MCI INTERVIEW MCI EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW
Supply and demand
Telecoms.com talks to Thomas Norén, Head of Product Line LTE at Ericsson, about the vendor’s experiences in LTE so far.
became a reality, and in 2011 will see the technology made available to mil- lions of consumers, with deployments from a number of operators worldwide. As one of the key infrastructure sup- pliers for many of these deployments Ericsson bills itself as the leading vendor in the LTE space. Certainly Ericsson has endured while a number of its peers have been forced to either join forces or withdraw altogether. Those remaining in the game are now looking to LTE as an opportu- nity to scale and create new business. At the same time, standardisation can also lead to problems with differentia- tion. So how does Ericsson see itself meeting that particular challenge? “Ericsson has always had competitors, and over the last 136 years we have stayed ahead by focusing on technology leadership. Obviously, it’s a competi- tive industry so I think that the way we handle it is to focus on technology leadership,” says Thomas Norén, the firm’s head of Product Line LTE. “We are certainly not afraid of moving to new technologies, and we have the scale and local presence to deploy it all over the globe.” By way of illustration, Norén re- ports that Ericsson continues to invest in 2G and 3G while it is with LTE deployments that the company is looking to continue its leadership. “We have seen a tremendous growth in our networks and much of that is fuelled by the uptake of LTE mobile broadband,” said Norén. “We are the leading vendor so we are really supporting operators to grow their smartphone and mobile broadband businesses.” Ericsson recently announced quarterly results in which it drew
2010 20
was the year that LTE mo- bile networks
he says. “All types of devices—-don- gles, MiFis, smartphones, tablets, PC cards, laptops with built-in modems. You can buy them in several of our operators’ stores, so the ecosystem is growing very rapidly. We don’t see it as an issue right now.” One stumbling block is that some
Thomas Norén
particular attention to demand for its multi-standard RBS 6000 base station. The strength of these modu- lar systems, Norén says, is that they can accommodate multiple radios in one enclosure—and while he will not disclose specific figures for unit shipments, he does say that, in the US, more than half of the population has LTE coverage now, and Ericsson has provided a large portion of that. Norén is keen to point out that LTE
deployments are not all about don- gles, and that smartphones such as the HTC Thunderbolt,the LG Revolu- tion and the Samsung Droid Charge- and Galaxy Indulge, are bringing service to a wider demographic. As explored elsewhere in the supple- ment, some operators are bemoaning a lack of device availability, but Norén claims that this problem, so familiar from previous generations of mobile technology, is not apparent with LTE. “I see a lot of different devices coming to the market all the time,”
LTE network deployments have suf- fered delays due to problems with dongles handing over between LTE and 3G signals. But Norén is ada- mant that this is an issue that has been resolved by following the cor- rect testing regime.“ All devices now are multi-standard so you can use the technologies in the best possible way. We just need to make sure the technologies work well together”. He continues: “We’ve had a very strong focus on driving the eco- system—we can properly test with chipsets and devices to make sure that the standards are interpreted in the same way and that the network really works well.” And what gives Ericsson the confi- dence that it can help to define those standards? Experience, says Norén. “We had the first commercial device chipsets several years ago in our labs.” Problems moving between 3G and
LTE networks are one concern, but while LTE was conceived as a global standard it’s inevitable that no ter- minal distributed by an operator will be compatible with networks worldwide at this early stage. The main issue here is spectrum harmo- nisation and Norén accepts that the realities of regulation and market forces make a run-anywhere device something of a dream scenario. “In an ideal world all spectrum
would be harmonised—but we re- alise that that’s not the case. That’s why we need products to cope with that. Last year we introduced [equip-
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