Ericsson has published a new paper which is intended as a springboard for constructive multi-stakeholder dialogue about ICT and human rights.

In our connected century, information and communication technology (ICT) is deeply integrated into our working and personal lives. Digital communication is more global, affordable and accessible than ever before, enabling billions of people to share ideas, acquire knowledge, improve their quality of life, and boost livelihoods. Many studies show a strong correlation between ICT and GDP growth. ICT also promotes greater transparency and enhances many fundamental human rights – such as the right to health, education, freedom of assembly, and freedom of expression.

This paper is intended as a springboard for constructive multi-stakeholder dialogue about ICT and human rights – with particular focus on identifying emerging challenges such as in the areas of freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, data privacy and security and the relationship with law enforcement agencies. It is not intended to address the full range of human rights impacts for the ICT industry, such as conflict minerals, labor rights, and access to health or education.

This paper intends to present a way forward in the discussion; to suggest the next steps for the industry and other actors in the ICT ecosystem, and to gain more clarity and direction in addressing these complex issues. The responsibility that all actors bear is to ensure that billions of people around the world continue to enjoy the opportunities afforded by ICT with the full support of human rights.

Read the paper

• Ericsson partners with Airtel to deploy Connect To Learn in Malawi
• Global education initiative uses technology to enable universal access to 21st century education, especially for girls in secondary school
• Partnership provides the scholarship beneficiaries and their peers and teachers at two schools in rural Malawi with cloud-based computing solution

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) has joined forces with Airtel to expand the Connect to Learn Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solution to two schools in the Malawi Millennium Village of Mwandama, located in the southern region of Malawi’s Zomba district.

Building on the launch of 50 scholarships awarded to students in Malawi last year, the Connect to Learn education initiative now enables more than 600 students and their peers and teachers at St. Anthony and Maera Secondary Schools to enjoy the benefits of ICT using the power of cloud-based technology.

The Connect to Learn program includes delivery of 55 laptop computers, broadband internet access, online educational resources, and relevant training. The technology deployed will give students and teachers access to 21st century educational tools and resources, and the ability to connect to other schools around the world to foster collaborative learning, cross-cultural understanding and global awareness.

Matthews Mtumbuka, IT director of Airtel Malawi, said: "An investment in the education of our young people is an investment in our future. We recognize the transformational impact our industry can have on education, and are proud to collaborate with Ericsson on this initiative."

While several published reports have documented the transformational potential of ICT in general, a recent Broadband Commission report specifically addresses the impact of ICT on education and learning. It explores the impact of ICT on the way in which schools are organized and run, and shows how students and progressive teachers, empowered by technology are unlocking the full potential of learning and education.

Mathews Mwewa, Managing Director, Ericsson Malawi, said: "We are living through an exciting revolution. Mobile technology has fundamentally changed the ways in which we live, learn, work and relate, and has been empirically shown to have a positive impact on economic growth. This project benefits not only students but also their families and our community, and demonstrates our commitment to advancing the socio-economic development of the markets in which we do business."

Kara Nichols, Executive Director of Connect To Learn, said, "Because of investments and work by our partners, Ericsson and Airtel, the students and teachers are able to benefit from access to global news, information and the latest educational content. They can also collaborate with fellow students and teachers around the world through our School-To-School Connections program, even from their remote locations."

Connect To Learn is a collaborative effort between the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Ericsson, and Millennium Promise that harnesses the transformational power of ICT to deliver high-quality education to students everywhere. The global initiative invites a range of partners to advance secondary-school education in three key ways: raising funds to provide complete secondary school scholarships; implementing mobile broadband and cloud solutions in schools so that both students and teachers have access to global education resources; and supporting the establishment of global support for education to raise awareness about the importance of secondary education, especially for girls.

Notes to editors

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About the Connect To Learn initiative

Connect To Learn is a public-private partnership between Ericsson, the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and Millennium Promise along with operator and other corporate and individual partners. A global education initiative, Connect To Learn was launched in 2010, in response to the challenges of access and inequality. It aims to ensure that people worldwide, especially girls, have access to a complete and quality education. The Connect To Learn partners recognize the transformational role broadband connectivity and other ICT solutions can have in scaling up access to quality education through innovative programs, such as cloud-based curricula and school-to-school connectivity. The initiative also promotes transition to secondary school for those who face extraordinary challenges, especially girls, through scholarships.

