Latest survey shows demand for 4G in Nepal

I may have been writing here & there but its been a while I have been active here. Its always better to be here in my personal blog to write whatever I like. Last article (not here), I had written about my preference for 4G being a better technology and the reasons for following the cellular evolution here in Nepal. While other parts of the world are going through the research, development and standardization cycle for 5G, Nepal is now in the verge of accepting 4G technology. This article, I am referring to the survey result done by Nepalitelecom.com, that shows the tendency of people for 4G in Nepal. The survey done during the 4G launch in Nepal, has got responses mainly from the major cities in Nepal.

From the survey result, It is interesting to know that the most of the city dwellers are awaiting 4G in their area. That does not mean there is no demand in other growing areas but it is in the cities that most operators start with. For some, the reasons for not expecting 4G is due to their doubt for the affordability of the service and the handsets. The voice service from VoLTE, found to be better quality than the legacy voice, also seems to allure customers for 4G.

Speed with 4G.

Currently, the maximum speed of 4G in Kathmandu and Pokhara is up to 30 Mbps speed with Nepal Telecom. The result shows that 42 percent of the people want 30 Mbps or more speed. If we see the result other way, more than 90 percent people now want speed greater than 5 Mbps. This is quite surprising to know such huge demand of people for the speed.

Price of 4G Handsets

Though there are quite a lot of ranges for the 4G handsets, their survey result shows that 43% people can afford Rs 25,000. That is they are most likely to spend near to Rs 25,000 for a 4G smartphone, which is perfect price for a mid ranger.

Which 4G data package seems good?

They also found out out the popular data package in 4G comes at 5GB (with 100 minutes free call) per month. As in India, the voice call with 4G is free of cost, after subscribing some data packages. The unlimited free data and calls from Jio  is also going to close in the end of March. Similar will be the case later here in Nepal, for free voice calls. But I doubt the true unlimited internet with 4G mobile to exist any time soon.

The survey result shows, 50% people want more than 2 GB data with 4G. Some even prefer unlimited internet which they believe can be provided by the telecom operators but others felt the operators limitation for true unlimited data service, considering resource restriction, high internet costs from abroad, high equipment costs and any network error resulting in worst experience. For the usage of 4G at their home, most people say unlimited 4G internet as the prerequisite. Others prefer free home device, free local content like videos, songs that can make 4G alternative to their current home broadband. The survey even showed the feasibility of providing television service with 4G, including broadcast or movies on demand.

As mentioned in the previous article, the latest cellular evolution is known to include the data connection to almost all devices. For this, majority of people here expressed their interest to connect home devices including house hold appliances, if there would be any such technology here.

Huge demand for 4G

Last time, I had mentioned of the people's eagerness, hesitation to acquire the 4G technology. Nepalitelecom survey shows the huge demand for 4G in city areas and the feasibility of several other services including Television in 4G here. This sort of result is likely to encourage operators for planning and investing more on 4G. This time, one operator is struggling to get the 4G license and another opting for better use of the spectrum. Other operators may also join the race but now they are still in infancy state for launching 4G due to insufficient infrastructure. Later the unavoidable competition will make people adapt to 4G.

If you want to read the whole survey result, do visit here.

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GSM network shutdown in Nepal !!

Now that 4G is here in Nepal, in two cities Kathmandu and Pokhara, people from all parts of the country are demanding 4G in their area. As of now, soft launch of 4G is made by Nepal Telecom available only to Postpaid users. Very soon, they are launching it to Prepaid users. 

So, there are 3 networks, viz: 2G, 3G and 4G services in GSM technology family, available to the customers. Currently in Nepal, 4G is a data only technology where voice is being provided through CSFB (fall back) to legacy 2G, 3G networks. But some operators abroad have already deployed VoLTE for voice calls through LTE network.

