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A N E R I C S S O N N E W S L E T T E R
Wireless NOW! .
NEWS Ericsson launches the new GF788 GSM mobile phone at CeBIT ’97 in Hanover.
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12 If you are going to San Francisco… be sure to visit CTIA Wireless ’97.
GSM gets even smarter Like Joanna Wong above, tens of thousands of Hong Kong end users are calling over SmarTone’s GSM network from Ericsson.
Hong Kong’s GSM operator SmarTone uses a totally new solution to cope with huge subscriber growth.
COMPANIES Perot Systems in Texas pioneers the D-AMPS one-phone concept.
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Two new operators go for Ericsson’s D-AMPS to win in booming Brazil.
sia’s first GSM operator is introducing a new method of building out with GSM to cope with a huge influx of new subscribers. The new solution has been pioneered by SmarTone and Ericsson experts working closely together in a special task force. The result is a robust and highly successful fully digital
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Microcells manage Manhattan AT&T Wireless Services uses microcells to improve network quality.
“What we found is that GSM has practically no capacity restraints – not even in a market like Hong Kong. From now on it’s a matter of offering services; GSM capacity constraints are no longer an issue.” ■
D-AMPS, GSM and PDC: digital technologies that are flourishing on four continents. See page 2 70
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THIS NEWSLETTER IS PRINTED ON SCANMATT, A TOTALLY CHLORINE-FREE PAPER PRODUCED WITH MINIMUM EFFLUENT.
Enhanced full-rate
Digital index
See pages 6–7
Ericsson’s new wireless business solution.
GSM network that has never sounded better. Not surprisingly, SmarTone’s technical director Bengt Nordström is optimistic about the future. “Everything worked smoothly from the very first day, and that’s how it continued. Of course, it all depended on the fact that we had the right people in this project from the start,” he says.
See pages 8–9
China’s operators use GSM to beat the competition.
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Photo: Johnny Cheung
Competition increases in Japan as both Hokkaido and Hokuriku come on air.
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Photo: GreatShots
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Ericsson Wireless NOW! No. 1 1997
A world of difference
CONTENTS
All this – and much more – will be realised using the major wireless standards of today. Sometimes, when you talk technology, it seems as if end-user needs can only be served by brave new technologies. But the current paradigm shift in business communications towards wireless shows how things really stand: D-AMPS (IS-136), GSM and PDC mean business for a long time to come. This is where operator revenues and shareholder value will be created.
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Photo: B. Rossander
Availability is a key word in the business communities of both today and tomorrow. Immediate availability translates into being there to do business. And business people need to be around when blue chip customers call: at the most significant moments, customers may only ring once.
True technological leadership is not only a question of supplying the market with the most powerful and future-proof technologies in the shape of D-AMPS, GSM and PDC, it is also a question of timing and launching new services in synch with the marketplace. Today, the business community has set its sights on ubiquitous wireless communications.
Yet, everybody agrees that business people need to be on the move to establish new customer relationships, without neglecting existing customers. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, then, to have a single portable phone that works both inside and outside the office? No matter where the sales executive goes, he or she can always be within reach of VIP calls – or any other calls, for that matter.
By mid-1997, wireless networks will have over 74 million subscribers, and more and more people will be choosing to sign up with the digital standards D-AMPS, GSM and PDC. By 2000, there may be 500 million end users of mobile telephone networks around the world.
This is exactly what Ericsson and AT&T Wireless Services are working towards with their D-AMPS trial system in place at Perot Systems in Dallas. In parallel, Ericsson is also launching its new one-phone concept for the GSM business community. To end users, the idea of a wireless office is both attractive and simple: a subscriber needs only one phone in the office or on a business trip – and it can be used at home, too.
Today’s technological leap is really about how business users all over the world can reap the true benefits of the complete mobility that already exists in wireless networks. Based on its world lead in the mobile market and its leadership in technology, Ericsson is now proceeding to create tomorrow’s wireless world. Together with our customers, the operators, we will make a world of difference.
In the end, the coming era of ubiquitous wireless communications translates into more productivity for individuals and their companies, and better service for operators’ important business customers.
NEW D-AMPS RELEASE Ericsson’s new product release will boost operator competitiveness and profitability.
SMALLER AND SMARTER The new GF788 GSM mobile phone will be launched at CeBIT ’97 in Hanover. The new phone is smaller, smarter and more personal.
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WIRELESS BUSINESS
A new solution for the business community gives new meaning to mobility.
MANHATTAN MICROCELLS Ericsson expertise supports AT&T Wireless Services microcell D-AMPS build-out in New York.
Åke Persson Vice President Marketing and Sales Ericsson Radio Systems AB
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Digital index
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The solution for worldwide wireless
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GSM Presence: Networks operating in 99 countries. Latest developments: Ericsson launches its integrated solution for the business community that will take GSM into the 21st century.
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D-AMPS (IS-136) Presence: Networks operating in 35 countries. Latest developments: The Universal Wireless Communications Consortium holds its first global summit in Orlando, Florida, to spread the word on D-AMPS (IS-136).
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SMARTONE’S GSM LEAD The Hong Kong operator advances GSM technology in a unique joint project with Ericsson.
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PDC
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Presence: Networks operating in Japan. Latest developments: Competition spreads in Japan as PDC networks are launched in the regions of Hokkaido and Hokuriku.
A N E R I C S S O N N E W S L E T T E R
Wireless NOW! Ericsson Wireless NOW! is a quarterly newsletter published by Ericsson Radio Systems AB, SE-164 80 Stockholm, Sweden.
Publisher: Åke Persson. Editorial Board: Greger Berg, Donya Ekstrand, Caroline Freudenthal, Ann Jönsson, Isabella Laihorinne-Smedh, Sture Sjöström, Carl Sommerholt. Project Manager: Sture Sjöström. Telephone: +46-8-764 1088, Facsimile: +46-8-757 2900 Managing Editor: Carl Sommerholt. Telephone: +46-8-404 5145 Project Assistant: Jenny Olsson. Telephone: +46-8-757 5560 Layout and production: Elsie Tarle, Tarle Decor AB. Ericsson Wireless NOW! is published quarterly and distributed to the international telecommunications community in more than 100 countries. Printed in Sweden.
ERICSSON AIRLIFT GSM takes off in China as Ericsson airlifts an entire network into southern China.
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COMPANIES
Ericsson plays a part in the world’s first commercial trial of D-AMPS (IS-136) wireless office services. or more than a year, employees at Perot Systems Corporation in Dallas, Texas, have been testing a completely new communication service that seamlessly integrates on-site cordless PBX services with offsite cellular phone services.
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One digital standard It is the world’s first trial of wireless office services based on the latest D-AMPS (IS-136) wireless standard from Ericsson. The idea is that users have mobile phones that serve as personal extensions to their company’s PBX when they are on site, and as mobile phones when they are off site, all via the same digital wireless standard. The services available, and the tariffs, depend on where the subscriber is in the network. In the office, where a special microcell is installed, calls go via the company’s PBX to the preferred long-distance carrier, which may charge the company a low flat monthly fee for unlimited on-site airtime. When the user leaves the office, the phone becomes an ordinary mobile phone. In addition, any incoming calls to the user’s PBX extension are routed automatically to the mobile phone, as long as it is within the public wireless network service area.