To learn more please visit: http://www.connecttolearn.org/

About Airtel

Airtel provides mobile communications services across 16 markets in Africa: Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Airtel’s African operations are owned by Bharti Airtel Limited, a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa. The company offers mobile voice and data services, fixed line, high speed broadband, IPTV, DTH, turnkey telecom solutions for enterprises and national and international long distance services to carriers. Bharti Airtel has over 260 million customers (August 2012) across its operations.

www.airtel.com

Ericsson is a world-leading provider of communications technology and services. We are enabling the Networked Society with efficient real-time solutions that allow us all to study, work and live our lives more freely, in sustainable societies around the world.

Our offering comprises services, software and infrastructure within Information and Communications Technology for telecom operators and other industries. Today 40 percent of the world's mobile traffic goes through Ericsson networks and we support customers’ networks servicing more than 2.5 billion subscriptions.

We are more than 110,000 people working with customers in more than 180 countries. Founded in 1876, Ericsson is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2012 the company’s net sales were SEK 227.8 billion (USD 33.8 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX, Stockholm and NASDAQ, New York stock exchanges.

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• During the Mobile World Congress in Fira Gran Via, Barcelona, between February 25-28, Ericsson will show what the Networked Society could look like by 2020 and beyond using demos of 5G, the Connected Megacity and Window of Opportunity
• 5G for the Networked Society beyond 2020 -  Ericsson's take on how to manage 50 billion connections in a sustainable and cost efficient way
• The Connected Megacity - a demo showing how ICT can increase safety, creativity and sustainability in cities that by 2050 will be occupied by 70 percent of the world population
• Window of Opportunity - an exploration project where Ericsson tests the idea of connecting glass to boost indoor coverage and enable services such as automated blinds and cloud control for ventilation

5G for the Networked Society beyond 2020

What will the Networked Society look like by 2020 and beyond? That's the question that Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) is actively researching and providing possible answers to by developing the 5G concept.

Beyond 2020, mobile data volumes will be 1000 times higher and user data rates will be up to 100 times faster than today. In the same time, there will be between 10 to 100 times more connected devices.

Therefore, networks will need to be able to handle a massive amount of connected devices and much more data traffic than today. All this needs to be done in a low cost and sustainable way.

In order to cope with such challenges in the Networked Society, Ericsson is working to identify new technologies, complementing the evolution of existing technologies to enable even more efficient, scalable and versatile networks. Examples include ultra-dense deployments for public indoor environments such as libraries and universities where cloud services will be crucial in order to meet communication needs.

Ericsson sees 5G as a way for users to enjoy the ultimate network experience. 5G is not one, or a few, completely new radio access technologies. Instead, by adopting an experience-centric rather than technology-centric approach, it's focusing on offering an ultimate experience by integrating multiple radio access technologies fulfilling different needs.

With this demo, Ericsson takes visitors on a trip to the world in 2020 and reveals how 5G will help to meet future challenges, fulfilling the communication needs and enabling the long-term Networked Society.  

The Connected Megacity

Another challenge is the increasing urbanization. By the year 2050, 70 percent of the world's population will live in cities, compared to 50 percent today. Many will live in the largest urban areas - the so called mega cities - and this population boost will dramatically increase the need to manage social, economic and environmental issues more efficiently and in a more sustainable way. Ericsson views ICT and mobile technology as key to meeting these challenges and critical for future infrastructure and city planning.  

In the Connected Megacity demonstration, we bring the networked city to life and highlight the benefits of collaborative and proactive practices. With focus on technology enablers, we look into three main scenarios. The first one, the safe city, illustrates how ICT solutions can ease traffic congestion after a car accident has impacted on traffic movement.  

The second scenario is the creative city and shows how ICT solutions can ensure a quality network user experience for the audience even during densely populated cultural or social events such as concerts. The third scenario, the greener city, demonstrates a heatwave and how a city can manage such conditions by taking advantage of smart grids.

These three demos show how patterns of behavior can be identified by analyzing and combining feeds of data and situational knowledge stemming from these scenarios.

Experts can then work with the results of the analysis to make intelligent and contextual recommendations for different scenarios.

Window of Opportunity

Ericsson will also offer a sneak peek into an exploration project called Window of Opportunity, in which Ericsson tests what happens when ordinary glass windows get connected and act as connectors.

Ericsson will demonstrate how by using a transparent antenna, an ordinary window could easily become part of the mobile broadband network, boosting indoor coverage and providing a great mobile experience inside buildings or when taking public transportation to work. By connecting the windows on a bus, for example, the bus can become an extended office or a haven where you can unwind with entertainment. Windows could be used as a whiteboard that capture what you have written and e-mails you the notes and much more.

