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Ericsson, Facebook, GSMA, KPN, Telstra & Others Convene LTE Broadcast User Group at MWC

Ericsson, Facebook, GSMA, KPN, Telstra & Others Convene LTE Broadcast User Group at MWC Image Credit: Ericsson

Ericsson is joining a number of big names in the telecom space including mobile operators, content providers and device manufacturers to convene an LTE Broadcast User Group. The invitation-only event sees the GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association), the GSMA, INDYCAR, Intel, KPN, Qualcomm Technologies, Telstra, Verizon and Facebook coming together at the recently concluded Mobile World Congress (MWC) to share best practices on LTE Broadcast, an emerging technology that is seeing some early deployments across the globe in recent months. 

According to Ericsson, LTE Broadcast is attracting significant and growing industry traction as a method for making the best use of existing network resources and available spectrum to introduce new video services and reduce the strain on the network. Mobile operators and service and content providers can benefit from new revenue opportunities, service differentiation and more efficient distribution of popular media content sought by multiple subscribers, said Ericsson.

The User Group is expected to identify areas of collaborative action to promote wide adoption of LTE Broadcast as a key component of the LTE network strategy. In conjunction with the User Group meeting, Ericsson showcased a number of LTE Broadcast live demos with ecosystem partners, including the Public Safety with LTE Broadcast demo with Motorola and Qualcomm Technologies, LTE Broadcast for Software Updates demo with Facebook and Qualcomm Technologies, LTE Broadcast on TDD demo with Intel and LTE Broadcast on Set-Top Box demo with Technicolor and Qualcomm Technologies. The event also saw Facebook sharing their perspectives on the technology and also how Facebook can leverage LTE Broadcast to deliver App updates to billions of users worldwide in a highly efficient manner. 

Dan Warren, Senior Director of Technology, GSMA 
The principal objective of the User Group is to share the best practices that will spur industry growth and widespread adoption as we enter a new era of personalized media content. Users want anytime, anywhere, any device access to their media and entertainment and LTE Broadcast can be a key technology to enable delivery of popular content in an optimal way. It can relieve some of the heavy traffic burden that operators would otherwise have to support.

Alan Hadden, VP of Research, GSA
The combination of expanding global LTE coverage, assisted by deployments in lower bands including APT700, falling terminal costs and LTE Broadcast technology will extend education, health and other public service programs to billions of citizens, for which GSA encourages device ecosystems to be developed.

Thomas Norén, VP and Head of Product Area Radio, Ericsson
Ericsson has been at the forefront of developing and implementing LTE Broadcast technology around the world. This technology has great potential to grow much further, with more use cases such as TV Services, Cached Media, Software Updates including application updates, Connected Car, Digital Signage and Public Safety. Together with leading industry partners in ecosystem development, we can spur the big business opportunity for the industry and promote the use of the technology more widely.

Author

Ray is a news editor at The Fast Mode, bringing with him more than 10 years of experience in the wireless industry.

For tips and feedback, email Ray at ray.sharma(at)thefastmode.com, or reach him on LinkedIn @raysharma10, Facebook @1RaySharma

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