There is a big question like why do you need such three types of network to the subscribers for same kind of services, also when better quality data and voice services are available through latest technologies. It is not only good quality and advanced services that we get from new technologies, but these technologies are also more efficient in many terms to the customer and the operators. For customers, you can get high speed data and HD quality voice at the same rate or even cheaper. For operators, the spectrum efficiency is very high for the latest technologies. Much relief to the operators as they can also maximize the usage of spectrum by re-farming the existing frequency chunk, along with the huge cut off in the time to market for 4G and the total cost of ownership. By that way, they can also launch the latest technologies without getting additional spectrum from the regulator (lengthy auction process). This is also what was done by Nepal Telecom to launch 4G in 1800 MHz, coexisting with GSM network.

4G in the world.

4G can also provide 100s of Mbps speed with the non-continuous spectrum and  nearly 2 billion subscribers are currently with 4G out of 8 billion connected users worldwide. This is from around 500 LTE networks in around 164 countries. As per GSMA, the number of LTE networks and countries is known to grow high in 2017.

GSM shutdown in other parts of the world.

Operators in several countries have already started shutting down their GSM network to use the same spectrum for 4G or 3G network. Mostly used frequencies for 2G are 900 MHz, 1800 MHz (a.k.a DCS) but there are also other rarely used frequencies like 850 and 1900 MHz mostly in America. In Nepal, GSM is being provided by 900 MHz and 1800 MHz only.

Telstra, the largest operator in Australia is the first one to bid farewell to GSM network in 2016. Other operators in Australia Like Optus, Vodafone are also following suit in 2017. Earlier Telstra  shutdown their CDMA 850 MHz to use it for 3G network.

The latest to join the GSM shutdown is AT&T of USA, who termed it as 2G or GSM sunset. It is done in the second week of January 2017. 

Three operators of Singapore, namely Singel, StarHub and M1 had jointly announced the GSM shutdown date to be April 2017. Many operators have either announced the date for the shutdown or they have stopped extending GSM coverage. As per some technology experts, GSM will stay till 2020 when 5G networks becomes available. Some European Operators have quite interestingly told to shutdown 3G before 2G.

How it is possible?

The shutdown is possible as their 3G and 4G is made more ubiquitous like around 90 percent coverage. So, GSM subscribers got down heavily with the entrance of 3G and 4G network. They also managed the easy handset update, either free or at nominal cost. For us in Nepal, it is a daunting challenge but it is not impossible. So the popular phrase of "GSM is here to stay", will not be valid in the long term here for Nepal.

Shutdown in Nepal

The best part is the regulator, Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA) had already started providing  technology neutrality license in some specified bands but later all spectrum bands can be operated for 3G, 4G technologies and beyond. It is due to this term, that Nepal Telecom operated 4G in 1800 MHz. Now it is also possible to launch either 3G or 4G in the 900 MHz band. It now solely depends on how the operators migrate their customers to more efficient technologies to pave the way for 2G network closure. In Nepal CDMA shutdown can happen within three years as there is no further evolution and people are also opting GSM over CDMA.

The official shutdown of the network may be overnight but the preparation to the shutdown along with the migration is rather a slow or gradual activity. With proper preparation and migration plan, they can announce the shutdown to be done in some years time and let people chose other technology before the shutdown.

Some people are skeptic of the coverage and availability of mobile network in their area after the shutdown. As they complain only poor GSM network is available for voice in there and ask what may happen if that technology is also gone!!! So that's why the new technology availability must be ensured along with the update of their devices.

Device Ecosystem: 

Most operators abroad need not worry about the devices available in the market. As with their huge no. of customer base and their partnership with device vendors, they can coordinate to make devices available as per their requirement of spectrum combination. That thing is not easy for us due to small market compared to others. As many operators have already reused the frequency bands of GSM, such devices are readily available in the market

M2M services:

There will be much impact on M2M services with the shutdown as majority of such devices use cheap GSM/ GPRS module for the small data connectivity. For the upgrade, first it will be costly for the module upgrade. So some operators mostly Europeans may opt 3G shutdown before 2G, till LTE-M or NB-IoT or EC-GSM (for small data connectivity) gets matured there. It is not a big deal for much, as the numbers are very few and they can make use of 3G, 4G devices for the same.