Connected windows offer a spectrum of new and exciting possibilities such as automated blinds and cloud control for ventilation, lights, and more, benefiting people, businesses and society. The connected window also presents opportunities to reduce a building's energy consumption. And by adding transparent solar cells to produce electricity, these applications can power themselves and deliver excess energy into the smart grid.

During Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona, Ericsson showcases its combined technology and services leadership for the Information and Communications Technology industry. Our solutions deliver superior network performance in the field, enable complete customer experience management, simplify and automate operations workflows thereby leading to operational excellence. We show how the Networked Society comes to life - what it will mean for the industry and how it will enable our customers to capture growth opportunities.

NOTES TO EDITORS

RELATED INFORMATION:

City index 1-3:

http://www.ericsson.com/thinkingahead/networked_society/city-life

City Index interactive tool:

http://www.ericsson.com/thinkingahead/networked_society/city-life/city-index

The three ages of Megacities: http://www.ericsson.com/res/docs/2012/ns_megacities_report_4.pdf

Window of Opportunity - photos, video and more information: http://www.ericsson.com/thinkingahead/networked_society/window_of_opportunity

Download high-resolution photos and broadcast-quality video at www.ericsson.com/press

Ericsson is the world's leading provider of communications technology and services. We are enabling the Networked Society with efficient real-time solutions that allow us all to study, work and live our lives more freely, in sustainable societies around the world.

Our offering comprises services, software and infrastructure within Information and Communications Technology for telecom operators and other industries. Today more than 40 percent of the world's mobile traffic goes through Ericsson networks and we support customers' networks servicing more than 2.5 billion subscribers. 

We operate in 180 countries and employ more than 100,000 people. Founded in 1876, Ericsson is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2011 the company's net sales were SEK 226.9 billion (USD 35.0 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX, Stockholm and NASDAQ, New York stock exchanges.

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Personal information is known as the “oil” of the 21st century. The digital and mobile revolution has brought possibilities to monetize personal information to develop new personalized services and to create new revenue streams. A new report from Ericsson ConsumerLab shows that consumer awareness of how their information is being shared is still low but anonymous big data is rarely perceived as a big issue.

In today’s society, companies and organizations have unprecedented possibilities to collect and use people’s personal information. Using this information in the right way enables new revenue streams and increased profit.

But do consumers understand and perceive the value of their personal information? What are the sensitivity involved with an increased use of personal information by enterprises, governments and consumers? The purpose of the Personal Information Economy report by ConsumerLab has been to describe consumers’ understanding, needs, behaviors and attitudes with respect to personal information as an asset.

Key findings

The report reveals that more than 50 percent of consumers are aware that their personal information is collected for commercial purposes. But the reasons why, how or exactly what it is used for are obscure to most.

Slightly more than 40 percent of consumers would allow companies to use their personal information when an offer is personalized to them, to improve current services and develop new ones.

Consumers’ concerns about sensitivity diminish if they can see a clear and desired benefit from sharing personal information. Involving consumers by asking for permission increases trust and willingness to share personal information. Transparency, in other words, understanding how the personal information is used, will improve consumers’ regard of the company.

"Many consumers want personalized offers and services," says Rebecka Cedering Ångström, Senior Advisor, ConsumerLab at Ericsson. "But at the same time, companies and organizations must be very careful how they design their offers. Used according to consumer praxis, personal information can improve the user experience and increase loyalty and sales."

In a connected society, where 50 billion connected devices and associated services generate information, the entire ecosystem will increase in importance. This gives an opportunity for consumers to get better and more personalized services and offers.

About the report

The qualitative research was carried out in the US and Europe, involving in-depth interviews with consumers and experts. In addition, an explorative student workshop was arranged.

The quantitative research is based on ConsumerLab’s analytical platform with 23,000 online interviews made with people aged 15-69 in Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Sweden, the UK, Ukraine and the US in May 2012.

Ericsson ConsumerLab gains its knowledge through a global consumer research program based on interviews with 100,000 individuals each year, in more than 40 countries and 15 megacities - statistically representing the views of 1.1 billion people. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used, and hundreds of hours are spent with consumers from different cultures.

Read the report here

All ConsumerLab reports can be found at www.ericsson.com/consumerlab

Notes to editors

Download high-resolution photos and broadcast-quality video at www.ericsson.com/press.

Ericsson is the world's leading provider of communications technology and services. We are enabling the Networked Society with efficient real-time solutions that allow us all to study, work and live our lives more freely, in sustainable societies around the world.

