HUAWEI SmartCare® Helps Sunrise Improve Network Quality

Background information

For the fifth consecutive time, Connect, the biggest telecommunications magazine in Europe performed the largest network performance test in Switzerland.

Network Quality Improvement

Competition in the Swiss telecom market is fierce and good service

quality is a key to winning the competition. In 2011 and 2012, Sunrise,

the largest private telecom operator in Switzerland, ranked third among

the Swiss telecom operators in the Connect network quality test

evaluations, and was rated as “satisfactory”.

In September 2012 Sunrise changed technology partner and chose

Huawei and a clear strategy of investment and quality improvement

was defined. Based on the decision to start a new partnership, Sunrise

launched a network quality improvement program aiming at offering the

best network services and experience to its customers.

In order to quickly improve its Network Quality and win new customers,

Sunrise began to use the HUAWEI SmartCare® Network and Service

Quality Improvement (N&SQI) solution on its network.

01

Network Optimization, the Right Solution at the Right Time

Due to the tremendous growth of data traffic, the network capacity

needed to be improved. There were two main goals for the network

improvement: expand the 3G/HSPA mobile network, reaching more

than 98% coverage with the appropriate capacity, and launch the LTE

network.

In June 2013, Huawei put together a team of experts with Sunrise

network and service quality improvement and immediately began a

network survey to see where the improvements could be made. Through

detail triaging and diagnosis, the survey determined that there was room

for improvement in Sunrise network planning and network optimization: 1)

Improve voice quality; 2) Enhance in-house coverage; and 3) Speed up

LTE coverage

Expanding LTE coverage would significantly improve Sunrise network

quality, however, this would take time and it would not help Sunrise

achieve better results in the 2013 Connect network test. Therefore,

HUAWEI SmartCare® N&SQI solution was used to quickly identify the

spots where the coverage is weak enhance it and add crucial features to

improve Sunrise network performance on time.

02

KQI Measurements Offer Invaluable Insights into Customer Experience

After determining the key factors to be improved in the Sunrise network,

the team of experts started measuring the network performance using

Huawei customer experience-centered “Key Quality Indicator (KQI)

system”. The KQI system covers two scenarios (cities and highways)

and separately measures the performance of the data and voice

services. The data service test items include several key measurements

which will determine the quality and the performance of the network.

The KQIs include the following parameters: throughput, delay, cut-off

rate, and interruption rate. Huawei KQI system reflects the actual user

experience in each service flow, as browsing a web page. The results

of the test provide accurate data for subsequent improvement of the

network planning and optimization, as well as of the users’ experience.

Gap Analysis, Ad Hoc Optimization, and Network Operations Support

The results of the global KQI measurement and of the drive test (DT)

provided essential data for a gap analysis that helped identify the

bottlenecks in the network performance. They also showed how to better

allocate the resources to achieve the best results within a short time.

Based on the analysis results, the team of experts determined nine

improvement areas that covered both voice and data services. In the

voice service area, where Sunrise had a slight competitive edge, the ad

hoc optimization performed by the expert team further enhanced Sunrise

leading position. As an example, the optimization that was performed

improved Sunrise call completion rate and call setup delay, which were

already the best among the three Swiss operators.

In the data service area, where Sunrise had fallen behind, the network

capacity was expanded in a cost-effective manner by adjusting network

parameters and introducing new features to maximize network efficiency.

This significantly improved Sunrise data service KQIs, for example, the

HD video success rate KQI.

03

The team of experts also helped Sunrise formulate the necessary

technical specifications and processes to ensure smooth operations in

network optimization. For example, Switzerland has the most restrictive

regulations on effective radiated power (ERP) of base stations in

Europe, so power design specifications and weak-coverage cell handling

procedures were necessary to ensure that all radio network optimization

operations complied with the regulations.

The team also closely monitored the performance of cells and stations,

to identify potential risks, and formulated effective workarounds. During

the final preparation stage, Huawei performed several operations on

Sunrise network to improve the customers’ experience.

Huawei team of experts made significant contribution to Sunrise success

in the 2013 Connect test and its overall network performance.

04

Figure 1 Comparison of voice call completion rates among three Swiss

operators

Achievements

Sunrise's Network KQI’s and user experience significantly improved in a

very short time. On December 5, 2013, Connect magazine published the

results of the mobile network test for 2013.

Sunrise scored 405 points and was ranked fifth among eleven telecom

operators from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This showed the

largest improvement with +49 points vs Orange at -32 points change

and Swisscom changing by +2 points. Sunrise achieved the second best

results among Switzerland's three operators, and its network quality

rating also improved from "Satisfactory" to "Good."

In the most important category “Telephony in the City”, Sunrise achieved

the same result as Swisscom.

Elmar Grasser, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Sunrise, commenting

on the results in the 2013 connect test. "The results show that we are on

the right track by updating the entire network with our partner Huawei,

a world leading ICT company. We will continue to invest heavily both

in our network infrastructure as a whole and specifically in its quality to

offer the Sunrise customers the best network experience”.

Sunrise also proudly published the test results, immediately after the

results were released.

05

Sunrise flew 30,000 colorful balloons in Lake Zurich for celebrating its great

achievement of 2013 Connect tests

The following graphic shows the Connect test scores of the three

Swiss operators from 2011 to 2013:

06