Profitable Business Model for Delivering Cellular Services to Remote Communities to be presented during Mobile Asia Congress

Altobridge, nominated finalist in GSMA Mobile Innovation Grand Prix – APAC Tournament, to present its Remote Community solution in the Innovation Zone

Hong Kong, 17 November 2009 – Leading provider of cost-effective wireless solutions, Altobridge, has been nominated as one of only five finalists in the GSMA’s Mobile Innovation Grand Prix – APAC Tournament. The nomination is a result of the pioneering and breakthrough technology behind the company’s Remote Community solution, and its successful, profitable, commercial operations with mobile network operators (MNOs) in Asia and ongoing deployments in Africa and Latin America.

As a finalist, Altobridge will present its Remote Community solution at the Mobile Asia Congress in Hong Kong, 18-19 November. The presentation, entitled: “GSM Expansion into Small Remote Communities – A Technical, Commercial and Operational Solution”, will be delivered by Altobridge’s General Manager for Asia, Peter Tuomey, on Wednesday 18 November in the Innovation Zone (S426 – 1st Floor) between 1415-1515hrs.

The paper will look at the Remote Community solution technologies, how they overcome the barriers which have faced MNOs until now, such as the high costs of transmission bandwidth, and will present the reasons why small remote communities become viable market segments for MNOs using this solution. Monthly ARPUs achievable will be discussed using actual case study examples from the company’s deployments with Malaysian MNO, Maxis, which has been actively supplying profitable cellular services to small, remote user groups of less than 1,000 people using Altobridge technologies since 2007.

Altobridge’s Peter Tuomey, said, “The ongoing commercial success of our solution with Maxis is proof of the generous ARPUs that can be achieved within small remote user groups and the viable business model it presents to MNOs.

“Our Remote Community solution is, without doubt, set to change the lives of people living and working in small communities in the remotest parts of the world and we are delighted it has been recognised in this prestigious, objective, industry awards process.”

The five finalist presentations will be reviewed by a judging panel comprised of senior executives from mobile operators and venture capital firms, including representatives from: Swisscom Ventures, Telecom Italia, Intel Capital, Orange, and Belgacom ICS. Two overall winners will win a trip to compete for the Mobile Innovation Grand Prix title, part of the GSMA’s Global Mobile Awards, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2010.


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Notes for editors

About the Altobridge Remote Community Solution
The Altobridge Remote Community solution combines two of the company’s breakthrough technologies, Local Connectivity and its Split Architecture, together with a cost-effective remote base station. As a result, mobile network operators can benefit from the most operationally efficient communications solution for remote communities available today.
The Remote Community solution delivers cost-effective wireless services for communities with 50 to 500 subscribers in remote or hard-to-reach areas. It provides operators with the opportunity to switch locally in any network scenario, and the technology reduces the backhaul cost to levels below that of sites in the macro network. The core of the Remote Community solution is the Split Architecture. In simple terms, the part of the BSC handling Radio Resource Management and all other communication with the BTS and the mobiles, has been moved out to the BTS site, while the part handling communication with the MSC/Media Gateway, is kept centrally. This split allows the BSC to manage the BTS and mobiles, without any signaling going back and forth over the backhaul link.
As the Split Architecture resides on either side of the satellite backhaul link, it is in full control of how and what is transferred over the link. In addition to just optimising the payload, by removing padding and silent frames Altobridge’s Split Architecture transcodes the signal. The transcoded signal requires 5-8 kbit/s per active voice channel, compared to 17-25 kbit/s required by competing solutions. In many areas of the world, the difference represents 4-5 US cents per minute, effectively an operator’s entire profit margin. Add to that the idle load and it becomes clear that Altobridge’s Remote Community solution is ideal for addressing small remote communities, profitably.
To further improve both business case and user experience the Remote Community solution includes Altobridge’s Local Connectivity technology, which handles all local calls locally. The company’s patented Local Connectivity functionality is unique in that call control, charging, supplementary service management and O&M remains in the control of the MSC. The transparency ensures that the investment in optimising the central core network and service layer is protected and no expensive and complex distributed architecture is introduced. As Local Connectivity eliminates double satellite hops for local calls, users will also experience improved network quality. This usually leads to longer call holding times and, therefore, higher call revenues.

About Altobridge - www.altobridge.com
Headquartered at Kerry Technology Park, Ireland and with regional offices in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia, USA and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Altobridge is a leading provider of telecommunications solutions that cut the cost of communications to, from and between wireless devices.
The Altobridge patented Split Architecture and Local Connectivity platforms, which are combined within the Remote Community Solution, cut backhaul costs to and from base station sites as well as providing local call switching. These solutions have been successfully tested and deployed across the world’s wireless telecommunications networks as well as in the following vertical markets: Remote Community/Enterprise, Aeronautical, Maritime, Secure and Emergency/First Responder wireless communication.
Altobridge licenses its software to the world leading wireless telecommunications vendors and can also provide fully managed services to Mobile Network Operators. Wireless operator clients include: Maxis in Malaysia (Remote Community), Mobicom in Mongolia (Remote Community), AeroMobile (Aeronautical GSM), Blue Ocean Wireless (Maritime GSM). Vendor clients include: Ericsson (Local Connectivity).


Issued by the Corporate Communications Department of Altobridge Limited.

For further information, contact:
Linda Hickey
Marketing & Communications Director
Altobridge Ltd
Kerry Technology Park
Tralee, Co. Kerry, Ireland
Tel: +353 66 719 0210
Fax: +353 66 719 0022
Email: info@altobridge.com

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