Integrating
TO EXPAND
Project Partners
Integrating TO EXPAND Written by: John O’Hanlon Produced by: Danielle Harris
3
For Germany’s largest mobile operator, integrating the networks of O2 and E-Plus while instigating an accelerated LTE roll out was a unique technical challenge that fell to the company’s CTO Cayetano Carbajo and his team
4
March 2016
T
he new Telefónica Deutschland is the largest mobile communication provider in Germany, setting the pace for the telecommunication industry and its evolution in a time of digitalisation there. The aim is to become the leading digital telecommunications company in this key European market, the pursuit of this goal started at the beginning of 2016 with the process of integrating Telefónica and Eplus networks. These networks are using the three mobile standards (GSM, UMTS and LTE; this is 2G, 3G and 4G) with nationwide coverage. The integration work started in 2015, while the company continues to build out its
LTE (4G) network. By around mid 2016, it says, the plan is that customers of both networks will also be able to use a shared LTE. What current E-Plus and BASE mobile customers will see is a gradual conversion to the brand O2 over the course of 2016. This way, Telefónica Deutschland is simplifying its offer in the premium segment and providing its customers with a consistent high-quality product and service range under one brand. The role of the BASE online portal will remain unchanged though special offers for new customers are based on the O2 tariff. A fundamental repositioning as a sole online brand is planned for a later time. “The transfer of the BASE and E-Plus customers to the brand world of O2 will contribute to a significant simplification of structures,
1,300 Employees in the technology team
w w w. t e l e f o n i c a . d e
5
Changing the Way We Work, Live, Play, and Learn Cisco designs and sells products, provides services, and delivers integrated solutions to develop and connect networks around the world. We are focused on helping our customers use IT to enable, differentiate, or fundamentally define their business strategy and drive growth, improve productivity, reduce costs, mitigate risk, and gain a competitive advantage in an increasingly digital world.
What is Cisco’s Mission Statement? Shape the future of the Internet by creating unprecedented value and opportunity for our customers, employees, investors, and ecosystem partners.
Kontakt, Cisco Deutschland, Cisco Systems GmbH, Am SĂśldnermoos 17, D-85399, Hallbergmoos Tel: 0800-187-3652 or +49 (0) 811 554 3535 Cisco Systems, Inc., Corporate Headquarters, 170 West Tasman Dr., San Jose, CA 95134, USA 1-800-553-6387
www.cisco.com
Cayetano Carbajo, CTO 8
March 2016
technical platforms and processes at Telefónica Deutschland,” says CTO Cayetano Carbajo. Since it entered the German market in 2005 with the acquisition of O2, Telefónica has made rapid strides in the market and now offers mobile and fixed, voice and data services for private and business customers. With a total of 48.6 million customer accesses, the company is one of the three leading integrated telecommunications providers in Germany. In the mobile segment alone, Telefónica Deutschland is responsible for more than 43.3 million accesses – making it the German market leader. So this has been a busy time for its Chief Technical Officer (CTO) since his appointment in 2014. Cayetano Carbajo moved to Munich from Madrid, where he spent the previous decade as Technical Director at Telefónica’s headquarters: before that he was CTO in Mexico, where he created the company’s GSM network in that country by amalgamating two pre-existing CDMA networks. All in all he has been with the company for 21 years. For Carbajo, Germany is the ideal environment for an engineer. “We engineers tend to be well ordered people, with a clear view of processes, and that definitely fits the German national character.” Nevertheless we shouldn’t make too much of this, he says. Most of the work he has been leading his team (he oversees a 1,300 strong networking ‘family’ spread across Germany) into doing here is unmapped territory. Certainly the w w w. t e l e f o n i c a . d e
9
WE turn no into now Marketing wants new digital services. Finance instant monetization, and IT is left balancing these expectations with reality. With Transformative IT from Ericsson, operators become more agile to say yes, now. We Turn Network Evolution into Business Revolution Our telecommunications world is characterized by two mega-trends: a continuously rapid increase of mobile data traffic mainly driven by video and the emerging Internet of Things. Today almost 50 percent of mobile data traffic is video, whether live, on-demand, or usergenerated. In the year 2021 video will already generate 70 percent of the worldwide mobile network traffic. Ericsson is the only industry player that provides service providers and the broadcast industry alike with a complete end-to-end portfolio from content creation and distribution to network transformation to experiencecentric Managed Services. In the emerging networked society a flexible and efficient infrastructure will help operators to build offerings towards new value chains, support millions of different services and devices and work perfectly where ever people want to connect. Achieve Business Agility with Transformative IT Transformative IT can help operators manage the complexity of change, speed the adoption of new technologies and add intelligence to the end result. This IT-intelligence
