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Tag: mobile-broadband

  • Digital Dividend Spectrum and Mobile Broadband in South East Europe

    Serbian Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Society has driven an initiative to develop a unified approach to the allocation of ‘digital dividend’ spectrum – the spectrum that will be freed up by the switchover from analogue to digital TV – in South East Europe.

    The Ministry hosted a Ministerial Summit on the digital dividend in Belgrade attended by regulatory bodies and government delegations from states in South Eastern Europe including Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Turkey.

    GSMA, that represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry, said it applauds all governments’ actions to establish a harmonized approach to spectrum allocation in South East Europe.

    “The region of South East Europe lies on the borders of the European Union and achieving harmonised use of spectrum is important to the growth of the telecoms market and the wider economic well-being of the countries in it,” said Martin Whitehead, Director of GSMA Europe.

    “A cohesive regional approach from EU member states and their neighbours in South East Europe will maximise the affordability of telecommunications services in the area. We are delighted that Minister Matic and the Serbian Ministry have taken a lead on this issue by bringing together key nations from across the region to discuss and encourage a unified approach to spectrum harmonisation,” he added.

    GSMA informed that the objective of the meeting was to discuss how best to maximise the economic and social benefits promised by the digital dividend in South East Europe. Allocating some of the digital dividend to Mobile Broadband will increase Internet penetration and have a significant positive economic impact by driving innovation, job creation, productivity and competitiveness.

    However, harmonisation of the spectrum on a regional basis is needed to drive down handset and network equipment costs and make Mobile Broadband affordable to consumers.

    The unprecedented amount of spectrum that will be freed up in the switchover from analogue to digital terrestrial TV is known as the Digital Dividend. The Digital Dividend spectrum is located between 200 MHz and 1GHz. This spectrum band offers an excellent balance between transmission capacity and distance coverage.

    If just 25%, or around 100MHz, of the spectrum currently used by analogue TV (470 – 862 MHz) was re-allocated to mobile communications, the mobile industry could dramatically speed up the rollout of broadband communications and increase coverage.

    Because of its good signal propagation characteristics, less infrastructure is required to provide wider mobile coverage, meaning that communications services can be provided in rural areas at lower cost.

    This is of core importance in South East Europe where population density is typically lower than in other parts of Europe. The region’s position on the borders of the EU also makes coordination between states more complex and the high number of multiple border issues threatens to complicate coordination further.

    Harmonisation of digital dividend spectrum throughout Europe is an important element in the greater spectrum debate, as the mobile industry currently faces an urgent need for more spectrum to accommodate significant increases in Mobile Broadband usage.

    Extending coverage to rural areas and ensuring that the ‘digital divide’ between town and country is lowered is also a vital element of EU policy. Work on the digital dividend must continue to ensure universal connectivity.

    According to GSMA, the mobile industry needs around 100 MHz because:

    • Economic studies show that about 100MHz gives the optimum trade-off in Europe
    • It is in line with MEPs’ ITRE report
    • It leaves broadcasters with the spectrum they need to offer more content (75% of the resource)
    • This spectrum needs to be harmonised as much as possible to control cross-border interference and reduce terminal costs – separate national bandplans destroy value
    • LTE needs wider bandwidths to offer mobile broadband data rates (2 x 20 MHz for up to 100 Mb/s downlink) that consumers want, efficiently
    • Spectrum allocation needs to accommodate multiple operators to promote competition
    • More may be needed in some markets on a national basis, which may happen at different times in different markets

    What can be done to attain 100 MHz?
    Allocation of the digital dividend is a national prerogative, meaning that Member States of the European Union are entitled to manage the freed up spectrum according to their national interests, provided that they are in line with the decision taken within the International Telecom Union (ITU). The Member States are likely to be bound also by a spectrum management framework, as set out at the European level, in order to guarantee benefits that stem from a minimum common denominator of spectrum allocation.

    According to GSMA, these benefits include the possibility of harmonized frequencies, the balanced allocation of spectrum between the different service providers, and the avoidance of interference within the boundaries of the European Union. Overall, this would lead to faster, cheaper and better services with an increased possibility for content enhancement and interoperability of devices (e.g. Mobile TV).

  • Mobile Broadband Could Reach 418m in 2017


    There could be 94 million people using VoIP hardware over mobile broadband connections across Europe by 2017, according to new research.

    Figures from the Coda Research Consultancy suggest the uptake of mobile broadband will continue to expand significantly.

    This could potentially change business practices as more people have the option of working from home rather than heading into the office.

    Global mobile broadband connectivity is forecast to reach 418 million over the same timeframe as the flexibility of the technology appeals to more people.

    The researchers predict that portable laptop and netbook users accessing the internet via mobile broadband will produce USD $48bn in operator revenues in 2017 and will generate and consume an immense 1.8 exabytes of traffic per month – a forty fold increase over 2009.

    Steve Smith, founder of Coda Research, said: "With enormous growth in traffic and considerable decline in average revenue per user, operators will need to be ruthlessly efficient."

