Ericsson to support Super Broadband offer at Philippines wireless provider Smart Communications

Smart Communications, Philippine's leading wireless service provider, announced partnership with Ericsson to offer the fastest and most reliable broadband service in the country, with the widest coverage and most innovative plan features. Ericsson will develop the "SpeedLab," which will focus on creating Smart's "Super Broadband" offer. The partnership will first embark on quantifying the subscriber benefits of Ericsson and Akamai's Mobile Cloud Accelerator (MCA) on Smart's network. MCA allows web pages to load three-times faster, thereby providing a better and more consistent user experience. It also creates opportunities for mobile network operators to monetize network assets, such as Quality of Service for over-the-top content. MCA also helps operators monetize over-the-top (OTT) traffic. It gives content providers a way of improving quality of experience, conversion rates and brand perception. Content providers have shown great interest in MCA since quality of experience is a decisive factor for their businesses. "We believe that a solution such as the MCA allows for greater productivity "“ it's less time spent waiting for Internet sites to load," according to Orlando Vea, Smart chief wireless advisor. "It will provide a richer and better mobile experience for our subscribers. We already have the fastest broadband network in the country yet we continue to innovate," Vea said. According to Elie Hanna, Ericsson president and country manager for Philippines and Pacific Islands, delays in page load time led directly to a decrease in conversions, fewer page views and a decrease in customer satisfaction. The MCA is a unique solution that addresses end-to-end quality of experience for mobile content delivery across the internet and mobile networks, according to Hanna. Recently Ericsson also announced partnership with mobile operator MobiFone to consolidate its six regional network operations centers (RNOC) in Vietnam into one centralized NOC in Hanoi. Vietnam has some 140 million mobile subscriptions in a market of 90 million people. Ericsson will, through its consulting and systems integration expertise, consolidate MobiFone's network operations organization and implement a unified network management system.