is a prerequisite for networks and systems to support the real-time transactions, real-time insights and real-time automation necessary to satisfy user requirements. Transformative IT makes operators agile and offers them the Power of Yes, turning No into Now. Ericsson as a Transformation Partner for Telefónica Germany As the world’s leader in mobile infrastructure, telecoms services and OSS/BSS, Ericsson is proud to support Telefonica Germany in their network transformation after the E-Plus acquisition. One example of such BSS transformation is Online Charging. The Online Charging System from Ericsson has already been in use by Telefonica in Germany for their initially 12 million prepaid subscribers. Now Telefónica in Germany expands its online charging system to support all 30 million prepaid subscribers. The expansion results in the largest prepaid online charging implementation in Western Europe. Extending the Ericsson Online Charging System represents an important step towards the crucial OSS/BSS harmonization and network consolidation of these previously separate mobile networks.
Furthermore Ericsson supports Telefónica in Germany as End-to-End Partner in their Network Consolidation in various areas, such as providing turn-key transport solutions for the Optical Backbone and the Microwave Network or creating the VoLTE service for their end users. Ericsson leads the transformation of the world’s most advanced operators to achieve the agility required to thrive as a digital enterprise and extract value from the Networked Society. Ericsson provides the industry’s most comprehensive and integration-ready mobile infrastructure, telecoms- and broadcast-services and OSS/BSS portfolio. 115,000 professionals with global experience and deep ICT knowledge make sure, that our customers always stay ahead.
www.ericsson.com/ spotlight/transformative-it
“I and my team are carrying out the integration into a single, seamless network ... the biggest network integration that has ever been undertaken, anywhere” – Cayetano Carbajo, CTO
12
March 2016
technology that underpins communications in Europe has evolved a long way from the CDMA networks that he was dealing with in Mexico. It is an environment in which a creative, questing spirit is more important than being versed in the traditional ways of doing things, he says. “As CTO my job is changing all the time. I am leading the integration and evolution of both networks and service platforms, and what we are finding is that our situation here is not really analogous with any other country. Currently we have two networks because Telefónica Deutschland acquired E-Plus in 2014 and we had the network from O2 as well. I and my team are carrying out the integration into a single, seamless network. I do believe that this is the biggest network integration
that has ever been undertaken, anywhere.� The initial integration work is focused on densely populated urban areas, as Telefónica Deutschland aims in a short time that as many people as possible should profit from the new, integrated network. Total network integration is planned to complete in five years. The networks were both fully audited after an intensive phase of planning and testing in preparation for this challenging large-scale project. Having decided which transmitter sites will create the optimal geographical distribution, the next phase is the integration proper. As a first step in the process, in May
Telefonica Deutschland is headquartered in Munich
w w w. t e l e f o n i c a . d e
13
Forming a sustainable and leading digital Telco: Huawei’s support of the consolidation of Telefónica Germany and E-plus Selecting a reliable and strategic partner is one of the keys
and solutions architecture. This was possible by combining
to business success, as the consolidation of the networks of
Huawei’s local knowledge as service provider, deep insights
Telefónica Germany and E-Plus demonstrates.
in the networks coming from multiple joint projects, global best practice with its continuous search for innovative
Huawei had been working with Telefónica Germany for many
solutions and the mutual trust and openness of the partners
years regarding wireless, network, professional services and
based on the strong relationship.
other fields, before being chosen as partner for the M&A process of E-Plus and Telefónica in Germany.
