Bouygues Telecom expands Astellia RAN optimisation partnership to boost user experience

Bouygues Telecom deepened a partnership with network and subscriber intelligence company Astellia to cover radio optimisation on its Paris network.

The France-headquartered company said its radio experts have analysed the activity of over 2 million Bouygues Telecom 2G and 3G subscribers in Paris to optimise the operator's RF coverage and quality in the city as part of the expanded agreement between the companies.

Specifically, the radio optimisation programme focused on detecting cell overshooting, crossed sectors, and Primary Scrambling Code/Base Station Identity Code (PSC/BSIC) clashes. In a statement, Astellia said it pinpointed coverage holes, traffic hotspots and detected bad RF conditions, which reduced the need for costly drive tests.

"The Radio Access Network remains the biggest influencer of subscriber experience," Sebastien Schultz, MD for Europe at Astellia, explained, adding: "We will therefore continue to make every effort to optimise the RAN and enhance the customer experience of Bouygues Telecom's subscribers."

Astellia said the expanded agreement builds on an existing Bouygues Telecom contract covering the monitoring of the performance of the French operator's 2G, 3G and 4G networks from RAN to core, and affirms its position as a preferred vendor to Bouygues Telecom.

Xavier Pavoux, radio engineering manager at Bouygues Telecom, said the existing contract with the network and subscriber intelligence company has delivered "important improvements in our network", and that "Parisians now clearly benefit from even better services."

Moving forward, the operator "will work together with Astellia to enhance the performance and reliability of our 4G network in the Paris area," Pavoux added.

The extension of the Bouygues Telecom contract is Astellia's second big win from European operators in recent months.

In October, the company announced it had signed a two-year framework agreement with Telefónica covering RAN optimisation in multi-techno and multi-vendor environments. Astellia stated that the deal would help Telefónica to improve customer experience by preventing quality degradation on its network across all of its operating markets.

For more:
- see this Astellia statement on Bouygues Telecom
- view this related Telefónica announcement

Related articles:
French mobile operators invested €2.2B in networks in 2014, but rural challenges remain
EE, Three UK joint venture MBNL extends Ericsson managed services contract
Bouygues Telecom launches VoLTE on a limited basis
Bouygues Telecom returns to network sales growth in Q3
The trials and tribulations of a mobile phone customer