launched much earlier. Verizon will have some work to do to catch up, especially at the low end,” he said.

“However, all these devices are only able to use LTE in the few markets where AT&T has launched, and in that respect AT&T is still well behind Verizon. Although it is rolling out rapidly, it has yet to provide an update on its LTE strategy since its merger plans with T-Mobile fell apart, and the last available plans suggest it will continue to trail Verizon’s LTE coverage.”

LTE World Summit 2012 is taking place on the 23-24th May 2012, at the CCIB, Barcelona, Spain.

Dr. XiPeng Xiao, Huawei Europe

We speak to Dr. XiPeng Xiao, Head of Chief Engineer Office for Network Product Line at Huawei Europe, which won the category ‘Broadband Innovation of the Year’ at this year’s Broadband Infovision Awards for its 200G line card.

Can you tell us a little more about your entry?

Huawei’s 200G line card for routers was designed to address the surging bandwidth demand in the ultra-broadband era. It features high-performance and low-power consumption, as well as full compatibility and flexible sub card configuration, maximising customer investment protection.

Huawei’s 200G line card uses the in-house designed Solar2.0 chipsets, which is developed by a global team, ranging from Silicon Valley in the US to Beijing and Shenzhen in China. The Solar design team is led by Bill Lynch, a network processor veteran and vice president of Huawei’s network product line.

Why do you think the judges selected your entry for this award?

The whole industry, including operators and end-users, has an endless desire for higher bandwidth and better experiences. As a leading telecom vendor, Huawei is always dedicated to meeting customers’ requirements and go beyond customers’ expectations.

To address the ever-increasing needs of higher bandwidth and better experiences, Huawei has been investing in industry-leading technology research and development. The launch of the industry’s first 200G line card is the most recent example of Huawei’s efforts on this area.

The fact that Huawei’s 200G line card was selected for this award demonstrates on one hand the importance of high-performance, high-density line cards for the ultra-broadband services of the future; on the other hand, it shows Huawei’s understanding of technology trends and its capability for innovation in this area.

What recent industry developments does it specifically address?

The fast growth of mobile broadband and fixed broadband services brings high bandwidth requirements to aggregation and backbone networks. Huawei’s 200G line card provides high-density 100G and 10GE access.

The 200G line card increases the capacity for a single chassis, and can further increase network core node capacity when combined with cluster technology, significantly simplifying network architecture, improving efficiency and lowering maintenance cost.

The launch of Huawei’s 200G line card reduces the quantity of router and line card slots, greatly lowering the pressure of upgrade and reducing OPEX in power and space. As 100G technology becomes more mature, the 200G line card’s strong compatibility enables a seamless upgrading path without wasting the existing hardware.

What do you see as being the biggest single challenge to the broadband industry in the next few years, and why?

The single biggest challenge will be increases in bandwidth, mainly driven by services like mobile broadband, video and new internet applications; and traffic model change brought by cloud computing and network virtualisation

How do you think the industry should start preparing to meet this challenge?

On one hand, vendors need to take continuous efforts to provide higher-density, higher-performance line cards; at the same time, we should optimise traffic models using distributed mode and other methods to reduce pressure in aggregation and backbone network.

How does being named for this award benefit your business?

Winning this award shows that judges recognised Huawei’s strength in innovation and our understanding of industry trends. Huawei will lead technical innovation based on global R&D facilities, push the industry forward, and provide the best solutions to help our customers achieve greater success in the future.

This year’s Broadband InfoVision Awards were announced during a gala dinner held aboard a river cruise in Paris on September 27th, 2011. For a complete list of winners, please click here

The company is pining for recognition with a launch that put emphasis on style over substance, but do its new devices give credence to Huawei’s ambition to become a “top three handset manufacturer within five years”?

The smartphone market is a competitive one – Samsung has 25 Android-based handsets currently on the market, as well as five tablets on the Android OS. HTC has no fewer than 15 smartphones in its portfolio, offering consumers a choice of Android or Windows Phone operating systems, in addition to its Sense and Flyer Android-based tablets. Meanwhile, Apple’s iPhone 4S broke records by selling a total of 4 million units in its first three days of availability and research firm Gartner recently said it expects the iPad to dominate tablet sales until 2015. So what is Huawei’s master plan to disrupt the industry and break into the top three?