Providing flexibility Perot Systems is an information technology service company. “We apply new technologies to help clients become more competitive and a lot faster on their feet than they have been in the past,” says Phil Evans, a senior telecommunications consultant at Perot Systems. “We are focused on creating truly effective customer-care centers and network-centric computing environments, and wireless applications are key tools in providing the flexibility to achieve this.” The trial was organized by AT&T Wireless Services. Addi-
One phone in all places One phone wherever you go – this is the concept pioneered by AT&T Wireless Services in Dallas using Ericsson equipment.
tional D-AMPS (IS-136) equipment and software was supplied by Ericsson. Two micro base stations were set up at Perot Systems’ information management facility in Richardson to provide wireless access on the premises.
No voice-mail tag Twenty-three technical support staff at Perot Systems were equipped with mobile phones for the trial. The service at Perot Systems is arranged so that incoming calls to a user are first directed to the fixed extension. If the call is not answered after three rings, it is rerouted to the user’s wireless phone. The call reaches the phone regardless of whether the user is on company premises or anywhere within reach of AT&T Wireless Services’ public network in the USA. Finally, if the call goes unanswered, it is rerouted to the user’s voice-mail system. This seamless call-transfer capability was vividly demonstrated when Wireless NOW! called Mike Munch’s direct number to talk to him about wireless office ser-
Even when out driving his car, the one-phone concept means that Mike Munch of Perot Systems can always stay in touch with his customers.
vices. Munch is senior technical hardware specialist with Perot Systems. Munch answers after four rings. The line is crystal clear; it turns out he is not in the office at all but in his car in downtown Dallas. The interview takes place as he drives back to his office, leaves the car and walks through the office building back to his desk. Munch sees enormous potential for wireless office services in industry and commerce.
The ultimate way
world, customers want instant responses,” he explains. “And that’s what they get with the IS136 wireless office, whenever they call.” “Four-digit dialing can be used not only when I’m in the office but also from anywhere in the Dallas and Fort Worth area. If I’m at home, and I want to get in touch with a colleague who also has a D-AMPS phone, I just dial his four-digit company PBX extension number. If he’s out of the office, the call is automatically relayed to his wireless phone via the public
network. I don’t need to remember his cellular number.” The wireless service proved its value when Perot Systems moved a group of employees into a new building still waiting for phones. Staff could always be reached and the pager function of the phones was used extensively. “This successful trial has clearly demonstrated the potential of the D-AMPS [IS-136] digital standard in real business environments,” says Sven Christer Nilsson, executive vice-president of Ericsson Radio Systems. ■
“This is the ultimate way that people are going to do business in the future,” he says. “With this wireless office phone service, I’m no longer tied to my desk waiting for a call or waiting to call someone back. It’s totally versatile and gives me true mobility. In today’s commercial
Phil Evans, senior telecommunications consultant at Perot Systems in Dallas.
Multimillion-dollar Mexican contract A new frame agreement between Telcel and Ericsson brings the latest digital technology to Mexico. he Mexican operator Telcel (Radiomóvil DIPSA) has signed a multimillion-dollar frame agreement with Ericsson for the supply of D-AMPS (IS136) equipment. If following orders to digitize Telcel’s cur-
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rent AMPS network are included, the total value of the contract may reach $495 million. The build-out will take place between 1997 and 1999. D-AMPS (IS-136) is a very powerful digital technology. The Telcel agreement includes Eric-
sson’s wireless intelligent network (WIN) platform, which can considerably expand wireless network functionality with a range of personalized subscriber services.
Migrating to D-AMPS Telcel is the only operator that has a nationwide infrastructure in Mexico. Today, there are almost 63 million subscribers to D-AMPS/AMPS networks worldwide. Of these, over 5 million are already using D-AMPS. All analog AMPS networks have the possibility of migrating to D-AMPS digital technology in the future. ■
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Ericsson Wireless NOW! No. 1 1997
TRENDS the ability to cope with highinterference channel conditions. For end users, this translates into superior speech quality and reduced background noise. The new enhanced vocoder supports both the 800 and 1900 MHz bands. Adaptive channel allocation is a way of singling out the cells in a network that have high interference rates and deliver poor-quality transmissions. This feature, which is available in Ericsson’s new CMOS system, uses new control algorithms to automatically retune the frequencies in cell areas that perform poorly.
More profit
Ericsson’s new open OSSs are full-scale network management systems.
The future today Ericsson is upgrading its D-AMPS (IS-136) technology to boost operator competitiveness and profitability. ricsson D-AMPS (IS136) wireless technology will soon offer breakthrough opportunities for operator profitability and competitiveness. Coming product releases include radio base stations as well as new advanced network functionality in the C release to meet with the market demands of the new millennium.
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800 MHz RBSs The RBS 884 family of radio base stations in the 800 MHz frequency band has been expanded with two new products: the RBS 884 Macro High Power and the RBS 884 Pico. The new macro base station uses high-power TRXs to cover a large area, and comes with an optional tower-mounted amplifier that improves the sensitivity of the uplink. The RBS 884 Macro High Power offers superior performance in rural areas by maximizing wide-area coverage. It may also include a new combiner filter that offers up to
32 carriers per cell in its standard configuration. Ericsson is also introducing the new lightweight RBS 884 Pico base station designed for indoor applications such as the wireless office. It employs radio heads or transceiver units that connect to a central control radio interface (CRI). Each CRI can handle up to 11 radio heads in a building. The result is superior indoor coverage and increased operator revenue.
1900 MHz RBSs
RBS 884 Micro will allow operators to customize coverage in a cost-effective manner in, for example, hot spots.
Opening up the OSS The next generation of Ericsson’s operation and support system (OSS) takes the system from being a network surveillance tool to being a fully fledged solution for network management. “The most obvious advantage is that an OSS will offer the possibility of centralizing operations and maintenance,” says Ericsson’s Bengt Waxberg, product marketing manager at Ericsson. “The staff get one image of the complete network instead of
one for each switch. This makes it easier to keep track of performance and prioritize actions. Actually, the new OSS not only issues malfunction alarms, it also diagnoses current status by examining the network.” This cuts lead times in troubleshooting and repairs, and will produce more airtime revenue for the operator. Moreover, the OSS will have an open system architecture that facilitates the integration of different releases and third-party products.
Boosting voice quality Ericsson’s new D-AMPS speechcoding technique introduced in the IS-136 standard increases both overall voice clarity and
Ericsson will also release its two new base stations for the D-AMPS 1900 MHz frequency: the RBS 884 Macro Quad and RBS 884 Micro. The RBS 884 Macro Quad uses an advanced antenna system that will increase coverage in the 1900 MHz band. This means more reliable connections with fewer dropped calls, improved voice quality and reduced requirements on mobile phone output power. With its low output level, the
Easypack – MSCs go smart
Ericsson’s Easypack solutions support anything from 16,000 to 80,000 active end users.
