du said it moved a step closer to deploying virtualised customer premises equipment (vCPE) after successfully trialling network functions virtualisation (NFV) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The Dubai-headquartered operator said the trial of vCPE paves the way for future service enhancements for its residential and business customers, in particular a reduction in the time taken to launch new services. The virtualisation technology will also cut the operator's OPEX and CAPEX costs, it said.
Jasim AlAwadi, vice president of Network Infrastructure and Services at du, said the operator is the first in the region to complete trials of vCPE. "Network Function Virtualisation -- and in particular vCPE -- is an exciting emerging new growth area in our existing portfolio and is critical to our future of consumer and enterprise growth plans" he said.
The technology also offers du the potential to compete head on with companies like Google and Amazon by providing over-the-top services, AlAwadi said.
In a statement, du said vCPE technology offers operators the chance to cut the cost of end premises equipment and reduces the complexity of that equipment. Complicated services would be hosted in the du cloud, allowing the operator to activate new services in a matter of hours, it said.
"The introduction will give us the ability to provide multiple services over a virtual network. This takes du a step closer to an application aware network," AlAwadi said.
Another benefit du said vCPE offers is the ability to offer a wider range of services through a customer portal, a benefit du said will improve customer experience by enabling them to place orders online, which the operator can then push directly to the customers.
du said virtualisation speeds the deployment of new sites by a factor of ten, while reducing operational expenditures by at least 50 per cent.
For more:
- see du's statement
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