Ericsson, MTN Ghana bring latest tech to Africa

Issued by Ericsson
Johannesburg, 18 Dec 2009

Ericsson is assisting MTN Ghana to increase switching capacity in its mobile network and provide significant cost savings, by deploying Africa's first MSC Server Blade Cluster.

MTN Ghana recently deployed Ericsson's latest MSC-S Blade Cluster, which boasts capacity significantly compared to that of traditional mobile softswitch voice servers and reduces power consumption by up to 60% per subscriber, providing significant cost savings for mobile operators. The innovative design of the new server also provides easy scalability of network capacity and outstanding node availability, ensuring fast capacity expansion and reliable voice services for mobile phone callers.

MTN Ghana CTO Eben Albertyn says: "By deploying the MSC Server Blade Cluster, we have enhanced our network capacity and robustness. The design of the blade-based server is such that by simply inserting a new blade (electronics board) in the MSC Server cabinet, we are able to increase voice capacity as we add to our subscriber base. To this end, we are exceptionally proud that on the same day Ericsson released their latest release of the MSC Server, we became the first operator in Africa, Europe and Middle East to successfully complete a call. This technology improves efficiency and demonstrates MTN's leadership in telecommunications in emerging markets.”

Lars Lind'en, President, Ericsson sub-Saharan Africa, says: “The MSC Server Blade Cluster simplifies operations for operators and makes it easier and faster for them to operate, maintain and expand their core network. Certainly the success of mobile voice in Africa is placing increased demands on these networks. Through our MSC Server Blade Cluster we are able to provide significant capacity increases with improved efficiencies and environmental outcomes.”

“We are heading for a future where everyone can communicate, where technology helps our planet and our society, and where standards ensure everything is connected. MTN Ghana is a strong partner and their deployment of African's first call on our technology is testament to this, certainly the operator is well placed to continue to take advantage of this new generation of technology,” concludes Lind'en.

Ericsson

Ericsson is the world's leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. Ericsson is the leader in 2G, 3G and 4G mobile technologies, and provides support for networks with over 1 billion subscribers and has a leading position in managed services. The company's portfolio comprises of mobile and fixed network infrastructure, telecom services, software, broadband and multimedia solutions for operators, enterprises and the media industry. The Sony Ericsson and ST-Ericsson joint ventures provide consumers with feature-rich personal mobile devices.

Ericsson is advancing its vision “to be the prime driver in an all-communicating world” through innovation, technology, and sustainable business solutions. Working in 175 countries, more than 75 000 employees generated revenue of SEK209 billion (USD32.2 billion) in 2008. Founded in 1876 with the headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, Ericsson is listed on OMX NASDAQ, Stockholm and NASDAQ New York.

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MTN Ghana

MTN is the leading telecommunications company in Africa and the Middle East with operations in 21 countries. They entered the Ghanaian market in 2006 after acquiring Investcom. MTN is also the leading mobile operator in Ghana with a market share of 55% and active subscriber base of over 7 million. Their network covers over 80% of the Ghanaian population, including 10 regional capitals as well as many rural and remote sites. They provide an extensive range prepaid and post-paid voice and data services to meet the growing subscriber requirements. They have recently rolled out their 3.5G network, which increases data rates and enables an exciting range of multimedia services such as video and music streaming, games, sports and news.

MSC Server Blade Cluster

The MSC Server Blade Cluster is the latest evolution of the MSC Server in Ericsson's successful Mobile Softswitch Solution. The MSC Server Blade Cluster provides ultra-high capacity, supporting up to 8 million subscribers with only two single-depth cabinets, which results in up to 90% footprint reduction compared with today's server generation. It enables operators to easily scale server capacity in line with future traffic increases and changing business needs. The node availability is increased significantly; operation and maintenance can be performed any time of the day without any traffic disturbances affecting the end-users' mobile phone calls. When combined with the MSC-S pool concept, the network level redundancy is increased dramatically.

The Ericsson Mobile Softswitch Solution (MSC-S and M-MGw) is already the most energy-efficient solution on the market, and the MSC Server Blade Cluster further reduces server power consumption by up to 60% per subscriber. Operators can cut up to 45% MSC Server opex through the reduced number of nodes to operate and maintain.