This year will be a breakthrough year for Ericsson’s Easypack concept – a new way to design, deliver, install and maintain mobile switching centres (MSCs) using predefined sizes and quantities of equipment. For the operator, it means faster network deployment and a quicker return on investment. Easypack can reduce the time from order to implementation by up to 50 per cent for new installations. Five new MSCs based on Ericsson’s APZ 212 20 processor are available in Easypack configuration. ■
The new RBS 884 Pico base station will offer superior indoor coverage. Bengt Waxberg, product marketing manager at Ericsson. Photo: Dan Larsson
Increased roaming in wireless networks generates more and more billing data, which in turn increases the load on the mobile switching center’s central processor and reduces overall performance. At the same time, operators require rapid post-processing routines in a standardized data format. Moreover, they want to introduce new billing services with faster throughput, creditlimit monitoring, and more proactive fraud detection. Ericsson’s adjunct computer subsystem (ACS) is a completely new support processor that interacts with the central processor in an MSC.
Wireless data The subsystem facilitates nearreal-time billing by allowing one MSC to transmit call data to a common billing and accounting platform. By avoiding the need to format data in the central processor, the adjunct processor radically enhances the output of call-charging data. Cellular digital packet data (CDPD) uses existing network resources to offer D-AMPS operators access to wireless Internet/intranet and corporate database applications. Adding CDPD services to any existing D-AMPS network is easy with Ericsson’s new generation of base stations, and requires only a circuit board and new software. “We will provide operators with both the system and business cases for end-user services,” says Lars Wetterborg, manager of Ericsson’s wireless data applications. CDPD will be used to create new end-user features to access information in a network. In the near future, for instance, D-AMPS subscribers will be able to find out the location of other end users or, for example, verify and update their own subscriber service profiles. ■
The intelligent way to reduce interference n 6–12 December 1996, a three-sector site south of West Fletcher Avenue in Tampa, Florida, was the scene of a revolutionary live-network trial. It was carried out by Ericsson together with AT&T Wireless Services in a cell area known to
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its team of specialists as TAMPA 57 and equipped with an Ericsson RBS 884. The technology applied was interference rejection combining (IRC) – fundamentally, a new algorithm that can be introduced into any D-AMPS network. IRC is an intelligent
antenna solution that drastically improves voice quality in the uplink of a four-antenna base station. Following this, Ericsson plans to test another algorithm that may lead to considerable improvements in the downlink. ■
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Release your business potential Ericsson’s product portfolio for the business community improves communications and generates new revenue for operators. magine being able to use your GSM mobile phone as a ubiquitous communications tool wherever you are: in the office, in your car or on a business trip to another GSM country. This is the essence of Ericsson’s new product portfolio for operators targeting the business community. The solution offers breakthrough benefits for operators, companies and individual users alike; yet makes use of technical possibilities that already exist in today’s GSM standard. Technology is only one side of the issue. Other important aspects are Ericsson’s market view of future business mobility, its vision of ubiquitous wireless networks, and research into end-user requirements.
Business potential As today’s fierce competition focuses more and more on business subscribers, operators must meet the needs of the business community by introducing new and innovative services. These in turn will reduce churn, build end-user loyalty and increase revenues. For companies, it is imperative to enhance productivity and keep costs at bay. For individual business people, it means freedom of movement throughout a ubiquitous wireless network that brings with it more job satisfaction and a boost to personal productivity. Using Ericsson’s solution, everyone can release their full business potential. “We have a vision of ubiquitous wireless communications that enables business users to take their offices with them wherever they go. Our market research shows that this will lead to a productivity breakthrough for both companies and individuals in their efforts to cut lead times, enhance customer relationships, work in more virtual organisations, and keep costs at bay,”
Photo: B.Rossander
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Mats Dahlin, executive vicepresident and general manager of Ericsson’s business unit for GSM, NMT and TACS.
says Mats Dahlin, executive vice-president and general manager of Ericsson’s business unit for GSM, NMT and TACS.
Real benefits The real benefits of easy-to-use and easy-to-access GSM services, available at all times, must be viewed from the perspective of individual business users and their organisations. “We have a holistic approach based on our core areas of expertise,” says Patrik Svensson, product manager for Ericsson’s business solutions for GSM. “First, we have a network vision, which reaches far into the new millennium, of a world with ubiquitous wireless communications and personal numbering. Our strategy rests on developments in the public network as well as in mobile telephony. We’re also supplying advanced PBXs to companies all over the world, so we can tackle company-wide communications from that end, too.” “Second, Ericsson has a clear view of where the market is going; a view that we’ll develop further in close co-operation with GSM operators in pilot markets. Third, we’re doing our homework by interviewing business subscribers all over the world to find out their preferences,”
Ericsson’s new GF788 GSM phone takes the art of mobile telephony to new heights. ricsson’s new GF788 GSM mobile phone is the perfect phone for people who want style. This sophisticated telephone is both neat and simple – and stylish. It weighs only 135 grams and fits snugly into a dinner jacket. Size is one of the key benefits of the GF788, which has
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says Patrik Svensson. In addition, Ericsson is the world’s leading supplier of GSM equipment, with networks in 50 countries. Furthermore, the company uses its global experience and expertise across the entire field of telecommunications to help GSM operators go after their business users.
Testing the concept Patrik Svensson’s team of specialists has spent many hours in the joint testing of the concept together with GSM operators. “Our experience shows that this solution has great potential. Employees can use GSM phones at a flat rate for all internal calls on site. When they roam into the public mobile telephone network, they still use the same
Ericsson’s new product portfolio for the business community both improves communications and boosts operator revenues.
phone but at another tariff that is negotiated between the company and the operator and depends on the service level,” says Patrik Svensson. Ericsson’s solution comprises several GSM applications that exploit the power of GSM technology to
provide a complete range of services. “Wireless operators need to build strong customer partnerships to provide mission-critical communications as a productivity tool – that’s where the future is,” says Mats Dahlin. ■
• Short message service and voice messaging. • Wireless data, including both • Indoor radio coverage with high-speed circuit-switched micro- and picocells in data and general packet radio hierarchical cell structures. services, which offer transmis• Virtual private network services sion speeds up to 115 kbit/s. (performing Centrex-like services similar to a digital PABX). • Direct mobile TCP/IP access for Internet/intranet and • Direct private network business information services. connections via a mobile switch • Ericsson’s professional services. into corporate networks.
Ericsson’s concept
In a class by itself a stand-by time of 60 hours and offers a talk-time of around 3 hours.
New generation The GF788 is an easy-to-use mobile phone that will also be recognised for its aesthetic look and feel. Entirely new materials have been used in its design to create a phone that not only feels good to hold but begs to be used frequently. The front of
the GF788 will be available in four optional metallic colours: dark grey, Bordeaux red, dark blue and dark green.
Customisable menus The GF788 uses Ericsson’s distinctive integrated quarter-wave antenna with a metal coil inside; only this antenna is even shorter than that of the GH388, its predecessor. The phone has a small yet easy-to-read dot-
matrix display that can show up to ten characters at a time. The bottom row of the display is used for graphic icons that give the user clear status information about battery charge level, signal strength, etc. One key feature is the option to customise the menus to suit individual requirements. The GF788 also has Ericsson’s familiar user-friendly YES and NO buttons. ■
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COMPANIES
Wireless around the world ■ Lebanon France Telecom in Lebanon has signed a frame agreement for the supply of GSM equipment valued at $90 million.
