Qualcomm and Teleepoch Enter Into a 3G CDMA Subscriber Unit License Agreement, October 6, 2007

MTN chooses Cambridge Broadband Networks for multi-service wireless network in Rwanda, October 6, 2007

Brazilian government to publish 3G bidding rules soon, October 6, 2007

KTF 3G service suffers from technical problems, October 6, 2007

Argentina’s Personal lunches 3G service in Rosario, October 6, 2007

Russia has it's first 3G network, October 6, 2007

AT&T could drop Alcatel-Lucent as 3G mobile network supplier, October 6, 2007

Enea Extends License Agreement with ZTE for 3G Handsets, October 2, 2007

LG to unveil premium handsets in Brazil, October 2, 2007

KTF 3G subscribers doubled in less than 3 months, October 2, 2007

3G policy in India will be non-uniform, October 2, 2007

- previous news

Actix helps overcome key 3G rollout challenges

September 13, 2004

Actix, the provider of wireless performance engineering software, has helped more than 90 percent of 3G operators worldwide launch pre-commercial or commercial 3G networks for EV-DO, EDGE and UMTS technology. These operators have deployed Actix 3G software solutions to assist in troubleshooting, optimization and rollout of their new networks.

"The trick to a smooth 3G rollout is to recognize that the heightened complexity of 3G networks requires a significant change to existing rollout processes," said Jeff Atkins, CTO of Actix. "Actix understands the impact of this complexity from working side by side with leading operators as they rollout their 3G networks and is now offering new solutions specifically designed to combat the key challenges that emerge due to this complexity."

Actix has helped operators overcome some key challenges that they face when rolling out 3G networks, including:

1) Lack of Stability - As with any new technology, network glitches in 3G are a major problem. Technology development groups are struggling to stabilize new 3G technology to the point where they can hand it off to their operational colleagues. A key part of this challenge is being able to provide operational teams with tools and techniques to assess when the network is performing abnormally and to isolate and quantify these problems. Delays in handoff can result in millions of dollars of additional expense for every month of delay, not to mention lost service revenues.

2) Lack of Widespread Expertise - After launch, operators struggle to "raise the game" of their field engineers and to transfer the knowledge and experience held in the technology development groups into the broader organization. The result can be haphazard implementation of new processes, inconsistent quality of service and a reduced ability to troubleshoot and resolve problems.

3) Getting Rid of the Bugs - Also after handoff, a variety of bugs from billing issues and device interoperability to standards issues continue to make it through to the customer. Testing processes simply cannot recreate all possible iterations of situations that will occur in the real world - particularly due to the fact that the complexity of the 3G technology and the proliferation of vendors combined have both led to an incredibly complex interaction between network elements and devices and protocol layers.

4) The Need for "Silo Busting" - What makes these bugs even more difficult to resolve are the traditional "silos" of functional expertise that operators have established. Quite often, symptoms of problems don't clearly indicate what part of the network is causing the problem. As a result, trouble tickets raised in response to customer complaints bounce between silos unresolved.

How has Actix helped its carrier customers address these issues?

-- By Providing Vendor-independent Process Automation - Using Actix software, technology development groups can independently assess multiple vendors' infrastructure using data from open interfaces, which allows them to quickly assess when the network is performing abnormally and to isolate and quantify these problems. Furthermore, technology development groups can embed tests into Actix software to check for network glitches, turning tasks that once took two to three man weeks into two to three man hours and allowing them to stabilize the network to the point where they can hand off network performance to their operational colleagues.

-- By Enabling the Creation of Embedded Expertise - Because Actix solutions enable technology development groups to embed the best practices and troubleshooting techniques learned during trials and first market applications into software, these development groups can develop and pass on a consistent set of acceptance and troubleshooting processes via software. This enables these groups to transfer their knowledge and experience, thus helping field engineers come up to speed with the new technology more quickly.

-- By Enabling End-to-end Troubleshooting - Using Actix software, technology development and field engineering groups can gain an end-to-end view of the network, giving them an unprecedented ability to isolate the network elements or protocol layers at the root of complex problems. This allows them to quickly fix bugs while also determining what part of the network is causing a glitch - thus also taking care of the silo problem. Recently, one major operator spent weeks trying to isolate a sporadic data session initiation problem with one vendor's PDSN (Packet Data Serving Node). Within a few hours of installing Actix software, they were able to isolate the problem, quantify how often the problem occurred and get the vendor to start working on fixing it. Actix solutions enable field engineers to take on a triage function, isolating and quantifying problems on the front line, fixing the simple problems and passing the complex ones back to service troubleshooting tiger teams, technology development groups, and/or vendors.