MWC: LTE fairly low key, but trials mount up

MOST READ
LATEST NEWS

EVENTS

Join Orange, Amazon and Google at the Open Mobile Summit London May 29-30

MARKET PLACE

Carrier Broadband Performance: Africa & Middle East

Voice over LTE: Market Analysis and Forecasts

Advertize your telecoms job

JOBS

Experienced Event Organiser

MWC: LTE fairly low key, but trials mount up

Carriers cautious about promising too much too soon, stressing 'realistic' timescales and milestones

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 22 February, 2010

READ MORE: Nokia Siemens Networks | LTE

Mobile World Congress was not the LTE-fest some had expected. The overall tone was one of caution about promising too much too soon, with carriers stressing 'realistic' timescales and efforts to eke the most out of 3G first. Even Qualcomm, which is likely to be the first tier one chipmaker to have LTE device silicon, was notably cautious about timelines and the time it will take to achieve a mass market. But the LTE trials and commitments mount up. This is a summary of the main ones that surfaced during the Barcelona festivities.

SFR, Vodafone's joint venture in France, has turned to home supplier Alcatel-Lucent plus Nokia Siemens for 3G/3G expansion and for early LTE trials, with a view to deploying the new system as an overlay with a converged core (a popular approach with 3G carriers with sufficient spectrum, as it reduces first stage cost). The trials will focus on performance and on multimedia applications. NSN, which has been overshadowed by Ericsson and Huawei in European LTE so far, has a strong platform for overlay strategies, the Flex Multiradio base stations. SFR is looking to use this to reuse 900MHz GSM spectrum for rural 3G, and to simplify its network overall, and Flexi could also support migration to LTE. NSN will also implement, operate and maintain SFR's mobile packet core and associated IP network. Meanwhile, ALU will provide its own multi-platform RAN, the new MC-TRX, which is heavily focused on refarming.

Across the Atlantic, cableco Cox Communications says it has completed initial LTE tests in AWS and 700MHz spectrum in Phoenix, Arizona and San Diego, California. The trials achieved peak download speeds around 25Mbps, but Cox' VP of wireless services, Stephen Bye, stressed the wireless system would be "complementary" to the cable network, and that LTE would never handle the traffic loads that wired internet users generate. Cox used equipment from Huwaei and ALU for its trial. It is one of the only major cablecos that is pursuing its own 4G build-out rather than participating in the Clearwire WiMAX based initiative, and also has an MVNO deal with Sprint. Its peak speeds were achieved using 2x2 MIMO in a 2x5MHz channel in AWS, but were only seen close to the cell site and with a single user - at the edge, speeds were about 10Mbps and this would, of course, reduce with multiple users.

Motorola has been counting on its TDD experience in WiMAX to give it a headstart in the TDD flavor of LTE, and has - with ALU - got the deal to deploy China Mobile's first TD-LTE network, for the Shanghai Expo this year. But the firm has made some FD-LTE inroads too, notably with KDDI in Japan and now Zain Saudi Arabia. Zain's roll-out will start in the second half of this year, in capital Riyadh. Motorola will provide RAN and evolved packet core infrastructure, 4G devices, plus network optimization and integration services. The network will operate in the 2.6GHz band, overlaying Zain's 3G infrastructure. In China, ALU said it had achieved peak download rates of more than 80Mbps on the China Mobile system, using a single 20MHz band.

Pages: 1 | 2