Better coverage and Receiver sensitivity

As mostly GSM operates in 900 MHz in the rural areas, usage of latest technologies with the Sub 1GHz spectrum is more advantageous due to better radio characteristics  for a country like us with more rural areas in Plain, Hilly and Mountainous regions. Also the receiver sensitivity is more high with latest technologies, reaching out to more areas even in the same spectrum as compared to 2G.

The data usage in Nepal is increasing with more video & multimedia contents. Also the demands for broadband is more high in rural areas and also HD voice quality is possible with efficient VoLTE. Using Spectrum that are currently operational for GSM, the operators here in Nepal can timely and easily cater the increasing demand of broadband coverage in all parts of the country. What it requires, is a proper plan for migration of the subscribers and the availability of either 4G or 3G in all areas of the country. And I don't see it happening before 2020.

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Mahabir pun demands of TV White space in Nepal

April 26, 2016: Mahabir pun, the winner of Magsaysay award, is one of the most prominent, independent and dedicated personnel in Nepal to develop the communication services (internet) in remote mountainous areas. He has been working continuously to establish wireless network in rural Nepal and provide ICT services to the people living in those areas. He was successful in overcoming the challenges (the insurgency, the remoteness, unavailability of electricity, computers etc), to provide wireless communication in more than 100 villages by Wi-Fi technology. The first was his own village Nangi (in Myagdi district of Nepal) and after expansion, he was able to use Internet for distant learning in schools, health care, e-commerce and weather monitoring. 

Ever since he has been lobbying government and different organization in support of the extension of wireless services to several unconnected remote villages. Now that it is a world trend for the use of TV white space technology for rural broadband internet connection, Mr. Pun is certain that the TVWS can be used for the wide expansion of the rural broadband coverage, that is not feasible from a cellular network or optical fiber network. He expressed his dissatisfaction over the non utilization of Remote telecommunication development fund (RTDF) for the betterment of remote wireless connectivity. It is also known that he has already put forward both of his demands (TVWS and RTDF) to Ministry of Information and Communication. As it is already known that the broadband connectivity has great impact on the economy, using the RTDF in white space technology for wider broadband connection in remote areas will boost up the economy of the country as a whole.

TVWS (TV white spaces) refers to the unused frequencies in Television broadcasting that are either between the already operational TV channels or freed from usage due to the switching of analog to digital TV. It could co-exist in between those TV channels by making it dynamic allocation through spectrum sensing or power limitations. As the unused frequencies in between 50 MHz to 700 MHz having better propagation characteristics and penetration provide higher coverage (indoors and outdoors) without high investment in infrastructure, TVWS can be used for middle mile back hauling for cellular/WiFi or Super WiFi in remote areas. So this could be a cost effective way for providing remote wireless connectivity and bridge the digital divide in the country.  The technology can be also used for emergency communication at the time of disaster.

Microsoft, one of the partner in white space coalition (already used in 15 countries) is planning to roll out the technology on a massive scale in India (done with the pilot) but the issue of free spectrum is hindering the deployment on that scale. 

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Smart Digital life

April 22, 2016:

Ram wakes up to the beeps from the alarm clock in his smartphone at 6 am. He checks his Facebook and twitter account if something important is being shared there, along with the no of likes/retweets of his yesterdays post, even while defecation. After drinking water, he starts the morning walk with the opening of pedometer app in his mobile. He does not stop till the distance covered exceeds 5 km. He is in the fourth day of the month long six pack abs work out in his app. He uses his mobile as a stop watch for the 20s sit up, dances to Youtube streaming in his TV and after resting for 5 minutes, sips a cup of tea. 