    The most significant growth will occur in the Asia-Pacific region, where users will amount to 162m by 2017. Europe will account for 94m users, and North America for 58m users.

    The Coda report says the impact of Long Term Evolution (LTE) will be dramatic, with half of all mobile broadband via netbook and laptop users employing LTE worldwide in 2017.

    Three quarters of users in Europe and nearly two thirds of users in North America will employ LTE in 2017.

    This contrasts with just over half of users in Asia Pacific, and 12 per cent in Central and South America.

    Smith said LTE take up will be greatly skewed toward European and North American markets in the short to medium term, where ARPU will be highest.

    "However, we will also see significant take up in China, and we may also see countries like India bypass 3G altogether, and move straight to LTE," he said.

  • Optimism For WiMAX Grows – As LTE Cranks Up Network Plans

    INTERVIEW: With the WiMAX Forum Global Congress about to kick off in Amsterdam, smartphone.biz-news spoke to Mike Roberts, principle analyst with Informa, about the state of the emerging wireless technology.

    While the appeal of WiMAX for users has always been clear it hasn’t made the 4G technology’s path to becoming a widely adopted wireless standard any smoother.

    However, despite setbacks and delays in networks being rolled out, WiMAX does appear to finally be gaining momentum.

    On Tuesday, thousands of delegates will be attending the opening of this year’s two-day WiMAX Forum Global Congress in Amsterdam.

    Mike Roberts, principle analyst with Informa, is chairing sessions at the conference.

    He said he is "cautiously optimistic" about WiMAX, which is taking a small but increasingly respectable share of the mobile broadband market.

    "It’s a newcomer and is not going to take over the market overnight," he said. "Given its strengths we see it taking a very small market share, but that’s growing and will continue to do so."

    Roberts told smartphone.biz-news that one of the themes in Amsterdam will be that WiMAX should focus on its strengths.

    "While that may appear obvious, it still holds true," he said.

    What are those strengths? Well, these are principally fast data rates and low latency.

    Broadband Data

    As a result, Roberts said WiMAX should initially be concentrating on the broadband data segment since it offers users a better user experience than other technologies.

    "It is the latest and greatest technologies bundled together. That’s its great advantage," he said.

    There are also disadvantages to the technology, especially when compared to 3G-based systems such as HSPA and EVDO. But Roberts said these largely come down to coverage.

    "They (3G) are established traditional systems, so they are everywhere. WiMAX does not have that in any countries, but that is a function of maturity."

    Juniper Research recently issued a report noting that growth in WiMAX networks has been slower than anticipated.

    But it forecast that revenue from WiMAX 802.16e broadband subscribers will exceed USD $15 billion globally by 2014.

    To put that in perspective, Verizon reported wireless revenue of USD $15.1 billion for the first quarter of this year.

    The report notes that WiMAX will likely be a replacement technology for low-end DSL service and in developing countries where wired access doesn’t make economic sense.

    Developing Nations Take To WiMAX

    A driving force in these markets is Intel, which expects to make WiMAX accessible to 120 million people in 2010, with global rollouts planned or already happening in nations such as Russia, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia and India.

    Roberts said WiMAX had strong appeal in these countries because of their low broadband penetration.

    He said coverage is often not very good because of the cost of creating networks.

    "But everyone wants broadband these days, regardless of where they are, and the obvious way to roll it out is with wireless technology," he said.

    "WiMAX and other mobile broadband technologies have a great opportunity to meet that demand and are going after that opportunity."

    In the US, the WiMAX market is slowly growing, thanks chiefly to WiMAX service provider Clearwire.

    It is, finally, rolling out its WiMAX network – it added 25,000 new subscriptions in the first quarter of 2009, and users in Portland, Ore., where the service launched in January, are using twice the bandwidth than those in Clearwire’s Pre-WiMAX markets.

    The company has the aim of providing a pervasive mobile broadband service nationwide.

    But despite USD $3 billion in recent additional funding, the current economic climate has caused delays in the rollout.

    That said, as PC makers and others in the technology industry infiltrate the wireless market, the more open WiMAX technology is likely to gain more ground.

    Clearwire CEO William Morrow, recently spoke about the capacity and openness of the WiMAX network.

    He pointed out that it offered a way for customers to get streaming video or other applications that carriers are currently leery of.

    Roberts said Clearwire is one of the first really major WiMAX deployments and the faster it deployed, the better it was for the technology.

    "The rollout has been delayed but now its going ahead the take up in some markets is very good," he said. "That is very good for WiMAX."

    Clearwire is looking to target its ultra high-speed service at "road warriors" and others looking to get the most out of their netbooks, smartphones and laptops. It also appeals to heavy broadband users on a local level.

    Clearwire argues that eventually, the economies of scale and interest level will be convincing enough for consumer electronics makers to embed WiMAX into a range of smart devices.

