In focus: smart networks

The growth in data services and the advent of over-the-top (OTT) players present challenges for operators. Ericsson’s Lingaraj Patil, Senior Marketing Manager, explains how a 4G IP network solution, which includes smart-network capabilities, can help operators stay profitable.

The global number of mobile subscriptions has reached about 6 billion – and just over a billion of these subscriptions include access to mobile broadband. Ericsson forecasts indicate there will be about 5 billion mobile-broadband subscriptions by 2016. On top of this, data consumption per user is increasing dramatically – something that presents challenges, as well as opportunities for operators.

The first challenge is finding ways to fuel this growth profitably by increasing the number of mobile-broadband consumers and devices. To achieve this, operators need to come up with innovative and profitable offerings to penetrate markets with lower average revenue per user (ARPU). They also need to boost ARPU in high-end market segments by improving users’ Quality of Experience QoE.

The second challenge is finding strategies to cope with the rapid traffic growth fuelled by the use of OTT services. Video is a key driver of this growth. Operators need to provide the capacity to meet this demand cost-effectively, and find a way to monetize the value these services represent in the ICT ecosystem.

To realize these objectives, operators will have to redefine their business models. Possible strategies could include working with OTT players to provide value-added services to users, and making these offerings cost-effective by engaging advertisers. The intersection of the telecom, OTT and advertising ecosystems offers significant potential for operators to expand their business.

Ericsson’s strategy to help operators meet these challenges and opportunities is centered around a portfolio of products and solutions based on 4G IP network capabilities. With 4G IP, operators can build networks that are smart, simple, scalable, and that offer superior performance. Smart-network capabilities can help operators to refine their service offerings by targeting specific user groups, and redefining their business models to fully monetize the value they generate.

Ericsson’s 4G IP-based smart-networking solution, Service-Aware Charging and Control (SACC) is the cornerstone for refining service offerings and enabling new business models. It brings together Ericsson’s policy control, charging, traffic inspection and enforcement functions.

By offering mobile broadband, operators can penetrate new market segments and engage users in areas beyond traditional voice and SMS services. Unfortunately, in many markets, mobile broadband is restricted to the top-end consumer segment. Ericsson’s smart-networking capabilities can help operators reach other consumer segments by providing low-ARPU services that are relevant, affordable and simple to use.

To that end, Ericsson has developed the Smart Prepaid Broadband solution, which enables operators to create mobile-broadband offerings that increase subscriber penetration. This solution is built on the foundation of SACC. Variations of SACC have already been implemented successfully, so customers can be confident that these solutions can start generating value for them immediately.

Providing a “social networking only” package is an example of how operators can come up with innovative low ARPU offerings. With this package, consumers will be able to access social-networking-specific apps and websites and nothing else for a low hourly, daily or monthly fee. Ericsson has helped implement this in some South Asian countries with very high subscriber-uptake levels.

When service offerings are refined, operators also gain the capability to selectively enhance QoE for users willing to pay for higher quality. For example, operators can offer improved QoE for subscribers who want to use mobile broadband to watch videos.

In the ICT ecosystem, the role of operators is changing, and they need to redefine their business models accordingly. Ericsson’s 4G IP-based smart networks can help them do so by enabling them to build networks that are more user-aware and content-aware – and to utilize this awareness to deploy their network assets effectively to enhance the user experience.

SACC enables true end-to-end QoS support, which helps operators to scale their network capacity cost-effectively and offer superior performance where it matters. The solution’s integrated charging and control function allows operators to refine their service offerings to meet the needs of subscribers in diverse market segments, and lets users pay for mobile-broadband services as they go. SACC also gives operators the opportunity to use a multidimensional business model in which they can work with OTT players to enhance QoS – and get paid for doing so.

It is possible, for example, to provide an unlimited music-streaming service in collaboration with OTT music-streaming companies without that bandwidth usage counting towards the subscribers’ monthly data cap. This leads to increased ARPU and reduced churn.

A year ago, Ericsson introduced its family of Smart Services Routers (SSRs), built on a foundation of 4G IP capabilities. Their key benefit is the scale they offer in terms of control-plane signaling, users and bandwidth. These routers were created with mobile and fixed convergence in mind. On a single platform, they can support multiple applications, services and functions, such as Border Gateway Function, Broadband Network Gateway, Content Delivery Network ,(CDN) Carrier-Grade Network Address Translation, Evolved Packet Gateway , Multi-Service Edge Router and traffic inspection. They also support Internet Protocol version 6. Because these routers scale very well in several dimensions, they allow operators to simplify network design and operation.

Operators are beginning to open up to doing business with OTT players and starting to realize that they can partner with some of them to achieve win-win solutions. This is a positive development that will lead to more innovative mobile-broadband offerings and will help operators monetize more of the value they are providing to the ICT ecosystem.

Looking ahead, Ericsson sees smart networks as a platform on which many innovative user services will be enabled and new business models defined.

Ericsson CTO: big-data era calls for network innovation

Smartphones and big data call for innovation in networking technology
Ericsson focuses on 4th-generation (4G) IP networking, service provider software-defined networking (SDN), OSS/BSS, real-time analytics and heterogeneous networks
In light of recent phenomena around new smartphone launches, the ICT industry can expect a big-data era throughout the networks. At his keynote speech at the annual global broadband event, Broadband World Forum 2012, Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) CTO Ulf Ewaldsson emphasized the importance of innovation in networking technology in realizing an all-communicating world.

Ewaldsson said: "In Sweden, the time spent on the internet every week increased from eight hours in 2008 to 19 hours in 2012*, and the trend is similar in other countries. We know those users appreciate mobility and high-quality access to the network. During the same period, the demand put on the network has changed enormously.

