Best practices for ensuring LTE rollout success

Neil Coleman 23rd May 2012

Agenda

• Market trends

• What we’re seeing in early LTE deployments

• Emerging best practices

• Conclusions

3

About Actix

• 20 years of providing software to optimize the RAN

– RAN customer experience

– Analytics to drive LTE rollout acceptance

– 2G, 3G, 4G network optimization & SON

• 400 customers & 25 of the top 30 mobile operators

• 60th LTE customer announced in May 2012

25 of the top 30

We are proud to serve 25 of the top

30 mobile operators worldwide.

400 Over 400 customers

in active deployment

4

LTE rollouts are gaining pace • 319 operators are investing in LTE in 97 countries

• 72 commercial networks in 37 countries

• Improving device and spectrum availability

5

…however it is still early days for LTE

• Marketing launches and low coverage

• 70% of all LTE traffic is in the US and 70% of that is iPad (3)

• 3G and HetNets will remain the focus for most operators

6

What we’re seeing in LTE early rollouts

• LTE is just another part of the HetNet mix

• Typical early technology problems

• LTE KPIs are still emerging - largely 3GPP based

• Rollout isn’t perfectly smooth

• SON is gaining traction

7

Emerging best practices

1. Use customer demand to prioritize LTE deployments

2. Establish your KPIs early – and bake them into contracts

3. Make the vendors work for you during rollout

4. Move beyond 3GPP SON

8

Smartphone data usage at 5:15pm in a major city

Understanding customer demand

9

Traditional Strategy Inputs

Marketing goals Competitors plans Local knowledge

Existing site locations Network traffic

Focused LTE Rollout Strategy

Prioritization

Quick wins

High ARPU subs

HetNet

Real customer intelligence

VIP locations Device availability

Unexpected hotspots Segmented demand

Using customer demand to improve LTE deployment strategies

10

Establish your KPIs early – and bake them into contracts

LTE KPIs

Accessibility RAN Data

Accessibility %

Retainability

Throughput

Downlink

Uplink

Paging MME Paging

IRAT

% Time LTE

IRAT Redirect %

Rollout Contract

Outsource Contract

11

Make the vendors work for you during rollout

National acceptance dashboard

Detailed LTE acceptance measuring contractual KPIs

Thorough acceptance requires automation

Operate Accept Tuning Process

Plan, Build &

Commission

Site Integration Cluster

Complete Acceptance

Process Passed

Plan, Build &

Commission

Site Integration

Plan, Build &

Commission

Site Integration

Collect Data

Generate Acceptance

Report

Check Report

Collect Data

Check KPIs

Make Changes

OK

Y

N

Y

N

Number of Failures

Time Cost

Time Cost

Time Cost

Time to accept

Go live to accept time

Negotiate

Time Cost

Operator Activity

NEP Activity

13

Move beyond 3GPP SON

• LTE networks will be layered on top of 2G and 3G

• 3GPP LTE SON needs to be extended to cover 2G & 3G networks

• Customer data will turbo charge these network centric SON Use Cases 3GPP 4G SON Standards

2G, 3G & 4G SON

Customer centric SON

14

Conclusions

• LTE is gaining momentum

…but it won’t be the same as UMTS

• New approaches and solutions are required

– Leverage true customer insight

– Automated analytics and KPI reporting

– HetNet SON and optimization solutions

info@actix.com

Thank you

neil.coleman@actix.com