The company’s CMO Victor Xu explained that the firm’s efforts will be targeted towards young social networkers; 18-34 year olds, who are keen to communicate and are tech-savvy. But whose target market isn’t those same young networkers? Huawei is not intimidated by the competition though, with Xu claiming that young people are “not brand loyal”, so can be easily influenced into changing handset brand.  That, of course works both ways.

The hurdle facing Huawei is that by being so late to the party, it has to take an extra step to make consumers take notice of its devices – either by offering some new, revolutionary functionality or an exceptionally compelling price point.

Competing on price would not be compromising on the Chinese vendor’s values; Huawei got its initial break on the infrastructure side by undercutting its Western competitors dramatically. It used this price penetration strategy to accumulate market share, reaching a point today where it is the number two mobile infrastructure vendor in the world; Job done. Judging by the price point Huawei is offering in the UK for its Vision handset – free on a £25 per month contract – it’s not pricing its products at a premium to rivals. But it’s not undercutting them, either.

A new, low-priced smartphone range would be welcomed by the market. Young social networkers aren’t the most affluent of market segments, and in these financially challenging times, everyone is looking for a bargain. And to add further weight to that argument, Telefonica’s Simon Lee-Smith recently told Telecoms.com that Nokia’s Lumia handsets were too expensive, adding that “customers and operators won’t pay [high] costs for a device which doesn’t differentiate sufficiently”.

So rather than focusing on price, it appears that Huawei’s strategy could be to offer differentiated products. However, one can only speculate over this, as UK executive vice president Mark Mitchinson – formerly of Samsung – kept insisting that the firm did not want to “give too much away”, which is odd given that it was an event conceived to inform the media of Huawei’s intentions in the smartphone market.

To be fair to Huawei, its new devices don’t look to compare unfavourably to the majority of devices already on retailers’ shelves, and the Vision has a very neat 3D-like interface option. Huawei also thinks it has spotted a gap in the market with the MediaPad, as it is aimed at the female market; Huawei’s market research suggests that women prefer to use smaller tablets. However, aside from the size, the tablet isn’t notably different to competitors in any way that suggests it is more female-friendly than its rivals – and it’s not clear what a more female friendly tablet would be.

So instead, it’s a story we see time and time again. Another handset manufacturer has launched another Android device, or two in this case, with similar specs to the latest one that its rivals had launched. For a journalist at the moment, attending smartphone and tablet launches feels a bit like Groundhog Day, and consumers must surely empathise – particularly when they walk into a phone shop and struggle to differentiate each handset from the next.

If Huawei is really serious about breaking into the top three handset manufacturers, it will need to start prioritising substance over style. It needs a strategy that is more than to just launch ‘me-too’ products that offer little more than the handsets already on the market.

Sure, it may benefit from strong ties with operators, after having forged a reputation by selling them its network products and solutions over recent years, but to truly win mindshare of consumers, and to become a disruptive force in the market, it’s going to need a plan – a strategy to develop functionalities that go beyond what is on the market today.

The announcement of a new design centre to be established in London early next year could reap dividends for the firm to this end, but until fresh, innovative ideas make their way into Huawei’s devices – or it bites the bullet and decides to focus on forging a reputation as a low-cost player – it may struggle to sway consumers away from the manufacturers that have already got into market leading positions.

The firm has increased its market share from 32 per cent in May 2011 to today’s estimated 36 per cent, it said.

At the company’s Capital Markets Day in Stockholm on Wednesday, president and CEO Hans Vestberg will state that the market outlook from May 2011 remains the same. He will add that the growth rate of the company is expected to vary over the coming years, with economic uncertainties in parts of the world, and warned that the firm may be more cautious in its short-term operator spending.

Ericsson also stated that the fundamentals for the mobile infrastructure industry remain solid and it expects major coverage build-outs of mobile broadband in the coming years.

The firm explained that just 35 per cent of the world’s population currently has access to WCDMA/HSPA coverage, but this number is expected to grow to 80 per cent in 2016., Population coverage of LTE is expected increase from two per cent today to 35 per cent in the same time period

“The massive increase in mobile traffic is driven by usage in highly populated areas and 60 per cent of the traffic growth up to 2016 will be generated in metro and urban area,” said the company. “Today, Ericsson has a 43 per cent market share in cities, based on the installed base of mobile networks in the world’s 100 largest cities.”