■ Sweden The Swedish GSM operator Europolitan has signed a frame agreement with Ericsson for the supply of both radio base stations and operation and maintenance systems. Europolitan has licences for both GSM 900 and DCS 1800. In September 1996, its GSM network served over 240,000 customers. Europolitan has been awarded ISO 9001 certification. Ericsson has developed a new, easily installed outdoor Mini-Link C microwave transmission unit tailored to the requirements of Ericsson’s successful RBS 2301 micro radio base station for GSM networks. The base station requires a flexible and economical transmission solution. Typically, the Mini-Link C Micro is mounted on a roof, and the base station is fixed to a wall.
■ Turkey Turkcell has ordered equipment valued at $35 million from Ericsson to expand its highly succesful GSM network.
Photo: Tony Stone
Making waves in the Big Apple Ericsson microcells boost AT&T Wireless Services’ network in midtown Manhattan.
Larry Luxner
hey’ll never compete with the Rockefeller Center, Times Square, the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty for attention. And in all probability, few New Yorkers – let alone tourists – will ever notice their presence. Yet many microcell antennas are quietly being deployed throughout midtown Manhattan; antennas that could soon make a world of difference to future cellular phone users in America’s biggest city.
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Digital PCS
GSM has been a great success in Turkey. Photo: Tony Stone
On 2 October 1996, AT&T Wireless Services launched its Digital PCS services. The offering comprises enhanced features such as caller ID, message-waiting indicator, sleep mode and short message service. In its current network buildout for national coverage, AT&T Wireless Services is seamlessly joining its existing digital cellular 850 MHz D-AMPS network to those parts of its PCS license areas that are being built out with Ericsson D-AMPS 1900 technology. The result will be a unified
network from coast to coast with exactly the same advanced, fully digital service in every location. The end user will not have to bother with the technology itself – it will be invisible, just like the microcell antennas in downtown Manhattan. Instead, the public will know it as Digital PCS – tomorrow’s wireless technology delivered to them today by AT&T Wireless Services.
Microcell sites The build-out means busy days for John Rasweiler, one of 1,200 AT&T Wireless Services employees in the northeast region. Rasweiler is a senior RF engineer in the cellular division of AT&T Wireless Services’ Manhattan branch who works on the project together with colleagues like RF manager Ben Shidfar and team leader Steve Chen. “Three years ago, we had a very high-density macrocell system that was getting filled to capacity,” says John Rasweiler. “We couldn’t build any more macrocell sites because of the building clutter. Signals would be shooting into high buildings and walls all over Manhattan.”
Experts say the US cellular industry is projected to grow by 35 percent a year; AT&T Wireless Services’ New York buildout will be in proportion to this growth. “It’s all driven by demand,” says Mike Buhrmann, vice-president of wireless strategy for AT&T Wireless Services in Seattle. “We’re happy with the current capacity of our D-AMPS systems. When we require more capacity, we’ll put in more microcells. But it’s not something we’re going to do everywhere, because we don’t need
that sort of capacity in every location. We require it in Manhattan because it also improves the quality of our service, given all the portables that are out on the street.”
“Manhattan Project” The project is part of a multimillion-dollar effort by AT&T Wireless Services to enhance its mobile phone network. Dubbed the “Manhattan Project” by
John Rasweiler and his team will cover midtown Manhattan with microcells that use disguised antennas and radio base stations.
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COMPANIES ly allowing us to provide enhanced services to our customers in a timely manner.” The project began in earnest in the summer of 1994. “It took us 6 months to produce our formal design. We also spent time researching microcell technology,” explains Rasweiler. So far, approximately 55 microcells have been brought into service in midtown Manhattan, a three-square-mile area bounded by 20th Street to the south, 65th Street to the north, Second Avenue to the east and Tenth Avenue to the west. Ten more are currently under construction. Each AT&T site uses advanced D-AMPS (IS-136) equipment from Ericsson. The first build-outs have involved RBS 882 microcell equipment, but in the future the network will also incorporate Ericsson’s new-generation RBS 884 base stations. Antennas are typically placed on buildings at between 25 and 50 feet above ground level, and are carefully camouflaged to blend in with the surroundings to comply with strict zoning requirements.
In-building coverage
AT&T Wireless Services is increasing its competitiveness in Manhattan by using Ericsson’s new microcell technology.
AT&T staff engineers just across the river in Paramus, New Jersey, the $30-million-plus undertaking is actually two projects in one. The first utilizes Ericsson equipment and technology to install microcell antennas in strategic locations throughout the city, while the second is a recently completed 8-month cooperative training effort between Ericsson and AT&T Wireless Services.
1,000-feet skyscrapers The problem was particularly acute in New York, which has a population density of well over 24,000 people per square mile – easily the highest in North America. Here, the situation was further complicated by the presence of hundreds of skyscrapers, including five towering at least 1,000 feet into the air. The solution was a network of microcell antennas that would both improve signal quality and allow AT&T Wireless Services to make considerable capacity improvements.
Microcell network “A conventional macrocell site costs more to construct than a microcell; macrocells require special rooms to house the heavy equipment, not to mention architectural plans and permits,” says John Rasweiler. “A microcell can be deployed quick-
“We have to be very sensitive to aesthetics, so we don’t deface what’s considered a historical site,” he says, noting that New York’s Landmark Commission enforces such rules to the letter. “We have a very talented crew that includes artists who match the color, texture and pattern of the building facade to the antenna.” One microcell is located at 42nd Street and Avenue of the Americas, just in front of the National Debt Clock, which displays America’s growing dollar deficit. Another has been strategically placed at 44th and Lexington, while yet a third is hardly visible above the chaotic intersection of 53rd and Fifth Avenue. “Lower Manhattan is a coverage-based microcell network,” says Rasweiler. “That means a lot of the cells were built to improve signal quality. The midtown network was built to support a large high-density volume of users. Microcells provide indoor coverage as well. For example, it’s more difficult to get coverage inside a building using macrocells with low output power. Microcells offer us exactly the kind of coverage we need more cost-effectively than macrocells do.” Keeping customers happy is especially important in New York, a metropolitan area of 12 million people and well over 1.5 million cellular subscribers. Another aspect of Ericsson’s involvement was an 8-month technical assistance program that ended in mid-December 1996. Phases of that R&D project included: voice channel handling; hierarchical cell structures; antenna diversity; effects of mounting configuration on antenna patterns; attenuator application guidelines; and microcell system optimization – to name just a few. ■
A new era in competition