He then checks his "to do list" in his mobile, organize his important work for the day with the timeline and sets reminder for the most important ones.

After having meal at 9 am, prepares to leave to office. For his attire to office, he then checks the weather forecast app to make his wear suit today's weather along with decision to carry umbrella or not.

He searches for the bus time through the bus app, to reach in his nearest stop and plans accordingly.

He reaches the bus stop 5 min before the time mentioned there. The bus comes exactly 2 minutes after the scheduled time. He checks his social media and daily news in his mobile on the way to office. 

After reaching office, He puts his finger in the fingerprint time attendance machine at 9:55 am. 

He then starts his work at office at first by checking the official email account. He then starts the important work listed in his "to do list" app synchronized to that in his mobile. After completing the work, he tags the task in the app as done which removes it from the list.

He even has a list of paper letters by his side, which he forwards to respective section by sending the scanned copy. He even wonders when he can get rid of all these paper work with which he believes he can be more efficient and save all those paper costs. 

He gets a message from his brother Shyam, asking him to pay for the monthly electricity bills which was supposed to be paid by Shyam but could not manage due to urgent meetings. His brother has even forwarded the scanned bill in Viber. He pays the bill from online payment portal.

He then gets a call from online shopping delivery guy, waiting outside his office to deliver him the ordered products that he ordered yesterday.

After having lunch, he is reminded from the alarm in his phone for the regular staff meeting to commence in 5 minutes. He syncs his tablets with list of agenda in the regular meeting. After forging some conclusion, he shares the MOM with all of the attendees through official cloud messaging.

Notification in Viber group from a friend, asking if they can go to Friday first movie, after office. His friend buys the ticket online, other friends share the money in his e-wallet account.

He then calls his mom to inform her of being late. As she was talking to her sisters living abroad in Viber, the phone call muted her call. She gives consent for his late coming due to the rush to continue talking with her sister.

WiFi available in a Taxi from a outdoor unit.

Signing out of office, he takes a taxi to cinema hall, in the way he compares the ride bill with that of taxi meter app. Asks the driver of the possible fault in the taxi meter repeatedly but he does not respond. So he complains that to Nepal police through Hamro police app, mentioning the time of possible stop at the cinema hall. Traffic police reaches there before he arrives. So he pays the bill amounted in the taxi meter app (after verification from Traffic police).

After the movie, they go to Thamel to have some snacks and drinks. he shares the photo of the busy streets through the free WiFi in Thamel. He even mentions that sometimes the joy of sharing the picture in social media is more than actually being with the friends for such gathering, in all of his social medias including his own personal photography fb page (common for city dwellers).
On the way to home, he gets a call from his boss to forward him the current performance of the system that he works with. He then remotely logs in to his computer at office, checks the performance and shares it to his boss.
As tomorrow is a weekend (the only one in Nepal), he disables the alarm clock for Saturday to sleep longer and puts the phone in sleep mode after-all the phone also needs a nice sleep with all those handling throughout the day.

** Solely based on my Imagination***

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First underground cells deployed by Ericsson

March 21, 2016: Ericsson has deployed world's first underground site for Small cells in Switzerland, for Swisscom. The site uses Ericsson's vault Remote radio unit and in-ground microcell antenna system, put inside the underground vault/ Man holes where optical fiber is already available. Due to reuse of existing assets and underground space, the total cost of ownership (TCO) will be reduced by 50 percent. This innovation will help the network to handle thousands of Gigabits of data in LTE, offloading the existing macro cells. It is known to be extended to 250 new sites, enabling more seamless data connections on the go. As Ericsson tells, this sort of solution will also be useful while rolling out 5G. 

