SoftBank said it will continue to deploy the Ericsson solution in dense urban areas
Ericsson said it completed a commercial implementation of its Elastic Radio Access Network for Japanese mobile operator SoftBank.
Elastic RAN is part of the Ericsson Cloud RAN solution and was developed specifically to improve users’ mobile broadband experience through elastic coordination of users and cells.
The SoftBank implementation, which took place at a Tokyo train station, showed downlink throughput increased by up to 40% during peak hours for three carrier aggregation-enabled smartphones. The vendor said the solution allows an unlimited number of cells to be coordinated across the entire network providing flexibility in the aggregation of the different network cell carriers independent of user location.
SoftBank also confirmed plans to continue to deploy Ericsson Elastic RAN throughout dense urban network areas.
“The first introduction of the Elastic RAN solution will enable peak performance of the most advanced smartphones in the world, in the densest and most challenging areas of our network,” said Hideyuki Tsukuda, SVP and deputy head of the technology unit at SoftBank, in a statement. “We are now expanding Elastic RAN deployment to further deliver high performance throughout our network.”
“Tokyo presents a challenging network environment with very high mobile data usage with short distances between cell sites. This makes intercell coordination complex, which is critical to the aggregation of cell carriers required to achieve high performance,” added Mikael Eriksson, head of Ericsson in Japan. “Elastic RAN introduces a new paradigm with respect to the way we achieve intercell coordination by creating borderless coordination areas.”
Ericsson said it has delivered 270 LTE RAN and evolved packet core networks worldwide, with 200 in live commercial networks.
Vodafone to launch LTE technology in additional telecoms circles in India
In other APAC news, Indian mobile operator Vodafone, owned by U.K.-based Vodafone Group, said it plans to expand its LTE mobile broadband network to additional telecoms circles, international press reported.
Vodafone currently offers LTE services in nine telecom circles across India and expects to reach 19 circles by March 2017. New circles include Assam & North East, Maharashtra & Goa, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai) and Uttar Pradesh (West). Vodafone currently offers LTE in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Karnataka, Kerala, Haryana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh (East) and West Bengal.
The telco said LTE services will soon be commercially available in 2,400 towns across India.
