LTE

Nokia to co-op on LTE-Advanced chipset

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:35:12 -0500

Looking to set the interface standard for 1Gbit/s LTE-Advanced data rates has seen Nokia announce a R&D partnership with Infineon Technologies to ensure its baseband modem technologies work with Infineon's RF chipsets.

According to Nokia, engineers from the two firms would cooperate on the development of RF transceivers for use in LTE products that could lead to systems delivering 1Gbit/s data transfer rates. The project will involve R&D teams working on the architectural and system issues with the compatibility verified by way of a technology reference platform. Striking a note of caution, Infineon would not commit to when the 1Gbit/s wireless data rate would be achieved or when the Infineon-Nokia verification platform would be demonstrated.

However, Nokia indicated that the joint work would incorporate an open interface to enable a fast roll out of HSPA and LTE networks, and the company confirmed it would be prepared to licence the new baseband modem design.

Prof. Hermann Eul, of the Infineon management board, said, "Pairing Nokia's advanced modem technology and Infineon's best in class RF transceiver solutions, would give the industry access to very competitive chipset solutions."

For more on this story:
EE Times

Huawei scores in Europe with LTE

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:33:16 -0500

Having already registered some notable wins with European operators for LTE--Telenor being the latest--Huawei has continued to infuriate Ericsson and NSN by announcing further contract awards and trials.

Huawei said that Telecom Italia, which has already started a "pre-commercial LTE trial" in Turin, had selected the vendor as its technology partner for testing data speeds up to 140Mbit/s. The trial network involves 14 LTE base stations installed in the centre of Turin with each configured to handle three simultaneous high bandwidth voice and data connections.

The company also said that Belgacom has chosen Huawei to upgrade its mobile network, which operates under the Proximus brand. This deal is similar to the Chinese vendor's recent contract with Telenor, in that the cellco is looking to integrate its GSM, HSPA and LTE systems in the future to a converged RAN - supported by Huawei's SingleRAN platform and a unified packet core.

Proximus' incumbent RAN and core supplier is NSN, whose Flexi base station line competes head-on with SingleRAN in the mixed-radio environment. Although NSN may retain the core business at the LTE stage.

And in Greece, Vodafone has gone live with a Huawei-based HSPA+ upgrade to its network, offering a peak download rate of 28.8Mbit/s and upload rate of up to 5.8Mbit/s. HSPA+ MIMO mobile broadband services will initially be provided in selected areas of capital Athens, and then expanded to other cities.

For more on this story:
Softpedia and Rethink-Wireless

First in GSM, second in WCDMA: Where will Europe be with LTE?

Keith Mallinson — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:47:58 -0500

Most European operators will trail significantly behind major commercial LTE deployments elsewhere. Transition to the mainstream 3GPP technology track for non-HSPA operators and new spectrum availability are the driving forces for LTE front-runners in America, Asia and Scandinavia.

Next generation network implementation plans vary enormously worldwide. For example, India has yet to auction spectrum for legacy 3G technologies, while Verizon Wireless in the U.S. will start its transition from CDMA2000 to the dominant 3GPP technology track with LTE on its newly acquired spectrum in commercial deployments next year. While travelling west and east to chair conference tracks on mobile broadband at Informa's LTE Americas in Dallas and GSMA's Mobile Asia Congress in Hong Kong this month, I've been able to assess LTE strategies and deployment plans first hand with a total of 11 operators in my panel sessions, while quizzing and listening to several more.

Europe created GSM and deployed it first. Japan blazed the trial with WCDMA for a couple of years before European pioneering deployments began in earnest by 3 in the U.K. and Italy with market entry using new spectrum. This time around with the LTE transition, the most fertile conditions for adoption are mostly in China, Japan and the U.S. With the exception of Scandinavia where TeleSonera and Telenor are likely to launch commercial services in Norway and Sweden next year, these conditions do not yet exist in most of Europe. Major European multinational operators Vodafone, Telefonica and T-Mobile will do little more than just trials during 2010 and seek fresh spectrum for most of their national operators.

Migration from 3GPP2 to 3GPP in the U.S.

In the U.S., LTE provides the timeliest opportunity for CDMA operators Verizon Wireless, Metro PCS and Leap to get onto the mainstream in network technology. Flush with new spectrum from 1700 MHz and 700 MHz auctions, these operators will deploy LTE in allocations that are currently unoccupied by cellular technologies. There are no preexisting mobile devices with any technology for the 700 MHz band. Whereas Verizon Wireless plans to launch and rollout LTE aggressively in 2010 and cover virtually all its current nationwide 3G footprint by yearend 2013, America's other top-two operator, AT&T, will use its new stash of 700 MHz and 1700 MHz spectrum to follow with its deployment approximately starting one year later.

