With ThalysNet, half a million international passengers surf broadband Internet on Thalys trains Tweet

Nokia Siemens Networks, 21Net and Telenet provide travelers with seamless Internet experience on high-speed European railway.

As of January 2010, more than 500,000 Thalys passengers have enjoyed high speed internet connectivity using ThalysNet, the WiFi Internet service available on high speed trains operated by Thalys between Paris, Cologne, Brussels and Amsterdam. The service was launched in May 2008 to offer seamless broadband connectivity to Thalys business and leisure travelers, and is provided by a consortium comprising Nokia Siemens Networks, 21Net and Telenet.

“Since its commercial launch the service has gained huge momentum, with 60% of those accessing ThalysNet being frequent repeated users” said Olivier Poitrenaud, chief executive officer of Thalys International. “With ThalysNet, Thalys remains the only high-speed international rail operator providing WiFi Internet access and our customers clearly value this service,”.

The success of on-board mobile broadband is borne out by passengers’ usage patterns: one out of four Comfort 1 service passengers is a ThalysNet user and access via handheld devices such as PDAs or Smartphones has doubled in the last six months, suggesting a growing preference for such WiFi enabled devices. ThalysNet customers use the service for internet browsing, e-mail and connection to corporate networks via VPN.

As of November 2009, Thalys passengers planning to travel in Thalys Comfort 2 can purchase Internet access prior to their trips on www.thalys.com in the dedicated “WiFi Internet on board” section and benefit from promotional prices such as buy 3 get 4 or buy 7 get 10 Internet vouchers.
About Thalys

Thalys is a product of the groups SNCF, NMBS, DB AG and NS. Thalys is a member of Railteam, an alliance between the most important European high-speed rail operators; of CER (Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies) and the UIC (International Rail Union). 2009 was the year of Thalys’ “metamorphosis”: 100% of its equipment now comes with WiFi, new on-board catering, the coaches were renovated, a new design and the trains are faster. With Thalys, Amsterdam and Cologne are now at only 1h53min and 1h47min from Brussels. To date, 75 million passengers have travelled between Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne with Thalys.

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Nokia Siemens Networks works to improve device battery life Tweet

New network feature extends battery life for mobile broadband and voice service subscribers.

Nokia Siemens Networks has successfully conducted the world’s first call using a network technology known as “continuous packet connectivity” (CPC). Once incorporated into an operator’s HSPA+ radio access network, CPC will enable 3G users to enjoy significantly longer device battery life, a crucial issue as the use of smartphones for broadband services skyrockets. CPC can mean up to 100 percent longer battery life when devices are used for data applications, and up to 50 percent during voice calls. The CPC data call was made using network equipment from Nokia Siemens Networks and a device supplied by Qualcomm using the QSC6295™ chipset.

“Nokia Siemens Networks is focused on innovations that benefit both operators and end-users,” said Tommi Uitto, head of Network Systems product management at Nokia Siemens Networks. “With CPC, subscribers will enjoy an improved mobile data experience, while operators will benefit from enhanced network capacity -- even with heavy smartphone use -- due to less interference in the radio connection, not to mention higher revenues due to increased usage of the service.”

Michael Thelander, chief executive officer of the analysis firm Signals Research Group, LLC, explains, “While a lot of attention gets paid to the higher data rates associated with HSPA+, 3G operators are actually placing equal or even greater emphasis on other key HSPA+ features, such as discontinuous data reception and transmission, which can dramatically extend the battery life and improve overall network efficiency.”

During extended HSPA data sessions, there are typically long periods of idle time between transmissions of data packets, during which a device continues to use its battery. The CPC feature of 3GPP Release 7 uses the “discontinuous transmission and reception” method to shut down the device’s transmitter and receiver during the idle phases to reduce power consumption. It has no effect on the actual data rates experienced by the end-user.

“At Qualcomm, we are committed to driving the evolution of technology features that provide the maximum benefit to end-users,” said Alex Katouzian, vice president of product management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. “The CPC feature further enhances the HSPA+ mobile broadband experience for end-users by allowing them to enjoy these services without worrying about device battery life.”

