GSM continues to grow at an unprecedented rate – the anticipated traffic growth this year alone equals the entire traffic volume of 2001. Every month 25 million new subscribers join a GSM network worldwide, while existing users spend more and more time on the phone. Fixed to mobile substitution is becoming a reality in many markets, spurred by a lack of fixed lines and call-promoting price models with flat rates and bucket plans.
In parallel with rolling out WCDMA networks, operators therefore focus on how to best utilize existing investments in GSM. GSM networks are expected to shoulder the bulk of the growth, partly due to the fact that the number of 3G-enabled handsets on the market will not be sufficient to support the traffic expansion until 2010. In a proactive initiative to help operators capitalize on traffic growth, Ericsson has developed Capacity Growth, a package that combines unique competence with a host of software and hardware solutions – all with the common objective of boosting capacity in the radio network and cutting operational costs.
Erika Ernfors, responsible for the Capacity Growth program at Ericsson, says the new offering lets operators capitalize on traffic growth by maintaining and upgrading their GSM networks in a cost-efficient way. "There is an opportunity to double average revenue per user but it requires four times today's capacity," she says. "With Ericsson Capacity Growth, a small investment can generate plenty of revenue. With sustained or, in many cases, even improved service quality, operators can stimulate increased usage and attract new users with good profitability."
Many markets harbor an unrealized potential to boost voice traffic in terms of minutes of use. In the US and Asia, new price models and sharp competition have seen average voice traffic soar to above 800 minutes of use per month and many European operators are following suit in introducing bucket plans, flat rates and bundling packages with data and voice. Says Ernfors: "This gives subscribers a whole new cost picture that spurs increased usage."
Releasing cost-efficient new capacity in networks with the help of Ericsson Capacity Growth lowers the production cost per voice minute and dramatically improves operator margins, says Ernfors. "Operators can safely target even low-revenue users with new offers and campaigns, knowing that the network will be able to handle the new traffic. And they can afford to stimulate increased calling by existing subscribers through new tariff plans, when the marginal capacity cost for additional minutes of use is low."
Ericsson Capacity Growth reduces costs in the radio network with up to 85 percent per voice minute. Ernfors explains the package contains different solutions that cater to varying operator situations and bottlenecks: some may need to pack more into a tight radio spectrum, while others require solutions for very large site configurations.
"Traditionally, networks are expanded by adding more sites, which entails additional capital as well as operational cost," Ernfors says. "Ericsson's method is to boost capacity on existing sites. Our solutions have been shown to be able to generate up to 400 percent more capacity in an existing network."
Ericsson's Frequency Load Planning (FLP) is a unique feature of Capacity Growth that addresses the issue of limited frequency spectrum and consequent interference problems. Ernfors explains: "FLP is the most efficient frequency planning method on the market, since it makes use of every available frequency in every single cell. You also get a network that requires very low-maintenance because you never need to frequency plan."
What makes Ericsson's FLP unique are the algorithms used to calculate at what time different frequencies can be used for traffic in order to avoid interference. "Field tests at operators have shown that our solution is capable of handling about 50 percent more load at peak cells than the competition," Ernfors says.
For operators where spectrum availability is not tight, Ericsson's solution for cost-efficient network expansion is to build as few, large sites as possible. Therefore, Capacity Growth contains the market's largest base station controller and a unique mega-basestation solution, with software that permits synchronization of several radio base stations, even at a distance. "In effect, this means they act as one single base station towards the network with up to 128 transceiver units per cell. There are no limits to the size of the sites you can build," says Ernfors.
With a little help from Ericsson's research and development team, there seems to be no limits for how many subscribers GSM is able to handle worldwide either.
Read more about Capacity growth here.