"Voice-centric usage became mostly data in the mobile networks. The entire app industry went from zero to 35 billion apps in four years. We see increasing multi-screen viewing habits. This kind of never-ending innovation is a loop between consumer demand and network capacity and capability. Ericsson focuses on superior user experience and innovation in the networks."

Ericsson’s CTO said it is no longer realistic to address the network as separate silos. The network must be capable of delivering the relevant, personalized, end-to-end, IP-based services and applications that meet users’ high expectations. This should be handled independently of the number of mobile or fixed subscribers, or video bandwidth demand.

Ericsson identified key technology areas for the future network:

4G IP, virtualization and SDN
OSS and BSS and real-time analytics
heterogeneous networks
Heterogeneous networks increase the coverage, bandwidth and signaling capacity of the mobile network and support very high traffic volumes and data rates through a seamless combination of low-power radio technologies – including all-sized cells and Wi-Fi access points – and an improved and densified macro network. The Ericsson’s heterogeneous network is a complete solution, based on a 3GPP-standardized and coordinated radio network with integrated Wi-Fi, advanced traffic management and backhaul for any need. Ericsson made several launches today that illustrate how Wi-Fi has become an increasingly integrated part of the service provider network.

4G IP networking and SDN are key to building a future network that is smart, scalable, simple and capable of delivering superior performance. The new IP network needs to be something beyond the network we built for the internet boom. It should be “aware of” users, services, devices, location and scale in bandwidth and connections/signaling, at the same time as being much simpler to operate and maintain. Today, Ericsson introduced its latest Broadband Network Gateway application, based on the Smart Service Router to show the versatility and power featured in from these types of next-generation IP platforms.

SDN is an emerging technology with great potential beyond its application in data centers. SDN is about the virtualization of the control plane from the data-plane nodes. Ericsson sees the need for a Service Provider SDN. In order to give service providers the possibility to rationalize the network to deliver better user experience and extend their business model, the industry definition of SDN must be expanded from data centers to deliver the promise of lower costs and new business opportunities for service providers.

Ewaldsson stressed: "SDN in the telco-operator domain is much more than (the Layer 2 communications protocol) OpenFlow. It’s not about only managing the data planes in switches and routers, but about having fully integrated network control by connecting the SDN management layer to the cloud and network management. This offers a new view on networking. Operators can orchestrate network resources on different layers for different purposes under the same management system. In addition, the SDN architecture must also provide network awareness to the application layer through service exposure APIs. At the same time, we need innovation on the support system side. OSS and BSS and big data analytics provide the insight into the network and user behavior that allow the operator to adapt and manage the network to serve the user."

* Ericsson ConsumerLab study 2011

Addressing IPv6 opportunities

IPv6 the right address for Sprint

Each device connected to the internet must be assigned an IP address in order to communicate with other devices. However, a connected device today means much more than a phone or a tablet – increasingly, anything that can benefit from a connection is being connected. As a result, the number of available addresses is shrinking fast – and as one of the largest operators in the US, Sprint needed a solution that really pushed the envelope.

"Five years ago we thought of the internet as something that our phones and PCs used," says Iyad Tarazi, Head of Network Development at Sprint. "Five years from now, we’ll think of it in terms of our kitchen appliances or cars. The more connections, the more addresses we need. We’re running out, and we’re running out quickly."

Finding an answer

The dominant internet communication protocol today is IPv4. But by providing an almost unlimited number of new IP addresses, the new IPv6 protocol allows many more devices to be connected, supports the launch of new services and ultimately underpins the continued growth of Sprint’s business. However, IPv6 does not provide backward support for IPv4 and IPv4-based applications will be used for some time to come. The evolutionary process from IPv4 to IPv6 must therefore be a gradual one.

"IPv6 allows operators to simplify the network. This means we can pass better performance and flexibility onto our customers and reduce our cost structure," Tarazi says. "But if you get it wrong, then you create massive blockage and performance issues."

Sprint’s plan was simple – introduce a native IPv6 service on their fixed network as an overlay stack of their existing IPv4 protocol. This would enable the delivery of both IPv4 and IPv6 services while maximizing Sprint’s return on investment on their existing equipment.

The right partner

"Sprint needed a strong partner who could execute quickly with minimal customer impact. Ericsson was the right choice for Sprint at every stage – from initial engagement, assessment, and analysis and design through to implementation and lifecycle management," says Ajit Bhatia, Head of Marketing and Business Development for Ericsson’s Sprint Customer Unit.

"It was critical to have a partner like Ericsson with a proven track record of managing complex technical projects that require a disciplined systems engineering approach," Tarazi says. "We run a multi-vendor environment and the Ericsson team showed enormous flexibility by bringing in the competence that was needed."

Reaping the benefits

With engineers working around the clock, the project was not only completed on budget, but in time for World IPv6 Day 2012. And the benefits for Sprint and its customers will be even more long-lasting.

"Leveraging our business partnership with Ericsson resulted in great performance and flawless execution," Tarazi says. "Our customers now have access to a network that can handle new and innovative ways of connecting their devices to the internet, allowingthem to grow with us as their needs evolve."

Customer Profile

Sprint

Sprint is North America’s third-largest carrier. The company has an enviable track record of innovation, offering the first wireless 4G service from a national US carrier, as well as unlimited data plans for its smartphone users. By the end of 2011, Sprint was serving more than 55 million customers. Its leading prepaid brands include Virgin Mobile USA and Boost Mobile.

