The LTE World Summit is a 2-day event including workshops, panel sessions, conferences and on-going exhibition to meet key people across the eco-system and behind the developments in this fast moving wireless industry.  Blueslice Networks’ Frederic Bastien, VP of Products, will participate on a panel discussion on Day 2, Track 2 at 5:30pm: How Will Customers Connecting Multiple Numbers of Devices Over the Network Affect the Operator’s Business Model?  Visit Blueslice Networks at Exhibitor Pod 5.

Montreal, Canada and Marsa, Malta, March 23, 2010– In a move to modernize its network, GO, Malta’s quadruple play operator, has chosen Blueslice Network’s CSP 3000™, the industry-leading, evolved Subscriber Data Management (eSDM) platform, to replace legacy Home Location Register systems, as well as to provide the necessary HSS, AAA and Subscriber Repository building blocks for GO’s converged services strategy.

The CSP 3000™ is a flexible and scalable subscriber management platform, hosting a range of front-end applications, such as the ngHLR 3000™, HSS 3000™ and the AAA 3000™, leveraging the 3GPP-compliant User Data Repository: the SDS 3000™. This distributed and layered architecture enables the CSP 3000™ to consolidate and seamlessly share subscriber profiles across GO’s GSM, UMTS, IMS (fixed and mobile), as well as 4G (LTE, WiMAX) networks.

Blueslice’s geo-redundant, carrier-grade subscriber-centric database architecture will be the base on which GO can migrate existing subscriber profiles, and later on can be leveraged to rapidly bring to market new applications, avoiding data silos and operational cost and complexity. The Subscriber Data Server’s flexible data schema and range of LDAP and XML/SOAP interfaces will enable subscriber consolidation across the Fixed and Mobile access networks.

“With the Blueslice SDM solution, GO will be able to deliver on its “converged services” business strategy to increase customer stickiness as well as to change the customer experience altogether,” said Joseph Bugeja, Chief Technical Officer, GO, “This project will be an essential part of GO’s wider strategic transition towards a converged business entity, with an integrated network, operating systems and processes.”

“GO is known worldwide as one the most innovative and forward-looking network operators. Like many others, they are faced with the issue of replacing legacy equipment in order to get their core network ready for personalized, subscriber-centric telecommunication services. We are pleased to be working with GO to revamp their Subscriber Data Management solution and support them in breaking subscriber data silos across all of their business lines”, said Leonard Scheepsma, VP Sales EMEA, Blueslice Networks.

Montreal, Canada, December 16, 2009– Blueslice Networks, the leader in evolved Subscriber Data Management (eSDM), today unveiled the latest addition to its portfolio, a completely integrated SDM suite supporting the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard

The Blueslice LTE Home Subscriber Server (LTE-HSS) is built on Blueslice’s industry leading Converged Subscriber Platform 3000 ™, CSP 3000™, which is commercially deployed worldwide. With the Blueslice Software Release 5.3, the CSP 3000™ now supports subscriber management for 2G (GSM/GPRS/EDGE), 3G (UMTS/HSPA), IMS, as well as LTE; making it the only industry solution to consolidate and seamlessly share subscriber information across all generations of 3GPP technologies. Such an open-standard solution allows easy compatibility and complete interworking with all Evolved Packet Core (EPC) solutions, enabling service providers to combine best-of-breed products for a world-class LTE network.

Blueslice LTE-HSS highlights:

• Leverages the eSDM architecture of the CSP 3000™, including its 3GPP-UDC compliant distributed SDS 3000™ database
• Simple software activation from existing ngHLR 3000™ or HSS 3000™ systems
• Already compliant with 3GPP Release 9 standards
• Only solution with simultaneous support for 2G/3G ngHLR, LTE and IMS HSS, sharing processing logic, subscriber contexts and volatile data – bringing significant performance improvements.
• Several ongoing IOT activities with leading EPC vendors
• Actively engaged with leading partners in customer trials worldwide

For more information please visit www.blueslice.com

The taboo “MVNO”:
What began as a reseller model by companies like Virgin at one point reached great hopes and expectations as to their impact on the wireless market. However, as many high profile operations became glorified resellers and ultimately failures, we began to wonder if the MVNO model would ever work again and, even if it could, with the same tarnished term “MVNO.” What we’re seeing today is a new breed of MVNO under names like quad play, multi play, wholesale mobile operator, or cableco. Ultimately, the key for these players is all about differentiation and bundling. Successful MVNOs today are thriving in different forms, for example, as converged service providers with multiple plays (up to the quad, a blend of voice, video, data, and mobile), as enterprise MVNEs offering specific corporate services, global operators who are offering cheap calls and data across many countries, niche market MVNOs, etc. Even well established telecom service providers, such as cablecos, are urgently assembling their mobile plans, and for sure want to do it as more than a reseller with no control (see Pivot).