Our offering comprises services, software and infrastructure within Information and Communications Technology for telecom operators and other industries. Today more than 40 percent of the world's mobile traffic goes through Ericsson networks and we support customers’ networks servicing more than 2.5 billion subscribers.

We operate in 180 countries and employ more than 100,000 people. Founded in 1876, Ericsson is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2011 the company’s net sales were SEK 226.9 billion (USD 35.0 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX, Stockholm and NASDAQ, New York stock exchanges.

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The latest interim update to the Ericsson Mobility Report highlights the continued rapid growth of connectivity.

The report shows that data traffic doubled between Q4 2011 and Q4 2012, growing by 28 percent between Q3 and Q4 2012. It also showed a net gain of 140 million subscriptions globally (30 million of which were in China). During 2012, smartphones accounted for 40 percent of new mobile phone sales, compared with 30 percent in 2011.

For several years, Ericsson has collected data from networks around the world. Moving towards the Networked Society, we believe this data has become more important than ever in helping stakeholders prepare for and shape an all-connected world.

Read the interim update: Ericsson Mobility Report, On the Pulse of the Networked Society

• The Interconnection business, formerly, Telcordia Interconnection Solutions, renamed as iconectiv
• The business will operate from today under the iconectiv brand

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) today launched iconectiv as the new brand for its Interconnection business. Starting today, the Interconnection business transfers to a new brand to promote and strengthen its business identity and support its portfolio including number portability clearinghouses, mobile messaging services, anti-theft device registries, spectrum management databases and the Common Language product line.

For more information about iconectiv, visit www.iconectiv.com

Notes to editors

Download high-resolution photos and broadcast-quality video at www.ericsson.com/press.

Ericsson is the world's leading provider of communications technology and services. We are enabling the Networked Society with efficient real-time solutions that allow us all to study, work and live our lives more freely, in sustainable societies around the world.

Our offering comprises services, software and infrastructure within Information and Communications Technology for telecom operators and other industries. Today more than 40 percent of the world's mobile traffic goes through Ericsson networks and we support customers’ networks servicing more than 2.5 billion subscribers.

We operate in 180 countries and employ more than 100,000 people. Founded in 1876, Ericsson is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2011 the company’s net sales were SEK 226.9 billion (USD 35.0 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX, Stockholm and NASDAQ, New York stock exchanges.

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For further information, please contact

• Ericsson Corporate Public & Media Relations
• Phone: +46 10 719 69 92
• E-mail: media.relations@ericsson.com

• Ericsson Investor Relations
• Phone: +46 10 719 00 00
• E-mail: investor.relations@ericsson.com

The potential of robotics to assist mankind has long since moved from the realms of science fiction to take prominent roles in the manufacturing and service sectors. Increasing connectivity means robots will soon become a major part of many people’s lives, predicts Rodney Brooks, founder, Chairman and CTO of Rethink Robotics.

He says that being connected – whether machine-to-machine or person-to-machine – enables robots to move from being isolated units to units that can be controlled and repaired from distance.

Citing aging population demographics in Europe, North America and China, Brooks says robots will have an increasing role to play in home care and residential facilities for the elderly, performing many of the "dull" tasks that currently take the time of health professionals.

Brooks also examines the role that networks will have to play regarding how robots are used in the future and looks at the perceived threat they pose.

São Jose dos Campos is one of the highest ranking Brazilian cities in terms of education and quality of life, and a highly regarded industrial and research center. Former Mayor, Eduardo Cury, tells us why he believes technology is so important to the future prospects of its young people.

With huge levels of urbanization in Brazil in recent decades, Cury also outlines some of the technological challenges facing the country and other mayors.

"Our kids need (access to) new technology to get new knowledge," he says. "In my opinion that is the big challenge to mayors in Brazil."

Ford Motor Company’s CTO Paul Mascarenas says smart car technology and connectivity is changing his company’s thinking when it comes to customer experience.

"Why shouldn’t a car be connected?" he asks. "It is the ultimate mobile device."

Mascarenas outlines the change in Ford’s approach to how technology relates to user experience, some of the benefits of smart cars, and explains why Ford has started working with application developers to bring relevant content to smart vehicles.

Paulo Castro, the CEO of digital media company Terra, predicts the popularity of anytime, anywhere interactive video content will result in consumers being offered more device screens for consumer to enjoy their content.

Terra’s website attracts more than 100 million users every month from its customer base of 20 countries – most of which are in Latin America.

Castro outlines some of the added services his company offers to enhance the TV and video experience.

“(It’s about) offering something more immersive and more real-time than even TV,” he says.

He says increasing connectivity will also means more screens for consumers to choose from.

