… signs raft of content deals for Nuvu

To help bridge the digital divide and bring mobile broadband coverage to the remaining three billion people who are underserved or without mobile broadband access, Ericsson has announced another set of solutions .

The new suite of solutions, including software and hardware additions to Ericsson Radio System, Ericsson provide the capabilities needed to reduce the total cost of ownership by up to 40 percent when rolling out Ericsson’s total site solution for mobile broadband, making investments in low-ARPU markets viable.

To complement deployment, the solutions, according to Ericsson are new unique mobile broadband tools, which allow operators to identify which sites in a GSM/EDGE coverage area have the highest number of users who already have internet-ready devices.

The new solutions address the significant divide in internet adoption between developed and developing countries.

Speaking on the new solutions, Arun Bansal, Head of Business Unit Network Products, Ericsson, said that, “These are among the most important additions to our product portfolio for mobile broadband coverage growth ever. Ericsson supports the International Telecommunication Union’s Connect 2020 target of ensuring that more than 50 percent of people in the developing world are using the internet by 2020.

For Daryl Schoolar, Principal Analyst, Intelligent Networks, Ovum, “These innovations address investment pain points while also considering the current situation and environment of many of these builds. Ericsson is unique in their multifaceted approach and focus on spurring mobile broadband adoption in these developing markets.”

According Jean-Claude Geha, Head of Region, Sub-Saharan Africa, “As at 2015, GSM/EDGE still accounted for close to 70 percent of the total mobile subscriptions in sub-Saharan Africa. As a technology leader, we continuously seek to develop sustainable ways to provide quality mobile broadband coverage – even in the unconnected areas”.

In another development, Ericsson has disclosed that that it has signed a slate of deals with leading content distributors for its subscription video on demand (VOD) service, Nuvu.

Before now, Ericsson has acquired more than 2,500 hours of content from international distributors including Viacom (MTV, BET, Nickelodeon), MGM, CBS, Al Jazeera, DHX Media and Mattel.

Thorsten Sauer, Head of Broadcast and Media Services, Ericsson,while speaking on the new development said that, “We have spent a great deal of time working with distributors to source the very best and most relevant international and local content for our new SVOD service, Nuvu. We created Nuvu to help mobile operators in emerging markets to address a significant untapped market for video content. Africa has some of the highest mobile adoption rates globally and there is a high demand for quality content from consumers. We are proud to announce this slate of deals, which we believe will meet and exceed the expectations of Nuvu’s discerning audiences, and we look forward to announcing more content deals over the coming months.”