CTIA: Stronger focus on LTE, but Ericsson keeps HSPA central
Published: 1 April, 2009
READ MORE: Ericsson | HSDPA | LTE
Despite the squeeze on operator capex budgets in many areas, there will still be intense focus on next generation networks - carriers may be trying to weight their investment towards 2010 or later, but they have to respond to mobile broadband demand in the short term. In north America, of course, there is a particularly ripe market for '4G' technologies, in the CDMA carriers, which control the largest base of 3G mobile broadband subscribers in the region, but have no forward network path of their own after the current CDMA roadmap runs out. Sprint Nextel has already opted for WiMAX via its Clearwire joint venture, while Verizon has announced its LTE plans, as have some smaller CDMA players like MetroPCS.
No surprise, then, to find major CDMA vendors Alcatel-Lucent and Motorola showing off their LTE wares, while Clearwire and partners like Samsung will be highlighting their headstart in the 4G wars. Meanwhile, Ericsson is keeping the spotlight on HSPA and HSPA+, which were the most high profile technologies at Mobile World Congress in February, with a keen eye on AT&T and T-Mobile.
Alcatel-Lucent fleshed out details of its promised unified platform, which will enable operators to support CDMA EV-DO and LTE on one infrastructure. Called Converged RAN, it uses software defined radio technology, as do other multi-platform approaches like Nokia Siemens' Flexi range or ZTE's new range. However, this is the first to combine CDMA with LTE, and will allow for parallel operation of two networks, and software programmable migration.
Meanwhile, Nortel will be demonstrating its LTE systems with partner LG, and is expected to major on LTE femtocell trials. And Motorola will showcase the LTE base stations it originally launched at MWC, with a live trial from the roof of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
And Ericsson will be drawing renewed attention to HSPA with its claim that it has doubled peak data speeds to 56Mbps. Currently, carriers are just starting to deploy the first iteration of HSPA+, which has peak download speeds of over 21Mbps, and looking towards the MIMO-enabled second wave, which tops 28Mbps. Ericsson's new breakthrough is the world's first demonstration of multicarrier HSPA MIMO technology, which should be standardized later this year and commercially available next year. Initial systems will combine multiple carriers to double the speed of current HSPA systems, reaching 42Mbps, and the full performance will be available later in 2010. Two or more 5MHz channels can be received at once, with the data stream split over the used channel in the base station - an approach also used in advanced CDMA systems.
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