Nokia, du help music fans

NEW DELHI: Nokia's first commercial deployment of its Centralized RAN technology in the Middle East, with the UAE-based telecommunications service provider du, treated music fans at a concert with uplink speeds 40% faster than previously possible.

The New Year's Eve concert at Abu Dhabi's largest music venue, du Arena, drew more than 25,000 fans, with many sharing their experience over social networks. This required du's mobile broadband network to cope with heavy demand for speed and capacity, while ensuring the lowest possible battery drain for concert goers' smartphones.

Nokia's Centralized RAN technology eliminated uplink congestion by using du's 800 MHz and 1800 MHz bands and linking multiple LTE base cells together into cooperative clusters to improve the overall performance. This resulted in du subscribers at the event being able to share substantial amount of data at speeds close to 40% faster on average when compared to similar events held at the site in November. In addition, the technology resulted in smartphone power savings, as it required less power for uplink, leading to the phone battery lasting close to five times longer than without Centralized RAN.

Nokia Centralized RAN solution at a glance:
Centralized RAN can double the uplink capacity in existing LTE networks and achieves up to ten times faster uploads at the cell edge.
Nokia Centralized RAN builds on 3GPP standardization, bringing performance improvements while being compatible with existing LTE devices.
Operators can build denser LTE networks and reduce subscriber churn by delivering higher capacity and more robust services even during high traffic events.

Saleem AlBlooshi, Executive Vice President - Network Development & Operations, du, said: "Mobile users continuously use their devices more and more to share their life experiences with their family and friends. Working with Nokia to deploy its solutions such as Centralized RAN helps us prepare for future bandwidth-intensive applications, while at the same time leverage our existing radio network investment."

Bernard Najm, head of the Middle East Market Unit at Nokia, said: "Concert audiences love to share their experiences, and this can put significant strain on mobile networks and phone battery life. We helped du improve its network capacity, meaning customers could upload more videos, photos and messages, a key factor in creating a memorable New Year's Eve experience."