O2 smartphone users in London now have faster upload and download speeds, longer battery life and better coverage. The improved service is due to network analysis, optimisation and upgrades to O2’s base stations completed by Nokia Siemens Networks and O2 across the UK capital.
The deployment won the Global Telecoms Business Innovation Award 2010 and considerably improves the smartphone user experience on O2’s London network.
“O2 is the home of the smartphone in the UK, offering more applications and handling more and more data traffic. There is unprecedented demand on mobile networks, particularly in dense urban areas,” said Nigel Purdy, head of Technology, O2 UK. “Nokia Siemens Networks reacted swiftly to understand the challenges being placed on our network, and then implemented an effective upgrade to enhance the smartphone experience for our customers. This has resulted in a better use of network resources, minimized traffic loss and enhanced the experience of smartphone users.”
Working with O2, Nokia Siemens Networks has used its methodology to monitor and analyze the data and signaling behavior of different smart devices connected to the mobile network. The methodology provides information on the impact of these devices on different network elements. This insight, combined with traffic growth forecasts, was used to establish a capacity improvement project, upgrading only the network elements and modules identified as bottlenecks for current and future performance within O2’s London network.
The upgrade included enhancing the signalling capacity of the network as well as modernizing the network with Nokia Siemens Networks’ Flexi Multiradio Base Stations. The Flexi Multiradio Base Station is the most energy-efficient base station on the market, said NSN, and its compact, weatherproof and modular design allows for swift integration into existing base station sites. It has been combined with Nokia Siemens Networks’ High-Performance Site Solution* that increases network capacity significantly by doubling the number of mobile sectors from three to six in each base station’s area of coverage.
This recent deployment of innovative 3G six-sector sites was recognized by Global Telecoms Business Innovation Awards 2010. The six-sector site deployment provides improved capacity resulting in the ability to carry significantly more voice and data calls in O2’s network.
The upgrade also helps conserve smartphone battery life while decreasing signalling load on the network. Nokia Siemens Networks is the only mobile network equipment supplier to have successfully implemented a technology that achieves such benefits.
“Thanks to our partnership over the last decade with O2, we worked closely to keep pace with booming smartphone demand and to ensure that O2 UK can cost-efficiently enhance their subscriber experience,” said Pete Mitchell, customer team head, Nokia Siemens Networks.