NETWORKS

The strategic lessons from 4G roll-outs

EIRA HAYWARD ANALYSES THE CHALLENGES OPERATORS HAVE FACED WHILE ROLLING OUT
THEIR 4G LTE NETWORKS AND CRUCIAL LESSONS OTHERS SHOULD BEAR IN MIND

perators across Europe are

playing catch up with their
counterparts in the US and
parts of Asia as they develop
and roll out LTE networks, and there are
a number of strategic lessons that need
to be learned.
In the US the most competitive of the
worlds LTE markets with seven operational networks both Verizon and AT&T
struggled to provide a consistent service
in the early days of their networks and
DUHFXUUHQWO\HQJDJHGLQDHUFHPDUNHWing war of words over who has the most
reliable network.
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network, has had to meet its fair share
of challenges too. According to Mansoor
Hanif, director of network integration and
LTE at EE, the company was grappling
with merging its two networks, upgrading
the network and rolling out LTE all at the
same time.
The biggest challenge for LTE is transmission you need to provide support in
a stable way on the radio network but to
get the speed to the end user it needs to
be end to end across the whole network,
he says.
The transmission links from the radio

46 | european communications | eurocomms.com

network to the core require a massive

upgrade which is off the scale compared
to anything thats been done before.
Theres a dearth of the skills needed
to do the job in Europe, he adds.
In Europe everyone is suffering, one
of the main reasons for the delay in
roll-outs across Europe is that everyone
is struggling to understand how to do it
cost-effectively and fast. In Europe, certainly in the UK, theres a limited number
of really skilled people with IP networking
and telecoms expertise together, and its
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Charge a premium?
The question of how to charge for service
looms large when you speak to commentators about LTE EE has chosen
to charge a premium for LTE, a move
that is quite different from the prevailing
attitude in the US.
Simon Williams, head of telecoms and
media at NTT Data, which has worked
with a number of operators around the
world including Japans DoCoMo to
help them roll out LTE networks, says
that achieving coverage is critical and
wonders if EEs choice of pricing delivers
this long term.

You cant exploit LTE until you have

penetration. There are two elements to
penetration, roll out of the network and
roll out of devices, he says.
For customers, LTE is faster and comes
with lower latency, while for operators
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so Williams personally would price for
uptake. Both economic models work but I would price for penetration. I would
price competitively with 3G to encourage
uptake of 4G margins are healthy as
the ARPU goes up and the costs come
down, he says.
However, Warren Tucker, MD of Accentures network practice in the UK and
Ireland believes there is little evidence to
suggest that consumers are willing to pay
more for LTE.
In these austere times we are seeing
a trend towards customers more actively
tracking usage to keep within their bundle, he says.
While EE is taking advantage of its
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think it will drop its current premium
charges once other LTE operators are
up and running.
MLL Telecoms CTO Peter Jennings
adds that its important to consider the
objectives of the LTE network. Some
may be turning to it to help alleviate
capacity from already stressed legacy
networks, whilst others may be seeking
to add value and enhance their mobile
broadband proposition in order to remain
competitive, he says.
Either way, its important to strike a
balance between network investments,
new pricing schemes and increasing
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EE was criticised for expensive plans
with limits on the amount of data that
could be consumed. Its important to
communicate the advantages of an
overall quality experience, while offering
a compelling user experience one that

NETWORKS

is better than 3G.

