Ensuring network quality is one of telecom operators’ biggest challenges. In Brazil, mobile carriers are facing huge governmental pressure to improve their service and network quality. TIM, the No. 2 carrier in the Brazilian market, is using Actix’s ActixOne platform to help identify and diagnose network issues quickly, and better target network optimization activities while ensuring efficient use of engineering time.
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TIM actually bought the platform at the end of 2009 with the main goal of conducting drive tests, a method of measuring and assessing mobile radio networks’ coverage, capacity and quality of service. The solution was installed in 2010, with TIM using a cloud-based system. However, the carrier had to access data stored in the United States, which over time became an issue because of delays in accessing the data.
After some time TIM decided to expand the solution by adding new features to correlate several different types of inputs and understand what was happening with end users. “Since 2010, we have increased our customer base,” said Pedro Direne, service quality assurance operations manager at TIM Brasil.
The increase in complexity led TIM to upgrade the platform. “Our first move was to use a local server. We have acquired the newest software version and added more features, related to statistics and indicators,” Direne said.
Currently, the ActixOne solution integrates and visualizes multiple data sources and KPIs in one centralized platform. According to Direne, this will enable TIM Brasil to improve engineering efficiency and network quality significantly.
Marcelo Alvarenga, Latin America sales director for Actix, explained that the solution combines data sources such as network coverage data, network parameters, KPIs, customer care records, alarms, trouble tickets, benchmarking and drive test data into a single view providing a clear picture of the network.
According to Direne, the main benefit of the solution is that now employees can find all they need in one place, whereas before they needed to check five different platforms to get information. “The ActixOne platform offers an end-to-end solution for the RAN. By integrating data from multiple sources into one view, we can quickly understand what is happening on our network and where we need to target resources and investment, driving efficiency in our engineering efforts and ensuring network performance delivers a high quality experience for our subscribers,” he said.
Moving out of the cloud
Although cloud computing is a growing trend, TIM noted improvements as it moved out of the cloud-based system in the United States.
“It was impractical to traffic a huge amount of data on the network. Although the cloud is very productive, there’s a bottleneck in the vast amount of data in transit,” said Alvarenga. “Today it processes about 100 gigabytes of data every day, while in the cloud, it was about 15 gigabytes and 20 gigabytes. To get a better processing capacity was one of the main reasons to skip the cloud.”
TIM did not disclose how much it invested in the changes.
Looking at LTE deployments, Direne said that TIM is evaluating adopting ActixOne for its LTE networks. “We are already talking about how to add LTE features,” he said. 
Actix in Latin America
Actix said the agreement reflects its continued growth in Latin America and follows the announcement of record sales in the region in 2012. The company believes that the complex Latin American mobile landscape has generated a great deal of interest from operators in the region that are under pressure to get the most out of their investment.
Alvarenga noted that Actix’ revenue grew about 80% in the region last year. The company believes that there are more opportunities to come as 3G networks increase. Currently, about 75% of Actix customers use the company’s platform for 2G networks.
