Beecher Tuttle

Subscriber demand for more innovative, bandwidth-hungry services has driven most every service provider to build a 4G LTE network capable of providing greater capacity, reduced latency and improved pricing. But to unlock the power of a 4G LTE investment – and to continue to deliver revenue-generating voice and messaging services – carriers must look to embrace Voice over LTE (VoLTE), a core component for a new set of rich media and collaboration services that also enables operators to deliver voice without having to rely on legacy 2G/3G networks.

In short, VoLTE helps service providers capitalize on their new 4G investments. VoLTE enables operators to offload legacy infrastructure and to deliver data simultaneously with crisp HD voice. By blending mobile voice with video, converged IP messaging, the web and social networking, service providers can create new revenue-generating communication services that differentiate them from competitors. The technology is also proven to harmonize conversations across disparate providers, devices and apps.

But perhaps more than anything, VoLTE provides operators with the flexibility to respond to ever-changing technologies, market conditions and user demands. The competitive freedoms of VoLTE allow operators to experiment with and deliver new communication features for broad markets and even strategic industries like mobile healthcare.

By Mae Kowalke

Wireless operators and those who supply them infrastructure spend a lot of time focusing on the ‘data storm’ and what they are doing to stay one step ahead of it. The goal is to deliver more data, faster, with a better customer experience and greater economies of scale than in the past. Thanks to Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, these goals are now within reach.

“According to the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), 4G LTE is the fastest developing mobile system technology ever,” said Maniam Palanivelu, director of global 4G LTE solutions marketing at Alcatel-Lucent, in an Enriching Communications article, “LTE: The Best Thing to Happen to Wireless Networks.”

By Erin Harrison

New Zealand is on the brink of a new era in communications. Two major initiatives will significantly help improve the speed and capacity of the country’s high-speed broadband network, as outlined in a recent Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) white paper, “How New Zealand can increase the social & economic impacts of high-speed broadband.”   

The Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) project and Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) are set to improve the network speed and capacity available to nearly 98 percent of New Zealanders, based on a study conducted by Bell Labs, the research arm of Alcatel-Lucent. The goal is, as ALU likes to say about its broadband portfolio, “Get to Fast, Faster.”

By Mae Kowalke

In the U.S., it is no secret that there is a substantial customer as well political interest in seeing that under-served areas have access to state-of-the art communications networks.  In fact, it can be argued that the data needs of such critical parts of the economy as agriculture and oil and gas exploration are as intense if not more so than those of industries in densely populated areas.  Plus, the desires and expectations of families in the areas are no less important than they are to families in other areas of the country.

What all of this translates into is that while fiber optics and WiFi have allowed most Americans broadband access vast parts of the U.S. have remained under-served for broadband.  All of that is changing.  As the major wired carriers continue to fiber their franchise areas and the national wireless carriers rush to deploy 4G LTE networks, WiFi hotspots, femtocells, etc.  Alcatel-Lucent has been leveraging the capabilities of its lightRadio™ portfolio of solutions to help mobile operators who serve less populous areas provide high-seed services to their customers at price points and performance capabilities that enable customers to enjoy the advantages of next generation devices and all the Internet has to offer in terms of content and applications. And, it allows the operators to do so at competitive prices and at a profit.     

By Mae Kowalke

Mobile network operators are always looking for new ways to more efficiently use their existing infrastructure without making large capital expenditures. With the explosion of tablets and smartphones, which will increasingly be used for a variety of video applications, streamed as well as interactive, use of a 4G LTE channel for delivering multicast services such as mobile TV is viewed as one way to do so. The reason is simple. It enables network operators to offer mobile TV without the need for additional expensive licensed spectrum and without requiring new infrastructure and end-user devices that might be required to unicast content.

 

A recent Alcatel-Lucent TechZine article, “eMBMS for More Efficient Use of Spectrum,” describes the enhancements to LTE specifications that have been standardized to accommodate rapidly changing user demands and concomitant network requirements. Evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS) is now a multicast standard for 4G LTE precisely because it allows one-to-many distribution of video content.

By Susan J. Campbell The communication definition is rapidly changing with the increased use of SMS, video, MMS and social networking. It is vital that users have access to a better way to support highly mobile, multimedia lifestyles. All-IP networks...

To show off the potential of LTE technology in the most demanding of circumstances, Alcatel-Lucent and the Texas Energy Network (TEN) recently announced that they will hold a live demonstration in New Mexico later this month.

The face of the market is changing drastically for the network operator and unless they are willing to change with it and evolve, they will miss out on important opportunities for growth, revenues, profit and even survival. As a result,...

Whether AT&T's strategy will allow it to catch up to Verizon, which will leverage its LTE network primarily for wireless broadband access at the outset, or not, remains to be seen. What is certain, however, is that Alcatel-Lucent has cemented itself in the global market as a dominant LTE supplier.

In fact, although CDMA and EV-DO technologies offer a smooth migration path to LTE technologies, each mobile operator has to consider its own needs with regards to time to market, choice of migration path, ecosystem development, interoperability, spectrum efficiency, and CAPEX.

The simple fact is that no single company has the resources or the knowledge to effectively understand which on which services they should focus their efforts for maximum uptake and exposure, let alone develop them for the widest possible audience.

It's that very dream of unleashing the true power of the mobile experience that provides the momentum for ng Connect. It's also why the greater this ecosystem becomes, the greater the benefit for its members will be.

In order to facilitate that network migration, NTT Docomo has selected Alcatel-Lucent to build its backhaul network for its LTE-based services using the French-American firm's Ethernet transmission solution.

More specifically, 84 percent of survey respondents agree that broadband is an essential service, making it a less likely target for cost cutting efforts. Perhaps more importantly, subscribers indicate a propensity for upgrading their broadband services -- or, subscribing to a service, for those currently without it.

After all, building out their networks is not an inexpensive venture, nor an easy one. So, for many new and growing operators, making the move to LTE networks makes sense now.

Knowing that, it is incumbent upon network operators to not only ensure their networks are capable of delivering their existing offerings, but to also ensure their viability into the foreseeable future. Which is why many, including Verizon Wireless, are already looking at deploying LTE (Long Term Evolution) technologies as a way of mapping out their network growth plans.

Chinese consumers want their next-generation wireless services and they want them now. Advanced mobile services like media streaming, ring back tones, video sharing and high-speed Internet access are all in demand, and Chinese service provider China Unicom has tapped Alcatel-Lucent...