What did NEC have to show off at this year's Mobile World Congress? We invaded its booth with a photographer to find out

February 25, 2010

BARCELONA -- Mobile World Congress -- With Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) and Nokia Networks under our belts, we headed to NEC Corp. (Tokyo: 6701), which, unlike the previous two vendors, hadn't participated in our photo booth tours before. (See MWC 2010 Photos: Nokia Siemens Booth Tour and MWC 2010 Photos: AlcaLu Booth Tour.)

With just 10 minutes to tell us about the company's three most important messages for the mobile world, how would NEC do?

Check out the pictures, with accompanying text, by clicking on the picture below to launch the slideshow, and find out how we (totally subjectively) graded NEC's overall effort by reading the final picture caption.

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Programming notes
This year's booth tours were different from last year's format, in which we gave the companies 20 minutes to talk about as many things as they wanted.

NEC didn't have that legacy -- just the challenge of fitting a lot into a very quick 10 minutes. And apart from taking the concept of three topics a little loosely at times (by trying to introduce additional topics and products), it was a commendable effort.

The NEC team, led by the vendor's European VP of network solutions, Richard Hanscott, focused on: the company's 'Cloud Suite'; Long Term Evolution (LTE); and a femtocell-enhanced home gateway solution.

This combination of topics seemed a good way to present NEC's background in IT systems and network infrastructure, and its growing focus on telecom software (following the acquisition of OSS player NetCracker) and hosted applications capabilities. (See NEC Shells Out $300M for NetCracker.)

All photos by Siqui Sánchez. All words by the Light Reading crew.

— Ray Le Maistre, International Managing Editor, Light Reading

File In on the Right, Exit on the Left6509.jpgThe NEC stand wasn't enormous, but it was well organized!Only 10 Minutes? One Staffer Could Hardly Bear to Watch6510.jpgNever mind the technology -- check out the cuddly little teddy bear!!The Clock Was Running Down...6511.jpgSo it was time to get the lowdown on NEC's Cloud Suite. The company has developed capabilities
that, it says, can help carriers deliver cloud services with five-nines reliability. NEC offers this as a hosted service,
which is what it's doing for Telefónica SA's software-as-a-service offering in Spain and Latin America.Cloudy, With a Chance of Growth6517.jpgNEC says its Cloud Suite can also be used by carriers to provide enterprises with virtual desktop services,
with the IT capabilities used by companies being hosted in the carrier's data center. Shrinking Down for LTE6512.jpgNEC is pushing the compact format of its LTE eNodeB (pictured above, center)
and evolved packet core (EPC) equipment. The vendor believes LTE
can be used effectively initially as an overlay technology to help with capacity
in 'hot zones' of usage. "We believe carriers will start small with LTE,
rather than rolling out macro networks," said Hanscott.Compact Core, But Please Don't Touch...6513.jpgWe're not sure, but we think NEC's EPC might bite if you touch it...Mouse Perspective6514.jpgOK, so now you're getting a feel for the spatials.Grabbing Every Opportunity6515.jpgNEC's Richard Hanscott (right) tries to grab an extra presentation opportunity,
but the Light Reading timekeeper just keeps counting down the seconds. Harsh, but fair.When I'm Feelin' Blue...6516.jpg...all I want to do is integrate a femtocell into a home gateway. That would make anyone happy, no?
Especially when the gateway has a service platform that can send messages when triggered by a particular event,
such as a child arriving home or the TV being switched to the sports channel (OK, maybe not the last one...).
NEC says its home gateway, developed in partnership with PacketVideo, is being used in Japan for FTTH rollouts.Gurning to the Finish Line6518.jpgThe tour was over, so it was time to grade NEC. And that takes some deep thinking,
which, in turn, involves some significant gurning. The end result?
A very creditable debut by NEC, which gets a B++.

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