    To improve the road warrior proposition in the absence of widespread deployment, Clearwire plans to introduce a dual-mode modem this summer that can connect to Sprint’s 3G network as well as to the Clear network.

    It says that, while there are no embedded devices on the market right now, it expects there to be nearly 100 by the end of the year.

    Roberts said that WiMAX is very strong in the portable segment – USB modems and notebooks – and is gaining momentum elsewhere.

    He said this is in part because Intel is one of the technology’s major backers and it held a lot of sway in the market.

    HTC T8290 – HTC’s First WiMAX Device

    "A lot of the 100 devices will be in that category," he said. "Where WiMAX still has a lot of work to do is in the mobile device category, although a lot of WiMAX people would say that’s less important to them."

    If WiMAX achieves its goal of having 100 devices by the end of 2009, then that is quite good progress for an emerging technology, according to Roberts.

    But he said it still paled in comparison to the 1000s of mobile devices available to the encumbent technologies, which were also able to offer them at very competitive price points.

    "But WiMAX offers a lightly better user experience for some applications and they will have to differentiate on that basis," he said.

    Play to Strength

    While WiMAX is strong in the portable segments, true, "full-blown" mobility will be harder and more expensive to achieve, according to Roberts.

    "You can argue the extent to which some WiMax networks need to go there," he said. "Most will be based on mobile WiMAX but do not need a full-blown mobile service.

    "It could be more for people on notebooks rather than talking on the phone – that’s WiMAX’s real core strength and the obvious place to start.

    "If it tries to go against straight mobility, then it will come up against very intense competition."

    Also in the US, Sprint rolled out a pilot WiMAX program in Baltimore last year. The network delivers average download speeds of two to four megabits per second, half the rate of cable Internet but several times faster than the 3G mobile service used by many of today’s smartphones, according to Sprint’s tests.

    The company plans to introduce WiMAX in 10 American cities this year and five more in 2010.

    Since few mobile devices have WiMAX chips in them, Sprint’s plan requires a proprietary antenna that plugs into laptops, similar to the early Wi-Fi cards that have since been built into computers.

    Growth Gets Noticed

    The flip side to WiMAX’s expanding network is that competing technologies take notice of the progress.

    So carriers like Verizon Wireless have speeded up their next generation network plans (in this case LTE).

    Ericsson and TeliaSonera have just flipped the switch on the world’s first commercial LTE cell site in Stockholm, Sweden.

    The site will be part of a full-scale deployment that’s scheduled for next year.

    AT&T has also just announced it is to accelerate the ramp up of LTE, a move which places it in a head-to-head competition with Verizon Wireless.

    The latter is already racing to install its LTE wireless infrastructure.

    "Success does not go unnoticed," said Roberts. "The LTE crowd has seen WiMAX coming to market and they have accelerated their plans in response.

    "I may be being a little cynical, but in Ericsson’s case they have turned on the base station although no-one can use it as there are no devices available.

    "But it is a step towards commercialising LTE."

    Despite this, he is optimistic about the future prospects for WiMAX: "If you look at WiMAX in isolation there are a lot of very positive signs.

    "If you look at it in broad terms, there are also positive signs. But there is competition and WiMAX will have to compete with the incumbents."

  • ART's Breakthrough Technology Promises Uninterrupted High-speed Mobile Broadband


    Advanced Receiver Technologies (ART) has launched interference cancellation technology which has the potential to dramatically improve 3G call connectivity and mobile broadband download rates.

    Crucially, the Texas-based company says the solution doesn’t require additional network investment but will allow twice as many users to connect in the same 3G coverage area.

    It can do all this while maintaining broadband connectivity throughout the entire cell – including tripling data transfer speeds at cell edge.

    The solution tackles the problem of inter and intra cell interference, which can reduce 3G network capacity by 50 per cent – and can restrict the data transfer rate at cell edge by 70 per cent.

    The Single Antenna Interference cancellation-Joint Detection (SAIC-JD) is embedded into the baseband chip within a handset.

    UPDATE: ART has just been announced as the winner of the GSMA’s 2009 Mobile Innovation Global Award competition’s EMEA tournament for the most innovative true mobile start-Up.

    David Clifton, ART’s co-founder and VP, told smartphone.biz-news that the solution would allow network operators to double capacity, improve voice call connectivity and offer continuous high-speed broadband to 3G users.

    He said it effectively meant a "better user experience and seamless high-speed data coverage".

    "We have had nothing but positive feeback," said Clifton.

    "The technical people are still sceptical, but that’s going to be the case when something is almost too good to be true."

    Testing of the technology is due to be completed in June and Clifton said it would then take between 6-12 months for handset manufacturers, chip makers and operators to bring the solution to market.

    Jacob Goldman, ART’s VP of business development, said the company’s partners were smartphone manufacturers.

    He said SAIC-JD enabled high-speed connection throughout the cell – something that was not currently possible unless a user was standing still or under the tower.

    "A smartphone can never work properly if the handset is moving. The only way it can work properly is to have interference cancellation technology," he said.