SAN JOSE, Calif., - September 18, 2014 - Cisco today announced that Belgacom has broadened its relationship with Cisco and purchased additional Cisco mobile Internet products to help evolve its network and provide Belgacom customers with mobile Internet experiences. The Cisco products are the Cisco Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) and Cisco Mobility Management Entity (MME), key components of the Cisco® Aggregated Services Router (ASR) 5000 Series.

Belgacom is a leading Belgian telecommunications service provider in mobile coverage; its Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network reaches 99.98 percent of the Belgian population, and its 3G reaches 97 percent. Belgacom offers industry-leading speeds, with drive tests showing the best data transfer performance of all three Belgian mobile operators and best-in-class in upload speeds.

The Cisco ASR 5000 Series provides the foundation for Belgacom's new 4G long-term evolution (LTE) network, enabling it to deliver higher bandwidth and greater intelligence for faster mobile Internet services and an enhanced user experience. In addition, the Cisco ASR 5000 enables unified management of Belgacom's existing 2G and 3G mobile Internet services.

By choosing the Cisco ASR 5000 Series for its mobile Internet network, Belgacom gains:

• Immediate benefits from running 2G, 3G, and 4G on the same platform;
• Foundation for access innovation such as small cells, carrier Wi-Fi and HetNet self-organizing network (SON);
• Ability to service their mobile video customers and allow them to watch TV anytime, anywhere, on any Internet-enabled device; and
• Potential for new context-based services such as sponsored data.

Key Facts/Highlights

• In Belgium, mobile data traffic will grow five-fold from 2013 to 2018, a compound annual growth rate of 40 percent, according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update (2013-2018).
• With this deployment, Belgacom enhances its network speed and connectivity and offers innovative services that enrich the user experience and provide further opportunity to scale and monetize its mobile Internet network enabled by Cisco.
• The Cisco ASR 5000 Series, the industry's leading mobile packet core solution, is purpose-built for the complexities of the mobile Internet network. It is a robust multimedia services platform that brings a new level of network and customer intelligence critical for delivering real-time, personalized mobile services.
• Cisco Mobility Management Entity (MME) is critical to the network function of the 4G mobile core network, known as the evolved packet core (EPC). The Cisco MME resides in the evolved packet control (EPC) control plane and manages session states, authentication, paging, mobility with 3GPP, 2G and 3G nodes, roaming and other management functions.

Supporting Quotes

• Wim Bouckenooghe, Head of Core Service Platforms Belgacom

"The Cisco ASR 5000 Series is a single-packet core platform that allows us to operate multiple technologies ‑ including 2G, 3G, LTE and small cells ‑ in our mobile network. Cisco's elastic architecture also allows us to easily and rapidly scale mobile Internet services, which are a fast growing market in Belgium."

• Mike Iandolo, vice president and general manager, Mobile Internet Technology Group, Cisco

"Cisco is committed to supporting the world's largest mobile operators with multi-dimensional elasticity across network services, signaling, sessions and throughput ‑ part of an elastic, programmable, open architecture that helps operators manage resources between physical and virtual environments. As operators plan new, innovative, advanced mobile Internet services, such as sponsored data, Cisco helps them monetize intelligence traversing their mobile networks."

Supporting Resources

• Read About Belgacom.
• Read About Cisco.
• Read Belgacom Selects Cisco to Enable Innovative Mobile Internet Services.
• Read about Cisco ASR 5000 Series.
• Read about Cisco Mobile Management Entity (MME).
• Read information on Cisco service provider products and technologies.
• For more information about Cisco's service provider news and activities, visit the Cisco SP360 Blog or contact us on Twitter at @CiscoSPMobility.
• Visit Cisco Service Provider Mobility Community.
• Subscribe to Cisco's SP360 feed.

Keywords: mobile Internet, mobility, mobile,  service providers, mobile operators, Cisco ASR 5000 Series, ASR, ASR 5000, Belgacom, Cisco, Wim Bouckenooghe, Mike Iandolo

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