February 2008
Ericsson President and CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg said today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, that 2007 was a breakthrough year for consumer uptake of mobile broadband and that television is changing from a broadcast to a personalized TV experience.
"During 2007 there was a strong uptake of 3G and HSPA. Presently 174 HSPA networks are in commercial operation in 76 countries, the majority operating at 3.6Mbps or higher speeds. HSPA is the natural evolution for GSM/WCDMA, the technology that is used in over 86 percent of the world's wireless networks today. There are presently 180 million WCDMA subscriptions, including HSPA, a figure that is growing by 6.5 million per month."
Svanberg stressed that the uptake of 3G and HSPA continues to be strong in regions that have networks operating commercially.
"In 2008, Ericsson expects to see 3G/HSPA networks rolled out in Latin America, Middle East, Africa and Russia, with India coming on board by end of the year. Additionally, we see that in the 3G networks that we monitor in Europe data traffic now exceeds voice and accelerates quickly, from between 50 to 1500% depending on the operator's strategy."
With the HSPA ecosystem growing fast, over 400 mobile terminals, embedded modules and personal consumer devices provided by 80 suppliers are available today. Some 250 companies are delivering HSPA, including operators, suppliers and service providers.
Svanberg stressed that the unrivalled breadth and depth of the ecosystem offers unmatched economies of scale, which benefits all players.
"Soon, when everything communicates, we will see the true power of mobile broadband, which adds to productivity and enhances the quality of life for society, enterprises and individuals."
Key to quality of life issue is sustainability, which Svanberg said is becoming business critical with energy optimization driving competitiveness and dominating global political agendas.
Ericsson is taking a lead in this area, with innovative radio base station designs such as the Tower Tube and alternative energy solutions.
In the press conference, Mikael Bäck, Vice President Portfolio Management, Business Unit Networks also said: "With Ericsson's mobile broadband solutions we enable global coverage to consumers and efficiency to operators. With our new multi-standard radio base station RBS 6000, we bring a complete site, supporting GSM, HSPA and LTE, into one single cabinet."
Svanberg continued to point out that we are now moving from broadcast to personalized television.
"We are now stepping into the individual television experience and we aim for a top position. Today, we are moving from the classic way to watch television, to more interactive and then to the individual TV experience. Ericsson is the only company with a complete end-to-end offering when it comes to mobile TV and IPTV, and we understand the consumer."
"Television is a major opportunity for operators to provide consumers a true multimedia experience and Ericsson has a complete offering, strengthened by our acquisitions of Redback, Marconi, Entrisphere and TANDBERG Television, and our services offering."
"The key differentiations between today's television experience and tomorrow's are IMS - which is a vital part of the seamless television experience."
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