The company has won a number of customer satisfaction accolades and in 2011, Newsweek ranked Sprint no. 3 in its 2011 Green Rankings – listing it as one of the USA’s greenest companies.

www.sprint.com

Leading the way with 4G IP

Ericsson’s Jan Häglund, Head of Product Area IP & Broadband highlights Ericsson’s commitment to 4G IP and discusses the benefits that the new Broadband Network Gateway application will deliver.

http://www.ericsson.com/news/121016-leading-the-way-with-4g-ip_244159017_c

Ericsson acquires Canadian OSS/BSS company ConceptWave

Ericsson acquires 100% of the shares of ConceptWave, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with a current staff of 170 persons
Strengthens Ericsson's OSS and BSS portfolio with world leading offerings in Order Management and Product Catalog

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) announced the acquisition of the Canadian company ConceptWave in an all cash transaction. The company was founded in 2000 and has developed leading-edge software solutions primarily for telecom operators.

Acquiring ConceptWave complements and strengthens Ericsson's offering in the area of operations- and business support systems (OSS/BSS) with world leading Order Management and Product Catalog solutions, providing solutions to better support network operators with their handling of activities related to personalizing end-user offerings and revenue management solutions.

Elisabetta Romano, Head of OSS in Business Unit Support Solutions, Ericsson, says: "There is a trend towards more personalization of services where end-users want to purchase communications services meeting their individual needs. This puts high demand on telecom operators to be able to offer flexible product bundles with customized pricing packages. In this area ConceptWave's solutions and employees' expertise adds considerable value to Ericsson's portfolio."

Zarar Rana, President and CEO of ConceptWave, says: "Our products and solutions help maximize telecom operators' assets through the creation, implementation and automation of service fulfillment processes for new and differentiated offerings. Joining Ericsson today adds great value to ConceptWave, as we become part of their global organization and leverage their industry-leading technology and services competence."

ConceptWave is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with a current staff of 170. The company's customers, primarily telecom operators, are located in Canada, USA, Latin America, Europe and Asia. The transaction closed at signing.

With the integration of previously acquired Telcordia, Ericsson today has the industry's most comprehensive OSS/BSS portfolio, a key element of any operator's network strategy. Ericsson today has a leading position in key areas such as charging and billing, where we serve 1.7 billion people with our solutions.

About Order Management
Order Management is the discipline of handling and optimizing complex fulfillment flow by scheduling and orchestrating tasks, materials and activities over time. For example, orchestration of a customer order that contains software activation, hardware orders and delivery as well as contractor work and installation, where the different parts of the order should be synchronized to one service date despite different lead-times.

About Product Catalogue
A Product Catalog is a system that defines all the detailed components that a product consists of, including e.g. price, eligibility rules as well as interdependency with other products. Surrounding systems will use the product specifications in the catalogue in order to perform activities such as product bundling, campaign packaging and related revenue management. The product catalogue is imperative to dynamically cater for more personalization of services for end-users.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Download high-resolution photos and broadcast-quality video at www.ericsson.com/press

Ericsson is the world's leading provider of communications technology and services. We are enabling the Networked Society with efficient real-time solutions that allow us all to study, work and live our lives more freely, in sustainable societies around the world.

Our offering comprises services, software and infrastructure within Information and Communications Technology for telecom operators and other industries. Today more than 40 percent of the world's mobile traffic goes through Ericsson networks and we support customers' networks servicing more than 2.5 billion subscribers.

We operate in 180 countries and employ more than 100,000 people. Founded in 1876, Ericsson is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2011 the company's net sales were SEK 226.9 billion (USD 35.0 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX, Stockholm and NASDAQ, New York stock exchanges.

www.ericsson.com
www.twitter.com/ericssonpress
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www.youtube.com/ericssonpress

About ConceptWave

ConceptWave is a leading provider of customer, product, and order lifecycle management solutions that enable communications service providers to rapidly introduce new market offers and to empower superior customer experience. ConceptWave's unique offer is to provide an end-to-end catalog-driven suite of order fulfillment automation software with ConceptWave Order Care® and Rapid CRM(TM). ConceptWave's products and solutions enable service providers to address competitive requirements and simplify the management of customers, products, and orders, for any product, on any network, in any market, using any channel. ConceptWave® and ConceptWave Order Care® are registered trademarks of ConceptWave Software Inc.

Hackathon winner puts fun into math learning

Ericsson and AT&T hosted a 36-hour coding challenge in lower Manhattan this weekend, running simultaneously with the Social Good Summit at the 92Y uptown. About 100 people volunteered to create new applications that help solve some of the world’s major challenges. For the best innovative app focusing on education, Ericsson offered a scholarship for a girl to go to secondary school in the name of that team. This particular event is the 28th hackathon for Alex Donn, Senior Marketing Manager at the AT&T Developer Program. He says: "A hackathon is at its core about thinking out of the box." This year’s theme of social good brought a new element to Donn’s experience. "Traditionally at hackathons, the code goes away after the weekend. With this we want to instill a bit of longevity, still allowing coders to tinker with new ideas and technology, but pairing them with non-governmental organizations that need basic utility applications, like adding a ‘like’ button on social media. The results will then last longer," he said. Participants broke into 24 teams for the day. Sunday night, each team gave a three-minute pitch and demonstration of their apps in front of the judging panel, comprising experts from companies including AT&T, Ericsson and Samsung. The overall winner was DecisionMakr, which allows Twitter users to give qualitative and quantitative feedback to decision-makers at conferences, town halls and other public events. The app will be used by Yale University at the Climate COP meeting in Doha this December. In second place was AA-Aid, an app to help alcoholics find meetings through crowd-sourcing and a semi-anonymous support network. The team in third place came up with an app called Hope that allows food donors and charities to better communicate what food they have, how much, and help plan the best routes and prioritize food pickup for charities in order to conserve resources. The Connect to Learn scholarship will be given in the name of Tug-O-Learn, a team of young New Yorkers. Khaliq Gant, Will Washburn and Luke Hristou knew each other before coming to the hackathon, but had not planned any ideas until the competition started. Ultimately, they chose to build an app around using the "Sphero" device because, in their words: "It’s awesome." The "Sphero" ball is a remote-controlled device that moves when commands are sent to it via a mobile device. In Tug-O-Learn, one student invites another student to a game. A random math question appears on the screens of both, and the first one to answer correctly sees the ball come closer. The first to get the ball wins. Gant says: "We wanted to make learning tangible, so when you see the ball coming toward you, you know you have achieved something." Geoff Hollingworth (second from left) and the Tug-o-Learn team. Ericsson’s Geoff Hollingworth (pictured, second from left, with the Tug-o-Learn team), in announcing the Connect to Learn winners, said: "Making it (learning) fun is what tipped this one for us. It’s simple and appealing."

