Russia’s first live LTE Broadcast trial has been successfully carried out by a cohort of telecoms providers, it has been revealed today. Ericsson, along with Russian telecoms provider MTS and Qualcomm Technologies, completed the live tests from MTS’ offices in Nizhny Novgorod using Ericsson’s end-to-end LTE Broadcast Solution, with video content being distributed from Aachen in Germany.
A number of different video feeds were fed into the trial devices to demonstrate the feasibility and capability of LTE Broadcast as an enabling solution in video delivery for the modern age.
“With video traffic expected to grow by about 60 per cent annually until the end of 2020, operators are under increasing pressure to enable their subscribers to enjoy a high-quality video experience anytime, anywhere, while still managing network efficiency and costs,” said Jeff Travers, head of customer unit MTS, Ericsson northern Europe and central Asia.
“LTE Broadcast is gaining momentum as a perfect method for optimising LTE spectrum and network resources, offering new revenue models for content delivery. This first test in Russia is an important milestone for the national mobile telecommunications sector as it marks the robustness of LTE technology for transformation of TV industry in the country”.
Andrei Ushatskiy, MTS Vice President, Technology and IT, added, “The delivery of broadcast entertainment is set to enter a new era in Russia and MTS intends to lead this process through our enhanced LTE Broadcast technology. Consumers want to be able to watch premium high-quality content, such as live sporting events, when and where they wish and MTS will provide the best mobile solution to this need.”
This is the latest instance of Ericsson trialling LTE Broadcasts in Europe, following earlier tests in Germany with Vodafone, and with Polkomtel in Poland.
In 2013, the company’s LTE solution was used in what was deemed to be the world’s first LTE broadcast session on a commercial LTE network.
