T-Mobile revolutionizes U.S. 4G market aided by Nokia s super-fast project to roll out LTE

Transcription

1 Global Services T-Mobile revolutionizes U.S. 4G market aided by Nokia s super-fast project to roll out LTE The expert advantage for T-Mobile

2 T-Mobile has been enjoying huge success in the U.S. with its fast nationwide 4G LTE network and Un-carrier customer offerings. At the start of 2012, the company teamed up with Nokia to help enable its network transformation and modernization. In 2012, T-Mobile faced two big challenges in the U.S. when it came to delivering next-generation LTE services. First, it faced very muscular competition from AT&T and Verizon. T-Mobile was the fourth largest of America s national wireless operators, with an overall smaller licensed spectrum allocation and network footprint than AT&T and Verizon. Second, T-Mobile didn t have any LTE footprint and needed to play catch-up to the larger rivals who were already between two and four years ahead with LTE. To compete, T-Mobile decided to roll out a high-quality LTE network as fast as possible. The ambitious network modernization project aimed to cover 200 million Americans with LTE by the end of 2013 by modernizing its existing GSM and UMTS footprints, which enabled re-farming of existing spectrum for a brand new LTE network. At the same time, a critical T-Mobile objective was to maintain or improve the experience of existing customers while the transformation took place. This meant managing and coordinating the sites being taken offline while introducing new sites. In other words, great project coordination as well as diligent network optimization skills building on top of state of the art Radio Access Networks was required. That s where Nokia, with its Expert Advantage strategy and focus on services, came in. We delivered our nationwide 4G LTE network months ahead of schedule, thanks in part to the strong partnership and expert support of Nokia. What s more, our nationwide 4G LTE network is the fastest in the U.S., which translates to a great experience for all of our data-hungry customers, stated Neville Ray, Chief Technology Officer at T-Mobile. 2 T-Mobile Success Story

3 Smart project management enables rapid roll-out Nokia got the call from T-Mobile at the end of 2011, with the modernization rollout scheduled to begin just six months later. A period of rapid development followed to deliver a new hardware solution to fit T-Mobile s frequency requirements. This required Nokia to bring together key internal product experts to collaborate succinctly and in real time with T-Mobile. Additionally, this meant managing tough prototype engineering environments and facing a ramp-up of manufacturing on a product that had never existed. Nokia s hardware and software solutions included a range of custom features to suit T-Mobile s network and maximize the ability to refarm spectrum from existing GSM and UMTS sites as well as boosting overall coverage. The rollout began on schedule and started slowly to ensure that proper planning and preparation would mitigate any impact on end users, in spite of the demanding deadlines. The Nokia LTE hardware and software solutions developed for T-Mobile worked from day one, delivering improvements in the downlink and uplink speeds. The speed of the deployment soon ramped up. By the autumn, over 4,000 GSM sites were upgraded and the first LTE sites were online. By the end of 2013, Nokia had built 5,700 sites and upgraded and optimized nearly 15,000+ existing T-Mobile sites for LTE. Expert network optimization for top performing network A further capability that Nokia was able to bring to the project was its un-rivalled network optimization expertise. To ensure that T-Mobile s network would deliver the highest Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Nokia assembled a task force of experts to focus on performance analysis. The aim was to go beyond conventional optimization procedures to deliver extra performance and value for T- Mobile. The task force worked on the principle of whatever was needed would be done, and quickly, to improve network performance. The result is a network optimized across three technologies (GSM, UMTS and LTE) with vastly improved KPIs and customer network experience. For example, T-Mobile customers enjoyed fewer dropped calls than ever before. Rollout completed three months ahead of schedule Such a rapid roll-out was a huge optimization and project management feat for Nokia. The company pulled together expertise from across the organization to form a cross-functional team and ensure a joined up approach to the project. This is a key concept underpinning Nokia s Expert Advantage initiative, which focuses on delivering global services for success in major projects. The resulting streamlined project management enabled Nokia s engineers to reduce the time taken to swap-out sites. At the peak of the rollout, 1,500 professionals were working on the network, managing around 1,000 sites per month. T-Mobile s goal of delivering nationwide LTE coverage by Q was met three months early. In March 2014, T-Mobile kicked off a major new program to upgrade its GSM/EDGE network with 4G LTE with the objective of reaching more than 250 million people with LTE by the end of 2014, which they reached ahead of schedule. T-Mobile Success Story 3

