Telenor Indiaand Huawei Commercialise World’s First Lean GSM Solution

• Deploy new tech in 28 cities to enhance coverage with better spectral efficiency
• Modernize5000 sites in record 90 days and upgrade sites to be future ready
• Achieve 30% energy efficiency and increase data throughput by over 20%

As part of the25000-site network modernization journey, Telenor India today announced commercialization of Huawei’s Lean GSM solution, paving the way for mobile broadband (MBB) transformation in its six circles.The solution has been deployed in 28 cities, including Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Varanasi.

Huawei’s spectrum efficienct Lean GSM solution improves the network capacity by over 30% using the same spectrum resources and provides superior voice and data experience. This solution uses GPS-based synchronization and automated interference management based on real time network measurement. Additional capacity can also be utilized in spectrum refarming for LTE introduction.

Speaking on Telenor India’s achievements, Tanveer Mohammad, chief operating officer, Telenor India Communications, said, “At Telenor we are committed to extend benefits of affordable mobile connectivity to our mass market customers to ride the wave of digitization trends that are empowering people and communities globally. The network modernization will help us achieve our vision of becoming a digital services provider. It will enable us to launch relevant services that will offer more value to our customers.”

Telenor alsocrossed the first milestoneof successfully swapping 5000 sites with state-of-the-art equipment in less than 90 days since the project was launched. This is the fastest upgrade on a live network in the telecom industry with an average 55 sites being swapped in a day. The 5000 swap was completed by Huawei on December 31st and at these sites Telenor is now ready to deliver highspeed Internet to its customers in its six operational circles. The company aims to complete the swap of its remaining sites by end of 2016.

“One of the strategic pillars of Telenor’s customer-centric business has been efficient operations. The network upgrade is not just about new technology but also about higher efficiencies. At the sites which have been migrated to Lean GSM, we already have 85% less congestion and data throughput has gone up by over 20%. In addition, the new equipment is environment friendly as it consumes almost 30% less power,” said Tanveer.

The company aspires to have 50% of its users accessing Internet by 2017. At present, 23% ofits total subscribers use Internet.To leverage the increasing demand for data and other Internet-based services, Telenor had last year started modernizing its entire network to make it future ready. With this newly ugraded network, the company will be able to launch any new technology or service to enable the digital lifestyle of its customers.

Huawei GSM Product Line President Zhang Jiayi said, “Lean GSM is gateway to affordable mobile broadband. In the future, we will continue to leverage our strength in telecom industry thereby providing innovative solutions to support Telenor India’s mobile broadband transformation.”

A better network will enhance experience of the customers while derived efficiencies will help Telenor to becomeanaffordable voice and Internet services operator. It will also enable the launch ofvalue-added digital services related tofinancial inclusion, like free insurance, education, health, entertainment and e-commerce to deliver more value to its customers.

Telenor operates one of the largest retail networks in six circles with over 2,000 branded stores and more than 380,000 points of sale. Along with the network expansion, the company will expand its retail footprint this year.