Huawei demonstrated that it was able to support Telefónica’s consolidation and business trans-formation. As a result,
To support the integration of the two networks, Huawei
Huawei was chosen in early 2015 as a major partner for
not only brought its industry-leading technology and global
equipment and services for Telefónica Germany.
consolidation experience to the program, but also a long and well established trusted relationship that would prove
The agreed consolidation services delivery model provides
mission critical in the process.
several important benefits for Telefónica. With Huawei as Single Point of Contact having end to end program
The complexity of this consolidation project required a
management responsibility, complexity is reduced by
strategic decision looking for true partnership. A specifically
minimizing the number of interfaces and dependencies
tailored solution was designed based on Huawei’s extensive
between different parties. The optimized step-by-step
experience from preparing and executing consolidation
implementation methodology secures smooth delivery
projects in leading markets.
on time for both new LTE coverage and GSM/UMTS
The best practice solution developed by Huawei addresses
consolidation with minimum risk for unplanned service
three key business objectives:
degradation for the end user.
a) shorten the time needed to prepare and execute the consolidation,
Huawei
b) secure a better end user experience of the consolidated
mobile operator with the most subscribers in the German
network compared to before and
market and the most optimized spectrum, on its way to
c) maximize the cost synergies without jeopardizing time to
become the leading digital telco and is looking forward to
market and user experience.
future cooperation in new technology domains that enable
accompanies
Telefónica,
Germany’s
Telefónica to realize its leadership targets. Consolidation typically brings huge changes for the companies involved – affecting not only the network and the operational structures, but also the organization of the companies themselves. Therefore the first thing to do is the definition of clear strategic objectives and a joint team which designs the consolidation strategy for forming a sustainable and leading digital telco out of the two companies. Huawei successfully worked with Telefónica on the network development strategy, the operational models and the timeline. Major contributors to these three elements were Huawei’s capability to analyze and compare the benefits of different technical scenarios, implementation methodologies
Huawei thanks Telefónica for its trust and confidence choosing Huawei as a key partner in the German network consolidation.
biggest
a better connected germany.
www.huawei.com/de
T E L E F Ó- NSUPPLIER I C A D E UPROFILE TSCHLAND HUAWEI
Huawei is a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider. Our aim is to enrich life and improve efficiency through a better connected world, acting as a responsible corporate citizen, innovative enabler for the information society, and collaborative contributor to the industry. Driven by customercentric innovation and open partnerships, Huawei has established an end-to-end ICT solutions portfolio that gives customers competitive
advantages in telecom and enterprise networks, devices and cloud computing. Huawei’s 170,000 employees worldwide are committed to creating maximum value for telecom operators, enterprises and consumers. Our innovative ICT solutions, products and services are used in more than 170 countries and regions, serving over one-third of the world’s population. Founded in 1987, Huawei is a private company fully owned by its employees. www.huawei.com/de
2015, Telefónica Deutschland activated national roaming in the UMTS networks for all O2 and E-Plus customers. Since September localised test runs have been conducted, providing enough information on how to convert individual transmitter stations within a few hours and to fully implement the network merger in a given area within a week. This was to ensure minimal network disruption and make sure customer experience wouldn’t be affected. The UMTS network from E-Plus is the best in Germany and extends well beyond urban areas. “With National Roaming the user experience of mobile data services has been improved by UMTS in areas where customers previously had no LTE coverage,” he says. “We are consolidating the sites because many are duplicated, and we are going to end up with 25,000 sites, so we are dismantling 14, 000 sites. This is a key element in our synergy plan. Besides this consolidation we are doing a complete technology renewal to have the most recent network delivered in outstanding quality. For the consolidation we chose what w w w. t e l e f o n i c a . d e
17
TELEFĂ“NICA DEUTSCHLAND
The demand for better demands a better network.
www.juniper.net
is the best site in terms of quality and cost and then the other becomes redundant.” By the end of the network integration process Telefónica Deutschland will have transferred a total of 7,700 mobile telephone sites to Deutsche Telekom. “This will have benefits all round,” Carbajo adds. Telefónica Deutschland can use resources that would have been needed for the elimination of these overlapping locations on the rapid LTE expansion instead. In general, dismantling redundant network sites is not only expensive, but also takes time and ties up personnel. Normally, any existing property leases have to be cancelled and equipment has to be expertly dismantled. By the end of this process Telefónica Deutschland will be able to offer its customers an optimised network with more than 25,000 sites. “We have our criteria for selecting the best sites from the coverage point of view, w w w. t e l e f o n i c a . d e
19
TELEFÓNICA DEUTSCHLAND
THE FUTURE IS WIRELESS Wireless transmission holds on to the technology crown for mobile backhauling. In this interview we explored together with SIAE MICROELETTRONICA, what is happening in the mobile backhaul space, and what we should be expecting to come in the near future. Mobile networks and wireless backhauling, are they still moving hand in hand? Capacity has always been a shadow for wireless transmission, today this is no longer a topic for discussion since the introduction of solutions like our RF Multicore ALFOplus2. This field proven technology offers 2Gbps of guaranteed traffic in licensed bands. Furthermore with millimetre-wave radio we are opening the way to multi-gigabit solutions of 10Gbps for urban areas. An order of magnitude lower in total cost of ownership (TCO) compared to fibre and the characteristic deployment flexibility are the two other strong contributors to the renewing success of this technology, which continues to define mobile backhaul. (Read more about RF Multicore ALFOplus2) Why operators talk about services from the network?
