Delivering broadband

ITU Preview/Ericsson Viewpoint

Ericsson is positioning itself as a leader in broadband by offering full-service broadband solutions based on its leadership in mobility and on end-to-end solutions made possible through its acquisition of Marconi.

Ericsson's broadband vision is to help operators deliver any service to any screen, anywhere. 'Broadband services will be transported over the Internet using IP and will not be specific to any particular device,' says Ove Anebygd, head of tactical marketing at Ericsson. 'These services will be reliable and easy to access from any device using any broadband medium.'

To deliver broadband solutions to any device, anywhere, operators must be prepared to have different types of broadband solutions built on different technologies. These include both fixed and mobile solutions.

It is no coincidence that one of the most important global events for broadband solutions, ITU Telecom World, is taking place in Asia. The region is a trend-setting powerhouse. There is also tremendous variation across the region, making it a good example of what is happening with broadband on a larger scale.

South Korea, for example, has the world's highest penetration of broadband services while China is soon set to exceed the US in its number of broadband connections. At the same time, there are several markets in Asia that lack the infrastructure for delivering broadband services. As a leader in mobile solutions, Ericsson sees mobile broadband as a strategic way for operators to deliver services to regions that lack the necessary infrastructure.

Mobility is also a natural step for established broadband services. 'Once you get used to broadband, typically through the PC in a fixed-network environment, you expect to have the same opportunities when you are away from your home or office. People will want to bring their broadband with them,' Anebygd says.

The industry is coming together to ensure that broadband services can be accessed almost anywhere. High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is one technology that is making mobile broadband a reality. HSPA is an evolution of 3G/W-CDMA technology providing increased data speeds, reduced latency and increased system capacity. Increasingly, laptop PCs are being equipped with HSPA PC-cards or embedded HSPA functionality.
Broadband over W-CDMA/HSPA is today already an attractive and cost-effective alternative to ADSL. The next phase of the HSPA evolution will be increased data uplink speeds and downlink speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps.

Of the different technologies available for delivering broadband services, fixed-network solutions are the most established. Higher bandwidth services have required building fiber-deep networks or bringing fiber optics as close to the premises - private homes, apartment buildings or neighborhood complexes - as possible.

This is not always economically or physically feasible. To meet this challenge, Ericsson has a VDSL2 solution for delivering 'fiber-like' bandwidth without laying expensive new fiber optics between telecommunications equipment and the premises.

Delivering broadband

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