Q&A
by HSPA. Today, LTE is growing very strongly, particularly in North America, while Africa is dominated by GSM/EDGE. This is expected to continue, driven by a demand for low-cost telephones. However, the region is diverse, so there will be large differences between highly-developed areas and less-developed areas. We recently announced the commercial launch of two Ericsson networks in southern Africa and anticipate a growth in the demand for LTE deployments in the near future. In a recent study, Ericsson reported that it does not expect the majority of connections in the Middle East and Africa to be LTE until 2018. Why do you think this is the case? Uptake of new technologies are broadly constrained by demand economics, compelling services and devices, as well as regulatory and macro-economic feasibility. To put this into perspective: while 2G penetration today is ~75%, 3G penetration is still ~20%. A major partnership was announced between Airtel and Ericsson in November 2012. Could you give a brief outline of the partnership and its purpose? The purpose of the programme was transforming Airtel Africa’s networks to meet current and future consumer demands. The agreement covered an end-to-end network transformation and modernisation of networks in 16 African countries. It involved the upgrade of existing 2G and 3G mobile broadband access and core networks, radio transport, data charging and consumer-services platforms and systems, securing increased network capacity and availability, and preparing the networks for the delivery of next-generation services. This transformation programme follows the 2011 announcement of an ongoing five-year, multi-country managed services agreement, wherein Ericsson would manage and optimise Airtel’s mobile networks across Africa. Ericsson is currently embroiled in a patent dispute with Samsung. Do you think the litigious behaviour in the telecoms sector currently is a hindrance to innovation? And what do you think the solution to these patent disputes is for all parties currently embroiled in them? No, we do not think it is a hindrance to innovation. Ericsson does not comment on the specific litigation cases of others. In general, these cases highlight the importance of patents and licensing programmes. Patents are an integral part of the commercial ecosystems that can be built on standardised technology; GSM/ WCDMA is a good example. In that ecosystem, companies that contribute to the development of the technology commit to licence their essential patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. In return for this, they get a fair and reasonable royalty. The FRAND regime also ensures that new players can enter the market, get access to the technology and compete with innovative telecom products. Patents are very important to Ericsson – our substantial R&D efforts over the years mean we now hold around 30,000 patents worldwide. Ericsson is the number one patent holder in mobile telecom. The possibility of getting a fair return on patents through licensing is important to ensure new investments in innovation and the continued success of open standardisation. Ericsson has been pushing the idea of the “connected society” for some time now. How do you feel Africa is doing in connecting all of these communities? And what could operators and regulators be doing better to achieve the goal of a “connected society”?
The digital revolution has brought the world together, connecting people and their tools to a dynamic global network. In the coming years, ICT infrastructure performance will increase rapidly, fuelled by technology advances. This will bring new opportunities for people and business to create, learn, sustain and innovate, leading to a positive impact on our world. Ericsson calls this new emerging society “The Networked Society”. African governments and regulators, alongside operators, have all been involved in shaping the extraordinary mobile world with its amazing infrastructure in which we live today. This present infrastructure forms the foundation of the “smart societies” we are creating for tomorrow. Government policies and national regulations determine the societal benefits that can be reaped from ICT. They must be responsive to the constantly changing and converging market and business conditions in the ICT sector, meaning that policy and regulatory frameworks must also continue to evolve to reflect these new realities. Issues that must be handled include market liberalisation and competition, radio spectrum management and availability, network access regulation, digital content and intellectual property rights, privacy and information management and different aspect of cybersecurity. Ericsson works across most, if not all, markets in sub-Saharan Africa. What do you feel is the biggest challenge facing the region at the moment? If there’s one major thing holding Africa back it is infrastructure. However, as the continent continues to harness its abundant natural resources and burgeoning workforce, money should become available to spend on ICT, transportation and power grids. This will enable more growth and a virtuous circle would be set in motion. This is what happened in Asia a generation ago. What is Ericsson’s position on the WiMAX/LTE debate? And are either of them 4G technologies? What do you think constitutes a 4G technology? The Wimax-LTE debate has to a very large extent faded away. It is apparent that LTE has the big momentum and will be the longterm choice of technology. The term 4G is not a formal definition of technology capabilities but it relates in practice to the ITU-defined “IMT-Advanced”, which defines a number of capabilities. From 3GPP release 10, LTE fulfills IMT-advanced requirements, hence LTE is an IMT-Advanced-capable technology and can thus be labelled a 4G technology. Further, it should be noticed that, since 3GPP release 11, HSPA also fulfills the IMT-Advanced requirements, and hence HSPA also supports a strong 4G migration path. IEEE802.16e (Wimax) does not support the IMT-Advanced requirements, but the evolved standard IEEE802.16m does. However, the current weak industry momentum on Wimax makes it questionable if this technology standard will make it into products. African operators have thus far not embraced OTT services to their full potential. If you had to guess, why do you think this is the case? Many operators do promote third-party services such as Mxit, WhatsApp, etc, and the practice of blocking VoIP services such as Skype is less prevalent than a few years ago. However, the low penetration of data services means operators and OTT players can collaborate a lot more to improve the value proposition of their offerings. AT Issue 27 AFRICA TELECOMS 67