EMOBILE: the mobile broadband revolutionist - Huawei
EMOBILE: the mobile broadband revolutionist - Huawei
EMOBILE: the mobile broadband revolutionist - Huawei
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Winners<br />
After <strong>the</strong> transformation, MegaFon could easily meet <strong>the</strong><br />
user capacity expansion requirements for <strong>the</strong> solution’s<br />
large capacity of up to 3.2 million users in a single MSS.<br />
MegaFon was quickly expanding<br />
throughout <strong>the</strong> Russian Federation<br />
but <strong>the</strong>ir MGC-based network<br />
could not keep up. As <strong>the</strong> expenses<br />
mounted, with <strong>the</strong> looming award of 3G licenses,<br />
<strong>the</strong>y decided that <strong>the</strong>y needed to transform <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
network to All-IP. After partnering with <strong>Huawei</strong>,<br />
MegaFon implemented an All-IP converged<br />
2G/3G core network that reduces <strong>the</strong>ir costs and<br />
positions <strong>the</strong>m to continue growing.<br />
Covering <strong>the</strong> Russian<br />
Federation<br />
MegaFon was <strong>the</strong> first all-Russian GSM <strong>mobile</strong><br />
operator. It was founded in 2002 through <strong>the</strong><br />
combination of a number of regional operators<br />
and provides end users with comprehensive<br />
<strong>mobile</strong> communications services across <strong>the</strong><br />
Russian Federation. After telecom reform in<br />
1992, Russia and <strong>the</strong> CIS telecom industry grew<br />
rapidly, especially <strong>the</strong> <strong>mobile</strong> market. By <strong>the</strong> end<br />
of Q3 2008, MegaFon has more than 41 million<br />
subscribers and its consolidated revenue grew<br />
24.9% for <strong>the</strong> nine months past. MegaFon is<br />
committed to its goal to become <strong>the</strong> revenue leader<br />
in Russian <strong>mobile</strong> communications.<br />
Out of capacity with surging<br />
subscriptions<br />
Two factors were influencing <strong>the</strong> direction of<br />
MegaFon’s planning. The first was dramatic growth in<br />
users. The second was caused by <strong>the</strong> fact that Russia<br />
planned to release 3G licenses for operators to deploy<br />
high speed <strong>mobile</strong> data service at <strong>the</strong> end of 2007.<br />
As a result of surging subscriptions, MegaFon’s<br />
existing core network was rapidly reaching its<br />
limit. Because <strong>the</strong> network was composed of oldstyle<br />
MSCs, which have a low individual capacity,<br />
<strong>the</strong> only way to increase capacity was to add<br />
more MSCs, but this would dramatically increase<br />
<strong>the</strong> network interconnections, raising costs.<br />
The existing network was also not well suited to<br />
handling <strong>mobile</strong> <strong>broadband</strong> connections, even for<br />
<strong>the</strong> relatively slow-speed EDGE connections.<br />
Based on <strong>the</strong> deep understanding of IP<br />
network, MegaFon had rolled out a 3-step All-<br />
IP transformation strategy, covering fiber to BTS/<br />
Node B, IP-based core network, and IP RAN.<br />
One of <strong>the</strong> goals for MegaFon was to have a core<br />
network that could not only handle <strong>the</strong> growth<br />
of subscribers and low-speed data, but also be<br />
able to easily expand to support 3G in a way<br />
that optimized <strong>the</strong>ir investment. This new core<br />
network should simplify maintenance and reduce<br />
operational costs as well.<br />
Converged 2G/3G All-IP<br />
softswitches solve <strong>the</strong> problem<br />
MagaFon realized that <strong>the</strong> utilization of existing<br />
43<br />
Win-Win / FEB 2009