vices available and, secondly, we’ll be ensuring that we maximize our cost-effectiveness as a network operator.” CRT’s Luiz Stern says that the two main reasons for introducing advanced digital services to Brazil are to increase traffic In a market geared to free competiand to be able to market valueadded services. tion, two privately owned Brazilian “Digital channeling offers a operators are placing their bets on capacity gain for the system, and the digital platform allows D-AMPS (IS-136). value-added services such as sites. It also allows the use of caller ID, short message service, Torbjörn Hanson microcells, which are easy to and so on,” says Luiz Stern. he Brazilian telecom install,” says Luiz Stern, assisindustry is preparing tant to the technical director of Drive to modernize for a new era. Presi- CRT. Both companies are optimistic dent Fernando Cardoso has CTBC’s marketing and sales about the future. Brazil must set an ambitious target: the manager Brian Schicker voices a modernize its telecommunicacomplete overhaul of the similar opinion. tions infrastructure to be able to state-run telecom system. The “Ericsson’s D-AMPS [IS-136] compete in the world market. At Congress is currently dis- technology will help us to com- the moment, a teledensity of cussing the implementation of pete, whereas the IS-54 digital about 9 lines per 100 inhabitants a new telecom law that will version did not offer acceptable means that, although it is one of require the deregulation of voice quality compared with the largest economies on the the industry. analog services. The new continent, Brazil ranks 10th D-AMPS technology will correct among the countries of Latin Choosing a standard this and, at the same time, offer America. The Brazilian government is more advanced features and ser“This relatively low penetraalso pondering a choice of vices.” tion rate of both fixed terminals technology: TDMA versus and cellular means that the IS-95 (CDMA) – although The latest services potential for growth is enormany industry insiders are According to Brian Schicker, the mous,” says Brian Schicker of betting that the government reason for the introduction of CTBC. “So far, wireless is a will allow the industry to advanced digital services is business tool, but there are a work out its own standards. twofold. “Firstly, we’ll be offer- growing number of private At the moment, only three ing our customers the latest ser- users, too.” ■ companies are offering D-AMPS (IS-136) services in Teledensity in Brazil Brazil, one of which, EricWireless and fixed-line penetration 1996 sson’s successful customer 12.6 % 12 % Sercomtel, has already been 9.2 % presented in Wireless NOW! (see issue no. 3, 1996). 2.4 % Two new operators are Companhia Riograndense de Telefonia (CRT) and Companhia de Telefones do Brasil Minas Gerais, Goiás, Rio Grande do Sul Brian Schicker, São Paulo and Mato (CRT) Central (CTBC). Both comCTBC’s marketing Grosso do Sul (CTBC) panies, which have chosen and sales manager. Wireless Fixed-line Ericsson’s new advanced digital technology D-AMPS (IS136), are well aware of the need to boost competitiveness Companhia Riograndense de according to estimates in 1996. in a deregulated market. Companhia de Telefones do Telefonia (CRT) is a privately owned consortium that com- Brasil Central (CTBC) is priHelp companies prises: Governo RGS, Tele- vately owned but also a member compete fónica Internacional de España, of the Telebrás Group. “The use of digital technoloIt will operate a network covRBS Participações and Citigy enables the existing infracorp. It will operate in the state ering the states of Minas Gerais, structure of radio base staof Rio Grande do Sul with a Goiás, São Paulo, and Mato tions to be more productive customer base of 180,000 Grosso do Sul. ■ by reducing the need for new
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Facts on CRT and CTBC
Giants go D-AMPS On 10–12 February 1997, worldleading wireless operators gathered in Orlando, Florida for the first global summit of the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium. he UWC Consortium has made a great impact on the wireless world since it was formed in 1996. At the February global summit – the first of its kind – 44 operators from all over the D-AMPS world gathered in Orlando, Florida. The highlight of the event was the open-ended round-table discussion held on 12 February.
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Here, some of the most senior managers of UWCC partner companies from more than ten countries took part in the discussions on the future of D-AMPS. The first day of the UWCC global summit included the firstever live hands-on trial of Global Office Service. The demonstration was based on the sophisticated wireless office ser-
vices that can now be realized using the new D-AMPS standard, IS-136, and wireless intelligent network services. The UWC Consortium is a non-profit, limited liability company formed in the state of Washington and managed by executive director Leo Nikkari. Membership is open to telecommunication vendors and licensed wireless carriers committed to building out products or services for AMPS and D-AMPS (IS54B and/or IS-136), and wireless intelligent network (IS-41). For more information or membership registration information, contact Lisa Chase at info@uwcc.org. ■
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Ericsson Wireless NOW! No. 1 1997
NEWS
COMPANIES
Wireless around the world ■ Malaysia Cellular Communications Network (Celcom) has awarded Ericsson contracts to expand and enhance its GSM and TACS networks. The total value of the orders exceeds $135 million, which includes $84 million for orders signed in late 1996. Celcom’s GSM expansion programme will be completed by the end of 1997.
■ Slovakia The Slovakian operator Eurotel has awarded Ericsson a contract for a GSM system that is being implemented very rapidly in early 1997. Eurotel is jointly owned by Slovak PTT, US West and Bell Atlantic. Including this order, Ericsson has supplied GSM systems to 50 countries.
■ Russia The Russian operator Bee Line Samara has signed an agreement with Ericsson to expand and digitise its AMPS wireless network. Samara, which has both car and rocket industries, is Russia’s third most important industrial region. The build-out will increase network capacity from 2,000 to 7,000 subscribers. CIS Vimpelcom, Russia’s leading wireless operator, own 50 per cent of Bee Line Samara. There are currently over 63 million users of D-AMPS/AMPS networks worldwide.
■ United Kingdom The British operator Vodafone has signed a 3-year agreement with Ericsson to supply GSM equipment for the provisioning of innovative total business mobility solutions. The order is worth over $330 million.
■ Portugal The Portuguese operator Telecel, whose GSM network is very succesful, has asked Ericsson to supply it with infrastructure between now and 1999. The order is worth $98 million. At the end of 1996, Telecel’s network had 300,000 subscribers.
■ Japan Central Japan Digital Phone (CDP) has awarded Ericsson a network expansion and upgrade order for its mobile PDC network. The total value of the order is $122 million. CDP operates a PDC 1500 MHz network in Nagoya and surrounding region. Tokyo Digital Phone (TDP) has also signed a new $210-million agreement with Ericsson to expand and upgrade its PDC network in 1997. CDP and TDP are two of the operators in the Digital Phone Group (DPG). Ericsson has been chosen as system supplier by six operators in Japan and has supplied 3,000 MDE radio base stations to the operator NTT DoCoMo, which currently serves over 2 million subscribers. In November 1996, Digital Tu-Ka Kyushu signed an expansion order with Ericsson valued at $75 million. Kyushu is a region in western Japan Ericsson has been chosen as that has 15 million inhabsystem supplier by six itants. Japanese operators.
Growing wit With the help of Ericsson’s expertise in radio, SmarTone pioneers a new approach in GSM to handle astonishing customer growth.
SmarTone is using Ericsson’s revolutionary mircocell technology, which includes the Micro RBS 2301, to build out the world’s busiest wireless market – Hong Kong.
n March 1993, SmarTone in Hong Kong was the first operator in Asia to launch a GSM network. Now it has stolen yet another march over its competitors by introducing a revolutionary method of coping with the exponential subscriber growth of its Hong Kong network.
best. When we launched in 1993, we knew GSM would serve us well by offering new advanced features and very good speech quality,” says Bengt Nordström. At that stage, it was not possible to foresee the full potential of GSM in serving a booming market of several million people who might decide to go mobile.