Leapfrogging 3G in China

China Mobile is the wild card among LTE early-movers. The operator drew the short straw in this year's 3G technology allocations with a requirement to implement the immature TD-SCDMA technology. China Unicom and China Telecom were awarded WCDMA and CDMA2000 respectively. It is already too late for much ever to come of TD-SCDMA. Whereas the TD-SCDMA mandate serves as a face-saver for China, the opportunity to establish China Mobile as a world leader in next generation technology is with LTE in its TDD form. This technology has some valuable commonalities with TD-SCDMA including the frame structure. Huawei was boasting a van drive demo for TD-LTE at the Hong Kong show. The vendor will also benefit from resurgent interest in TDD technology outside of China following its lackluster adoption as a UMTS technology in the rest of the world.

PCCW in the dynamic Hong Kong market is eager to use its paired "LTE spectrum" recently obtained in auction and will likely launch FDD-based LTE commercially in a couple of years time.

Refarming 2G in Japan

Japan has world-leading mobile data use at around 40 percent of ARPU and with 90 percent of subscribers already using 3G technologies. Success in 3G with such heavy use in this densely populated nation makes the case to trade up to LTE is most compelling. In addition to new spectrum allocations for LTE, plans to close down 2G PDC within the next year or so will ensure significant additional spectrum to refarm for use with LTE.

DoCoMo suffered by going it alone for several years with WCDMA but is undeterred in its desire to lead with LTE. Among other difficulties with WCDMA early on from 2001 until the middle of the decade, DoCoMo's FOMA customers had poor coverage due to absence of backward compatibility with 2G PDC. Meanwhile KDDI performed better in 3G with CDMA2000, benefitting from volume shipments in the US, Korea and from backward compatible with cdmaOne. In Japan and elsewhere worldwide, multimode devices with backward compatibility to legacy 3G technologies will prevail with LTE.

Waiting game in Europe

Whereas European 3G operators can cautiously upgrade all the way to HSPA+ in existing 3G spectrum, LTE will in practice require separate allocations that are not yet generally available. Although it is theoretically possible to substitute LTE for GSM or HSPA spectrum usage, that is unappealing at this stage and some operators have already undertaken to reallocate some 900 MHz spectrum to UMTS with HSPA. With the exception of limited new allocations, such as in Scandinavia, European operators are waiting for 2.5/2.6 GHz and the so called digital dividend spectrum in the 800 MHz band. It will be years before the latter is allocated and generally available for use.

It is no tragedy for the rest of Europe that the U.S. and Asian operators will be driving early LTE volumes, supplemented by deployments in the relatively small Scandinavian region. Front-runners have the new spectrum resources to make the change efficiently and some have a particular desire to switch technology that makes LTE deployment urgent. The early years of 3G were unpleasant for European operators with onerous spectrum fees, clunky and costly terminals with disappointing performance. European operators will benefit from LTE technology and terminal improvements in commercial use elsewhere because most do not yet have the additional spectrum to deploy commercially themselves. Meanwhile, HSPA and HSPA+ provide the natural upgrade path on existing spectrum.

Keith Mallinson is a leading industry expert, analyst and consultant. Solving business problems in wireless and mobile communications, he founded consulting firm WiseHarbor in 2007.

LTE can wait; HSPA+ is good for next 2 years, says Voda CEO

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:48:20 -0500

Having revealed better than expected financial results, helped by completing a £1 billion cost cutting programme one year early, Vodafone CEO, Vittorio Colao, let slip that the company saw HSPA+ as meeting its needs over the next two to three years and would focus its investment in further deploying the technology. Under these conditions, the CEO admitted that LTE was unlikely to be needed until late 2011 or possibly 2012.

Despite confirming that it was continuing to work closely with its LTE partners, Verizon Wireless and China Mobile--both of which are rapidly pushing forward with LTE--Vodafone seems content to rely on HSPA+ on meeting its mid-term data requirements.

As reported by Unstrung, Colao indicated that the company was in the process of enhancing its data speeds from the present 3Mbps to 7Mbps, and then on to 21Mbps and perhaps eventually 56Mbps before LTE is needed.

While the launch of the iPhone on Vodafone's UK network might impact network loadings--as O2 has seen in London with its data network nearing meltdown at times, the company is presently relaxed given the spare 3G capacity it has across wide segments of its network. In Europe, while data traffic volume is 2.5 times that of voice traffic, network utilisation was around 30 per cent in Q2 of the operator's 2009/2010 financial year, and only 5 per cent of Vodafone's European sites have more than 90 per cent network utilisation during busy hours.

