#mwc2017: Operators need to collaborate to break through bottlenecks that hinder broadband development

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Those thoughts and others were expressed by William Xu, Executive Director of Board and Chief Strategy Marketing Officer at Huawei,…

As we enter an exciting era where everything is connected
As we enter an exciting era where everything is connected and intelligent, Huawei believes there are significant opportunities for countries in emerging markets to shift from resource dependent economies to the innovation-driven digital economy.

Those thoughts and others were expressed by William Xu, Executive Director of Board and Chief Strategy Marketing Officer at Huawei, during a press briefing on emerging markets at the ongoing Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Spain.

He said the Chinese firm is working with operators in EM markets to drive Wireless to the x (WTTx) solution, which provides large bandwidth and is highly scalable and easy to deploy. Mr. Xu cited a case study of Sri Lanka where they worked with Dialog, a leading mobile operator in SriLanka, to deploy WTTx and allow broadband to be provisioned in one day. After the deployment, the number of broadband users increased by 15000 to 20000 every month. Revenue on the other hand, increased by 19% while EBTDA rose by 88%.

“A total of 3.9 billion people in the world have no internet access and 3 billion of them are in EMs. Among the 1.1 billion households that have no access to fixed broadband and 800 million of them are in the EMs. To narrow this gap and get as many people connected, solutions like WTTx will help us provide basic broadband connectivity,” he said.

According to Huawei, WTTx, is not a new concept. The industry has been exploring expanded applications for wireless broadband for years. But in recent times, this 4.5G-based technology has been generating quite the buzz the reason being that the solution comes with advantages that are universal, but also uniquely beneficial across different markets and regions.

Cost savings are the most obvious benefit, with WTTx offering savings of at least 60% relative to investments in fixed broadband networks. WTTx doesn’t require digging or trenching when passing homes, and no wiring or wall-drilling when connecting them.

Short time-to-market is another hallmark of WTTx, especially for mobile operators. Launching WTTx typically only takes a few months because it doesn’t require upgrades for either RAN or core networks. Comparatively speaking, fixed solutions can often take a much longer time to get up and running.

There are more WTTx deployments in developed markets like Japan, Oceania, Europe, as well as North America.

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