World’s first voice over LTE services launched with Ericsson

The world’s first commercial voice over LTE (VoLTE) services have been launched in South Korea and the US, with product and services support from Ericsson.

At the beginning of August 2012, VoLTE services were launched in South Korea by SK Telecom and LG U+, the country’s largest and third-largest telecom operators respectively, and MetroPCS pioneered the services in the US.

Before the launches, telecom operators had only used LTE networks for data, and 2G or 3G networks for voice services.

“I congratulate all these operators on this great achievement,” says Johan Wibergh, Head of Business Unit Networks at Ericsson. “Telecom grade telephony is going all-IP over commercial mobile broadband LTE networks for the first time. This is a historic moment in the telecom industry.

“We see increasing operator interest in VoLTE globally, and we expect broader market take-off in 2013.”

Ericsson has supported SK Telecom, LG U+ and MetroPCS in the launches by supplying products and services, and will continue to support the three operators to further expand and improve their VoLTE-related consumer services.

Ericsson’s end-to-end VoLTE solution portfolio comprises IMS including MTAS (Mobile Telephony Application Server), Evolved Packet Core (EPC), LTE Radio Access Network, OSS and services. For VoLTE interworking with legacy networks, the portfolio also includes support in GSM/WCDMA RAN, Mobile Softswitch Solution, EPC and the CDMA core portfolio. The Ericsson RCS (Rich Communication Suite) solution provides a complement to enhancing communication services.

Ericsson also collaborates closely with major device and chipset vendors on interoperability testing toward the company’s products and solutions, to ensure commercial readiness of VoLTE devices and networks globally.

With VoLTE as a basis, consumers will be able to enjoy telecom-grade HD voice, video calling and other new richer communication services on LTE smartphones. This gives operators a comprehensive set of globally standardized, telecom grade quality services to combine with high-speed mobile broadband services.

These services use a regular mobile-phone (MSISDN or Mobile Subscriber Integrated Services Digital Network) number, and VoLTE brings the operator telephony values into an all-IP mobile-broadband network: global interoperability, QoS, roaming and seamless mobility between any mobile devices, over any access technology. With VoLTE, both voice and LTE data services can be used simultaneously on LTE smartphones. Running VoLTE is also more spectral efficient compared to running voice over 2G or 3G, which provides an opportunity for better radio resources utilization when deploying mobile broadband.

See further information about these operator launches in their respective press releases:

MetroPCS, USA
SK Telecom, South Korea
LG U+, South Korea

Broadband Commission recommends big steps to UN

The Broadband Commission has recommended action in four areas in its annual report to the UN Secretary-General.

The State of Broadband 2012: Achieving Digital Inclusion for All report from the Broadband Commission for Digital Development recommends measures in policy, pricing, infrastructure build-out, and content development. The commission delivered its report September 23.

Dr Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General, International Telecom Union (ITU) and co-vice-Chair of the Broadband Commission, says that the state of broadband today is good, but could be even better. "One-third of the world’s population is connected to broadband. The good news is that the other two-thirds can be connected if we put the right partnership model together. That means governments, the private sector, civil society and consumer groups each must play their different but complementary roles together."

One hundred twelve countries have national broadband plans. Touré says that all countries must adopt their own national broadband plans, but incorporating lessons from the others. "We must scale on that front, so we do not reinvent the wheel or make the same mistakes," he said. The 2012 report recommends that all countries have a national broadband plan, consider how they tax Information and Communications Technology industry players, and urges each group to develop content in health, education, and government services as a starting point.

Touré appeared on a panel with Ericsson President and CEO Hans Vestberg at the Social Good Summit, held at the 92Y in New York, with partners and sponsored by Ericsson, Mashable, the UN Foundation, UN Development Program, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. During the panel session, both Vestberg and Touré enthusiastically supported the idea of broadband as a basic human right.

Touré explained further: "We are in the information society but our ultimate goal is a knowledge society. Access is not enough. You have to use information in a local language, to create information – every person on this planet is a potential source of information, and sharing. Information is the only thing that is multiplied when shared. Everything else is divided when shared. That’s powerful, so we need to set the stage for a knowledge society where everyone will have (access to) its full potential thanks to ICT."

The Broadband Commission was launched in 2010 as an advocacy group to help raise awareness of the role broadband can play in helping meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. This is the second full report to the Secretary-General: the first report presented case studies and information on financing models; this one contains specific recommendations, one of which is the "dig once" strategy.

Touré describes it as such: "When you have a big infrastructure project, roads, railroads, pipelines and so on, you roll out fiber alongside. The cost of that would be minimal compared to if you have to re-dig."

He is optimistic about the recommendations being received well. "Among the eight MDGs, goal number eight – dealing with partnership and ICT – is the only one likely to be met ahead of time. mICT can help us then meet goals for the others, within health, education, job and wealth creation as opposed to poverty alleviation."

However, he is quick to remind that technology itself is "just a tool to meet other goals. And those are social and economic development."

