ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘4g’ CATEGORY

Ericsson has been selected by Swisscom, the largest telecommunications service provider in Switzerland, to enhance the consumer experience for its subscribers through deployment and integration of the Ericsson Expert Analytics solution into its existing big data ecosystem.

Ericsson’s solution will deliver data analysis and actionable insights for the service provider’s 5.3 million 4G mobile broadband subscribers using video and other OTT applications on the nationwide mobile network.

Daniel Staub, Swisscom, says: “Delivering a superior experience to our customers is at the very centre of Swisscom’s strategy, and Ericsson Expert Analytics will help us to pursue this vision even further by providing us with end-to-end visibility of our services across our 4G mobile broadband network. With this solution, we will now be able to monitor and proactively optimize our service level performance, as well as take action on any issues we see."

Arun Bansal, President and Head of Ericsson Europe and Latin America, says: “Satisfied customers are loyal customers. Not only will Ericsson Expert Analytics enhance the customer experience and improve network quality for Swisscom, but it also paves the way for smoother entry to 5G, IoT and cloud services with the solution’s advanced capabilities. We will continue to provide Swisscom with the most advanced network technologies and support as they move rapidly toward commercial availability of the next generation of connectivity.”

Swisscom is a pioneer for 5G services with Ericsson as its strategic partner. The two companies have already achieved a number of significant milestones in making 5G a commercial reality, highlighted recently by Europe’s first end-to-end, multivendor 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) data call on 3.5 GHz band. Swisscom was also the first announced customer for Ericsson’s strengthened end-to-end mobile transport solutions.

 

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With mobile computing and field service operations now becoming inextribably linked many field service organisations will benefit greatly from the full 4G coverage and in the not so distant future 5G could possibly make interactions between the field and the back office lightning fast and seamless. It will, therefore, be of interest to US field service organisations that Ericsson announced last week that the company has increased its U.S. footprint by expanding its 4G partnership with Verizon to include new markets.

This extended partnership includes Ericsson Radio System 4G LTE equipment which, in addition to enabling the latest advances in 4G LTE capabilities, will provide a 5G-ready platform that will allow Verizon to rapidly transition sites to 5G when they deploy the service in those markets.

The new markets will be deployed using Ericsson’s latest baseband and dual-band radios, an optimized solution for widescale high-capacity deployment. The solution will be software upgradeable to 5G and will deliver CAT-M and NB-IoT for Massive Internet of Things use cases, as well as industry-leading network capacity.

Verizon and Ericsson have partnered closely to drive the evolution of LTE by using LTE-Advanced features, enhancing capacity and speed on the Verizon 4G LTE network. In 2017, Verizon and Ericsson used these latest technologies to hit several industry milestones, including:

• Achieved 953 Mbps by combining licensed and unlicensed bands with four-carrier aggregation, 4x4 MIMO and 256 QAM in a real-world network environment in Florida
• Exceeded 1 Gbps speeds on the Verizon 4G LTE network using three-carrier aggregation

Verizon and Ericsson reached another milestone in 4G LTE-Advanced technologies that will serve as a stepping stone to 5G by completing their first deployment of FDD (Frequency Division Duplexing) Massive MIMO (Multiple Input – Multiple Output) on Verizon’s wireless network in Irvine, CA.

Ed Chan, Senior Vice President of Technology, Strategy, and Planning, Verizon, says: “We continue to be committed to bringing the best network to Verizon customers. Working with Ericsson allows us to deploy the latest technologies on our 4G LTE-Advanced network will be an important component of our rapid transition to 5G.”

This 4G LTE deployment will improve both spectral and energy efficiency, increasing network capacity for current devices in the market.Yossi Cohen, Head of Customer Unit Verizon, Ericsson North America, says: “We continue to work closely with Verizon to expand the strategic partnership between our companies, enabling Verizon to unleash the latest in 4G technology and simultaneously prepare to launch 5G in these new markets.”

This 4G LTE deployment will improve both spectral and energy efficiency, increasing network capacity for current devices in the market. Further enhancements are expected as the 5G ecosystem evolves. For customers, the result will be faster speeds for using apps and uploading and downloading files.

To prepare for 5G, Ericsson has released its first commercial 5G RAN software, allowing operators to turn on 5G in commercial networks when ready. In addition, the installed base of Ericsson Radio System radios from 2015 onwards can run 5G NR technology with a simple remote software installation.

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Within the last decade technology has altered the way field service companies operate irrevocably, yet the technology now emerging on the horizon could change the game even further.

Across the last few weeks Field Service News has been looking at some of the technologies that we think will be impacting on field service across the next year.

In part one of this series we looked at Wearables, Cloud and NFC and in the second instalment we focussed on IoT, Big Data and Cyber Security.