While Nepal is facing huge setback in the improvement/ up-gradation of Mobile networks in cities due to unwillingness of house-owner to rent their buildings be it for Earthquake torn sites or new Roll-out sites, can we use some technology near to this solution?. The question arises whenever there is discussion among the operators, regulator and the building owners. As the vault sites provides coverage and capacity that of small cells, it is only limited to the roads and the vicinity. The vaults that will be used is also not available throughout the city areas, hinders the usability of this solution for the unplanned habitants whereas combination of pole sites with this underground vaults may be feasible for providing mobile networks to the people. Lets wait for another innovation to reach us or bring the innovation that is ideal for our environment, for now I keep figuring what could it be.

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LTE and WiFi to co-exist.

August 12 2015: Wireless hunger for high speed services has surged rapidly due to the increase in multimedia content esp. video on the go and use of devices (other than mobile) that demand internet connectivity. True 4G cells even seems to be inadequate for the hotspot area in future. Small cells and Wifi offloading are some of the ways to cater the increasing indoor mobile data in those hotspot areas. Due to the limitation in speed of Wifi and finite spectrum in the cells in those areas, throughput is always limited to an extent. The discussion for the assignment of unlicensed spectrum to the later version of LTE is fierce and currently the talk of the hour in the wireless industry and research, which is termed as LTE-U (Unlicensed) or LAA LTE (License Assisted Access). It is also a part of the 3GPP Rel. 13 (under standard setting process) that is expected in 2016.

Wifi and GSM antenna located together inside a hospital in Kathmandu.

As large amount of bandwidth is available in 5 GHz ISM band, 3GPP and several other wireless stakeholders believes that LTE in unlicensed spectrum can meet the future data demands whereas there are some opponents (including WiFi alliance, Comcast, NCTA) who have serious reservation over the co-existence of LAA and WiFi in the same 5 GHz spectrum due to the interference. Listen Before Talk (LBT) mechanism or Clean channel selection algorithm has been devised to assign clean channels to LTE (due to other nearby LTE-U node and WiFi) but the opponents argue of not clearing out proper details about the sharing approaches and the collaboration with IEEE would have been more effective for proper standardization (Globally). 

Implementation scenario could be like the LA carrier aggregation of the Primary cell, established using licensed spectrum and co-located secondary cell using Unlicensed spectrum, with two options available for secondary cells: data either in downlink or both uplink and downlink.

Some even term LAA LTE as 4.5G LTE, which is the road to 5G (see my old blog on this) for the enormous data demands not only from the mobiles but also from the censors, wearable and much more things which need internet to be connected (IoT). It is known that FCC will opt for technology neutral approach for those unlicensed band to make efficient use of valuable frequency spectrum for increasing consumer demand. As different countries/region have separate regulatory requirement for ISM band, more work need to spare for the formulation of unified, global Standard and proper coordination also be sought to answer the genuine concern raised by WiFi community. After some field trials, LAA is also going to be being applied commercially right away for selected regions in previous LTE versions with the software upgrade and the compatible radio units.

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Nokia to acquire Alcatel Lucent

April 15, 2015: Nokia, the Finnish telecom OEM vendor is known to have finalized the buy out of France based another telecom OEM conglomerate Alcatel-Lucent at USD 16.6 billion. Both vendors have been struggling to have greater share in the world with rife competition from European Ericsson and Asian Huawei. Nokia, after buyout of all shares of the conglomerate NSN (Nokia Siemens Network) and sell out of their Mobile handset business to Microsoft, has been focused more on the technology development (specially 5G), telecom infra deals and growing Here Mapping service. 

The acquisition will make Nokia second in the global market share, some percentage lower than Ericsson and ahead of  Huawei. There were ups and downs of the share price of both company, once the news of talks rumor surfaced. Some analysts even claimed that the acquisition is to benefit Alcatel more than that of Nokia and some even argue that the merger of two weak players wont make a strong player. The deal (yet to be completed) is also seen by many as a daunting task since huge job cuts that is most likely after acquisition, might raise eyebrows of French Government/Politicians who are much conscious for job protection.