As connected devices become increasingly common in our homes, new, more personalized ways of consuming media will become an important source of revenue for our customers.

With enhancements to the delivery of cloud and video-on-demand services, our customers now have the opportunity to improve quality of experience for consumers while tailoring their services for specific applications and devices. Ericsson recently announced a new Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) which uses existing copper and fiber-access infrastructure to provide high-quality, personalized broadband services, specifically for smart homes.

Gabriel Brown, a senior analyst at Heavy Reading, says: “With the ever greater diversity of media, content, and communications being consumed in the home, operators should be able to profit from improved service-delivery capabilities. Service differentiation over high-bandwidth residential connections has great commercial potential. For example, ensuring that the performance needs of a new real-time application are met, or optimizing delivery of media for a variety of device types, are both monetization opportunities.”

Enhancing the delivery of cloud and video-on-demand services to different device types is a top design priority in the new BNG, which runs on the Smart Service Router (SSR) 8000 family of products. Personalization of service delivery is a natural evolution of today’s high-speed internet services and is increasingly viewed as an important revenue-generating capability by operators.

Türk Telekom, a leading tier-1 operator which operates a large Ericsson Broadband Remote Access Server farm, has said that it is interested in testing the new BNG capabilities: “We are currently testing the SSR 8020’s routing capabilities and are very happy with the results. We shall begin testing the BNG functionality on the SSR 8020 in the very near future.”

Ericsson introduced the industry’s first Subscriber Management Service (SMS) platform about 15 years ago and has since then been at the forefront of technology innovation and commercial leadership in this area.

Among the many issues facing cities worldwide today, traffic and commuting are regularly the most problematic and intractable. At the city level, traffic congestion and commuting inefficiencies place a strain on urban infrastructure, increase pollution and environmental degradation and lead to loss of resources, time and productivity. On a personal level, commuting has been identified as one of the most unpleasant urban experiences, often associated with very high levels of stress. In a new report The New Cities Foundation together with Ericsson evaluates these issues from a ICT perspective.

With today’s enabling ICT environment and the ubiquitous use of smart phones and social networking tools, information can be transferred among individuals more seamlessly than ever before. Commuters today have the ability to transmit real-time, localized and pertinent information to each other, so how can and should this information be used to encourage and enable a shorter, more efficient, and generally happier commute.

The New Cities Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to creating more sustainable, dynamic and global cities through creative partnerships, and Ericsson, a founding member of the Foundation, created a Task Force on Connected Commuting to evaluate these issues in a pilot project in San Jose, California. This project was conducted in collaboration with the San Jose Department of Transportation, the University of California Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and two commuter-focused mobile applications, Waze and Roadify.

The report from the Task force reveals several key insights, including:

1. Connecting commuters improves the commute by allowing users to share or receive real-time information on traffic issues.
2. The use of commuter sentiment analysis tools has the potential to help cities and local transportation authorities define their priorities, planning and investments in the area of transportation.
3. Technology plays a significant role for both connected and un-connected commuters, whether during the planning stage or the actual commute. The types of planning and commuting tools varied significantly between commuters.
4. Connected car commuters tended to be happier than unconnected car commuters as a result of being able to predict their commute conditions which resulted in less stress.
5. Public transport commuters, on the other hand, tend to use technology more during the trip-planning phase rather than during the commute itself.

Read the full report here

Download the slide pack

• Ericsson and 29 partners launch, METIS, a large EU co-funded research project
• Aim is to lay the foundation for the next-generation wireless communication system
• The research consortium includes telecom vendors, manufacturers, telecom operators, academic institutions, companies from the automotive industry and a research institution.

It is hoped that METIS (Mobile and wireless communications Enablers for the Twenty-twenty (2020) Information Society) will keep Europe at the forefront of development of the future mobile and wireless system. At the same time, it is aimed at building a global consensus regarding the requirements and key performance indicators of the system.

Ulf Wahlberg

Ulf Wahlberg, Head of Industry and Research Relations, says: "As when we developed the previous generations of mobile-communications standards, there is a need for an initial phase of common research activities to develop concepts and prototypes, and to reach a common view of what are going to be the key ingredients of the coming standard.

"The continuing growth of mobile broadband will create many new services and applications where we are always connected, anywhere, anytime and with anything. This will create new needs to be supported by the network that we need to counter with new research. For example, we will address scalability, increased capacity and coverage, and how to improve efficiency in energy, cost and spectrum utilization."

The project will run for 30 months. Its research consortium consists of 29 organizations, including manufacturers, telecom operators, academic institutions, companies from the automotive industry and a research institution.