This cautious approach to adopting LTE could also be due to the announcement from Vodafone that its plans to increase its cost-cutting by a further £1 billion by 2012.

For more on this story:
Unstrung

Telenor picks Huawei for 4G upgrade, rejects Ericsson and NSN

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:27:33 -0500

In a move that will be closely watched across Europe, Norway's Telenor has given its incumbent infrastructure providers, Ericsson and NSN, a bloody nose by selecting Huawei to construct its 4G network.

The deal, valued at around €170 million over the next six years, is the largest LTE in Europe to date and calls for Telenor's existing Ericsson and NSN network equipment to be merged into the new infrastructure provided by Huawei. The contract will see the delivery of equipment across technology generations and frequency bands, as well as base stations for 2G, 3G/UMTS and 4G/LTE. The change of providers will also entail digitisation, with the entire wireless network and core network being migrated to an IP-based platform supplied by Starent Networks, which was acquired by Cisco Systems last month in a US$2.9 billion deal.

Commenting on the contract award, Ragnar Kaarhus, head of Telenor Norway, said that it would involve the biggest upgrade of the mobile network in Norway that has ever been carried out. He attributed the choice of Huawei to "a combination of technical quality, reliability ... and commercial terms"--which some might speculate as Huawei pricing the offer to win.

Market analysts said that the three per cent fall in Ericsson's share price last week was in part attributable to the contract loss, although the significance was more symbolic than material for the Swedish company.

For more on this story:
Financial Times and Telegeography

LTE 'One Voice' initiative gains wide support

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:25:27 -0500

A powerful grouping of major operators and equipment vendors have put their combined weight behind an initiative to agree a common method for handling voice and SMS traffic over LTE. Labelled One Voice, the group is looking to promote its preferred specifications for providing interoperable voice over LTE with the intention of convincing the GSMA and 3GPP to formally recommend its adoption.

Notably absent from the One Voice group - which includes AT&T, Orange, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, Verizon, Vodafone, Alca-Lu, Ericsson, NSN, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, is T-Mobile. The operator has been a firm advocate for VoLGA (Voice over LTE via Generic Access) which was proposing an interim LTE voice concept that tunnelled circuit-switched voice traffic through the packet-based LTE network.

However, while VoLGA supporters still maintain that the concept will fulfil a useful role, the weight behind the One Voice initiative seems set to dictate the future direction to ensure voice over LTE interworking and roaming using 3GPP specifications for IMS. The specification includes E-UTRAN, evolved packet core, user equipment and IMS core features that the group considers essential to interoperable IMS voice.

However, One Voice assumes that operators and vendors have taken it as read that moving to LTE and SAE in the RAN and core network will also mean moving to IMS in the control plane. According to Sandro Tavares, converged core marketing manager at NSN, operators could migrate by using a method such as NSN's Fast Track, which introduces IMS functionality to non-IMS elements. Tavares said that Fast Track was completely compliant with the One Voice profile, while operators who wish to use LTE purely as a data network could still use CS Fallback to handle voice and SMS traffic to LTE devices.

For more on this story:
Mobile Europe

NSN tests LTE interop with device vendors

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:32:03 -0400

As an indication that LTE is moving towards commercialisation, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has confirmed it is conducting end-to-end interoperability testing with four LTE device manufacturers.

The company said that the tests covered a number of steps in end-to-end network configuration based on commercial LTE hardware, including the Flexi Multiradio base station, the Evolved Packet Core and standard compliant software in the AWS, 700MHz and 2100MHz frequency bands.

"NSN is playing an important role in the LTE ecosystem by enabling leading device vendors to conduct early LTE interoperability testing," said Marc Rouanne, head of radio access for NSN. "Our focus is on commercial LTE hardware and software to support early commercial LTE deployments worldwide."

The company said the tests were taking place at its LTE competency centre in Dallas, US, in close cooperation with research and development sites in Ulm, Germany, and Oulu, Finland.

Separately, the newly appointed head of its US division, Sue Spradley, said that its Dallas site was being used to trial LTE for a large customer, speculated to be T-Mobile US. Despite not having gained a role in the high-profile Verizon Wireless LTE contract, Spradley claimed it was "not the end of the world", and that NSN would "be a leader in LTE in this [US] market."

For more on this story:
Cellular Wireless and Light Reading

Interference from LTE could harm EU 'wireless broadband for all' initiative

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:25:10 -0400

With European countries slowly shutting down their analogue TV services, the EC has called for the frequency bands freed up by this move to be used to offer wireless broadband to all European citizens.

