Supplier of world’s first SON system for LTE joins top industry body

London, September 15, 2009 - Actix, the recognized leader in Network Status Management (NSM) and mobile radio network optimization, has announced its membership of the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN).

Actix will contribute expertise in radio access networks (RAN) optimization to the alliance’s operational efficiency projects and participate in defining requirements and developing use-cases for Self-Optimizing Networks (SON) for next generation networks.

As well as being the first company to deploy a live LTE SON system, due to be delivered during 2009/10, Actix has some of the broadest vendor-neutral RAN optimization experience in the mobile industry, and its membership of the NGMN will provide an invaluable forum in which to share experiences and results from live implementations in the lead up to broader deployment of SON in live 4G networks.

Dr. Peter Meissner, Operating Office of the NGMN Alliance, welcomed Actix as a sponsor. “Self-Optimizing Networks are a key part in the future proofing of network reliability and operational efficiency. NGMN is glad to have Actix on board to help us to achieve our challenging objectives in this area and to make the vision of next generation mobile networks a reality.”

“Our vision has long included the full automation of RAN optimization processes and today we are at the stage where we are not only building centralized SON nodes for LTE but also adapting the SON concept for legacy 2G and 3G networks,” said Alex Hawker, Actix CEO. “Our membership with the NGMN Alliance is a great opportunity to bring our “operational SON” capabilities to bear as a key initiating technology in the automation process leading to full SON. With RAN experts and a long line of mobile industry customers the company is now also focusing on using its expertise to help cement the standards for future networks, and we are absolutely delighted to have been invited to participate in the NGMN’s activities,” he continued.

Many areas of SON technology are based on already well-established principles from the Network Status Management (NSM) and automatic optimization domains, areas which Actix has pioneered and lead for almost 20 years. NSM is a category of radio engineering system that brings the operational excellence of a more systemized, efficient and coordinated approach to managing the status of radio networks. The fully systematic view of network status provided by operational NSM systems, which are currently installed at 9 of the 10 largest operators globally, is a fundamental building block of an online, real-time, LTE SON system.

Actix is focused on reducing the cost of operating networks through automating, systemizing and coordinating RAN data, tools and processes to streamline workflow. The company is helping to deliver operational efficiency through NSM deployments for 2G and 3G networks and the introduction of centralized SON for LTE, enabling drastic reductions in the total cost of network ownership that compare well with outsourcing and network sharing, according to management consultants Oliver Wyman.