Now in this the final section of the series we take a look at where Drones , 3D Printing, 4G and Integrated Platforms will fit into the field service landscape.

A bit of a buzz around Drones…

As we entered 2014 there was still an incessant buzz around Drones that had been sparked by Amazon’s fantastic claims that they were investing heavily in research and development of Drone technology. Accompanied by an incredibly slick video showing an Amazon branded Unmanned Aerial Drone (UAD) picking up a parcel from the depot and happily buzzing away as it delivered it right to the recipients front door.

At the time Field Service News looked at the proposition including questioning whether it was all just a fantastic PR exercise or whether there was indeed potential for a drone based delivery service.

 

A year on and Amazon’s delivery drones have still yet to materialise however, with the cost of drones plummeting (a small drone with a camera capable of recording decent quality footage can now be picked up for between £50 to £75) there is certainly potential for drones to be used in field service.

Indeed in the UK there are now over 300 companies licensed to use drones for commercial reasons and whilst delivery drones may seem far-fetched and are subject to an awful lot of as yet undefined regulation, there are plenty of applications for drones that could benefit field service.

For example, a visual inspection on an inaccessible roof of a building could be required. A UAD could provide this visual check without the need to erect scaffolding potentially saving at least a days labour. Or what about large manufacturing plants that can in some cases span many miles. Again manual visual inspection could be a long drawn out process, but with the aid of drones the time to complete the task could be slashed.

3D Printing is on the verge of a true breakthrough…

Perhaps my favourite of all emerging technology for the sheer Star-Trek-ness of it all is 3D printing.  The idea of something appearing out of nothing just seems so, well for want for a better word… cool.

 However, it is not just the ‘cool’ factor that makes 3D printing so exciting. More than any other technology identified in this series 3D printing has the potential to completely change business, as we know it.

 

Economies of scale no longer come into play, the cost of producing one unit is the same as the cost of producing thousands of units. Meaning that companies will be able to operate on lean methodologies far easier.

Then we consider the benefits for field service. Imagine the impact it could have if a field service engineer is able to print 3D parts on site. No more parts ordering and delays, the engineer having identified a part is worn could simply print a part there and then.

Whilst it might seem like something from science fiction the truth is this technology could just be around the corner. We know that it is possible to create parts strong enough for commercial applications via 3D printing. A recent example being manufacturer of helicopter parts Turbomeca who are now producing fuel injector nozzles for its Arrano helicopter engines.

We have also seen smaller and more affordable consumer 3D printers come to the fore in the last year.

So is it that big a leap of faith to foresee a field based 3D printing solution being rolled out in the not too distant future?

4G – a key enabler across field service

If 3D printing is the most exciting of technologies to make this list then it could be argued that 4G is perhaps the most understated.

The reason I say this is that when it’s older brother 3G entered the scene it was a complete game changer. The leap from WAP to 3G (okay technically WAP to EDGE to 3G) was an unprecedented stride forward in mobile computing. It coincided with early smart phones and it changed the way we work forever.

By the time 4G rolled along we had already got used to smart phones and fast wi-fi speeds too. So whilst being able to access broadband speed internet on the move is of course pretty incredible – the ‘wow factor’ that arrived with 3G just hasn’t quite been there.

 

3G changed the world. 4G just does everything 3G does only better and faster.

However, if we take a step back then the impact 4G will have is truly incredible, especially for the field service industries.

The increase in mobile data speed means access to knowledge bases is an easy and quick option for field engineers. Similarly the ability to hold high quality video conferencing from one onsite engineer to another is again made possible through 4G.

And with both Vodafone and O2 promising 98% coverage across the UK by the end of 2015, 4G in the UK at least, will very soon be one of those technologies, like smart phones themselves, that we just don’t remember how things worked before it came along.

Integrated field service platforms will continue to be at the fore…

The final inclusion on the list is one which has been making a slow rise to prominence out of necessity as much as anything else.

Across the last year we heard a lot about integrated service management platforms. A number of providers have developed full service lifecycle solutions and with integration issues being at the fore for field service companies looking to move to a next generation solution there is a solid case for exploring such a solution.

 

However, whilst the platform approach has merits, integration with other systems has also become a significant focus for many providers also and this appears to be becoming a growing trend, which could make selecting various best in class options more readily available.

What is key however, is that whether you opt for a full platform approach or a number of individual ‘best-in-class’ with full integration, your service management solution should no longer have any restrictions when it comes to the flow of data.

The ability to breakdown siloes is key to the successful operation of a field service organisation and the technology is now readily available to make sure this is possible – easy integration will be a major selling point for service management providers and those who fail here will struggle to compete.

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