Nokia Siemens Networks’ Flexi Base Station and radio network controller can support the CPC feature with a simple software upgrade. The company is the leader in driving Evolved HSPA, also known as HSPA+. In May 2009, Nokia Siemens Networks and Elisa Finland made the world's first circuit-switched call over HSPA, which allows operators to simplify and cost-effectively increase voice capacity of their 3G networks.

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Swisscom users to enjoy faster mobile broadband services Tweet

Nokia Siemens Networks makes operator’s network smartphone friendly.

Swisscom, the leading telecommunications service provider in Switzerland, will soon offer its mobile broadband subscribers improved data speeds and faster access to broadband services. The operator is upgrading its 2G and 3G networks to prepare for growth in data traffic driven by increased use of smartphones, and has selected Nokia Siemens Networks to upgrade its mobile packet core network.

“We are seeing mobile broadband traffic throughput doubles every eight months, which is putting a lot of strain on our existing network capacity,” said Guido Garrone, head of network & IT, Swisscom. “Therefore, we decided we needed a future-proof network that can be scaled to keep pace with the tremendous growth we see coming in data traffic. We’ve asked Nokia Siemens Networks to deliver the network components like GGSN and RADIUS AAA against a tough deadline, and to integrate the new system into our live network without any service interruption for our subscribers.”

“While operators must focus on improving end-users’ service experience and rolling out new applications, they also need to rein in costs to stay competitive,” said Dietmar Appeltauer, head of the central and east European region at Nokia Siemens Networks. “Our offerings will help Swisscom reduce its operational expenses through consolidation of its mobile broadband infrastructure, and will enable it to scale up its network and move to next-generation technologies via simple upgrades.”

Swisscom will replace its existing authentication, authorization, and accounting system with Nokia Siemens Networks’ One-AAA server that allows the operator to manage subscriber access to new, customized services. By employing economical, off-the-shelf, hardware the platform lets Swisscom offer its mobile broadband services to an increasing number of users very efficiently.

Nokia Siemens Networks will also provide its Flexi Network Gateway (Flexi NG) packet core platform to boost network capacity for efficiently handling the growing demand for high speed mobile data services. The Flexi NG offers optimally balanced and highly scalable throughput, signaling capacity with integrated service awareness capabilities.

In addition, Nokia Siemens Networks will provide its network management system, NetAct, for improving Swisscom’s operational efficiency and ensuring high-quality services. Delivery of the overall network upgrade has begun and will be complete later this year.
About Swisscom

Swisscom is Switzerland's leading telecoms provider, with 5,5 million mobile customers and around 1.8 million broadband connections. In the first three quarters of 2009, the company's 19,704 employees (full time equivalents) generated revenues of CHF 8,9 billion.

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M1 successfully completes 100 Mbps data call on trial LTE network Tweet

Call used commercial LTE hardware and software from Nokia Siemens Networks.

MobileOne (M1), the leading mobile operator in Singapore, has successfully completed a 100 Mbps data call on its Long Term Evolution (LTE) trial network. This makes it the first South Asian operator to achieve this milestone on commercial LTE hardware and software. The call was made at M1’s flagship store in Singapore, where the operator is trialing and showcasing applications over LTE together with its partner Nokia Siemens Networks.

“I am delighted with the completion of today’s data call, which met our requirements for low latency, high speed, and reliability,” said Patrick Scodeller, chief technical officer at M1. “The ongoing trial will let us obtain firsthand experience of Nokia Siemens Networks’ commercially ready LTE hardware and software, based on its Flexi Multiradio base stations. Our network modernization contract with Nokia Siemens Networks represents the first steps in our evolution towards LTE, and this trial helps pave the way to faster and better quality mobile broadband services in the future.“

“LTE will not only enable a rich end-user experience but also help drive new business opportunities for operators like M1,” said Ricky Corker, head of Asia Pacific, Nokia Siemens Networks. “The technology is rapidly approaching commercial introduction in many markets, and trials such as these are proof of LTE’s potential to deliver fantastic mobile broadband.”

M1 will be showcasing High Definition (HD) TV streaming, as well as high-speed file download over an LTE network at its flagship store until end March 2010.

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Triple play services for Insight Communications customers Tweet

North American cable operator selects Nokia Siemens Networks to improve capacity and performance of high-speed broadband, digital cable and phone services.

