My business partner Neil Franklin just came in and told me that my blog is too boring and needs lightening-up! Coming from an engineering background, it seems I have become set in my ways and have forgotten how to write a straightforward article on a technical topic – So this is my first stab at a better and simpler style!

I have been watching with interest the developments in Europe related to 3G network resource sharing. Although O2 and T-Mobile announced their intention to share networks in the UK and Germany as long ago as 2001 these deals did not materialize. Then in February this year network resource sharing was back in the news, with Vodafone and Orange announcing their intention to share 3G radio access networks (RAN). This was followed by 3UK and T-Mobile announcing they are in preliminary discussions to do similar things, around mid-September. 

These announcements leave me wondering how they will plan the shared infrastructure in a way that delivers on the upside of lower costs, while protecting both parties’ interests in terms of mutual confidentiality, rapid service deployment, quality of service for end-users and so on. The more I think about it the more I believe any such venture will need tools like those developed by Cerion to make them successful.

Looking at what these ventures are setting out to achieve, it’s all pretty complicated with planning that is driven by two ‘customers’ forecasts, across 3 RAN and possibly 2 more switching domains – All using different vendors infrastructure and potentially even different radio spectrum!  Delivering a streamlined process for designing and planning shared resources, while minimizing time to market, is going to be a real nightmare – So I am very excited that the software tools developed by the team here at Cerion, can really help to overcome these problems.

I will be writing more on this topic in my new ‘plain english’ ramblings so maybe you won’t fall asleep next time you visit.

See you again soon!

Peter