decoupling
Today an operator’s service portfolio is defined by the implemented network. This model limits what can and cannot be offered. The new model to aim for is a “service centric” approach, where the network is instrumental to the service delivery, and Software Defined Networks (SDN) is the way to reach it. It represents a great opportunity for operators to free themselves from
the incumbency of a technology or dominant vendor, thanks to the promise of a real multivendor and multi-layer interworking paradigm. SIAE MICROELETTRONICA is embracing SDN. We demonstrated our commitment both working with the ONF in the first SDN wireless transport proof of concept, as well as with the live demo at MWC16 pioneering the “New IP” model. All our SM-OS based microwave products are natively supporting SDN protocols, infomodels and architecture, bringing the future of SDN closer to reality. (Read more about our SDN) Articulated backhaul networks, multiple product types and SDN, how do you keep them all together? With LTE, the mobile backhaul network has become very articulated, and with 5G and SDN at the horizon it will keep on changing. It becomes fundamental that the backhaul network keeps operating seamlessly regardless the changes in the deployed equipment. This concept is now paramount in any portfolio that aims to satisfy the incoming transport challenges of new technologies. To satisfy this need, all our products run a common Operating System named SM-OS that guarantees common operational behaviour irrespective to their deployment arrangements; split-mount, full outdoor or aggregating platforms. (Read more about our SM-OS) For more information please visit our website: www.siaemic.com
and we’re assessing them one by one. ” This in itself would be a major task for this year but it’s just the customer facing part. In common with what we have seen at Telefónica in other markets, the technology vendor base in Germany is being streamlined. “From our current vendors in the mobile space,” he reveals, “only Huawei and Nokia will remain. A similar process is happening where the EPC (evolved packet core, also known as the SAE core) is concerned, and from two vendors we will go down to a single supplier, in this case Huawei, as the packet core vendor.” Growing Telefónica Deutschland’s LTE coverage is vital to keeping the company ahead in this highly competitive market, thus a key task for the technical teams. “My competition here in Germany has a bigger LTE coverage than
“My competition here in Germany has a bigger LTE coverage than Telefónica Deutschland has at the moment, but we don’t intend to leave matters that way” – Cayetano Carbajo, CTO
w w w. t e l e f o n i c a . d e
21
22
March 2016
Telefónica Deutschland has at the moment, but we don’t intend to leave matters that way. We plan to implement more than 10,000 LTE base stations this year and that will make a significant difference in this market. As the leading digital telecommunications company, we aim to deliver the best network experience to our customers with our mobile network by 2017, though of course our strategy is to continue to expand our mobile coverage continuously after that date.” To do this, having the best and most dependable network is merely a necessary tool. What really matters is delivering a quality experience to the customers, he emphasises. “This is what we call end-to-end customer experience, and is a combination of the quality of the underlying technology, the device and the application our customer is using. To do that we are investing in optimisation and optimisation tools as well as monitoring customer experience and reacting to problems in the service, whether this is an outage caused by the network or a performance issue caused by the network itself or anything else that impacts upon it.” One key example of an optimisation tool that will really make a difference is the adoption of self organising network (SON) technology. “I truly believe we are one of the most successful operators of SON tools, which automate to a very large extent the tasks that traditional maintenance and troubleshooting methods would really struggle to keep up with today. The way it used
Telefónica Deutschland is responsible for more than 43.3 million accesses – making it the German market leader
w w w. t e l e f o n i c a . d e
23
TELEFÓNICA DEUTSCHLAND
REALIZE THE POWER OF PACKET OPTICAL TRANSPORT INNOVATION
From universal switching and seamless IP/Optical interworking to SDNenabled programmability and future-proof scalability, Coriant is transforming technology innovation into real-world customer value and helping Telefónica Germany power the connected experience.