And as any device with cellular connectivity needs a license to Ericsson’s patents – currently 27,000 patents have been granted to the firm, covering a wide range of technologies – Ericsson is a net receiver of royalties and has some 90 license agreements. With new devices and other industries entering the world of connectivity, Ericsson said that it targets to grow its IPR revenues above the SEK 4.6bn ($700m) net revenue generated in 2010.

Huawei's Vision smartphone

Chinese telecoms solutions provider Huawei has unveiled two new devices as it attempts to establish a stronger foothold in the smartphone and tablet markets.

The Vision smartphone runs on the Android Gingerbread OS and has a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM 8255 processor. It supports 720p video recording and playback, and features a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash. The phone also has a customisable 3D carousel user interface.

Meanwhile, the Huawei MediaPad is the firm’s new 7-inch Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet. It has a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm processor, a HDMI port and 1080p full HD video recording and playback. It features a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera and 5 megapixel autofocus rear-facing camera with HD video record and playback. It allows 14.4Mbps HSPA+ and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n connectivity, and has a six-hour battery life, according to the firm. The tablet also supports Flash 10.3.

The firm has chosen the UK as its primary market for its device push and the Huawei Vision handset will be launched there in time for the traditionally lucrative Christmas period. It is expected to be available for free on contracts in the region of £25 ($40) per month.

The Huawei MediaPad will be available in the UK through retailers and operators from Q1 2012, with the Wi-Fi version expected to sell in the region of £275.

The firm also announced that it will open a dedicated European design centre for its mobile device business in London in Q1 2012.

Adam Leach, principal analyst at Ovum, commented: “There is currently an opportunity in the tablet market to bring high-quality devices to a mass-market audience. Huawei, given its scale and expertise, is well positioned to take advantage of this opportunity.”

Baber J.Awan, Huawei

We speak to Baber J. Awan, Marketing Director of IPTV solutions at Huawei, which won the category ‘Content, Entertainment, Applications and Services’ at this year’s Broadband InfoVision Awards for its IPTV solution.

Why do you think the judges selected your entry for this award?

Huawei provides a best-of-breed end-to-end Digital Home IPTV solution, together with business consultancy and content services, to support an operator’s IPTV business.

We believe the judges selected our entry for this award because Huawei’s IPTV solution is an excellent service innovation in the area of Content, Entertainment, Applications and Services which offered significant new prospects for increased revenue, managing costs, improving quality and increasing customer satisfaction.

What recent industry developments does it specifically address?

Huawei’s Digital Home IPTV solution helps the customer meet challenges and opportunities. It provides a customised Quality of Service (QoS)-based hybrid (IP+Cable/ Satellite/ DTT/OTT) TV solution for customers, which can combine digital entertainment, infotainment, interaction, and other advanced innovative Value Added Services.

Huawei’s IPTV Service Delivery Platform simultaneously supports IPTV and digital TV in one solution, providing consumers with interactive multi-screen services through multi-channel networks (IP network, mobile network, HFC, etc.). The platform makes the services independent of underlying network, and enables third parties and online developers to introduce their huge service offering easily.

Aiming to face the growing challenge of free internet delivery mechanism and consumer’s new expectations, Huawei IPTV Service Delivery Platform offers a future-oriented open platform based on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), which provides prompt network integration with legacy networks, a horizontal development environment based on cloud-computing framework with open IPTV & Internet capabilities, open service innovation with standard Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and Service Access Gateways, connecting mass developers with a portal presentation for a unified experience and flexible business processor with BSS/OSS.

What plans do you have to improve it in the coming months?

IPTV is an emerging technology and will evolve into a completely interactive experience in the future. IPTV set-top devices will be the first step towards the true convergence of everything into a single IPTV platform, and that’s where the future really lies. These technologies will be in every house and business in the next five to ten years. You can either spend money on this technology or you can make money from this technology.

We are positioning IPTV as part of the Digital Home – the next evolution of IPTV. Converged with a Service Delivery Platform (SDP) and based on Content Delivery Network (CDN) cloud computing technology, Huawei’s IPTV product line is committed to providing connected home applications for consumers.