Chris Nicoll, principal analyst at Analysys Mason, comments that each market
is unique in its challenges. But I think
there are elements that are common in
every market, something of a pattern or a
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and then matures over time, he adds.
Even if EEs decision to opt for premium pricing on LTE goes against the
current run of playthough weve seen
operators start with premium pricing in
other markets there is already plenty
about its pricing strategy that others
would do well to note, adds Nicoll.
EE launched a range of tariffs targeting different aspects of the market,
such as BYOD with a SIM only service, as
well as smartphones and data products.
Were seeing this lesson being applied
over and over again, especially now the
ecosystem of LTE devices is so broad and
so strong, he observes.
Nicoll says that operators need come
to market with tariffs and plans that take
advantage of LTEs seemingly excellent
data connectivity and which properly
exploit consumer trends and habits.
People have one or two smartphones,
a tablet, a laptop, a personal Wi-Fi
hotspot. LTE is enabling not just a richer
mobile experience but the ability to
consume data over multiple products,
he says.
Open up the pipe
Its been shown time and again that
more connectivity equals more consumption and to prove this point ARPU in the
US has not decreased as the LTE market
has become more competitive. Nicoll
thinks that operators need to work to
open up the pipe and create compelling
content and a compelling experience.
But they also need to be aware that
consumers are on data tariffs and dont
want to consume it all on an advert or
news article.
EEs Mansoor emphasises the need to
have the right people in place.
You have to make technical and
management decisions all the time every
10 minutes, if you dont have the right

team to be able to do that they will get

stuck in the complexities of the network,
he warns.
At the moment the big market for LTE
is the consumer market, but this could
change over time as network coverage
increases and businesses become able
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acceptable performance for employees
on the move. Says Nicoll: Operators
are having to move from connectivity
model to a value and service model.
Mobile devices are extensions of peoples personalities people like to have
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so operators have to move from Im
delivering a service to Im delivering a
social service if you will. I think operators recognise that they need to make
this shift and the market is shifting
very quickly.
All about the brand
In such a shift brand positioning is
critical, comments Nicoll, operators have
to have brand awareness among their
intended customers you can be the
value brand, the premium brand the
quality or infotainment brand, but youve
got to have a brand and execute on it
exceptionally well.
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about how he sees this brand execution
playing out: In mobile we expect to see
a greater emphasis on high QoS mobile
CDNs, premium content acquisition
including video and the continued pursuit
of M2M related industry vertical soluWLRQVWKDWDUHVSHFLFDOO\LPSURYHGDVD
result of faster data speeds and lower
latency networks.
For example, in the US we have companies such as UPS deploying a dynamic
mobile van tracking and routing solution
that saved over nine million gallons of
fuel a year as a result of re-routing vans
to avoid delays caused by making left
KDQGWXUQVDFURVVRQFRPLQJWUDIF8OWLmately, such industry vertical solutions
could enable operators to move from
a cost-based pricing model to a value-to-the-customer based pricing model
generating greater returns. ec

Expert advice
Accenture has worked with the likes of
Telecom Italia on their LTE network roll out;
head of network practice Warren Tucker
highlights some of the key
operator challenges:
Deploying a new RAN is not a business as
usual process and cuts across many functions, so a full end-to-end process is needed
to manage all dimensions of the upgrade.
Robust capacity planning is needed to
ensure the right resources are in the right
places at the right times across all third
parties and the operators own organisation.
Plan in realistic timescales for activities
outside their control such as landlord/local
government agreements and reconstruction
of antenna systems.
Ensure adequate coordination between internal marketing plans, LTE site deployments,
backhaul upgrades and onsite commissioning activities. Activities are commonly inadequately coordinated: e.g. RAN equipment is
installed but delays in backhaul provisioning
mean the site cannot be activated.
Invest in workow tools with so many
handoffs between RAN vendors, local
contractors, backhaul upgrades as well
as back ofce functions to ensure supplier
payments and capex management there is
huge potential for each handoff to introduce
signicant delays in the process.
Establish a way to solve bottlenecks: given
an LTE network upgrade is not an everydayprocess, there is potential for bottlenecks
to build up. Successful operators have established War Rooms to track the milestones
associated with each site and each stage
of deployment together with teams who
can quickly analyse and implement xes to
bottlenecks.
Establish a standard set of SLAs, which
include commercial levers to ensure supplier
responsibilities, and making sure you allow
sufcient time for live trials to iron out
teething issues.

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