Insight Communications customers will soon enjoy increased bandwidth for triple play services. One of North America’s leading cable operators, Insight Communications is upgrading its network using Nokia Siemens Networks’ optical transport and Metro Ethernet technology to deliver better services, improving the overall experience of its customers.

“Our customers expect top-quality phone, broadband and digital cable services,” said Jerry Knights, vice president for engineering, Insight Communications. “This network expansion will enhance our ability to bundle these services, offering our customers greater choice and convenience. We appreciate the value Nokia Siemens Networks brings with its resilient and seamless transport platform, not to mention its unique integrated approach to network management.”

Nokia Siemens Networks will deploy its flexible, cost-effective hiT 7300 metro DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) platform, optimized for high-capacity transport across metro and long-haul networks. At the same time, the company’s system for managing optical networks will help Insight Communications speed up the introduction and delivery of new services. As part of the project, Nokia Siemens Networks will deploy its A-Series Carrier Ethernet switches.

“An increasingly competitive market landscape demands that cable operators emphasize and deliver a differentiated service,” said Ric Herald, head of multiple systems operators business, Nokia Siemens Networks. “Our transport solutions will allow Insight Communications to address network layer challenges cohesively and competently, providing them with a single point of contact to ensure smooth delivery and the required edge for enhanced triple-play”
About Insight Communications

Insight Communications is currently the ninth largest cable operator in the United States with approximately 775,700 customer relationships in the three contiguous states of Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. Insight offers bundled, state-of-the-art video, high-speed Internet and voice telephony services to its customers.

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SFR’s subscribers to receive vastly improved service with Nokia Siemens Networks Tweet

French operator selects Nokia Siemens Networks to expand mobile broadband coverage, enhance service quality, and pilot LTE.

SFR will soon offer improved mobile broadband services, including faster Internet access, to its 3G subscribers throughout France. Nokia Siemens Networks is upgrading SFR’s radio network and will provide, operate and maintain new all-IP packet core technology ready to support 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) services. The two companies will also work together to trial LTE services.

“In order to maintain its leadership on new innovative services, SFR is constantly offering superior network quality,” said Nicolas Huguet, head of the SFR customer team at Nokia Siemens Networks. “Therefore, it is looking at next-generation networks to deliver leading-edge services and superior customer experience.”

Nokia Siemens Networks will deploy its compact, energy-efficient Flexi Multiradio Base Station for the radio network upgrade. This will enable SFR to reuse the GSM900 MHz frequency band, previously used for 2G services, in order to expand advanced 3G broadband services coverage into rural areas, simplify its network and reduce operating costs.

The mobile packet core solution being provided by Nokia Siemens Networks under a three-year agreement includes the company’s LTE-ready, ATCA-based*, Flexi Network Gateway for handling growth in data traffic and for ensuring uninterrupted mobile broadband services. In addition, Nokia Siemens Networks will implement, operate and maintain SFR’s mobile packet core and its associated IP network to deliver improved network quality and efficiency.

The operator will also deploy Nokia Siemens Networks’ NetAct network management system and the company’s charge@once mediate solution to simplify the collection and processing of charging and billing data, providing SFR with a variety of sophisticated services, including differentiated billing.

SFR and Nokia Siemens Networks will collaborate on piloting LTE services using Flexi Multiradio base stations that can be software upgraded to enable HSPA+ and LTE capability, as well as Nokia Siemens Networks’ Evolved Packet Core for LTE.

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Sweden overtakes United States in global study of “useful connectivity” Tweet

Connectivity Scorecard 2010 highlights the continued need for investment in information and communications technology (ICT) to stimulate return to economic growth

According to the Connectivity Scorecard 2010, increased focus on improving ICT infrastructure, broadband penetration and developing the right workforce skills will counter the lingering effects of the current recession. The results from this year’s study reveal a leadership change in the innovation-driven economies with Sweden overtaking the US for the top spot. The Connectivity Scorecard is an annual study of “useful connectivity” in 50 countries around the world, commissioned by Nokia Siemens Networks and authored by Professor Leonard Waverman, Dean, Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, in conjunction with the economic consulting group LECG.

Useful connectivity is defined as the bundle of infrastructure, complementary skills, software and informed usage that makes ICT the key driver of productivity and economic growth.

