Mobile World Congress - updates from Ericsson

At the GSMA Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona, Ericsson (NADAQ:ERIC) set a world record by showcasing LTE/4G with a speed of 1 gigabit per second in the downlink.

Johan Wibergh, head of Networks and Executive Vice-President, said: "We envision 50 billion connected devices by 2020. Every device and every situation that benefits from a connection should have one. Patients will remotely connect to hospitals; students from rural areas will connect to universities anywhere in the world; rescue workers will send live videos from disaster areas for efficient response."

Wibergh continued: "The use of mobile broadband is growing quickly, driven by consumers powered with smartphones and connected laptops. With the combination of our technology leadership and services capabilities, we are equipped to support our customers in building networks that manage the increased usage while providing consumers with the best experience.

To date, Ericsson has signed commercial LTE contracts with five major global operators: AT&T in the US, Verizon in the US, TeliaSonera in Norway and Sweden, MetroPCS in the US, and DoCoMo in Japan.

This world first demonstration is utilising Multi Carrier technology and Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output, MIMO, and runs on Ericsson commercial LTE hardware. By combining these technologies, speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second are possible. The demonstration uses four carriers of 20MHz each, totally 80MHz and 4x4 MIMO, data is sent over the air-interface on four independent bit-streams.

LTE, the next generation of mobile communication technology, enables the fast transfer of huge amounts of data in an efficient and cost-effective way, optimising the use of the frequency spectrum. With increased speed and decreased latency, consumers can enjoy a wide range of applications (real-time Web, online gaming, social media collaboration and videoconferencing) effortlessly and while on the move. LTE will meet the demands of new and enhanced mobile Internet applications of the future.

Ericsson has been driving open standards and has had the highest impact on the released LTE specifications. Ericsson expects to hold 25% of all essential patents for LTE, making it the largest patent holder in the industry.

Innovation, speed and flexibility are key success factors.

Speaking at Ericsson's (NASDAQ:ERIC) press conference at the GSMA Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona, Hans Vestberg, President and CEO, said: "Our future success will be determined by the ability to see beyond technology, stay ahead of our customers and solve their problems before they are even aware of them. This will require us to always put our customers first, always have the best competence and to drive innovation throughout the customer relationship.

"In the past decade, telecommunications have become the nerve system of the world. The number of mobile subscriptions worldwide has grown sixfold to 4.6 billion. Mobile broadband has had its breakthrough and we believe that we will see 3 billion new mobile broadband subscriptions in the next five years.

"We forecast that by 2015 mobile PC subscriptions will have grown six times and the traffic generated will grow more than 50 times compared with the end of 2009. In the same time period, smartphone devices will grow four times and the traffic they generate will have grown more than 25 times. The rapidly increasing traffic puts a focus on network capacity and quality.

"We envision 50 billion connected devices by 2020. Patients will be remotely connected to hospitals, trucks will be online with logistics centres for efficient routing, and city students will be connected to students in rural villages halfway around the world. Several operators have already established machine-to-machine departments to meet these demands. In this development we have to move from traditional telecom to IP, from hardware to software and from network rollouts to network evolution.

"HSPA and 4G/LTE will enable the 50 billion connected devices and the continued traffic growth. Several leading operators have given us the confidence to deliver their 4G/LTE networks and we have established technology leadership and scale advantages.

"The overall LTE package with products and services is very competitive. We have taken these products to mass production and can manufacture on a large scale, which is a clear competitive advantage. The competition is fierce, but we can have grounds for having good self-confidence."

Following the recent win with AT&T, Ericsson now supplies its 4G/LTE solutions to operators that have a total of some 240 million subscribers. In the audience was John Donovan, Chief Technology Officer at AT&T, who briefly commented on his company's plans for its LTE buildout and the reason for selecting Ericsson as its LTE equipment supplier.

Vestberg continued: "In 2009, we significantly strengthened our position in North America. The rationale for the acquisition of the Nortel CDMA and LTE operations was to extend our footprint, expand customer relationships and gain a profitable CDMA business in North America. As the integration progresses, we are seeing opportunities for further CDMA business also outside North America.

"As the industry again moves into new territories, our role as a vendor must shift from just being a technology and services supplier to being a business enabler. Operators are looking to us to manage the increasing complexity of their networks so they can concentrate on enhancing the user experience. Our continued success in this area shows the value of our services offering. We will have to combine our strong technology leadership position and services capabilities to provide value to our customers. We have to drive innovation in both technology and business models," concluded Vestberg.

Orange and Ericsson bring HD voice to Barcelona.

HD voice quality will be available in Orange's commercial network in the Barcelona area during the GSMA Mobile World Congress global telecom event. Orange will deliver the service together with Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC), which will supply the radio access and core network technology.

HD voice transforms traditional voice calls, making them sound as though callers are having a face-to-face conversation. It is available in the Barcelona area, where consumers will be able to experience the world's best voice quality for mobile networks.

Thierry Piganeau, Director of the Mobile Business Unit, Orange, says: "With HD voice, Orange leads a new standard for voice innovation that transforms the wireless experience for customers by offering much higher quality in their communications. Once they try the service, they will not want to leave it because it allows listeners to hear as though they were in the same room. Orange is proud to be leading the industry into the next decade by announcing this new standard in voice innovation."

Ulf Ewaldsson, Vice-President and Head of Product Area Radio at Ericsson, says: "HD voice transforms the voice experience. Consumer research recently performed in Spain by Ericsson ConsumerLab shows that call quality becomes the business differentiator between operators. The research showed great response from consumers, who felt they were better able to share feelings, do business and communicate information with HD voice."

HD voice provides better audio quality thanks to a new coder with wider speech bandwidth that does not increase the capacity need in the radio network compared to regular calls. Users experience high voice quality when both phones are HD-enabled. AMR Wideband technology enables HD voice for mobile networks.

Orange and Ericsson invite all industry players to use the HD voice functionality in Orange's network during the Mobile World Congress to further strengthen the ecosystem for HD voice.