METIS officially started with a kickoff meeting in Kista in mid-November with 125 participants from the consortium.

Afif Osseiran

Afif Osseiran, Master Researcher at Ericsson and METIS Project Coordinator, says: "This project is the most important one for Ericsson Research in the coming years and it is supported at the highest level in the company.

"It is also an opportunity to confirm that Ericsson maintains leadership in the mobile world, to show that we are at the forefront of development and to strengthen our thought leadership."

Being co-funded by the EU, METIS will benefit the European industry financially by giving it prime-mover status due to the innovations generated by the project.

It will offer new wireless technology concepts and new topics, such as massive-machine communications, ultra-dense networks and ultra-reliable communication.

Jan Färjh

Jan Färjh, Head of Standardization and Industry, says: "It is very important that we achieve a broad consensus on the mobile-communication systems of tomorrow. For Ericsson, it is also an opportunity to drive the business in the direction we think is the right one."

More than 100 proposals from around the world have already been submitted to the M2M Challenge 2012. And there’s still time to submit your M2M application idea – you could win USD 5,000 and help shape the future of business and society.

In a Networked Society of more than 50 billion connected devices there will be no limitations on the connectivity between machines. By helping us to live and work smarter, M2M applications have the potential to transform every sector of business and society.

The inaugural M2M Challenge aims to unlock the imagination of developers, entrepreneurs and those working for businesses of all sizes involved in the M2M ecosystem, regardless of where they are in the world.

The concept is simple: submit a solution in any of the five competition categories that would improve business though innovative use of M2M connectivity. The categories are:

• energy
• security
• healthcare
• mobility (auto and transport)
• consumer electronics and more.

The prize winners will be announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2013. Winners and other selected entrants will have the chance to network with thought leaders and key influencers in M2M development, and will be promoted internationally through the marketing channels of the competition’s sponsors and partners.

Ericsson, together with Swisscom, is a title sponsor of the M2M Challenge. Miguel Blockstrand, Head of Ericsson’s Product Line Device Communications, says that the number of entries so far shows the huge potential of M2M applications – and that there is room for even more ideas.

"There are fabulous M2M application ideas out there that can make their mark on business and society. This competition can help innovators to turn their vision into reality.

"Ericsson is dedicated to enhancing the M2M ecosystem. Applications are a crucial element of that ecosystem, alongside high-quality and dependable connectivity. That’s why we are committed to this competition and the long-term success of the M2M market."

Teams have until December 31, 2012, to submit their ideas. Further details can be found on the M2M Challenge website.

Patrik Cerwall, Head of Strategic Marketing and Intelligence at Ericsson, discusses the latest Mobility Report.

The report reveals that approximately 40 percent of all phones sold in Q3 were smartphones. Data traffic doubled between Q3 2011 and Q3 2012, and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 50 percent between 2012 and 2018, driven mainly by video.

Ericsson’s research shows that online video is the biggest contributor to mobile traffic volumes, constituting 25 percent of total smartphone traffic and 40 percent of total tablet traffic. This puts new requirements on networks to cater for quality anywhere and anytime.

• Extensive study across 16 cities in India reveals the digital lives of kids (9-11 years), tweens (12-15 years) and teens (16-18 years) in India, a group called Generation Z
• Around 30 million of 69 million urban Generation Z consumers own mobile phones, and 3 million of these use mobile broadband on their phones
• Kids explore new technology and use the mobile phone in the same way as their older counterparts
• Parents using mobile broadband are more likely to introduce their children to the technology

Ericsson’s new ConsumerLab study, The Digital Lives of Generation Z, reveals the impact of technology on the lives of India’s young mobile-phone users in cities. The report shows that even the youngest age group (9-11 years) shows advanced technology adoption and mobile-internet usage similar to their older counterparts.

Fredrik Jejdling, Head of Region, Ericsson India, says: "This report captures the insights of a dynamic consumer group. These young people will shape mobile consumption for our industry.

"As a technology leader in mobile broadband, managed services and OSS/BSS, we conduct extensive research to partner our operators in understanding new trends of consumption."

The key findings show that mobile ownership is catching on at an early age, with 30 million out of 69 million urban members of Generation Z owning mobile phones. Some 21 percent of urban Indian kids and tweens mirror mobile-internet-services usage as seen among their older counterparts. In fact, kids and tweens are more likely than teens to stream a video on YouTube once a week. They spend roughly seven hours daily with gadgets on mobile phones, watching TV and using gaming consoles. A total of 58 percent of Generation Z is now willing to give up watching TV in favor of browsing the internet on a mobile phone.