4 Focus on customers Nokia delivered the LTE capability that T-Mobile needed, but the operator also helped secure its own success by radically overhauling the way it deals with customers. Its market-beating program of reforms is called Un-carrier TM. T-Mobile s Un-carrier TM moves break down industry norms by focusing on solving customer pain points. Un-carrier 1.0: the end of annual service contracts and introduction of the Simple Choice plan, which gives customers unlimited talk, text and data on their nationwide 4G LTE network Un-carrier 2.0: customers are able to upgrade to a new phone when they want with the JUMP! program Un-carrier 4.0: introduced Contract Freedom and ETF payoff Un-carrier 5.0 & 6.0: customers can try before they buy with Test Drive and music doesn t count against a customer s high-speed data allotment with Music Freedom Un-carrier 7.0: T-Mobile unleashed Wi-Fi with a Personal CellSpot and free in-flight text and visual voic Un-carrier 8.0: Unused high-speed data rolls over to next month for up to a year. See T-Mobile.com for coverage and offer details. Un-carrier 3.0 Pt. 1 & 2: unlimited data and texting in over 100+ countries at no extra charge and eligible tablets get 200MB free data for life Customers reward great service High performance has encouraged customers to use more data. Since the launch of LTE in Q3/2013, LTE data consumption has grown 6.3-fold, representing 63% of all data consumed; according to Nokia Networks data reporting. Snapshot February 2015 The result is that T-Mobile now offers the fastest nationwide 4G LTE network in the U.S., covering over 265 million people. What s more, Nokia s coordinated approach to project management and network optimization helped enable T-Mobile to reach this point while maintaining consistent KPIs to safeguard the experience of existing customers throughout the deployment. T-Mobile is the fastest-growing wireless provider in the country. Referenced in the Q T-Mobile Investor Factbook, they now boast over 55 million subscribers, with over 12 million net additions to its subscriber base over the last 7 quarters. That s partly thanks to a massive reduction in branded postpaid churn to just 1.7%. In addition, T-Mobile s LTE network led in nationwide performance with the highest average 4G LTE download speed of 19.2 Mbps; that s 7% faster than Verizon, 28% faster than AT&T, and nearly twice as fast as Sprint. (source: T-Mobile Q Investor Factbook) Challenges T-Mobile lagged its larger rivals by between two and four years when it came to offering high-speed mobile broadband services The operator s spectrum and footprint limitations made it hard to challenge its larger competitors 4 T-Mobile Success Story

5 Solutions T-Mobile launched a huge re-farming and optimization exercise across existing GSM/ UMTS sites, as well as deployed thousands of new, dedicated LTE sites Nokia s customized hardware and software solutions worked from day one to deliver the required LTE services in a matter of months Nokia s project management and collaborative approach enabled the upgrades and LTE deployments to be carried out with minimum disruption to existing services, even at the peak of the rollout, when 1,000 sites were being re-farmed each month Nokia s network optimization expertise ensured the rapid roll out was complemented by exceptional KPIs to deliver a top-performing network T-Mobile made the most of its new network by establishing a game-changing relationship with its customers via its Un-carrier TM strategy Results T-Mobile s goal of delivering LTE coverage nationwide by Q was met three months early T-Mobile is the fastest growing wireless provider in the country T-Mobile boasts over 55 million subscribers while branded postpaid churn has been reduced to just 1.7% T-Mobile offers the fastest 4G LTE download speed in America with an average of 19.2 Mbps The Expert Advantage for T-Mobile US Smart project management enabled rapid LTE roll-out within 18 months, without service interruptions Modernization begins Q3/12 Q4/12 Q1/13 Q2/13 Q3/13 Q4/13 Q1/14 Q2/14 Q3/14 Q4/14 Q1/15 Nokia Networks Deployment of T-Mobile LTE Modernization at end of 2014 Total LTE sites LTE Data Growth trends in T-Mobile Data growth since LTE Launch 2G/3G sites upgraded to LTE LTE traffic share of all data LTE added to 2G Rural sites Fastest-growing service provider 7% faster than Verizon First LTE Launched T-Mobile catches up with LTE coverage and challenges competition in USA. Fast growth in subscriber base due to T-Mobile s customerfriendly Un-carrier service. * Source: T-Mobile Investor Factbook Q4/14 28% faster than AT&T Population covered by 4G LTE network 260M 230M 200M 150M 100M 50M LTE Coverage of 200M people met 3 months early 265M * Feb/2015 Modernization continues Today 265M people covered with LTE 2X faster than Sprint Subscriber growth 1.7% Branded post churn* 12M Last 7 quarters* Expert network optimization for top performance: T-Mobile now offers the fastest nationwide 4G LTE network experience T-Mobile (Mar 2013) x6.3 12M 10M 8M 6M 4M 2M LTE average download speed 19.2Mbps * Source: T-Mobile Investor Factbook Q4/14 63% * Source: Nokia Data Reporting Dec 2014 Find out more about LTE and The Expert Advantage at NSN.com 2015 Nokia T-Mobile Success Story 5

6 Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy P.O. Box 1 FI Finland Visiting address: Karaportti 3 ESPOO Finland Product code C R EN Nokia Solutions and Networks 2015 About Nokia Nokia invests in technologies important in a world where billions of devices are connected. We are focused on three businesses: network infrastructure software, hardware and services, which we offer through Nokia Networks; location intelligence, which we provide through HERE; and advanced technology development and licensing, which we pursue through Nokia Technologies. Each of these businesses is a leader in its respective field. Nokia Networks is the world s specialist in mobile broadband. From the first ever call on GSM, to the first call on LTE, we operate at the forefront of each generation of mobile technology. Our global experts invent the new capabilities our customers need in their networks. We provide the world s most efficient mobile networks, the intelligence to maximize the value of those networks, and the services to make it all work seamlessly. networks.nokia.com Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks or trade names of their respective owners. networks.nokia.com