4G

3GPP urges caution over IMT-Advanced promises

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:58:18 -0400

No fewer than six technologies have been submitted, seeking approval as official standards for IMT-Advanced, the next wave of wireless systems, which is designed finally to achieve 'true 4G' or gigabit stationary speeds (100Mbps mobile). Whereas a few years ago, few would have seen the need for such performance, now it seems operators can hardly wait to access the platforms that will let them support massive mobile broadband and multimedia usage, and while they may have years to wait for real 4G, they are increasing the momentum behind current technologies, LTE and WiMAX.

The ITU will select its IMT-Advanced technologies in October 2010. It released details of the six proposals, which are based around the third generation of LTE (3GPP Release 10) and IEEE 802.16m (WiMAX 2.0). The ITU's Radiocommunications Working Party 5D will assess all the submissions over the coming year, supported by "independent external evaluation groups that have been established around the world". Article

No LTE for Vodafone before 2012, as Ericsson plays down speeds

Paul Rasmussen — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:35:13 -0400

Despite having the support of Verizon Wireless and China Mobile to better understand the business and technical aspects of LTE, Vodafone's group R&D director has firmly stifled speculation of it deploying the technology in the next couple of years.

"There will be no European LTE networks in 2010 except for a few small ones to demonstrate its capabilities to governments. And Vodafone's roll-out will depend on geography, but won't be before 2012," said Professor Michael Walker, the company's R&D exec.

This cautious approach to LTE deployment came as Ericsson UK's CTO, John Cunliffe, called for a more honest approach to the speeds LTE would be capable of providing. "The technical guys know that advertising those big speeds is damaging, but they're the numbers the marketing guys want to push," said Cunliffe. "It's difficult, if one company is advertising the maximum speed, for another to then turn around and advertise the likely speed. It's going to need everybody to be honest."

While the technology is theoretically capable of hitting 150Mbits/sec, Ericsson admits they are unlikely to be replicated in the real world. A company spokesman suggested users could see an improvement of around "10 times over their current experience on a 3.6Mbits/sec mobile broadband connection."

However, Cunliffe was more upbeat about the mid to long-term prospects for LTE: "Our roadmap will see us move from 150Mbits/sec to 300Mbits/sec and then 600Mbits/sec during the first phase of LTE. Advanced LTE will top 1Gbit/sec, that's the real 4G technology, but it's a long way off."

For more on this story:
PCPro and Rethink-Wireless

4G to make up 2.6% of connections in 2014, says Ovum

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:55:47 -0400

There will be around 109 million LTE connections by 2014, and 55 million Mobile WiMAX users, but the two 4G technologies will still be only 2.6 per cent of the total global mobile connections. "The migration to 4G will be neither easy nor overnight," says a new report from market analyst firm Ovum.

Most growth will come from 3G expansion in this period, with the rise of data rich devices and applications in developed countries, and increasing penetration in emerging economies. However, growth in mobile operators' revenues will drop in the short term because of the recession. They will cross the US$1 trillion barrier in 2011--though this is a year later than previously forecast--according to estimates from Ovum. The recession will cause a short term slowdown in services revenues although "the recessionary impact will be relatively muted compared to other industries, and mobile is expected to recover strongly from 2011", according to analyst Steven Hartley. Article

Femto Forum looks to agree on 4G/WiMAX integration standards

Paul Rasmussen — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:24:26 -0400

In an effort to ease the pain of deploying comprehensive 4G or WiMAX networks, the Femto Forum will work with the Next Generation Mobile Network Alliance (NGMN) to agree to standards for femtocells to become part of the overall network architecture. According to Peter Meissner of the NGMN Alliance, femtocells could transform how next generation mobile networks could be deployed. "For example, femtocells could be employed using higher frequencies to deliver high bandwidth requirements inside buildings. This is expected to enable operators to use the scarce lower frequency spectrum to provide good quality coverage across entire markets with the minimum number of macro network cells."

Behind this agreement is the real need to hold 4G network deployment cost down and gain subscriber adoption. The Forum claims that providing early adopters with a femtocell and a handset could quickly boost adoption and start the revenue stream while the rest of the network is still being built. This idea would appear to be what Sprint has in mind for its WiMAX deployment in the US, where Comcast will be providing broadband connectivity to customers' homes and a WiMAX femtocell will provide coverage there.

The NGMN would also like to see 4G networks using some of the technology that femtocells rely on. The ability to self-configure and grab spectrum based on local usage, for example, is currently unique to femtocells but could be scaled up and applied to the whole network for quicker deployment.

For more on this story:
- go to Mobile Europe and Telecoms.com

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Vital femtocell standards agreed. Femto Forum story
Femto frenzy moves from concept to reality. Femto Forum story