Europe
: Ericsson President and CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg
( inset ) gave his views on the evolution of the telecommunications
industry.
"Most 3G
networks will be upgraded with HSDPA in 2006, and 3G is now a mass
market in steady growth. IMS and all-IP is the next step to fully
leverage the opportunities with mobile broadband. IMS will play an
equally important role for the creation of multimedia services as
HSDPA plays for the speed in the network."
"WCDMA now serves 50 million subscribers, and that number is
growing steadily. It is the obvious choice for 3G," said Svanberg.
He underlined that HSDPA marks a significant milestone in the industry.
"If GSM was the beginning of a mass market for mobile telephony,
HSDPA marks the beginning of a mass market for high-speed mobile broadband."
Ericsson has a clear lead in this field - most HSDPA networks rolled
out today are powered by Ericsson.
Svanberg said the evolution towards all-IP is the next technology
step in the telecom world. "While HSDPA takes the access network
to a new level, IMS and eventually all-IP will take the core network
to a new level. The importance of IMS will become even more evident
during 2006, when we are accelerating the rollout of services beyond
voice and we start to really tap the potential of HSDPA."
Svanberg also addressed the WCDMA Long Term Evolution towards "Super
3G." "HSDPA is cutting edge and already has global presence
and the necessary economies of scale. And it offers a future-proof
evolution path - the standardization of 'Super-3G' is already ongoing."
A new channel for distributing content is created, as mobile broadband
capabilities are made possible by the telecommunications industry.
Mobile TV is already available in more than 40 networks around the
world. Another obvious area is, of course, the distribution of music.
"Mobile broadband opens up plenty of business opportunities and
attracts new entrants to our industry. A new telecom ecosystem is
emerging, and partnerships will be crucial going forward. The operators
will play a key role materializing the opportunities with mobile broadband."
"Ericsson is in a unique position to make this telecom ecosystem
work and make our customers even more successful."
Svanberg also addressed the importance of technology leadership: "Our
technology leadership gives our customers a first-mover advantage,
which is fundamental in this highly dynamic industry." The right
technology also has a huge potential for increasing efficiency. Svanberg
explained how Ericsson's cutting-edge offering makes this possible.
"With our mobile softswitch solution, operators can evolve smoothly
towards IMS and all-IP, while cutting operating expenses for the core
network by with 50 percent - actually cutting them in half."
"And with our new generation base stations operators need 30
percent fewer sites, compared to traditional base stations. The operators
grow capacity and bandwidth and minimize the total cost of ownership
at the same time."
Transmission is another area in which Ericsson anticipates a greater
demand. As operators are rolling out mobile broadband and fixed broadband,
the need for transmission capacity is increasing.
"With our strong transmission offering, further strengthened
by our acquisition of Marconi, we help operators remove transmission
bottlenecks," Svanberg said.