Read the full report at www.broadbandcommission.org

Ericsson brings mobile broadband to peace initiative with Forest Whitaker

Ericsson joins forces with Forest Whitaker's PeaceEarth Foundation
Ericsson will provide Internet access via mobile broadband, computers, and ICT training to youth in conflict zones
Initiative announced at Social Good Summit in New York
At the Social Good Summit in New York, Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) announced its commitment to join Oscar-winning actor, humanist and Goodwill Ambassador of UNESCO, Forest Whitaker, in a new foundation whose mission it is to promote peace among youth everywhere, from troubled urban neighborhoods in the United States to rural conflict areas in Africa.

The PeaceEarth Foundation brings together public and private entities and will serve as a vehicle for an array of programs, initiatives and campaigns in the U.S. and around the world.

"Ericsson's support to PeaceEarth will establish a truly connected program in South Sudan and Uganda," said Whitaker. "The commitment will allow us to advance our shared goal to collectively move our world towards peace, one day at a time."

Ericsson's engagement will begin by providing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solutions to schools in two locations, South Sudan and Uganda, in conjunction with the global education initiative Connect To Learn. This will enable the PeaceEarth Foundation to establish access to the internet and create a collaborative environment among the participating youth and further develop the education initiatives.

Also through Connect To Learn, Ericsson will provide on-site project management resources, Wi-Fi coverage, and basic ICT training for teachers and students on the use of the Ericsson cloud computing solution.

At the Social Good Summit in New York, a panel was held with Whitaker, Ericsson President and CEO Hans Vestberg and Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

Ericsson's Vestberg said: "Our work with PeaceEarth Foundation is a natural extension of how we bring our competence to advocate for Technology for Good around the world. We know that our technology has a positive link to development, where 10% of increased broadband penetration leads to more than 1% sustainable growth in GDP.

"You can't have positive social and economic development where people are suffering from conflicts or natural disasters. I hope that extending access to education will help enable the PeaceEarth Foundation further its goals," Vestberg concluded.

Currently, 1.5 billion people live in countries affected by violent conflict, and more than 8 million children have been killed or disabled through violent conflict. Working in partnership with local and regional experts, civil society and multilateral organizations, governments and businesses, PeaceEarth will work to promote peaceful conflict resolution through youth empowerment, access to knowledge, capacity-building and cultural diversity.

PeaceEarth Foundation recently launched an interactive website that gives people the power to learn, engage and act. It serves to connect and foster dialogue among communities, practitioners and scholars, giving people key information about conflict zones, best practices in peace-building, and solutions.

The work of the Foundation is also instrumental to further the mission of Whitaker as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Peace and Reconciliation, and co-founder of the International Institute for Peace.

NOTES TO EDITORS

The PeaceEarth Foundation website is live at: www.peaceearth.org

For more information about Connect To Learn: www.connecttolearn.org

Photos Hans Vestberg:
http://www.ericsson.com/thecompany/press/photolibrary/management

Photos of Hans Vestberg and Forest Whitaker will be available on www.ericsson.com/press

Ericsson is the world's leading provider of communications technology and services. We are enabling the Networked Society with efficient real-time solutions that allow us all to study, work and live our lives more freely, in sustainable societies around the world.

Our offering comprises services, software and infrastructure within Information and Communications Technology for telecom operators and other industries. Today more than 40 percent of the world's mobile traffic goes through Ericsson networks and we support customers' networks servicing more than 2.5 billion subscribers.

We operate in 180 countries and employ more than 100,000 people. Founded in 1876, Ericsson is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2011 the company's net sales were SEK 226.9 billion (USD 35.0 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX, Stockholm and NASDAQ, New York stock exchanges.

Ericsson inaugurates new R&D facilities in Nanjing

After 20 years of development, Nanjing Ericsson Panda Communications Co., Ltd. has grown to become Ericsson's largest production and supply center
Ericsson increases investment in Nanjing R&D Center, inaugurating new 11,700sq m building
Ericsson has invested more than CNY 450 million in Nanjing over the past five years
Nanjing Ericsson Panda Communications Co. Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "ENC") celebrated its 20th anniversary today. Founded in 1992 as a production unit, ENC has developed vigorously and matured into Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC)'s largest production supply center and one of the most important research and development bases in the world.

Over the past five years, Ericsson has invested more than CNY 450 million in ENC. In 2008, Ericsson invested to expand the total area of factory buildings and ancillary facilities to approximately 13,000sq m. The expansion, completed in 2009, increased the ENC's production area by 50 percent and doubled its production capacity, which is mainly devoted to 3G equipment. In 2011, Ericsson invested to double the scale of its R&D Center in Nanjing and its infrastructure to meet the demand for expanded operations.

The inauguration of the new Nanjing R&D Center building, which covers a total area of 11,700sq m, will enhance the company's R&D capability in 3G and LTE. One of Ericsson China's five major R&D centers, the Nanjing R&D Center currently employs about 500 R&D engineers who are working on software and hardware for various communication standards, including GSM, WCDMA, LTE FDD and TDD (TD-LTE). The radio network controllers and radio base stations developed by the center have been deployed by major operators in more than 100 networks around the world.

Mr. Yang Weize, Party Secretary of Nanjing Municipality said: "We would like to congratulate ENC for your progress in the past 20 years and thank you for the great contribution you have made to the development of the entire industry chain in Jiangsu province and Nanjing city, as well as the social and economic development in the region. We sincerely hope that ENC will continue to prosper."

Mats H Olsson, President of Ericsson North East Asia and Chairman of Ericsson China, said: "In the past 20 years, ENC has grown from a local production factory into a world class global production and supply unit. In fact, ENC of today is truly serves as a benchmark for the success of the globalization of Ericsson. ENC will play an even more important role in the development of the ICT industry in China and around the world."