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Hong Kong’s dense population According to Bengt Nordström, chief technology officer of SmarTone: “The quality of our network has never been better. We’ve been benchmarking the wireless networks in Hong Kong on a monthly basis since 1993, and we’ve been in the lead for the last 6 months. Coping with extreme GSM capacity requirements in markets like this is a real breakthrough.” The view from Bengt Nordström’s office window in Cause-
way Bay on Hong Kong Island includes Victoria Harbour and Kowloon to the north: one of the world’s busiest business centres. The twin urban beehives of Hong Kong Island’s northern harbour foreshores and mainland Kowloon across Victoria Bay house over 4 million people who have less than 9 square feet of living space each. The district of Shamshuipo in Kowloon has a population density of 102,300 people per square mile (165,000 people per square kilometre). This is where SmarTone has aggressively implemented its solution based on tighter frequency reuse and, in the spring of 1997, it is also the place where the operator will use Ericsson’s new Micro RBS 2301 to provide microcells at street level. “Hong Kong is an extremely competitive environment where there’s no such thing as second
Business as usual At midnight on 30 June 1997, Hong Kong will cease to be UK territory and become a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. For busy Hong Kong, however, it will be business as usual. In fact, one could say it will be more business than usual for wireless operators since projections show penetration rates of around 40 per cent by 2000. Six new personal communications network (PCN) licences
Ericsson Wireless NOW! No. 1 1997
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COMPANIES In the autumn of 1995, the time was ripe to do something drastic. A task force was set up inside SmarTone to suggest ways of dealing with the capacity issue by using advanced radio network engineering. Ericsson was asked to join the team and contribute its expertise. Thus, the so-called Gung Ho project saw the light of day. “Gung Ho was our internal name for the project. Our initial investigation revealed that we could accommodate around
SmarTone subscriber growth 1993 to 1999, thousand 550 500 420 320
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SmarTone is experiencing astonishing subscriber growth in Hong Kong. Using Ericsson’s technology, it can serve them all – now and in the future.
h Ericsson were issued in late 1996, adding to the competive environment in which SmarTone has to win. SmarTone’s response to the competition is, in Bengt Nordström’s words, to “fight hard with good, solid network quality that end users can really notice, making SmarTone head and shoulders above the rest.”
SmarTone today Wireless was launched in Hong Kong in 1984 and, until 1992, all networks were analog. In 1987 there were 28,000 subscribers in Hong Kong; by 1992 there were 233,000. Today, this is one of the wireless hot spots of the world with 11,000 analog subscribers and 1.2 million digital subscribers in December 1996. SmarTone’s services, which were already With the support of Ericsson experts, SmarTone launched an aggressive programme in Hong Kong to enhance its GSM network capacity. Bengt Nordström, SmarTone’s technical director, is very happy with the result of his joint project with Ericsson.
aggressively priced in 1993, have come to be seen by many end users as state-of-the-art digital technology. The operator gained 16,000 new subscribers in November 1996 alone. Before the end of the year it had well over 300,000 customers, which represents a market share of just under 30 per cent, up from 23 per cent in August 1996. Looking back, SmarTone was awarded a licence for 2 x 5.4 MHz of spectrum in January 1993. It was already apparent from the start that there would
be a limit to the number of end users that SmarTone could take on.
600,000 subscribers “We were aiming to bid for a PCN licence to launch DCS 1800 services but in the third quarter of 1995 it became obvious that the licensing process was running late,” says Bengt Nordström. Unfortunately, SmarTone did not receive a PCN licence so clearly the emphasis had to be on GSM 900.
600,000 subscribers in our existing GSM network using streetlevel cells and sophisticated frequency reuse techniques,” says Bengt Nordström. “In planning this project we decided that it had to be both cost-effective and easy to implement quickly to give us a head start over the competition. Ericsson have been supplying highcapacity networks and managing complex projects with very short time to market all over the world, so it was only natural to partner up with them.” The team was led by Thomas Johansson who was at the time responsible for radio network engineering at SmarTone. “It turned out that the new requirements for Ericsson’s base station subsystem were very modest,” he says. The Gung Ho project ended on 1 April 1996. Eight people worked full time on the project over a 3-month period without degrading the quality of the live network. SmarTone’s network quality was, in fact, soon to be given a big boost. “I think this was a very significant project because it shows what you can achieve with close collaboration between our radio
engineering experts and customers like SmarTone who go all out to win the market over,” says Charles Henshaw of Ericsson Hong Kong. “We had a very clear objective and set up a dedicated task force with a straightforward reporting structure between the two companies. We also had the attention of our top management. Everything worked smoothly from the very first day, and that’s how it continued. Of course, it all depended on the fact that we had the right people in this project from the start,” says Bengt Nordström. “Moreover, we did all this in a live environment while running our day-to-day business.” “What we found is that GSM has practically no capacity restraints – not even in a market like Hong Kong. From now on it’s a matter of offering services; the GSM capacity constraints are no longer an issue.”
The solution SmarTone’s low-cost, easy-toimplement solution to grow beyond 600,000 subscribers – which equates to 400 erlangs per square kilometre – shows how it is possible to achieve this. “We found a large, generic capacity potential in the spectrum used for macrocells that had a major impact on the capacity of SmarTone’s network. The project confirmed that the reuse factor could be brought down to between 7 and 8 from the 13-cell reuse that the operator had been using for several years. By tightening the level of reuse, it was possible to add extra transceivers to all existing cell areas, and thus boost network capacity,” says Thomas Johansson, who in 1995 worked together with Bengt Nordström at SmarTone, and today works at Ericsson Mobile Communications in Kista, Sweden. “We also performed extensive tests and trials relating to all aspects of implementing microcells at street level. This in turn provided us with easier-to-use methods and new designs for using these streetlevel cells to enhance radio network capacity.” The result was simply outstanding, and SmarTone today enjoys a top position as a wireless operator in Hong Kong. With the support of Ericsson, it has the technology and the capacity to stay there for a very long time. ■
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Ericsson Wireless NOW! No. 1 1997
VINJETT
Wireless around the world ■ China The GH398 marks the entry into the Chinese market of Ericsson’s flagship GH388 GSM mobile phone. This new version of the phone has been modified to offer both simplified and traditional Chinese display texts and menus, as well as English. The GH398 has a dark grey front and a full graphic display of 16 x 95 pixels, plus a row of fixed icons. It is possible to choose between two different menu modes, reduced or extended. In addition, the user can customise the menu structure to fit individual needs. The phone offers two Chinese ring signals plus eight others. End users can also compose their own ring signals. The GH398 weighs 170 grams with its lightweight battery and measures 130 x 49 x 23 millimetres (5.1 x 2.0 x 0.9 inches). It uses the same accessories as the GH388.
COMPANIES
Winning in Guangdong With Ericsson’s help, China’s biggest provincial mobile telecom operator, GMCC, aims to win the competitive war in Guangdong.
■ Shandong The postal and telecommunications administration in the Chinese province of Shandong is using Ericsson equipment to expand its GSM network. The order is worth $30.7 million.
4.65 3.8 3.0 2.1 1.5
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The Chinese operator GMCC expects to have over 4 million GSM subscribers by 2000.
Nigel Ingelbrecht
uangdong Mobile Communications Company (GMCC) is facing a challenge to its superiority from both mobile operators and the province’s fixed telephone network, where urban teledensity is approaching 40 per cent. The customers are changing, too. Gone are the days when the most powerful man in a Guangdong restaurant flaunted a mobile phone the size of a brick, says Michael Ricks, Ericsson China’s executive vice-president responsible for southern China. “Nowadays,” he says, “customers demand the newest and smallest pocket-sized terminals and have developed an appetite for advanced cellular services.”
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Unprecedented expansion
Ericsson’s Chinese GSM mobile phone, the GH398.