File photo: My Nokia Xpress Music with field test app

It is also found that Nokia is eyeing on the lucrative US market for internet routing and wireless industry that have high profitable margins. Nokia, the pioneer telecom vendor for GSM, and once a giant for handset has come down significantly over the years, due to challenges from cheap Chinese OEM in telecom and Samsung, Apple for Smartphone business. Let's see how will this acquisition culminate in coming days but one thing I am dead sure that my all time fav Nokia will certainly bounce back. Though I have not worked with any Nokia telecom equipment till now, I have big fancy love for the Nokia phones esp. Nokia 5800 Music Express (which is still with me unbroken and usable).

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Teledensity surges to 88.5 percent, known to cross 100 within this year.

Teledensity indicates overall telecom development of a country, which is measured as the no of phones per 100 people. According to the latest MIS report from NTA (Nepal Telecommunication Authority), Teledensity has surged to 88.5 percent in the country with the total  no of phone lines reaching 2.35 Million in which mobile alone contributes to more than 2 Million. As all of the investment and competition in telecommunication is happening in the mobile sector, the no of mobile lines are increasing  very rapidly. Government owned Nepal Telecom and Private Giant Ncell are the top two telcos that have their services all around the country, which are going fierce with the expansion of their services to vie for the top spot. Though Ncell ousts Nepal Telecom in the total no of SIM/ phone lines distributed ( 1 Million vs 1.1 Million), the comparison of active no of subscribers can only be ensured if we see the VLR (Visitor Location Register) of both the operators as VLR shows the active no. of subscribers at an instant. If we keep on analyzing Teledensity with the no of SIM/phone lines distributed, it is expected to cross 100 percent within this year. 

GSM is the most popular technology here in Nepal with almost 2 million users and have a huge addition in each month whereas CDMA and Landline subscribers are growing at a very lazy rate. The internet penetration rises to 31.69 from 31 percent in the month of Chaitra, which is mainly due to the expansion of GPRS and 3G across the country by NT and Ncell. These days NT is more aggressive in expanding their network whereas Ncell is promoting their already existing network with schemes/offers. With the current trend, the internet penetration will swell to 50% within this year.

Nepal Telecom still leads over Ncell in data segment as shown in the previous month post at Nepalitelecom.com.

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NT celebrated its 10th anniversary with events and launches.

Nepal Telecom, the no. 1 profit making government owned telecom operator, has celebrated its 10th anniversary. For about a week, NT organized several programs marking the changeover of a corporation (est. 1975) into a public company. From Bagmati cleaning program to an open marathon to Blood donation to a charity in Pashupati old age home and many more, NT's higher management were very busy attending the events. Internal sports tournament were also organized within the company for games like Badminton, Tennis, Cricket, Chess and others. On NT day (NT day), they organized a formal program in their central office with chief guest Minister for Information and communication, Madhav Prasad Poudel. Addressing the program, he informed about the current progress to bring strategic Partner in NT that he believes has a vital role in keeping the good health of the company. 

Nepal Telecom MD Anup Ranjan Bhattarai said that the current projects like 10 Million GSM, 2 Million CDMA, 200K WiMAX and Convergence Billing would help increase the digital inclusion by expanding the digital presence in all the regions of the country. 

During the program, NT also launched its official android app and various offers (including unlimited night calls in CDMA, 50 MB data free for post paid and many more). 

NT even demonstrated Fiber to the Home (FTTH) showing a HD video through the technology in a dinner party held in Yak and Yeti Hotel.

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Xiaomi releases Hongmi- a cheaper but capable android phone.

Xiaomi- the Chinese mobile phone company that stormed the world with its MI series smartphones, has now released a cheaper android phone named Hongmi, also called Red Rice phone. It seems like Xiaomi that made you forget the biggest phone brand in the world, is likely to hit the low end phone market with their sub brand Hongmi. With the launch of the Hongmi phone, it is also speculated that the flagship MI3 release will be delayed till September which is supposed to release within August. 

