Cisco has expanded partnership with Belgacom, a leading Belgian telecommunications service provider, to offer high-speed mobile Internet products and services to Belgacom customers.
Under the new partnership, Belgacom will offer Cisco Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) and Cisco Mobility Management Entity (MME), key components of the Cisco Aggregated Services Router (ASR) 5000 Series.
Belgacom GSM network reaches 99.98 percent of the Belgian population, and its 3G reaches 97 percent, according to company sources.
Cisco ASR 5000 Series will support Belgacom’s new 4G long-term evolution (LTE) network, enabling it to deliver higher bandwidth and greater intelligence for faster mobile Internet services and an enhanced user experience.
In addition, the Cisco ASR 5000 enables unified management of Belgacom’s existing 2G and 3G mobile Internet services, Cisco said.
The advantage of Cisco ASR 5000 technology is that it allows the operator to run 2G, 3G, and 4G on the same platform. Additionally it provides the foundation for small cells, carrier Wi-Fi and HetNet self-organizing network (SON).
Operators deploying Cisco ASR 5000 Series can also deliver mobile TV and video and context-based services such as sponsored data.
Cisco Mobility Management Entity (MME) is critical to the network function of the 4G mobile core network, known as the evolved packet core (EPC). It can manage session states, authentication, paging, mobility with 3GPP, 2G and 3G nodes, roaming and other management functions.
Belgium is a highly potential market for mobile data, which is estimated to grow five-fold from 2013 to 2018, a compound annual growth rate of 40 percent, according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update (2013-2018).
Wim Bouckenooghe, head of Core Service Platforms Belgacom, said, “The Cisco ASR 5000 Series is a single-packet core platform that allows us to operate multiple technologies — including 2G, 3G, LTE and small cells — in our mobile network. Cisco’s elastic architecture also allows us to easily and rapidly scale mobile Internet services, which are a fast growing market in Belgium.”
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