Evolution to LTE: Building the right strategic plan for your business
Service providers are excited to introduce LTE because the all-IP network architecture will enrich mobile broadband services with new applications and a higher quality of experience than 3G can provide. But transformation to this next generation mobile broadband technology will take more than a switch to new radios and packet IP technology. It will require proper strategic planning if companies want to fully capitalize on LTE and IP technology attributes to build a sustainable business model for the future.
For example, operators must factor in many decisions including which spectrum and frequency bands to use; the best timing for introducing LTE to the market; the best deployment strategy (overlay, urban, rural zones); how best to migrate subscribers to the new network; and the cost of switching off legacy networks. The strategic plan must also include the transformation of access, backhaul, and core networks to an all-IP infrastructure and incorporate IP-based control systems such as IP Multimedia Subsystems.
In addition to the network transformation process, operators must assess the time-to-market, cost and other business issues. They must anticipate demand for devices, the prices subscribers will be willing to pay for services, and how rapidly data consumption will escalate. They must also decide how to offer the new capabilities they will provide in conjunction with existing networks and services and decide if and when any legacy networks must be decommissioned.
The overall challenge of managing these many complexities is perhaps the biggest issue operators face during the evolution to LTE, because the transition process will impact not just the operator's network operations, but also their general role within the wireless value chain. Essentially, operators will need to reposition their businesses to become more services-centric than network-centric if they want to profit from the increasing demand for content and applications that LTE promises, and they'll need to transform their overall business models accordingly. They will need to consider new approaches for revenue sharing, collaborating with new and varying types of business partners and supporting more types of applications, and they will likely discover new opportunities to provide new types of managed services, such as managed cloud storage, to enterprise customers.
Expecting that the LTE competitive environment will be even more tenacious than the 3G market, operators are also under very significant pressure to fulfill their LTE transformation strategies in ways that accelerate their time-to-market with new services and applications while minimizing costs and risks.
Alcatel-Lucent's services group can help service providers navigate their way through the transformation process with its consulting expertise, proven methodologies and tools developed by its research arm, Bell Labs.
"Our tools take into consideration different calculations based on an individual operator's needs when it comes to opex and capex," said Jean Jones, director of strategic marketing with Alcatel-Lucent's services group.
"We are working with a number of trial customers upfront to build that migration strategy."
Alcatel-Lucent has expertise working with leading wireless operators across the globe to build the best evolution paths to LTE for their businesses. One of the ways in which it is working with operators is to use the Wireless Strategy Optimizer, a tool developed by Bell Labs, to assimilate the myriad factors that must be considered to develop metrics, such as opex and capex costs and savings, which they need to guide their business and network planning. Alcatel-Lucent's strategic consultants work closely with these operators to determine the best timing for introducing LTE; the cost of switching off a legacy network; and the best cell site deployment strategy, including strategies for small cells. This consultative engagement creates strong customer intimacy and loyalty that is often beneficial to many other aspects of transformation. For example, it may lead to a wireless optimization consulting engagement in which Alcatel-Lucent combines its expertise and other tool sets to address capacity planning and optimization of the network due to smartphone traffic.
During every stage of the LTE transformation process, Alcatel-Lucent's services group will work closely with its operator partners to preview and evaluate the many options that must be considered when making final technology and business decisions.
It can assist operators with many of these vital evaluations at its IP Transformation Centers, which are located in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Alcatel-Lucent services group experts will work with operators to perform the service and economic modeling needed to determine the scope, scale and timeframe for their LTE transformation projects. The company's experts can design an entire end-to-end LTE solution, including the network architecture, OSS/BSS migration roadmap, and organization model; integrate, test and validate the end-to-end solution; and provide the program management services to execute the plan in the fastest and most predictable manner to minimize risks.
Alcatel-Lucent is actively engaged in some 50 LTE trials worldwide. It has close strategic relationships two prominent groundbreakers in the international LTE industry, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which have each adopted the firm's infrastructure and services for their LTE deployments.