Priced at 799 yuan ($ 130), Hongmi uses MediaTek's 1.5 GHz quad core processor (MT6589) and has 4.7 inch IPS screen. Having dual SIM card slot, the phone supports GSM (2G) and 3G TD-SCDMA technology, though some websites have mentioned the support for WCDMA technology. And if there is no WCDMA support then its is a big downside for all the smartphone users in other parts of the world.(Need to confirm though).

The phone, now released only in China, is also equipped with 8 MP Samsung Rear Camera and 1.3 Mp front camera. Rear Camera (28mm focal length) is capable of recording full HD(1024) videos. 1GB RAM, 4GB internal memory (SD expandable to 32 GB), Battery capacity 2000 mAh and Android Jelly bean 4.2 are other features for the phone available in several colors like ivory, Metallic red and Chinese red, with ability to change the back cover in Blue, Green and yellow colors.

Lei Jun, the founder and CEO of Xiaomi, also known as Steve Jobs of China, claims the Hongmi phone is the best product among all below 1000 yuan smartphones.

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GSM RF optimization trends

Tools are indispensable for a telecom operator which help the carrier to foster its health in this highly competitive business. Lakhs ( 0.1 Million) of customers are being added to their network seeking good quality service in affordable rates. The ability to cater the increasing demand for the service, is dependent upon the time, the carrier takes to extend their network (adding more resources be it frequency carriers or BTS itself) and that sometimes is also possible by making maximum use of the existing resources: Optimization. No matter what, tools should be there to fasten/improve the effort.

RF optimization work is a process through which different physical parameters (like antenna adjustments) in a cell and logical parameters like RF parameters of a cell/BSC (collectively called BSS) are modified to provide good coverage, quality and capacious network. Drive testing a route with a software tool in a laptop, and iterative actions to improve the service, is the conventional way of performing the optimization work. GSM RF team that I am working with are doing this sort of hit and trial work to address the problem so far. Drive testing an area identifies a very common problem for the cell, that is degrading the quality of service for the users in that area but the extensive analysis of the DT log file requires a post processing tool that determines the cause of severe problems and helps solve it immediately. Absence of post processing tool in RF optimization has paid a lot in being efficient/fast in solving a RF related problem. But when it comes to solving a problem in whole of the network, DT and post processing even falls short for the limitation of analysis only in the DT route (as most of the DT are done in streets and roads) and the time it takes in analysis and solving the problem. Also more than half of the network usage happens indoor, drive testing and post processing in every corner requirement makes it out of date. Virtual Drive test (VDT), is one of the new techniques that enables every mobile users to be a drive testing tool, and acquires the signal measurement of serving and neighbor cells by the user along with its position. Those measurement data from probe can be analyzed with tools to identify problems in whole of the network and act instantly.

Integration of prediction data and Drive test or Measurement data (from Probe) is also possible in the latest planning/optimization tools in giving better work plan for RF optimization and is pretty significant in yielding good KPI (Key performance Indicators). This sort of tool (Capesso with Aircom Asset) is the latest to reach me which has not only such integration but has the ability to efficiently optimize the number of the sites for the coverage/capacity/quality requirement. Measurement report accumulation requires additional probe in BSC/RNC/Core which can even monitor and analyze customer problem happened in the near past. Other tools (that may come to my hand in near future), even has the ability to automatically modify/plan network configuration, being based on the live data taken from the network. Such tools remove the need for periodic and cuber some manual data processing, and is one step further towards the fully automated Self Organizing networks (SON).

Self Organizing Networks (SON) is a fully automated technology that has the functionality to self configure, self optimize and self heal in a mobile Radio access network (RAN), such that rapid roll out of better quality network is possible with least manual interactions. Self configuration enables a site to be just plug and play, with the automatic cell configuration, yielding faster roll-out. Self optimization include automated load balancing to handover optimization to coverage optimization for speeding the best optimization for good quality network. Self healing automatically adjusts cell parameters and recover failures in case of detection of a failure. SON being a feature of LTE (Long Term Evolution),can also be applied to GSM and UMTS radio network but is not yet launched full fledgedly.