Social media is becoming more important for the Generation Z with 77% venting their frustration on poor service experience over social media which leads them to expect instant resolution of their issues and queries and constant feedback via social media itself.

Mobile-broadband adoption within this segment is driven by family dynamics. Parents using mobile broadband were more likely to introduce their children to the technology as well. Today, 3 million mobile-broadband users in urban India are aged under 18, and 35 percent of non-users with capable handsets are willing to take up mobile broadband in the next 3 months.

Only one in three urban parents are able to keep track of their children’s communication activities, and expect service providers to offer services in order to manage and monitor their children’s mobile and internet usage. A total of 76 percent of the urban parents expect service providers to provide them with call and message log details of their kids &nash; 63 percent of parents are interested in an app to block unwarranted content. Interestingly, 30 percent of 9-18 year olds use a privacy screen to prevent others from seeing their phone.

Download the report

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Ericsson has long played a leading role in the development of the Software Defined Networks (SDN) concept and has lately expanded it to cover the whole telecom domain, calling it Service Provider SDN. The company is now cooperating with several telecom operators to turn their SDN ideas into reality.

The telecom world is moving to 4G IP networks with higher scalability, superior performance, smartness and simplicity. Up to now, the industry in general has had a too narrow view on SDN, looking at it mainly from a switching and routing perspective and applying it to data centers, says Mallik Tatipamula, Head of Packet Technology Research at Ericsson.

“We’ve taken a new approach, putting the service providers at the center and addressing their concerns, which are ultimately about optimization, monetization and providing a good end-user experience,” Tatipamula says.

Service Provider SDN builds on four fundamental principles, Tatipamula explains: decoupling of forwarding from the control plane; orchestrating the services/applications across the entire network; providing APIs on top of the network for service velocity; and virtualization (slicing the physical network into virtual networks to support multiple services/applications).

Service Provider SDN means adding control to all domains of the telecom network. The cloud is also an integrated part of the Service Provider SDN, which links the control of the cloud to the control of the network. To summarize, Tatipamula says Service Provider SDN is basically about integrated network control, orchestrated network and cloud management, and service exposure.

The benefits of SDN for the operators are many, says Tatipamula, highlighting flexibility, scalability, and a better support for applications/services on top of the network. For end users, there is a lot to gain as well, such as quicker access to wanted services and better performance in general.

Erik Ekudden, Ericsson’s Head of Technology Strategy, says Ericsson has been deeply involved in the SDN space from its onset. Ericsson was among the first to establish a SDN research project with Stanford University, back in 2008-2009, and one of the founders of the Open Networking Research Center. It has also actively taken part in the SDN standardization through Open Networking Foundation.

The company is now working closely with a number of leading operators worldwide on pre-commercial trials involving Ericsson equipment such as the Smart Services Router and Blade Server.

“Now we’re set on taking SDN from research to reality and have taken the lead in that race,” Ekudden says. “It’s still early days, but we see a growing interest from operators in Service Provider SDN. We are working on implementing a number of use cases together with them.”

The basic ideas of SDN, with its separation of control and forwarding architecture, are nothing new to Ericsson, Ekudden explains. “We have already gone through this journey in the circuit-switched world with the MSC, as well as in the IP world with IMS. So for us, it’s only natural to apply this architecture to all-IP networks, which is what we do with SDN.”

Ekudden also stresses the importance of Ericsson’s broad telecom competence in the SDN work.

“At Ericsson, we have all the required domain competence, covering components, products and services, everything from radio, to transport, to IP,” he says. “This gives us a unique position in our industry.

“We’re not only talking about how SDN affects a router, which some of our competitors do, but how it impacts the whole network and how to make it optimal for the operators.”

• New partnership aims to develop machine-to-machine (m2m) market
• Is expected to allow MegaFon to offer m2m connectivity to enterprises and address new revenue streams
• Ericsson's cloud-based Device Connection Platform at center of cooperation

At the Open Innovations Forum in Moscow, Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) announced a strategic cooperation with one of Russia's major operators, MegaFon, to develop the market around machine-to-machine connectivity. Under the agreement, MegaFon plans to use Ericsson's Device Connection Platform to cost effectively manage a large number of connected devices and machines for enterprises.

Ericsson will provide MegaFon with consulting services and utilities market research plus systems integration services as part of the agreement.

In a world of 50 billion connected devices as foreseen by Ericsson, many devices will communicate with applications and control systems using mobile networks. Both enterprises and consumers will make use of numerous everyday devices that benefit from M2M connectivity at home, at work, on the move, in remote locations and elsewhere. Potential uses include utility meters, alarms, cars, buses and trucks and a wide range of consumer electronic devices.

