Vodafone deploys Cisco’s Self Optimizing Network technology across a third of its network in India
Vodafone India, one of India’s leading telecommunications services providers, and the second largest globally, today announced that it has deployed Cisco’s Self Optimizing Network (SON) technology to deliver a superior mobile experience to its users.
Vodafone expects Cisco SON to deliver a truly differentiated customer experience, both by optimizing its existing sites and by streamlining the process of adding new sites to its fast growing network. Vodafone India has already deployed SON over a third of its network. Deployment will continue until the entire network is SON-enabled.
Vodafone India has more than 194 million customers and is growing fast. To deliver a great quality of service to all of them the operator constantly upgrades and innovates its network. Cisco SON is expected to boost both voice and data experience to Vodafone’s 3G customers.
Cisco SON has an ability to deliver these benefits:
- Improve voice call quality and reduce dropped call rates
- Higher data speed and better accessibility
- Lower network congestion through superior load balancing
- Better network service during mass events (planned or unexpected) when many people use their mobile devices at the same time
- Quicker automatic site deployment, resulting in much fewer service disruptions
- Reduced operational costs through automation of many of the engineering intensive tasks associated with running the network
Speaking on the new deployment, Vishant Vora, Vodafone India’s director of Technology said, “This initiative follows our strategy and commitment to deliver an enhanced & differentiated customer experience. We are confident that our ongoing fruitful relationships with Cisco will help us delight our users with a great quality of both voice and data services.”
Speaking on the partnership, Kelly Ahuja, senior vice president, Service Provider Business – Products and Solutions, Cisco said, “Vodafone remains focused on delivering the best customer experience possible. Our collaboration is helping them to drive growth, deliver customer value, and promote innovation. Cisco SON technology offers greater capability to manage increasing voice and data traffic, and optimize their networks. “
About Vodafone India
Vodafone India is a fully owned subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc., which is one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies. Making its entry into India in 2007, Vodafone today has built an ever growing, robust business in highly price sensitive and competitive market. Serving around 194 million customers, Vodafone provides innovative, customer friendly and differentiated products and services through a wide scale distribution and exclusive retail footprint – backed up with a modern, technologically advanced network for both voice and data. With over 9,950 branded retail stores, covering over 1.56 million sq.ft. and attracting more than 115million footfalls annually, Vodafone India is now amongst the largest retailers in the country actively engaged in the holistic development of India’s rapidly growing retail sector.
Vodafone Business Services, the enterprise arm of Vodafone, provides total telecommunications solutions across both mobility and wireline platforms and enables Global Enterprises, National Corporates, SME’s and Government segments to communicate, collaborate and connect. With the advantage of its global expertise and knowledge of local markets, Vodafone India is well poised to significantly expand the Government’s capacity to deliver benefits and outcomes for citizens, governments and businesses. Vodafone endeavours to be a steadfast partner in the Government’s efforts towards Digital India.
Vodafone India provides customers with a new currency in the form of M-Pesa – the world renowned mobile wallet and money transfer service, which was ranked Number one in Fortune’s ‘Change The World’ list of technology initiatives influencing lives. Vodafone M-Pesa is an innovative, safe and secure mobile wallet that enables complete suite of services like money transfer, bill payments, and recharge on the move from the mobile. It caters to all segments of the society, from the unbanked to the under banked and to the net-savvy and evolved customers. Today, with a pan-India distribution of over 100,000 agents and over 4.5 million customers, Vodafone M-Pesa is the largest banking correspondent in the country and is playing a vital role in enabling financial inclusion and m-commerce. The in-principle payment bank licence by RBI acts as an impetus and will enable Vodafone M-Pesa to build on this further and offer a more comprehensive portfolio of banking and financial products and services, accelerating India’s journey into a cashless economy.
A value based organization; Vodafone is committed to achieving the highest standards of Health, Safety and Well-being for its employees and business partners. As a responsible corporate, Vodafone India has been working with several partners from the social sector to address some of India’s most pressing challenges over the years. Sustainability for us is an ongoing journey as we firmly believe that what is good for the society is good for business. The Vodafone Foundation too is actively engaged in CSR by harnessing the potential of mobile services and technology to maximize impact within communities, especially in the domains of m-Women, m-Agriculture, m-Education and Disaster Relief.
Vodafone is one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies and provides a range of services including voice, messaging, data and fixed communications. Vodafone has mobile operations in 26 countries, partners with mobile networks in 57 more, and fixed broadband operations in 17 markets. As of 30 September 2015, Vodafone had 454 million mobile customers and 12.5 million fixed broadband customers.
For more information, please visit:www.vodafone.com.
On twitter @Vodafone IN_News and visit www.vodafone.in
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