Trends in GSM RF Optimization, from drive test based to integration of prediction, measurement and live data, is now moving towards full automation, which is the future of next generation mobile networks. All in all, such tools help a telco run a good quality network, satisfying customers in every nook and corner.

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Nepal now has more than 16.6 Million telco subscribers.

Total telecom subscriber rose by 3 lakhs in a month to 16.6 million lines, as per the data given by the Telecom regulator, Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA). The total telecom lines include PSTN, GSM, CDMA fixed and Mobile, Limited Mobility and GMPCS (Communication by Satellite) lines.
Altogether of Seven telecom licensee for all the technologies, Nepal Telecom and Ncell stand in the front-line both in head to head competition to cross the crore (10 M) line, now near to 8 Million lines.
Total subscriber base now stands at 16.6 million with overall teledensity of 62.56 percent in June.

Ncell, largest private GSM operator (from European Giant Teliasonera Group) added the most around 1.8 lakh customers while state owned operator Nepal Telecom added around 1 lakh customers in the month of June.
Other growing operators, Smart Telecom and Nepal Satellite saw thousands of additional subscribers to sum up the rest around 1 lakh customers. They are running limited mobility service (LMS) based on GSM.
Indian invest UTL (United Telecom) is almost steady with same number of customers and no extension plan in the coming.

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Managed service in Telecom

Managed Services typically include establishing, operating and managing day-to-day operations of a telecom operator’s network, services and business support systems. The term also covers the case where a provider takes responsibility for providing the required network capacity to an operator, when and where needed, as well as hosting of content, applications and enablers. Other business support areas, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), provisioning and billing, are generally handled by operators in-house. The Managed Services market within the telecom industry is in a high-growth phase and is characterized by agreements, which vary in scope, between Managed Services providers and a broad range of telecom operators: greenfielders, incumbents and lower-tier operators.

Telecom-equipment vendors are showing an increasing interest in Managed Services as a way to benefit from their existing competence and take on new roles in the value chain, covering activities such as network build, including planning and design, field operations, Network Operation Center (NOC) operations, application and service development, and billing. In recent years, operator awareness of Managed Services has increased significantly.
 

Operators can dedicate more of their efforts to revenue-generating activities, such as customer acquisition. The growing number of Managed Services agreements has, and will over time, create a virtual circle resulting in increasing Managed Services provider competence, leading to even greater efficiency gains and economies of scale. This, in turn, will make Managed Services even more attractive to all types of operators, throughout the world, and most will enter into some kind of Managed Services agreement, in part or in full, to stay competitive in their market.

As technologies converge, outsourcing of an operator's business support systems, network and services to the same Managed Services provider can be expected to maximize the end-to-end benefits to the operator in a Managed Services engagement.In the near future, therefore, there is a strong likelihood that the shift in responsibility for roles in the value chain enabled by Managed Services combined with increasing complexity of technology, will result in a win/win scenario for both telecom operators and Managed Services providers. The key to success will be adopting an end-to-end view of managing networks, services and business support systems, with the end-user in mind.
There are varied range of Managed services in telecom depending upon the agreement between Vendors or Managed service providere and Telecom operator.But Operator should always have knowledge of how to perform following for proper Managed service.

• Reduce Opex Capex.
• Improve Operator Business effeciency.
• Grab Key Benefits of Outsourcing provisioning and IT, Billing And CRM capabilities.
• Learn SLA (Service level Agreement) and measure KPI for managed services.
• Develop future business relationship between operator and vendor.

Understanding customers & users is the key with a more than ever greater focus on customer care. Managed Services help the network operators in penetrating the market faster, Gain from new opportunities and ensure the efficiency needed for long term result.

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