Learn more at
www.coriant.com
to be done was already very complex and in the environment of the networks we are building today that approach has become quite unviable.” The solution the company has chosen to deliver the new levels of automation is Cellwize SON. This technology, which places its emphasis on solutions that work seamlessly with all technologies and vendors, plays a central role streamlining the process to ensure that the modernisation project is completed smoothly. “The end result is a superior and personalized service to subscribers, when they need it, wherever they are. Managing and controlling a multi-vendor, cross-technology network can be a real challenge. Networks are sensitive and become unstable very fast and unexpectedly. Still most of the work required for keeping the system stable can be automated, allowing my team to focus on managing the network. We are using this both for our single-network
“I truly believe we are one of the most successful operators making use of SON tools, which automate ... the tasks that traditional maintenance and trouble shooting methods would struggle to keep up with today” – Cayetano Carbajo, CTO
w w w. t e l e f o n i c a . d e
25
TELEFÓNICA DEUTSCHLAND
Open Connectivity Solutions for Cloud and Mobile Services
Mobile Broadband With Double the Power ADVA Optical Networking is a long-established and well-trusted partner of both Telefónica Germany and E-Plus and its mobile backhaul technology has played a vital role in both networks. That’s why the process of consolidating and expanding the newly combined infrastructure will be simple. Telefónica Germany has a mobile backhaul solution with future-proof scalability and extremely low latency. Thanks to ADVA Optical Networking’s innovative products, twice as many customers will now receive the ultimate broadband experience.
“All sections of our newly integrated team are familiar with the high quality and excellent service that ADVA Optical Networking provides. Knowing that we can rely on that same level of technical expertise as we go forward gives us a great deal of confidence. With a single central management system monitoring our entire network we’ll be able to operate at the utmost efficiency and deal with any issues in an instant. We know that ADVA Optical Networking’s equipment can handle the most rigorous networking requirements. It’s also great to work with such an innovative and dependable supplier based here in Germany. With their manufacturing, and research and development locations so close by we can rely on quick and direct support whenever it’s needed.” Cayetano Carbajo Martín Chief Technology Officer, Telefónica Germany
optimisation and also for our consolidation programme.” Telefónica Deutschland is also implementing tools to measure the end-to-end customer experience. One way to do this is to collect customer feedback but this is unreliable and subjective. A much better way is to use advanced diagnostics to gain insight into the entire ‘experience chain’ as he puts it. “It’s a way of monitoring not just the network behaviour but to see what devices our customers are using and what applications are running on them. After all, customers don’t differentiate between the device, the network and the application – they just want it to work, and that is precisely what we mean by customer experience. But to be clear: always ensuring data protection has the highest priority. In accordance with the statutory regulations, we only use fully anonymised information and conclusions cannot be drawn about individuals.” Yet a further goal for this year and next is to advance in the virtualisation of the network,
€7.79 billion
Telefonica Deutschland’s combined revenue
w w w. t e l e f o n i c a . d e
27
a process whereby, thanks to technological evolution that allows the operator to make use of generic hardware. “It’s a win for us if we can use generic hardware and software optimised for the network and also gain a lot of operational improvement, by operating a service that is cloud based.” That brings the conversation to the key topic of virtualisation, one that we have explored in past articles in connection with Telefónica’s global digital transformation. “Technology is moving fast. Remember when, not so long ago telecommunications operators had no knowledge of IP networks? Now IP is our
28
March 2016
‘We need to evolve and become the best players in the world when it comes to virtualisation and cloud’ core technology! With virtualisation it is the same I think. The knowledge of network engineers about the cloud is limited right now but we need to evolve and become the best players in the world when it comes to virtualisation and cloud. We have a clear plan for training our people to have the best possible skills in these processes.�
w w w. t e l e f o n i c a . d e
29
Munich, Bayern, Germany 80992
+49(0)89 2442-1201 corporatecommunications@telefonica.com www.telefonica.de