Huawei’s IPTV product line has the following plans and roadmap to improve its products, fulfil customer’s requirements and meet the future needs of the technology: Digital Shopping Mall, Video Surveillance, Conference Call, UGC and Mashup OTT services, Home Community & Host,     Home Unified Portal, Social TV (Facebook & Twitter etc applications on TV), Hybrid TV (IP+DVB-S, IP+DVB-C), Recommendation Engine, and targeted advertising.

Our solution is provisioned with Service Delivery Platform and Software Development Kits (SDKs) to allow the quick deployment of Value-Added Services and applications. Huawei’s solution can efficiently integrate with back office systems to provide a fast time to market for new services of IPTV, which enables carriers to create new revenue growth. The openness of our solution also facilitates the integration of different terminals such as set-top box and wireless devices.

Our solution also provides the custom design of Electronic Programming Guides (EPG) and User Interfaces (UIs) to fit with market needs. EPG customisation can be done expeditiously, on browser-based technology. The customisation of Value-Added services takes just one month for completion.

Huawei’s solution helps operators to reduce CapEx: it provides smooth system integration by making efficient use of existing components in a legacy environment with our modular components.

Fast time to market and a successful business launch can be achieved with our business consultancy services developing strategic plans, such as content strategy, marketing strategy and distribution strategy, leading to a well-defined business plan and roadmap. Our content services also provide customers the capability to deliver an IPTV service with attractive content, good QoS and high quality user experience.

Huawei’s IPTV system supports both centralised and distributed architectures to meet operator’s different scale requirements for IPTV service deployment. Huawei has a carrier-class, high-performance ATAE-based hardware platform for media services with switching backplane, that supports up to 24 Gbps. Huawei’s Media Delivery Network (MDN) is a universal content delivery system that can be used in both IP and HFC networks.

What changes do you believe are ahead for the broadband industry as a whole?

There are number of changes ahead for the broadband industry: the industry has experienced hitherto-unknown growth in the past 12 months, and there is no doubt that 2011 has been a boom year for broadband development.

It is interesting to note the variety of different players that have entered the market from different parts of the value chain, including broadcasters, consumer electronics manufacturers, and TV and games platform operators, as well as standalone VOD providers etc.

Fierce competition has been witnessed not only among telco IPTV providers but also between other players like Google TV, Apple TV, Yahoo Connected TV etc.

With the development of tablet and smart phones, the battle for main screen has already been started. Each of these players is battling to become the ‘homepage’ on the television for consumers’ access to content and services.

In the IPTV set-top box side, we have seen the emergence of hybrid set-top boxes that support satellite and cable transmission in order to grab mass market. Social TV is another trend introduced in past 12 months – the ability to support social media websites like Facebook and Twitter on the TV screen.

In short, development from open IPTV platform to Android-based STBs, from multi-screen trends to consumer behaviour, from traditional multicast TV to OTT and from content to new business models, have all been introduced in the past 12 months. All these factors are ready to change the landscape of the broadband industry.

What do you see as being the biggest single challenge to the broadband industry in the next few years, and why?

There are numerous challenges to face broadband industry in the next few years. For example in APAC region, a lack of network infrastructure, low broadband penetration rate, poor network condition and unavailability of the latest enabling technology have been some of the biggest issues which were faced by this specific region.

With the advancement of technology and deployment of Fibre-to-the-x (FTTx) networks, the situation is in the favour of broadband technologies, and especially IPTV network deployment.

How do you think the industry should start preparing to meet this challenge?

Operators, service providers and government should adopt FTTx and other new broadband-enabling technologies as soon as possible in order to meet this challenge.

How does being named in the awards shortlist benefit your business?

Winning this category is a rewarding experience for Huawei. This award is advantageous for our business, and provides great publicity and recognition for Huawei’s IPTV solution.

This enables the industry to benchmark Huawei against our competitors, and may well drive customers to our door as a result. Awards are held in high esteem by both the corporate and consumer industries because people are aware of the stiff competition they attract, and the efforts involved in entering them in the first place.

This year’s Broadband InfoVision Awards were announced during a gala dinner held aboard a river cruise in Paris on September 27th, 2011. For a complete list of winners, please click here