However, laboratory tests carried out on behalf of trade body Cable Europe suggested the potential for interference from LTE transmissions when used near a set-top box or cable modem. The interference is said to be sufficient to knock out TV signals, though Cable Europe believed the problem to be avoidable.

The spectrum band in question--the 790MHz to 862MHz sub-band providing good coverage and strong in-building penetration--has been labelled by the EC for use by "innovative providers of technology services," which it hopes will help the EU meet its target of offering broadband coverage to all citizens by 2013.

As such, the EU commissioner for information and media, Viviane Reding, is encouraging all EU member nations to ramp up the pace with the digital TV roll-out and complete the transition to digital TV by the start of 2012.

Reding added that Europe could only make the most of the digital dividend if there was co-operation between the European Parliament and EU countries. "I urge national authorities to use the digital dividend in a pro-competitive way to open up the market for new operators and new services, maximising the impact on the economy. Only this will ensure the digital dividend is used to bring wireless broadband to parts of the EU where high-speed internet cannot be provided efficiently by other technologies."

Meanwhile, the EC has opened an infringement procedure against Germany for failing to allocate the 2500MHz-2690MHz radio frequency band, suitable for the provision of fixed-wireless services. At present, Germany only allocates this frequency band to mobile services, which Reding states is an obstacle to the deployment of wireless broadband services in Germany and Europe, and is a violation of EU law. With the allocation of this frequency band restricted to mobile services, the EC believes that fixed-wireless operators lack the legal certainty they need to provide telecoms services in the 2.6GHz spectrum band.

For more on this story:
Broadband TV News and Telegeography

Voice-over-LTE could cause industry fragmentation, claims study

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:17:11 -0400

While the role of LTE in providing super-fast mobile data services has received widespread operator commitment, disagreements over how voice services will be carried over LTE infrastructure are in danger of causing the kind of technology fragmentation that occurred in 3G networks.

This issue, claims John Blau, research analyst with Unstrung Insider and author of the study, has been caused by the lack of progress in developing voice-over-LTE applications within IMS. "Over the coming months, operators, vendors and the 3GPP standards body will face some tough decisions. For those operators that believe voice is absolutely essential to have in their LTE service portfolio from the start, interim solutions will be necessary to fill the gap created by the slow progress of IMS. These interim solutions could trigger the technology disruption we saw in 3G networks."

According to Blau's study, the key findings are:

The VoLGA Forum, which proposes an interim packetised approach to carrying voice traffic over LTE, has completed the third and final phase of its specification process and will pursue standardisation during 2010.
One major OEM in the VoLGA Forum has no plans to develop, manufacture and market the interim voice-over-LTE solution.
Most equipment vendors shy away from providing exact information about their planned LTE voice products and their availability.
Over-the-top VoIP players may pose a greater threat to network-based mobile service players than many of them are willing to believe.
The IMS platform has been slow in coming to the mobile world, and many now fear it has become too complex.

"Nearly everyone in the mobile phone industry agrees that LTE is the way forward for data, but that consensus does not extend to voice over LTE as yet," states Blau. "Some mobile operators view LTE initially as a data-only play and do not see a powerful case for rushing into voice, while other operators are worried that LTE without voice could be off to a difficult start."

For more on this story:
Cellular News

Alca-Lu wins LTE trials, 14 planned for next 6 months

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:11:38 -0400

Operators are indicating their increasing level of interest in LTE by contracting to trial the technology with infrastructure vendors, claims Alca-Lu. The company has confirmed it will launch 14 new LTE operator trials over the next six months, bringing the total number planned for next year to 22.

This news follows on from the company's CEO, Ben Verwaayen, stating that LTE was the "flagship of change at Alcatel-Lucent", and hinted that the vendor was increasingly well placed to win more contracts.

Speaking to Unstrung, Alca-Lu's new president of 4G/LTE wireless networks, Ken Wirth, said that this trials activity was enabling the company to encroach into other suppliers' territory. "Those trial customers... are not just necessarily customers that have our Alca-Lu 2G or 3G infrastructure in their network," said Wirth. "They involve a number of our competitors' embedded bases as well."

While some industry observers were surprised at Alca-Lu's inclusion in the Verizon Wireless LTE contract announced earlier this year, it has placed the company alongside its major competitors as the market develops. "[We're] really seeing customers move much more quickly than I think people thought maybe a year or so ago to really evaluate LTE and evaluate what it can bring to their business," added Wirth.

Ericsson is thought to have the largest number of LTE trial contracts, Huawei has admitted it will have more than 25 by the end of this year, and Nokia Siemens Networks claims four LTE reference contracts.

For more on this story:
Unstrung