NSN claims new feature offers more capacity, but do operators agree?

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has demonstrated a new feature for HSPA+ networks that it claims improves smartphone performance, despite research suggesting that there is not a lot of difference between vendors’ offerings.

NSN’s feature implements a bundle of standards-based features that deliver Continuous Packet Connectivity (CPC), which it claims provides “five times more uplink capacity” and allows operators to support more smartphone users on HSPA+ networks.

“High network interference levels pose a serious challenge to network capacity, considerably limiting the number of smartphone users that operators can add to their HSPA+ networks. These challenges are magnified with the ongoing rise in smartphone penetration,” said Keith Sutton, head of the WCDMA business line for NSN.

“Via extensive testing, we’ve established that Continuous Packet Connectivity serves as a powerful tool by countering these challenges and optimizing HSPA+ performance.”

NSN added that using the feature set, smart device batteries last 15 per cent longer while people benefit from a 60 per cent increase in data rates.

However, while vendors have been quick to point out how their technologies trump that of their rivals, Mobile Communications International (MCI) surveyed a group of CTOs from leading operators around the world, and the consensus was that there is not much difference between vendors’ offerings.

“There are some finer points between them all; there have always been. But in terms of technical equipment and performance spec, there’s not much in it,” said Ed Candy, CTO at 3 Group.

Australian operator Telstra’s CTO Hugh Bradlow concurred, saying: “I wouldn’t say there’s a huge difference between them.”

Sprint’s Stephen Bye and MTS CTO Andrei Ushatskiy offer similar assessments in the upcoming issue of MCI, and the interviews are set to appear on Telecoms.com soon as part of a special CTO series. The first, with Ushatskiy, is here.