IP RAN Opened a New Era for FT in the Congo

About France Telecom in the DRC
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is vast and has abundant resources. It has a population of more than 70 million; however, mobile penetration is only 17%. After years of war, the DRC is now experiencing rapid economic growth and there is tremendous development potential for the telecom market.
At the end of 2011, France Telecom (FT) began a new round of investment in emerging markets as part of its international strategy. FT bought the stakes of both the DRC government and ZTE Corporation in Congo Chine Telecom (CCT). This was a notable entry into the DRC telecom market and has strengthened FT’s market position in Africa.
To expand its market share, FT DRC increased its investment in mobile networks, especially 3G networks, and had to begin bearing 3G services.

Lofty Ambitions
FT planned to acquire all of CCT’s shares by December 2011 and complete the three phases of the network transformation by 2015. 
As an international first-class communication equipment and service supplier, ZTE had worked in DRC telecom market for many years and knew everything about it. ZTE helped FT analyze the telecom market in the DRC and determined that:
● The government had issued 3G licenses for years, yet operators were not willing to buy them. As a consequence, there were only 2G networks nationwide.
● The country was experiencing fast economic development but the per-capita GDP was low. Most customers were sensitive to tariffs.
● Loyal high-end business users guaranteed good profits. However, the market for high-end individuals had not been fully explored.
● The national telecom network infrastructure was poor. There were few internet services for individual users, except those for high-end business users.
● The population was mainly concentrated in main cities. Subscribers in six main cities accounted for more than 90% of the total number of subscribers nationwide.

After detailed investigation and analysis, FT decided to buy the first 3G license from the DRC government to provide 3G services in main cities and develop the high-end individual user market with a high profit guarantee. In addition, 3G bearing network was shared to provide services for business users. Existing 2G networks were transformed to IP networks after the commercial launch of 3G services. As a result, 2G, 3G, and business customer services were efficiently borne by a unified mobile backhaul network. This enabled bearer services to be evolved to LTE in future so that maximum returns could be obtained for minimal investment in the bearer network.

Open a New Era
To achieve unified multi-services bearing, FT sought a new strategic partner who could assume some business responsibilities and build a new IP bearer network. The partner had to be involved in network construction, service provisioning, network O&M, and network planning for LTE.
ZTE is the network equipment supplier of CCT (now rebranded as Orange) and enjoys stable cooperation with the operator. ZTE has many years experience in the DRC telecom market. ZTE’s professional network planning and design and customer-oriented business philosophy has been appreciated by FT, who has chosen ZTE as its strategic partner to write a new chapter in DRC telecommunications.
ZTE’s IP RAN with MPLS L3VPN to edge has been approved by FT DRC. The IP RAN uses ZXR10 M6000-3S, ZXCTN6120 and ZXCTN6220 to construct new mobile bearing networks. IP RAN conforms to current network development trends and has strong overall bearing capacity. ZTE’s IP RAN bears GSM, UMTS and LTE in a unified way and also bears enterprise lines. This is a solid foundation for comprehensive service bearing.
FT favored IP RAN for its large capacity, scalability, dynamic routing capacities, L3 ability and multi-services compatibility. IP RAN helps FT efficiently bear newly constructed 3G wireless networks and smoothly evolve 2G networks to 3G through IP-based transformation.

Major Milestones
To implement its blue ocean strategy of positioning high-end individual and business users in the DRC telecom market, FT has rigorous requirements on network quality. ZTE’s bearer network team collaborated closely with the FT technical team to design, verify and implement the solution. This embodies ZTE’s customer service spirit and strong presence in the IP RAN field.
● February 2012. ZTE submitted network construction solution to FT.
● March 2012. ZTE experts discussed the network solution with FT DRC.
● April 2012. FT DRC went to ZTE Xi’An laboratory to verify the landing feasibility of the network solution. FT DRC tested various indicators for protection technology, QoS and clock synchronization.
● May 2012. ZTE commenced commercial site testing. After one and a half months’ testing, the IP RAN KPIs met FT’s strict requirements. 
● August 2012. Network equipment delivered to DRC on time. ZTE completed the projects in advance. 
● December 2012. FT DRC rebranded as Orange. The commercial network ranked first in DRC and satisfied the technical requirements of Europe’s most demanding operator.

Highlights and Benefits
ZTE’s IP RAN with MPLS L3VPN to edge met FT DRC’s requirements for unified bearing of multiple services and laid a path for FT’s rapid development in DRC telecom market.
● Mature and stable solution to fulfill multi-services unified bearing. IP RAN has high mobile backhaul capacity. In addition to 2G, 3G and LTE backhaul services, IP RAN also bears key business services. It will explore new services in the future to fulfill multi-services unified bearing, reduce network construction cost and unifies O&M.
● Hierarchical QoS for optimized O&M. Hierarchical QoS of IP RAN conforms to FT’s business planning that positioning high-end customers and considering mid-and low-end users as well. Transmission resources in DRC are very limited, and optimized IP RAN management guaranteed network services bearing and improved FT’s network profitability.
● Unified network management and monitoring to simplify O&M management. With quick script generation, plug-and-play without software debugging into sites, and independent deployment of DCN channels, U31 unified network management system was introduced into IP RAN to rapidly open up the network and manage it in a unified way. IP RAN enables one-stop installation and remote debugging. It takes only five minutes to discover equipment and configure data. What’s more, IP RAN makes opening network nodes much more efficient and reduced construction costs for FT.  

ZTE’s after-sales team ensured efficient project execution and service deployment, and IP RAN has now taken root in DRC. IP RAN not only provides users with superior customer experience but also improves DRC’s level of information development.