Estimated growth in wireless Guangdong Province, China, million subscribers
To consolidate its competitive position, GMCC has embarked on an unprecedented expansion of its GSM network. This includes China’s first DCS 1800 roll-out, which will have an initial capacity for 200,000 subscribers when it is turned on later this year. The expansion represents a big vote of confidence in Ericsson, which provided 95 per cent of Guangdong’s existing GSM and TACS infrastructure and is the province’s biggest supplier of cellular terminals. Guangdong’s latest commitment to GSM – $300-million-
Xiong Xian Kui GMCC’s director of planning and development.
GUANGDONG
Mike Ricks, executive vice-president of Ericsson China, and Peter Wong, Ericsson’s regional marketing manager in Guangzhou.
worth of contracts signed with Ericsson last November – is fully in keeping with the province’s reputation for being an early adopter of new technology. Guangdong pioneered the development of analog services in China in October 1987, and cut over the country’s first GSM network in August 1994. Xiong Xian Kui, director of planning and development for GMCC, says lack of analog capacity for new subscribers initially drove them to adopt GSM. “Firstly, there was a capacity problem. GSM has provided us with a two-to-one capacity gain over TACS on average. Secondly, there was a need for fraud prevention, and additional features and new services such as data,” adds Xiong Xian Kui.
50,000 subscribers By the end of 1996, GMCC had 415,000 GSM subscribers, a figure that is growing by more than 50,000 a month. During 1997, GMCC plans to add over 640 new RBS 2000 GSM radio base stations, 17 mobile switching centres and a number of
transit exchanges. At the same time, it is installing almost 120 DCS 1800 base stations and switching equipment in three of the province’s biggest cities: Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Foshan. In addition, GMCC has forged a new strategic partnership with Ericsson that became operational in January 1997. The new joint-venture company, Guangzhou Ericsson Mobile Communications Technical Support, is to play a key role in accelerating the design and implementation of mobile services in the province. Furthermore, Ericsson has just completed acceptance tests of a comprehensive operation and support system for the Guangdong network as part of a wide-ranging quality improvement programme. “We’re eager to see that GMCC is not just a large network but a quality network, too, which is what this increasingly segmented market is demanding,” says Mike Ricks. By the end of the decade, GMCC aims to have 4.2 million mobile phone customers and a
total network capacity for 5 million. While the GSM platform has facilitated the use of multiple suppliers, GMCC has strengthened its connections with Ericsson, and now both companies work closely in strategic discussions and business-planning cycles. Xiong Xian Kui says the success of the partnership is based on long-term co-operation. “The quality of the equipment is very good. Ericsson in Guangdong also co-operates very closely with GMCC regarding technical support and after-sales service. Ericsson and our company understand each other very well.”
Fast-moving market To serve GMCC even better, Ericsson has taken the initiative in starting a network-quality improvement project. Ericsson works more closely with GMCC in its planning and business design processes, as well as holding regular user group meetings under the auspices of the ministry of posts and telecommunications. ■
High road to China Ericsson charters eight Boeing 747s to deliver nearly 800 tonnes of GSM equipment to Guangzhou in recordbreaking time. n 7 November 1996, an agreement was signed with the Guangdong Mobile Communications Company (GMCC) for a major expansion of its GSM network. The agreement also included delivery by air in early 1997 of equipment for DCS 1800 and TACS. What made the situation
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so special, however, was the fact that 800 tonnes of GSM equipment had to be in southern China before the end of the year. “This delivery was something quite out of the ordinary,” says Anders Moberg, who is based in Sweden and responsible for Ericsson’s GSM market in southern China and Hong
Kong. Anders Moberg is not exaggerating: Ericsson chartered eight Boeing 747s to fly the GSM equipment from airports in Stockholm and Amsterdam.
World-class logistics “It took an extremely accurate estimate of the expected order to produce the equipment in our factories. In the end, it all boiled down to close teamwork throughout our entire organisation, and everyone working day and night with a total commitment to the customer.” ■
A total of 9,893 crates occupying 3,924 cubic metres were Photo: B.Rossander flown into Guangzhou by Ericsson.
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COMPANIES COMPANIES
Estimated growth in wireless Liaoning Province, China, subscribers 1.75 million 1.25 million 869,000 640,000 430,000
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Beijing
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The Chinese operator in Liaoning is orchestrating an extremely aggressive build-out of its GSM network to accommodate the influx of new subscribers.
work in one building had to be suspended because the intense cold had even knocked out the heating system at the site. Despite the weather, LMC
Sunny days in Liaoning In the midst of snowstorms and floods, Ericsson’s smoothly working digital GSM network is a ray of sunshine for the operator in the province of Liaoning, northeast China. Nigel Ingelbrecht
with the devastation wrought by a “once-in-a-hundred-years” flood. And in January 1997, the snow piled up in the street outside his office in central Shenyang, the provincial capital, as the worst snowstorm of the decade hit northeast China.
hai Ping has endured more than his fair share of bad weather in recent months. Last August, the general manager of Liaoning Province Mobile Communication (LMC) led his organisation’s efforts in dealing A phone for everyone Not least among Zhai Ping’s concerns is the effect that the bad weather may have on LMC’s GSM expansion efforts, which constitute one of the most aggressive build-outs ever undertaken by an operator in China. For instance, Zhai Ping’s officials recently reported that installation
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Qiao Weizhou is managing Ericsson’s customer relationship in Liaoning.
has forged ahead with its expansion programme, not least because mobile services have become an integral part of the efforts to revitalise the province’s economy. In the past, Liaoning has relied on state-run heavy industries such as iron, steel, as well as chemicals and vehicle production, all of which have become progressively less profitable. Smaller, private enterprises are springing up to take their place, and many entrepreneurs have come to rely on their mobile phones. “The telecom business in Liaoning is supporting the private sector. Ordinary people don’t have wireless handsets. One day, though, everyone will have them,” says Zhai Ping. With 430,000 mobile phone subscribers and 700,000 subscribers to radio paging, Liaoning is China’s fourth-largest mobile market and Ericsson’s second-biggest wireless customer in the country. LMC launched its GSM services in December 1995, after
Japan in service Wireless competition in Japan is intensifying as new operators go on the air. capital of Kanazawa, are located on the northern coast of central Honshu. The 3.1 million inhabitants of Hokuriku, which has several high-tech industries, are well-educated and younger than the average Japanese. This is a high-end market in which DTH is aiming for a prime position with the help of its technology for superior-quality speech. When DTH launched its services as the second PDC Well-to-do area operator in this territory, Mobile telephony in Japan is Hokuriku was one of the last more than anything else char- remaining regions to experience acterised by extreme competi- the force of competition. tion, so there was no time to waste in getting to market. And, Roaming revenue since Digital Tu-Ka Hokuriku On Friday 20 December 1996, has introduced wireless compe- DTH’s sister company Digital tition in its licence area, it must Tu-Ka Hokkaido (DTD) also provide superior quality. launched its network – perfectly Hokuriku, and the regional timed to catch last-minute n Friday 17 January 1997, the Japanese wireless operator Digital Tu-Ka Hokuriku (DTH) launched its wireless services with over 30,000 subscribers. The network was launched 3 weeks ahead of schedule thanks to a successful build-out project that enabled Ericsson to fulfil the operator’s need for a quick time to market.
