21 April 2007
Expecting 1,5 billion broadband subscriptions in five years

As a premiere telecommunication technology provider worldwide, Ericsson will demonstrate live its innovative Mobile Healthcare solution which allows remote monitoring of patients using public wireless GPRS and 3G/UMTS networks during its participation at MECOM in Abu Dhabi.

Dr. Roger Hage, Business Development Manager, Ericsson Middle East, says "With Mobile Monitoring, healthcare professionals can remotely monitor and diagnose their patients. This means significant efficiency gains and cost savings for the care provider and care payers and a better quality of life for the patient.

Patients, who normally spend a great amount of their time in hospitals or in transit to and from care institutions, can now enjoy their daily life away from the hospital and at the same time feel safely monitored and cared for by their doctor or nurse. Clinical trials show a decrease in rate of admission of 60% for mobile monitoring patients compared to a non-monitored control group."

Hage adds: "We are looking for pilot trials in the region together with public and private healthcare providers and insurances"

Boosting enterprise productivity through mobility is another focus of Ericsson's solutions for enterprises, whether small medium or large, and professional users.

Ericsson will also show its Mobile Enterprise Solutions: Mobile E-mail, Mobile PBX and Mobile Navigation.

Roger Hage explains: "Imagine using your mobile phone to send/receive business mails instantaneously including attachments, make/receive business calls and use PBX features like short (extension) number dialing, presence/absence information, transferring calls, automatic callbacks and hunt groups just to name a few. Now imagine using the mobile phone to navigate around while driving as well whether holding a mobile phone, PDA or Blackberry..

"Dr. Hage concludes: "Today, even small and medium companies can benefit from mobile working productivity boost, by using Ericsson Mobile Enterprise services provided by Operators on their mobile phones. Owning the solution or subscribing to a service will be up to the enterprise customer".

Moving from Mobile Healthcare and the very promising enterprise sector into a very exciting area of Multimedia. Ericsson is showcasing key multimedia solutions  at mecom. Mohsen Mirmoradi, VP Multimedia at Ericsson says:

Multimedia is key when it comes to growing 3G data traffic in region. With the rapid rollout of fixed and mobile broadband, the data traffic is also taking off at a pace outperforming voice traffic within a few years. Now that 3G / HSPA networks have been rolled out in the region with major operators we will be all looking to offer services that secure a good growth in 3G and data traffic over these networks.

The growth will come from all kind of services like Mobile internet, Mobile TV and video and music downloads and other applications attractive for end-users. Ericsson's Mobility World with its developer program and 286.000 community members is an instrumental asset to provide a proper environment for developing those innovative and attractive applications.

We can say overall that: communication as a whole grows. Media grows. Communication triggers media. Media triggers communication. And of course proper bandwidth in mobile network is a vital pre-requisite for this take-off.

Coming to the Ericsson Full service Broadband offering and that was also a key element at mecom, Andreas Hessler, VP Netoworks at Ericsson Middle East says: Broadband connectivity has quickly become one of the most successful telecom service offerings ever: already now 250 million households have hooked up to broadband over fixed access, and now we add mobile broadband subscribers to it as well.. The region is also experimenting a major Broadband expansion at all levels fixed and mobile. Ericsson believes that we in another five years time we will be approaching 1,5 billion broadband subscriptions over fixed and mobile access and the Middle East is not far from offering unique opportunities in that respect.

Today, the vast majority of people's broadband experience is while sitting in front of a PC or laptop. But we are beginning to see demand for broadband connectivity in other situations: while surfing the Internet on the move, while accessing mobile multimedia services, while playing an online game, while watching television, or while listening to music on an MP3 player, to name a few. Users will expect broadband availability anywhere, anytime and to any device, Hessler adds

Of course talking about complex solutions, networks and services takes usask the question of how will operators put all of these together, get the right resources to manage and optimize as well as focus on their consumers and make sure they're satisfied. Here comes the vendor ability to offer its expertise in networks professional services ranging from designing, building, operating, managing and then continuously optimizing networks.

Ericsson's ability to offer state of the art and best in class services, as are expected by Middle East Operators, are key to deliver not only high performance and high quality networks, but also to ensure competitive, attractive and cost efficient services to customers. Says Ray Hassan, VP Services at Ericsson Middle East.

Ericsson has global competence and world wide experience in building and managing networks in more than 104 contracts and managing over 100 million subscribers and is being increasingly invited to partner with Operators and other network owners.

"As these customers continue to increase focus in areas such as end-user services and propositions to differentiate themselves from the competition they are beginning to question what is their core business and what should they themselves focus their valuable resources and time upon. As networks continue to evolve and become more and more complex, with solutions like Quadruple play and Mobile TV solutions,

not only are speed and innovation key, but critical resources are hard to attract and even harder to keep. Ericsson has developed a long term and truly unique partnership approach to work closely alongside our customers in developing a win-win environment for all involved, Hassan added.

Read more at http://www.ericsson.com/press

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT
Ziad Karam,
Ericsson Marketing Communications,
Middle East
Telephone : +966 50 42 45 319
Fax +966 1 230 9444
E-Mail : ziad.karam@ericsson.com

© Press Release 2007