Thus, operators need tools in order to tailor enterprise offerings, for example in terms of price plans and bandwidth requirements for different M2M applications. In addition, they must be able to implement new applications fast.

The Device Connection Platform is a cloud-based managed connectivity platform, provided as a service.  It enables operators to industrialize M2M connectivity services to a variety of different industry needs.  Operators can address new revenue streams from a variety of devices while simplifying the process, and reducing the cost of connecting them in order to benefit from economies of scale. At the same time, the platform facilitates smooth and efficient network provisioning as well as access to key functionalities including subscription management, device management and operator and enterprise self-service portals.

In addition to experience of the worldwide M2M market, Ericsson will support MegaFon in offering services to enterprises from different industries, in order to leverage efficiencies along their customers' value chain from production to distribution.

Oleg Butenko, CEO MegaLabs, a wholly-owned MegaFon subsidiary focusing on the development of innovative solutions, said: "We see this partnership as a good opportunity to develop M2M technologies in Russia. The M2M segment is now in its infancy, primarily because the market itself has not been formed. MegaLabs and Ericsson are jointly working to develop this new solution to the benefit of MegaFon subscribers. We expect the solution to help our customers efficiently monitor M2M SIM cars and choose the best tariff options. We believe that this partnership and solution may help our customers leverage the full potential of their M2M connectivity, and enhance our vertical solutions portfolio."

Dmitry Maselsky, Head of Ericsson Russia, said: "It took one hundred years for technology to connect places, 25 years to connect 6 billion people, and by 2020 we will have the ability to connect up to 50 billion devices.  We see over 2 billion of those connections will be right here in Russia.  Connectivity across a massive number and variety of devices will help businesses reach new efficiencies, and we will fully support MegaFon in capturing new revenue streams and opportunities."

The pilot phase is set to be launched December 2012.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Product description of the Device Connection Platform

About MegaFon OJSC

MegaFon OJSC is a universal operator working in different segments of the telecommunications market. More than 62 million people throughout Russia have chosen the high quality of services and communications provided by MegaFon. Appreciating the trust of its customers, the company has become one of the mobile operators to adopt more customer-oriented policies. MegaFon is the first mobile operator in the country to launch 3G for commercial operations. An active supporter of sports, MegaFon is the General partner of the XXII Olympic Winter Games 2014 and XI Paralympic Winter Games 2014 in Sochi, and the General partner and official mobile operator of the XXVII World Summer Universiade 2013 in Kazan.

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Ericsson is the world's leading provider of communications technology and services. We are enabling the Networked Society with efficient real-time solutions that allow us all to study, work and live our lives more freely, in sustainable societies around the world.

Our offering comprises services, software and infrastructure within Information and Communications Technology for telecom operators and other industries. Today more than 40 percent of the world's mobile traffic goes through Ericsson networks and we support customers' networks servicing more than 2.5 billion subscribers. 

We operate in 180 countries and employ more than 100,000 people. Founded in 1876, Ericsson is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2011 the company's net sales were SEK 226.9 billion (USD 35.0 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX, Stockholm and NASDAQ, New York stock exchanges.

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Ericsson’s Mobile Cloud Accelerator solution, a result of the strategic alliance with Akamai, has scooped the Best Broadband Cloud Award at Broadband World Forum 2012.

Ericsson topped a shortlist of four contenders in the category – part of the annual Broadband InfoVision Awards – at the event in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The award was created to recognize “an excellent product, service, device or innovation in the area of cloud services by a telecom-solutions vendor or a broadband operator/service provider (fixed or wireless) launched between July 2011 and June 2012, which offered significant new prospects for increased revenue, managing costs, improving quality or increasing customer satisfaction.”

The awarding body’s description of Ericsson’s Mobile Cloud Accelerator said the solution was designed to ensure end-to-end QoE for premium mobile-content delivery, by combining internet acceleration and mobile prioritization.

“Mobile Cloud Accelerator provides operators with a way to monetize over-the-top content delivery end-to-end in a way that content providers are offered a guaranteed QoE when their content is delivered over a mobile network,” the shortlist citation read.

The citation highlighted the partnership with Akamai, saying the solution helped connect thousands of content providers with hundreds of operators through a single interface “dramatically simplifying both technical operations and business relationships.”

“The Mobile Cloud Accelerator is run as a service, which eliminates the need for upfront investments and opens up for new business models,” the shortlist citation read.