Ericsson, Nokia-Siemens push productivity enhancements of technology

BARCELONA, Spain – Mobility’s impact on the world was the theme for both L.M. Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks at press conferences here today before tomorrow’s official opening of the Mobile World Congress.
One estimate has more than 66,000 people attending the show, formerly called 3GSM World Congress. Indeed, the show’s name change underscores the fact that wireless is moving beyond third-generation networks to networks based on LTE and WiMAX technology.
But for all of the promise of communications, governments and businesses are failing to live up to the potential communications can enable, said Leonard Waverman, a professor of economics at London Business School. Nokia Siemens commissioned Waverman to study the economic and social benefits from information and communications technologies.
Waverman developed a Connectivity Scorecard that ranks countries according to the extent to which governments, business and people use connective communications to enhance the country’s economy.
Countries were split into two groups – advanced countries and “efficiency- and resource-driven” countries, and given scores.
With a score of 7 out of a possible 10, the United States rated best in using communications to enhance productivity. “Even in advanced countries, connectivity is not living up to its potential,” Waverman noted.
One surprise in the study was Korea, which ranked No. 10 on the Connectivity Scorecard. Although the country has high scores in other rankings, the business spend on advanced services are relatively low, Waverman said.
In efficiency-driven markets, Russia received the highest ranking, followed by Malaysia. India and Nigeria were at the bottom of the scorecard.
Manoj Kohli, the president and CEO of Bhartel in India, said that just as India leap-frogged analog technology to deploy digital GSM, the country would leap-frog the wired internet in favor of the mobile Internet.
Meanwhile, Ericsson showcased a study from Australian operator Telstra that found business users of HSPA-enabled networks reduced their time traveled and the need to print documents by up to 17%, with an average reduction of between 5% and 10%.
The world’s largest network vendors also each separately introduced multi-standard base stations. Ericsson unveiled its RBS 6000 series, which can house GSM/EDGE, W-CDMA/HSPA and LTE.
Building on its Flexi base station, Nokia Siemens launched its end-to-end LTE solution, which comprises its Flexi Multimode Base Station, its Mobility Management Entity and its System Architecture Evolution Gateway. Nokia said its Flexi Multimode base station will begin to include W-CDMA/HSPA in the third quarter and will include a software upgrade to LTE beginning in the second half of 2009.