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Christmas shoppers. DTD’s Ericsson network, which has 40,000 subscribers, was also launched ahead of schedule. Both operators already covered 85 per cent of the population in their operating territories at launch time. Hokkaido, which has a population of over 6 million, is the northernmost of the four main islands of Japan. Over 4 million visitors a year generate a lot of services and boost operators’ roaming traffic. The two main owners of both DTH and DTD are Nissan Motors and Japan Telecom.
demand for its analog service threatened to overwhelm its TACS capacity. Choosing from among several competitive tenders, LMC signed an initial GSM supply contract with Ericsson in April 1995. This was swiftly followed in March 1996 by a $125-million expansion programme. The operator has so far signed up 170,000 GSM subscribers, a number projected to increase by 200,000 in 1997 alone. Qiao Weizhou, Ericsson’s chief representative in Liaoning, puts his company’s continued success down to its relationship with the customer, which has been built up over the past 12 years and began with the sale of AXE switching equipment to Liaoning Provincial Telecommunications Administration (LPTA).
decision makers,” says Qiao Weizhou. The next challenge for LMC is the prospect of competition in mobile services from the country’s second operator, Lian Tong Telecommunications Corp., which is due to launch a rival GSM service in Dalian in the spring of 1997. Faced for the first time with a direct competitor, LMC has been preparing itself by accelerating its build-out and planning to introduce new value-added GSM services, such as call forwarding, short message service and calling line identification. Zhai Ping says the new services are needed to help LMC compete with its fledgling rival and to fulfil a promise to subscribers to deliver a range of new and innovative services through its GSM network. Critically, new services will help Increased competition expand the size of the market “Many LPTA engineers under- and deliver greater economies of stand Ericsson’s products and scale to attract a broad cusculture. Ericsson has an open tomer base. ■ documents policy that has enabled a lot of local engineers to grow up with a very good understanding of its telecom business. In China we say you must become friends before you can do business together. Ericsson made friends with many people when they were technicians in the PTA organisation. Now, they have become the Zhai Ping, general manager of LMC in northeast China.
Leaping ahead During 1997, Liaoning will add 10 more mobile switching centres plus a further 300 radio base stations, increasing network capacity from 300,000 at the beginning of the year to a projected 825,000 subscribers by December. The pace of the build-out has surprised even seasoned China specialists such as Jim Wen, manager of Ericsson China Ltd’s project
management department in Shenyang. “Compared with other places, Liaoning is really a special market in the northern part of China. It’s a very industrial province, and the leaders of the Liaoning Provincial Telecommunications Administration are very ambitious. While other provinces have expanded step by step, Liaoning has expanded in leaps and bounds,” says Jim Wen.
Hokkaido DTD
The new PDC technology offers the latest technological improvements, including half-rate and channel coding. This leads to superior speech quality at the same time as the networks can handle twice as many calls in parallel, Hokuriku which is an essential difDTH ferentiating factor for the two operators. Japan is the fastest-growing wireless market in the world with over 6.4 million new subscribers signing up Good speech quality with operators during the first The two operators have been half of 1996. building out their netToday, there are more than Mats Köhlmark, executive works at break18 million subscribers in Japan, vice-president of Ericsson Radio neck speed using and over 53 million expected Systems, made the inaugural phone Ericsson PDC by the turn of the century – call over Digital Tu-Ka Hokuriku’s PDC technology at network. most of them calling over dig1500 MHz. Photo: B.Rossander ital systems like PDC. ■
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Ericsson Wireless NOW! No. 1 1997
NEWS
Main events in wireless
San Francisco will be the scene of this year’s CTIA Wireless ’97 convention and exhibition on 3–5 March 1997.
Coming up
2–5 June
Ericsson will also demonstrate its easily installed D-AMPS/ AMPS fixed-cellular solution live – including the digital multiline terminal that connects up to 95 subscribers with 16 outgoing channels.
Atlanta, USA. Wireless World ’97.
9–14 June Singapore. Asia Telecom ’97 international trade show.
4–6 March Hong Kong. ExpoComm Wireless Hong Kong ’97 international trade show.
13–19 March
3–5 March San Francisco, USA. Mayor Willie Brown will preside over the opening of CTIA Wireless ’97 on Monday 3 March 1997, at the San Francisco Marriott’s Yerba Buena Ballroom. The moderator for all main events will be Thomas E. Wheeler, president and CEO of the CTIA. Ericsson will be showing its leading-edge wireless solutions for the business community, which include voice, short message services, messaging, wireless data, primary rate access, virtual private networks, and indoor coverage using sophisticated micro- and picocell concepts for D-AMPS (IS-136) and GSM networks (PCS 1900).
Hanover, Germany. CeBIT ’97 trade fair. Worldwide launch of both Ericsson’s newgeneration GSM mobile phone, GF788, and its integrated GSM solutions for the business community, including: voice, short message services, messaging, wireless data, primary rate access, virtual private networks, and indoor coverage. Ericsson will have live demonstrations of wireless data communications with video and intranet access over GSM at 1800 MHz (DCS 1800) using four time slots. Ericsson will also
Ericsson’s new-generation GF788 GSM mobile phone will be launched at CeBIT ’97.
Photo: Tony Stone
10–12 September demonstrate its GSM Mobile Office solution. The GSM equipment consists of a radio base station in Hanover with a 2 Mbit/s link to a mobile switching centre in Dusseldorf. Ericsson’s Micro RBS 2301 with four alternative antenna solutions will also be at CeBIT, as will its new RBS 884 Pico for D-AMPS (IS-136) and a presentation of cellular digital packet data (CDPD). Ericsson will also present its complete customer services offering.
17–20 March Hong Kong. GSM Asia ’97.
Dallas, USA. PCS ’97 international show.
trade
In retrospect 10–12 February Orlando, USA. The first global summit of the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium (UWCC) was held at the Walt Disney Yacht & Beach Club. The event was organised to demonstrate the full range of business opportunities available with D-AMPS (IS-136) and wireless intelligent network (WIN). For more information, visit the UWCC’s Website at www.uwcc.org.
19–21 February Cannes, France. The 1997 GSM World Congress. Ericsson held a customer seminar outlining the future of GSM in offering full mobility to the business community, including: voice, short message services, messaging, wireless data, primary rate access, virtual private networks and indoor coverage.
7–11 April Mauritius. The winners of Ericsson’s global sales competition for mobile phone accessories confer.
8–10 April Beijing, China. GSM China.
Come to Hong Kong on 17–20 March 1997, for the GSM Asia ’97 trade show.
GSM grows in Greece T
he Greek GSM operator Panafon has signed a 3-year expansion order with Ericsson for the supply and implementation of a complete wireless network. The build-out includes both peninsular Greece and the main Greek islands. The contract is worth around $100 million. The Greek island of Santorini is one area where Panafon is building out its GSM network. Photo: Tony Stone
Panafon launched its GSM services on 1 July 1993, and has since played a significant role in the development of the country’s telecommunications.
ISO 9001 quality The operator is jointly owned by UK company Vodafone Europe (45 per cent), France Telecom Mobile International (35 per cent), and two Greek companies, Intracom and Databank, which each own 10 per cent. Panafon has been awarded an ISO 9001 certificate for the qual-
ity of the design, installation, commissioning, operation, maintenance, and billing of its GSM network. The company employs 360 people. When the network is completed, Panafon expects to have an additional 3,000 employees, including service providers and dealers. Today, Panafon offers roaming facilities with 67 GSM networks in 43 countries, such as Australia, Cyprus, Finland, Spain, Sweden and Turkey. ■