“The telecommunications and technology sectors proved to be remarkably resilient during the current global financial and economic crisis,” said Professor Waverman. “Broadband penetration and mobile telephone adoption continued to grow in most economies – developed and developing – as did the adoption of many other ICT technologies. Economic recovery and government stimulus packages aimed at boosting broadband deployment and ICT development should provide room for optimism in the coming years.”

“It is heartening to realize that countries acknowledge the ICT ecosystem as the ultimate productivity driver for the 21st century,” added Anne Larilahti, head of Global Policy Initiatives, Nokia Siemens Networks. “Indeed, it is to highlight the economic role of ICT and how countries can benefit from technology-driven growth that we commission the Connectivity Scorecard study.”

Already in its third year, the Connectivity Scorecard for the first time shows a change in leadership among the innovation-driven economies, with the US losing its Number 1 ranking to Sweden. The US, though still a very strong performer, proved not as consistent as Sweden in the past year; and its continued leadership in business infrastructure was not enough to overcome lasting gaps relative to the very best-performing nations, especially in the area of consumer broadband. Conversely, Sweden has successfully narrowed the lead on Asian countries, such as Korea and Japan, in mass-market, next-generation, broadband infrastructure. In addition, the country has performed consistently well on all human skills levels particularly the proportion of highly skilled workers. Frequent use of internet banking, internet commerce and e-government offerings also indicate advanced ICT usage patterns.

“The comparison between the US and Sweden actually brings us to the very essence of the Connectivity Scorecard,” added Professor Waverman. “When we urge countries to step up the use of ICT to better exploit their potential, it is imperative that driving ICT infrastructure to the next level goes hand in hand with investment in human resource training. Sweden not only has the best current mix of attributes, but it also shows few signs of losing its lead. By contrast, there is the beginning of a gap in what was once the essence of US leadership in most industrial and service sectors – education and skills.”

Closely following Sweden and the US among the innovation-driven economies of the Scorecard, Scandinavia remains a technological leader with Norway and Denmark ranked third and fourth, while the Netherlands completes the top five group. The poor showing of southern European economies is repeated again this year with Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece sharing the lowest rankings together with eastern European nations.

There remain marked gaps between the bottom five or six innovation-driven economies and their better performing counterparts. While most of the countries in the middle ranks show at least a few areas of the Scorecard in which they are substantially strong, this is not the case for southern and eastern European economies that are still lagging behind on all the dimensions of ICT deployment, uptake and utilization, the Scorecard seeks to capture. Equally significant are the economic opportunities in these countries precisely because there is so much scope for them to catch up.

Malaysia maintained its lead among the 25 resource and efficiency-driven economies for the third year in a row. South Africa finished second, helped by strong corporate spending on IT hardware, software and services, while Latin American countries such as Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico all registered relatively strong performances.

As with previous iterations of the Scorecard, the Asian giants, India and China, did not perform impressively. China finished 17th in the Connectivity Scorecard 2010 study and India 21st. These findings might be surprising in light of the economic weight of the two countries, but they also highlight the tremendous economic ground that these sprawling and regionally varied nations still have to cover.

Generally, there is a greater degree of convergence between the innovation-driven economies on many metrics such as telephone access, internet usage and broadband penetration, whereas there are fundamental differences between the various resource and efficiency-driven economies.
Launch of Connectivity Scorecard 2010

The Connectivity Scorecard 2010 will be launched via a virtual press conference on February 11, 2010, at 9 am East Coast United States /2 pm London/4 pm Helsinki. To register for the conference and join the presentation, click here.

Professor Leonard Waverman, Kalyan Dasgupta, senior managing consultant at LECG, and Anne Larilahti, head of Global Policy Initiatives, Nokia Siemens Networks, will present the results and the call to action from Connectivity Scorecard 2010. The presentation will conclude with an online interactive Q&A session.
About the Connectivity Scorecard

Connectivity Scorecard is a global ICT index – the first of its kind to rank countries not only on their deployment of ICT infrastructure but also to measure the extent to which governments, businesses and consumers make use of connectivity technologies to enhance social and economic prosperity. This useful connectivity illuminates how the potential of ICT is being harnessed to boost productivity and economic growth.

For more information on the Connectivity Scorecard, visit www.connectivityscorecard.org

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