T-Mobile revolutionizes U.S. 4G market aided by Nokia's super-fast project to roll out LTE - The expert advantage for T-Mobile
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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
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. its existing GSM and UMTS footprints, which enabled
when it came to delivering next-generation LTE services. re-farming of existing spectrum for a brand new
First, it faced very muscular competition from AT&T and LTE network.
Verizon. T-Mobile was the fourth largest of America’s
national wireless operators, with an overall smaller At the same time, a critical T-Mobile objective was
licensed spectrum allocation and network footprint than to maintain or improve the experience of existing
AT&T and Verizon. Second, T-Mobile didn’t have any customers while the transformation took place. This
LTE footprint and needed to play catch-up to the larger meant managing and coordinating the sites being taken
rivals who were already between two and four years offline while introducing new sites. In other words,
ahead with LTE. great project coordination as well as diligent network
optimization skills building on top of state of the art
To compete, T-Mobile decided to roll out a high-quality Radio Access Networks was required.
LTE network as fast as possible. The ambitious network
modernization project aimed to cover 200 million That’s where Nokia, with its Expert Advantage strategy
Americans with LTE by the end of 2013 by modernizing 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 StorySmart project management enables rapid roll-out
Nokia got the call from T-Mobile at the end of 2011, with The rollout began on schedule and started slowly to
the modernization rollout scheduled to begin just six ensure that proper planning and preparation would
months later. A period of rapid development followed mitigate any impact on end users, in spite of the
to deliver a new hardware solution to fit T-Mobile’s demanding deadlines.
frequency requirements. This required Nokia to bring
together key internal product experts to collaborate The Nokia LTE hardware and software solutions
succinctly and in real time with T-Mobile. Additionally, developed for T-Mobile worked from day one, delivering
this meant managing tough prototype engineering improvements in the downlink and uplink speeds.
environments and facing a ramp-up of manufacturing on The speed of the deployment soon ramped up. By the
a product that had never existed. Nokia’s hardware and autumn, over 4,000 GSM sites were upgraded and the
software solutions included a range of custom features first LTE sites were online. By the end of 2013, Nokia
to suit T-Mobile’s network and maximize the ability to re- had built 5,700 sites and upgraded and optimized nearly
farm spectrum from existing GSM and UMTS sites as well 15,000+ existing T-Mobile sites for LTE.
as boosting overall coverage.
Expert network optimization for top
performing network
A further capability that Nokia was able to bring to The task force worked on the principle of whatever
the project was its un-rivalled network optimization was needed would be done, and quickly, to improve
expertise. To ensure that T-Mobile’s network would network performance.
deliver the highest Key Performance Indicators (KPIs),
Nokia assembled a task force of experts to focus on The result is a network optimized across three
performance analysis. The aim was to go beyond technologies (GSM, UMTS and LTE) with vastly improved
conventional optimization procedures to deliver extra KPIs and customer network experience. For example,
performance and value for T- Mobile. 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 The resulting streamlined project management enabled
project management feat for Nokia. The company Nokia’s engineers to reduce the time taken to swap-out
pulled together expertise from across the organization sites. At the peak of the rollout, 1,500 professionals
to form a cross-functional team and ensure a joined were working on the network, managing around 1,000
up approach to the project. This is a key concept sites per month. T-Mobile’s goal of delivering nationwide
underpinning Nokia’s Expert Advantage initiative, which LTE coverage by Q3 2013 was met three months early.
focuses on delivering global services for success in In March 2014, T-Mobile kicked off a major new program
major projects. 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 3Focus on customers
Nokia delivered the LTE capability that T-Mobile • Un-carrier 4.0: introduced Contract Freedom™
needed, but the operator also helped secure its own and ETF payoff
success by radically overhauling the way it deals with
customers. Its market-beating program of reforms is • Un-carrier 5.0 & 6.0: customers can try before
called Un-carrierTM. they buy with Test Drive™ and music doesn’t
count against a customer’s high-speed data
T-Mobile’s Un-carrierTM moves break down industry allotment with Music Freedom™
norms by focusing on solving customer pain points.
• Un-carrier 7.0: T-Mobile unleashed Wi-Fi with a
• Un-carrier 1.0: the end of annual service contracts Personal CellSpot™ and free in-flight text and
and introduction of the Simple Choice™ plan, visual voicemail
which gives customers unlimited talk, text and
data on their nationwide 4G LTE network • Un-carrier 8.0: Unused high-speed data rolls
over to next month for up to a year.