The misunderstood “M2M”:
The challenge to M2M is being able to justify the low ARPU that devices generate and find a value chain that works for all players. This market continues to be seen as the next great thing in wireless, an untapped opportunity of connected devices in a world of saturated markets. The new term on the rise is “embedded wireless.” Perhaps this term will better invoke the goal of carriers to embed wireless connectivity into all kinds of devices and appliances, and they’re starting to get serious about it:

“Whatever device it gets embedded in is OK with me, as long as I have the ability to place it on my network,” said Tony Lewis, vide president of Open Development for Verizon Wireless. “Pretty much everybody has a handset… so where’s the next big momentum in this industry? It’s in the connected devices. An embedded module is a radio chip that would be placed in that device. It could be as extreme as your refrigerator or toaster; it could be as useful as medical devices; as fun as gaming devices; attaching things not just to your car but to your parking space, your front door, your medicine cabinet.”

So will we think of M2M and MVNO differently under its new monikers?

The point made is that lots of energy is being wasted, and the market is open to more energy management suggestions. Operators declared how power consumption as a reportable metric is beginning to influence equipment purchasing decisions.

And just before lunch broke, Charlene Lake, VP of public affairs at AT&T announced, “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

Sure, what used to be called efficient or requiring lower energy consumption might now just be rephrased as GREEN, but in any case it’s generating more urgency for operators to consider better operations and equipment selections, and for the market to drive improvements such as ATCA.

However, it has simultaneously become a part of the future of telecom, but perhaps for many different reasons. In a earlier 2008 article, Peter Jarich explained how green telecom equipment marketing might be more than just a fad.

In emerging markets such as Africa, India, and Southeast Asia, energy efficiency is a requirement. As networks grow, base stations may rely on solar and wind energy, so reducing power consumption and decreasing the equipment footprint is key. This is the way to open up new markets which are otherwise unreachable. Consider where reliable energy is not readily available — rural areas with very basic infrastructure where electricity is scattered and wired connectivity is nonexistent. However, wireless growth into these areas is opening up new markets and adding millions of people in our hyper-connected world.

For example, as VNL writes: “We don’t live in cities. We may not spend $75 a month on phone services. But together, we’re worth hundreds of millions to the operators who reach us.” VNL defines microtelecom along four principles: “low cost, low power, ease of deployment, and modelled for purpose.” Together, this approach creates a viable model to serve low-ARPU users and re-engineer GSM for the billions of low-income, rural users.

In mature markets in developed countries, energy costs are high and are rising. Even though there is access to reliable energy, operators need to consider running their networks and base stations as efficiently as possible to manage OPEX and deliver profitability.

ABI Research has predicted that 335,000 cellular base stations will include solar power by 2013, and this is just one element in the formula of managing an operator’s energy usage.

Another element is the increasing value and deployment of next generation core network equipment (NGN), which can be energy autonomous or generate huge benefits in terms of energy requipments, NOC footprint, and scalability to operators. Reducing power was not the driving force in evolving NGN from legacy equipment, but it has certainly become an increasingly lucrative differentiator.

Adopting an NGN and energy efficient operating model is one way for mobile operators to benefit from improved equipment, expand into new markets, as well as promote greener company practices.

“As the telecommunications industry increasingly migrates to IP, the possibilities for new multimedia services creation grow exponentially…”

The number of people using their mobile phone whilst abroad will grow over 50% between 2008 and 2013, voice roaming traffic will double over the period and data roaming traffic will increase to many times its 2008 level. These figures represent a great opportunity to build mobile telecommunications into a truly global service, and to reap the rewards in subscriber reach and revenue generation.

This remarkable growth brings up many questions as to how these subscribers will roam, who will collect revenue, and will these charges be at similar levels to today or lower/higher? Will frequent travelers continue to use multiple SIM cards, and, if not, how will operators manage multiple regional identities? What will be the future of nontraditional mobile service providers focused on roaming, of mobile network alliances, and of regulation?

For example, United Mobile, as covered in this article, can offer international calls at 80% less than many carriers. Mobile calls between most EU countries start at €0.29 ($0.40) per minute, with incoming costs free. Data costs as little as 99 Euro cents per megabyte, compared to an average of €5.24 in the European Union. (Disclosure: United Mobile is an existing Blueslice customer.)

What this means:
1. United Mobile was one of the first MVNOs to build infrastructure and has survived the MVNO graveyard as a result, when many MVNOs, mostly US-based, disregarded attempts to build a real network-based operation.

2. Keep your eye on companies that began as MVNOs and add convergence services and multi-play operations to better differentiate. Do we still call these MVNOs? This kind of player is able to be more than an MVNO because it “operates its own telecommunications infrastructure.” Also the term MVNO has become taboo, so perhaps we’ll be calling these operators: alternative service providers, wholesale operators, convergence players… or better yet, just mobile service providers and let the consumers do the choosing.