NOTES TO EDITORS

Photo of Mats Olsson: www.ericsson.com/thecompany/press/photolibrary/management

Download high-resolution photos and broadcast-quality video at www.ericsson.com/press

Ericsson is the world's leading provider of communications technology and services. We are enabling the Networked Society with efficient real-time solutions that allow us all to study, work and live our lives more freely, in sustainable societies around the world.

Our offering comprises services, software and infrastructure within Information and Communications Technology for telecom operators and other industries. Today more than 40 percent of the world's mobile traffic goes through Ericsson networks and we support customers' networks servicing more than 2.5 billion subscribers.

We operate in 180 countries and employ more than 100,000 people. Founded in 1876, Ericsson is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2011 the company's net sales were SEK 226.9 billion (USD 35.0 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX, Stockholm and NASDAQ, New York stock exchanges.

www.ericsson.com
www.twitter.com/ericssonpress
www.facebook.com/ericsson
www.youtube.com/ericssonpress

Social Good Summit 2012: Ericsson builds commitment to Technology For Good

Ericsson sets high engagement ambitions for its initiatives during global sustainability event
Building on successful partnerships with Mashable, United Nations Foundation, and 92nd Street Y and others following last year's Social Good Summit and Rio+Social
Focus on education, refugee family reconnection, conflict resolution and peace, as well as development where mobile broadband is a key enabler
As the only private-sector partner involved in the Social Good Summit 2012 in New York, Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) will participate in discussions on how mobile broadband can be used as a tool for change in helping to tackle global challenges.

The event, which takes place in New York on September 22-24, will be complemented by Social Good Summit hub events on September 24 in Nairobi, Kenya and Beijing, China as well as "meet-ups" in nearly 100 countries.

At the Social Good Summit as well as other related events in New York during the same week, Ericsson President and CEO Hans Vestberg will discuss the impact mobile broadband can have on a range of initiatives, and outline the key role technology can play in meeting global challenges.  

Vestberg says: "Broadband is proven as a key infrastructure for social and economic development. It positively impacts GDP, employment growth, and supports a low-carbon economy. During this week in New York we hope to raise awareness of the role mobile broadband and ICT can play on the global agenda."

At the Social Good Summit, Vestberg, who is a Broadband Commissioner, will highlight the release of the Broadband Commission for Digital Development's report, The State of Broadband 2012: Achieving Digital Inclusion for All, together with Dr Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union. The report will be recognized by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, on September 23, at a meeting of the Broadband Commission.

Vestberg will also discuss the role of technology in development and peace with UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Forest Whitaker, Founder and Chair of PeaceEarth Foundation and Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University

The global education initiative "Connect To Learn" will also be highlighted during the week, with new announcements and an outline of the milestones achieved to date.  Ericsson's Vice President of Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility, Elaine Weidman-Grunewald, will appear on a Social Good Summit panel to discuss ways to improve access to a 21st-century secondary education for girls on September 24.

Later that day, Weidman-Grunewald will also introduce a session at the Summit on refugee reconnection. Based on the successful introduction of the mobile reconnection platform developed by Ericsson on behalf of Refugees United, she and co-founder Christopher Mikkelsen will discuss the importance of public-private partnerships in achieving scale. This initiative will also be represented at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York later in the week, which has the theme of Designing for Impact.

Vestberg and Weidman-Grunewald will also participate in the launch of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network on September 22, the network recently announced by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and directed by Jeffrey Sachs, in his role as special advisor to the UN Secretary General.  This initiative is part of the UN initiatives in support of the post-2015 development agenda and the outcome of the Rio+20 Conference.

The Social Good Summit will be webcast at www.mashable.com/sgs and on www.ericsson.com.

LG U+ launches Voice over LTE services with Ericsson

LG U+ users in South Korea to benefit from voice over LTE services
With voice over LTE technology, the operator can also offer enhanced telecom grade services such as HD voice, video calling, chat and presence
LG U+ users in South Korea get access to voice over LTE (VoLTE) services. This is thanks to a decision made by South Korean operator LG U+, in partnership with Ericsson's (NASDAQ: ERIC) majority-owned subsidiary LG-Ericsson, to make subscribers in South Korea benefit from commercial VoLTE (GSMA IR.92) services.

The demand for LTE data services in South Korea has increased rapidly ever since LG U+ became the first operator in the country to launch LTE commercially on July 1, 2011. As of August 2012, LG U+ has confirmed that LGU+ is the second largest LTE provider in South Korea, serving 3.1 million of LTE subscribers.

Joo sik Choi, Senior Vice President of Service Creation, LG U+ says: "Improving the user experience for our subscribers is always our top priority. Ericsson's global leadership in LTE technology and experience in building an end-to-end LTE network infrastructure helped ensure the success of the nationwide launch of this service."

Johan Wibergh, Head of Business Unit Networks at Ericsson, says: "With the new VoLTE technology, LG U+ will be able to offer its subscribers better voice quality and an improved user experience. The new VoLTE services will sharpen LG U+'s competitive edge considerably and will provide the foundation for further enriching their communication services offering."

Originally, 4G/LTE technology was developed for data communication only. The 4G/LTE technology has now evolved to embrace Rich Communication Services as well, making it a full telecommunication grade technology. VoLTE is a technology that allows voice calls to be made over an LTE network at the same time as users can access high-speed mobile broadband services and rich communication services. Up until now, in order to handle voice calls, CDMA-LTE devices required simultaneous radio operation on both CDMA and LTE, which is inherently inefficient and does not allow for a fully integrated rich communications offering.

Ericsson has supplied an end-to-end VoLTE network to LG U+, including LTE-RAN, Evolved Packet Core, and IMS Telephony Application Server.