• Un-carrier 2.0: customers are able to upgrade to
a new phone when they want with the JUMP!® See T-Mobile.com for coverage and offer details.
program
• 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 T-Mobile is the fastest-growing wireless provider in the
more data. Since the launch of LTE in Q3/2013, LTE country. Referenced in the Q4 2014 T-Mobile Investor
data consumption has grown 6.3-fold, representing Factbook, they now boast over 55 million subscribers,
63% of all data consumed; according to Nokia Networks with over 12 million net additions to its subscriber
data reporting. base over the last 7 quarters. That’s partly thanks to
a massive reduction in branded postpaid churn to
Snapshot February 2015 just 1.7%. In addition, T-Mobile’s LTE network led in
The result is that T-Mobile now offers the fastest nationwide performance with the highest average 4G
nationwide 4G LTE network in the U.S., covering over LTE download speed of 19.2 Mbps; that’s 7% faster than
265 million people. What’s more, Nokia’s coordinated Verizon, 28% faster than AT&T, and nearly twice as fast
approach to project management and network as Sprint. (source: T-Mobile Q4 2014 Investor Factbook)
optimization helped enable T-Mobile to reach this point
while maintaining consistent KPIs to safeguard the
experience of existing customers throughout
the deployment.
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 StoryThe Expert Advantage for T-Mobile US
Solutions Smart project management enabled
rapid LTE roll-out within 18 months,
• T-Mobile launched a huge re-farming and
without service interruptions
optimization exercise across existing GSM/
UMTS sites, as well as deployed thousands of First LTE Modernization continues
Launched Today 265M people
new, dedicated LTE sites covered with LTE
Modernization
LTE Coverage of 200M people
• Nokia’s customized hardware and software begins
met 3 months early
solutions worked from day one to deliver the
required LTE services in a matter of months Q3/12 Q4/12 Q1/13 Q2/13 Q3/13 Q4/13 Q1/14 Q2/14 Q3/14 Q4/14 Q1/15
• Nokia’s project management and collaborative Nokia Networks Deployment of T-Mobile
approach enabled the upgrades and LTE LTE Modernization at end of 2014
deployments to be carried out with minimum
disruption to existing services, even at the Total LTE sites 2G/3G sites LTE added to
peak of the rollout, when 1,000 sites were upgraded to LTE 2G Rural sites
being re-farmed each month
• Nokia’s network optimization expertise
ensured the rapid roll out was complemented
21000+ 18000 2700
by exceptional KPIs to deliver a top-performing
network Fastest-growing Population covered Subscriber growth
by 4G LTE network
service provider
12M
• T-Mobile made the most of its new network by 12M
T-Mobile catches up with LTE 260M 265M 10M
establishing a game-changing relationship with coverage and challenges 230M 8M
its customers via its Un-carrierTM strategy competition in USA. Fast
growth in subscriber base 200M 6M
due to T-Mobile’s customer- 150M
4M
friendly Un-carrier™ service. 100M
50M 2M
1.7%
Results
Branded Last 7
* Source: T-Mobile Investor Factbook Q4/14 Feb/2015 * post churn* quarters*
Expert network optimization for top performance:
• T-Mobile’s goal of delivering LTE coverage T-Mobile now offers the fastest nationwide 4G LTE
nationwide by Q3 2013 was met three network experience
T-Mobile
months early LTE average
7% faster 28% faster 2X faster download speed
than Verizon than AT&T than Sprint 19.2Mbps
• T-Mobile is the fastest growing wireless
provider in the country
• T-Mobile boasts over 55 million subscribers
while branded postpaid churn has been * Source: T-Mobile Investor Factbook Q4/14
reduced to just 1.7%
LTE Data Growth trends in T-Mobile
• T-Mobile offers the fastest 4G LTE download
Data growth since LTE traffic share
speed in America with an average of LTE Launch of all data
19.2 Mbps
x6.3 63%
(Mar 2013)
* Source: Nokia Data Reporting Dec 2014
Find out more about LTE and
The Expert Advantage at NSN.com
© 2015 Nokia
T-Mobile Success Story 5Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy P.O. Box 1 FI-02022 Finland Visiting address: Karaportti 3 ESPOO Finland Product code C401-01089-R-201410-1-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
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