Ericsson keen to join forces with DST for faster mobile technology

ERICSSON is keen to collaborate with its Bruneian partner, DST, to introduce long-term evolution (LTE) technology to its customers, the Swedish company said.

In an e-mail correspondence, Burcu Turel, Ericsson's head of Communication Department of Singapore and Brunei, told The Brunei Times that the Sultanate's advanced mobile market has prompted DST to mention a few times that it was looking at LTE trials to invest in new technologies and "will not be years away from realisation".

"As DST's strategic partner in 3G mobile services, Ericsson will certainly be keen to collaborate with DST to introduce LTE to its customers. We see that with the increasing trend of smartphones, tablets and dongles, this will only accelerate introduction of LTE," she added.

LTE technology is more than three times faster than High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) also dubbed 3.5G, which is what Brunei is accustomed to.

With LTE, users will get download rates of up to 144 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload rates of 57 Mbps. On the other hand, 3.5G users get speeds of 42 Mbps in download, and 11 Mbps in upload.

Other benefits of LTE is its low latency rates, which is at 10 milliseconds (ms), as compared to 3.5G's 50 ms.

Ericsson, one of the leading providers of technology and services to telecommunications operators, had recently announced the appointment of Nicholas Seow as the new President and Country Manager to Singapore and Brunei, which they hope will strengthen their cooperation with local operators and regional activities across the Asia-Pacific region.

"Under Seow's leadership, we are confident that we will be able to further strengthen Ericsson's position in Singapore and Brunei," said Arun Bansal, Ericsson head for Southeast Asia and Oceania.

Bansal added: "The Singapore and Brunei markets present exciting possibilities for us to support customers with innovative new services and solutions, especially in mobile broadband, LTE (Long Term Evolution), and industry verticals."

Ericsson, in a previous statement, said that LTE technology is already boosting the drive of providing better quality television coverage from events on the move.

Mats H Olsson, President of Ericsson's China & North East Asia region, said that the broadcast showed the real potential of the technology.

"Such use of mobile broadband gives broadcasters a new alternative when covering large live events, particularly when they want to get to the thick of the action without losing picture quality," he said.

Olsson added: "It really does have a huge impact on the quality of the television experience, both for broadcasters and viewers. The fact that the camera team can move flexibly in crowded areas makes a big difference."

Ericsson's LTE offering has been taken up by 24 networks in 15 countries on four continents. Some of them are AT&T in the United States, Rogers of Canada, NTT DoCoMo in Japan, Hong Kong's CHMK and world's first, TeliaSonera in Sweden, to name a few.

Gartner, a leading worldwide IT research and advisory firm, had also placed Ericsson in the "leaders" quadrant in term their ability to execute and completeness of vision in the LTE market.

The Brunei Times