Summary Bullets:
- For years, network equipment vendors have provided support services to help improve network capacity and user experience at large events.
- AT&T routinely rolls out specially designed mobile base stations to large events to help handle excess demand.
- NFV solutions related to vEPC and vIMS, and perhaps even virtualized BSS, can theoretically help complete the experience by supplementing the core as these excess demands become increasingly sophisticated.
When people ask me what I do at Current Analysis, I generally respond that I’m the “vendor services guy.” You know, network optimizations, consulting, managed network ops… those are the topics that make up my “beat.” As part of this coverage, I look at engagements that are commonly referred to as “special event services.” In a nutshell, this is where vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, and Nokia help their customers prepare for large festivals and other gatherings by adding extra base station capacity, as well as some network optimization to cope with the additional demand that a flood of users in a concentrated space can place on a mobile network. Continue reading “AT&T, SXSW, and How Virtualization Can Make a Great Time Even Better”