NOTES TO EDITORS

LTE Media Kit: www.ericsson.com/thecompany/press/mediakits/lte

What is Voice over LTE (VoLTE)? www.ericsson.com/res/thecompany/docs/corpinfo/volte_backgrounder.pdf

Download high-resolution photos and broadcast-quality video at www.ericsson.com/press

Ericsson is the world's leading provider of communications technology and services. We are enabling the Networked Society with efficient real-time solutions that allow us all to study, work and live our lives more freely, in sustainable societies around the world.

Our offering comprises services, software and infrastructure within Information and Communications Technology for telecom operators and other industries. Today more than 40 percent of the world's mobile traffic goes through Ericsson networks and we support customers' networks servicing more than 2.5 billion subscribers.

We operate in 180 countries and employ more than 100,000 people. Founded in 1876, Ericsson is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2011 the company's net sales were SEK 226.9 billion (USD 35.0 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX, Stockholm and NASDAQ, New York stock exchanges.

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CONSUMERS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA READY FOR NEXT STEP IN M-COMMERCE

Ericsson ConsumerLab study identifies ways of using m-commerce in three African countries
Traditional advertising alone won't work for m-commerce; education helps users trust and adopt new services
M-commerce players should take special notice of women in sub-Saharan Africa -  they are responsible for household finances
In a new report from its ConsumerLab, Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) maps out the potential of transformation within m-commerce across the region of sub-Saharan Africa.

Based on in-depth, extensive interviews with mobile phone users in Ghana, South Africa, and Tanzania, the report has four key findings: that consumers are constantly looking for new ways to improve their personal budgets; the speed and convenience of m-commerce points to great potential in the market; current behaviors and social structures indicate that the use of mobile payment services will expand; and that consumers need more information about the functionality and security of m-commerce transactions.

Consumers tell Ericsson researchers that they use mobile payment services for person-to-person transfers and purchasing airtime on their mobile subscriptions, and that they like the convenience of accessing money everywhere and at anytime, regardless of service hours. In Tanzania, for example, 38% of subscribers send money person-to-person over the mobile phone.

Another conclusion of the report is that people who use m-commerce keep little separation between private and business accounts. "Many consumers are entirely self-employed and are prompted to make transfers from private accounts for business purposes, so they gain experience with m-commerce," says Anders Erlandsson, Senior Advisor, Ericsson ConsumerLab.

Experience leads to greater trust, and the report finds that 44% of non-users of m-commerce are very worried about the integrity of their account information in case of theft or loss of their phones. "Face-to-face introductions, when an agent meets consumer, are crucial," says Erlandsson. "Just as personal access to a bank leads to higher acceptance of more abstract bank services, trust in mobile services also grows with personal experiences, rather than merely through advertising."

The report gives some insight into how household finances are traditionally handled and guidance for telecom operators in launching services that consumers will like and use. Where men and women share a household, men are generally expected to be breadwinners and women responsible for household finances.

A 45-year old man in Tanzania says: "If we are out of money and we have to buy something, my wife will usually solves it somehow. I don't know how she does it, women always have their ways."

Users put a high value on easy access to their money, Erlandsson continues: "Network reliability is another important factor, where concerns have to be addressed. For example, if you lose connectivity, you cannot access your money.

"Operators are reliable and technologically adept, providing a service that is personal and available to everybody. There is a window of opportunity in mobile money services for operators who already have an established relationship with consumers, because they have wide presence also in rural areas," he concluded.

Ericsson ConsumerLab gains its knowledge through a global consumer research program based on interviews with 100,000 individuals each year, in more than 40 countries and 15 megacities - statistically representing the views of 1.1 billion people. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used, and hundreds of hours are spent with consumers from different cultures.

Ericsson m-commerce has a global focus on accelerating access and interconnection between the m-commerce ecosystem and the existing financial world.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Ericsson ConsumerLab report archive

Media kit on m-commerce

Ericsson m-commerce portfolio

Download high-resolution photos and broadcast-quality video at www.ericsson.com/press

Ericsson is the world's leading provider of communications technology and services. We are enabling the Networked Society with efficient real-time solutions that allow us all to study, work and live our lives more freely, in sustainable societies around the world.

Our offering comprises services, software and infrastructure within Information and Communications Technology for telecom operators and other industries. Today more than 40 percent of the world's mobile traffic goes through Ericsson networks and we support customers' networks servicing more than 2.5 billion subscribers.

We operate in 180 countries and employ more than 100,000 people. Founded in 1876, Ericsson is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2011 the company's net sales were SEK 226.9 billion (USD 35.0 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX, Stockholm and NASDAQ, New York stock exchanges.

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Transparent network-performance verification for LTE rollouts - how to verify an LTE deployment

Many operators have chosen to deploy 4G LTE networks to support the rollout of new services and enhance user experience. The deadlines to deploy LTE networks are very tight and as networks become increasingly complex a need has arisen for a simple and transparent network-performance verification process.

LTE networks provide the higher capacity and data speeds required to support ever-increasing numbers of mobile-broadband subscriptions, smartphones and other connected devices. The timely deployment of LTE networks is crucial for launching new services, support faster data speeds, provide greater capacity, and reduce investment costs.

The network complexity created by such new services, new types of devices, multiple technologies, and multiple-vendor deployments requires an efficient approach to network-performance verification from initial testing through to in-service operation. The aim of such an approach is to allow operators to focus on bringing LTE networks into service quickly with the required level of network performance for successful commercial launch and continued operation.

NovaThor™ U8500 - Jelly Bean first boot

ST-Ericsson NovaThor™ U8500 Modap platform is now ready to take the next step with Android. The latest release, Android 4.1, also known as Jelly Bean, is now running on the ST-Ericsson reference platform

Ericsson study: TV viewing increasingly accompanied by use of social media

62 percent use social media while watching TV - an 18 percent point increase in one year
67 percent use tablets, smartphones or laptops for TV viewing
60 percent use on-demand services on a weekly basis
The results of Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) ConsumerLab's annual study - presented in the TV & Video Consumer Trend Report 2012 - reveal that social TV is becoming a mass-market phenomenon.

Sixty-two percent of consumers use social media while watching TV on a weekly basis, an increase of 18 percentage points in one year. By gender, 66 percent of women engage in this behavior, compared to 58 percent of men. Twenty-five percent of consumers use social media to discuss what they are watching while they are watching it.

Figure: How often people discuss TV or video on social networks while viewing

Niklas Rönnblom, Ericsson ConsumerLab Senior Advisor, says: "Mobile devices are an important part of the TV experience, as 67 percent of consumers use smartphones, tablets, or laptops for TV and video viewing. Furthermore, sixty percent of consumers say they use on-demand services on a weekly basis. Watching TV on the move is growing in popularity, and 50 percent of the time spent watching TV and video on the smartphone, is done outside the home, where mobile broadband connections are facilitating the increase."

Although viewing behaviors and demands are changing, only 7 percent of consumers say they will reduce their TV subscriptions in the future. In fact, instead of looking to cut costs, consumers are willing to pay more for an enhanced viewing experience: 41 percent of consumers say they are willing to pay for TV and video content in HD.

More than half of consumers want to be able to choose their own TV and video content. Rönnblom says: "As the number of screens and services increase, people are eagerly looking for an easy-to-use, aggregated service that can bring everything together. It should allow consumers to mix on-demand and linear TV including live content, facilitate content discovery, leverage the value of social TV and provide seamless access across devices."

Data was collected in Brazil, Chile, China, Germany, Italy, Mexico, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, UK and the US. In all, 14 qualitative and 12,000 quantitative online interviews were conducted representing more than 460 million consumers.

Ericsson ConsumerLab gains its knowledge through a global consumer research program based on interviews with 100,000 individuals each year, in more than 40 countries and 15 megacities - statistically representing the views of 1.1 billion people. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used, and hundreds of hours are spent with consumers from different cultures.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Download the report here: http://www.ericsson.com/res/docs/2012/consumerlab/tv_video_consumerlab_report.pdf
All ConsumerLab reports can be found at www.ericsson.com/consumerlab

Download high-resolution photos and broadcast-quality video at www.ericsson.com/press

Ericsson is the world's leading provider of communications technology and services. We are enabling the Networked Society with efficient real-time solutions that allow us all to study, work and live our lives more freely, in sustainable societies around the world.

Our offering comprises services, software and infrastructure within Information and Communications Technology for telecom operators and other industries. Today more than 40 percent of the world's mobile traffic goes through Ericsson networks and we support customers' networks servicing more than 2 billion subscribers.

We operate in 180 countries and employ more than 100,000 people. Founded in 1876, Ericsson is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2011 the company had revenues of SEK 226.9 billion (USD 35.0 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX, Stockholm and NASDAQ, New York stock exchanges.

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Getting social: TV not just for watching

Watching TV is becoming even more social: sixty two percent of consumers now use social media while watching TV. The latest Ericsson ConsumerLab report looks at this and other shifts in the way the world watches TV and video.

Africa embracing m-commerce

The mobile phone brought a new dimension to the economic life of Sub-Saharan Africa. A new ConsumerLab report examines how this dynamic region is embracing a new generation of m-commerce services.

Internet group puts content first

The Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) has launched the Information-Centric Networking Research Group (ICNRG), co-chaired by Ericsson, to aid the transition from a box-oriented to a content-oriented internet architecture.

The ICNRG is chaired by Börje Ohlman, Senior Researcher at Ericsson Research, together with Dirk Kutscher from NEC and Dave Oran from Cisco. The group gathered for the first time at the end of July.

“Ericsson’s leading role in the ICNRG will give us the opportunity to influence the direction of research on future networking architectures,” Ohlman says.

Several new data-distribution technologies have emerged in response to increasing internet traffic volumes caused by mobile video, cloud computing and other factors. These technologies include peer-to-peer and content delivery networks (CDNs), which promote a communication model in which data is accessed by name, regardless of origin server location. Information-centric networking (ICN) is an approach to evolving internet infrastructure that involves directly supporting this model by introducing uniquely named data as a core internet principle. Data becomes independent from location, application, storage, and means of transportation, enabling in-network caching and replication.

“The purpose of the ICNRG is mainly to facilitate collaboration and exchange of ideas and discussions in the ICN field, and to bring results from this research into the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standardization process,” Ohlman says.

Those working on the ICN research face several challenges, according to Ohlman. One of these is to introduce a flexible naming scheme that is secure and supports mobility but that also allows for scalable name resolution, based on object names rather than references to boxes. “Based on work carried out in the European Commission’s 7th Framework Program (FP7) Scalable and Adaptive Internet Solutions (SAIL) project, we’ve made good progress here,” he says. One of the first results has been an active internet-draft document called Naming Things with Hashes (draft-farrell-decade-ni-10), which the IETF recently accepted as a standards-track Request for Comments.

Ohlman adds that other ICN research challenges include developing scalable routing schemes, dealing with congestion control, establishing caching strategies and security and privacy methods, as well as developing metrics for the consistent evaluation of ICN implementations.

With ICN, network-traffic patterns will change, Ohlman explains. “Data will be made available to applications through caching at the network edges rather than by moving it back and forth through the core network.”

Ohlman says the ICN technology will also benefit telecom operators because it provides functionality such as peer-to-peer and CDN as basic services.

4th Generation IP for mobility, video and cloud

Ulf Ewaldsson, CTO and Head of Group Function Technology, Ericsson explains the role of IP technology in delivering networks that are scalable, smart, simple, and that offer superior performance.

http://www.ericsson.com/news/120824_4gip_for_mobility_244159018_c