BT and Everything Everywhere to trial rural LTE

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BT and Everything Everywhere to trial rural LTE

UK's largest cellco and its fixed line incumbent join forces to offer fixed and mobile broadband to rural areas

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 25 May, 2011

Everything Everywhere, the UK's largest cellco, is to trial LTE-based rural broadband services with the country's fixed line incumbent, BT. The two companies are reportedly planning to kick off trials in a region of highly rural Cornwall, running them from September to November.

According to ThinkBroadband, EE and BT's wholesale arm are seeking about 200 participants for the trial, in the St Newlyn East district, with 50% of these being fixed line subscribers and 50% mobile customers.

The aim is to demonstrate and evaluate LTE's capabilities to deliver fixed as well as mobile broadband in the 800MHz digital dividend band. As in many European countries, this spectrum is seen as a cost effective way to achieve universal broadband coverage by delivering fixed access over wireless. The 800MHz band, as well as refarmed 900MHz frequencies, support long ranges and superior indoor penetration, making them well suited to covering sparsely populated regions, and providing access within the home or office.

The sub-1GHz bands are particularly contentious in the UK because 900MHz GSM spectrum is held only by Vodafone and O2, not by T-Mobile or Orange (whose UK arms merged to form Everything Everywhere). EE, and 3G-only player 3UK, originally called for regulator Ofcom to redistribute 900MHz licenses before allowing refarming, to avoid giving Vodafone and O2 a competitive advantage in 4G. Their demands are now mainly focused on getting Ofcom to impose a cap on sub-1GHz holdings, which would limit the amounts Vodafone and O2 could purchase in the 800MHz auction, which should be held early next year.

These disputes, among other issues, have delayed the UK sale of 2.6GHz and 800MHz LTE licenses - the former was originally expected as far back as 2008, which would have made the first in Europe to allocate 4G frequencies. However, it has now been overtaken by the Scandinavian nations as well as Germany and The Netherlands, and France will soon embark on its own auctions.

Another peculiarity of the UK market is that the incumbent has no mobile arm, BT having floated off its cellular business, now O2. There has been intense speculation that the company would bid for its own mobile licenses again during next year's auction, though that possibility seems more remote than in 2008, when BT was examining the idea of becoming the first major 4G provider in Europe by deploying WiMAX in 2.6GHz. Recently it has seemed more keen to offer mobile services via MVNO deals, and to partner with cellcos to increase business for its wholesale fixed lines and backhaul network. It provides managed backhaul services for all the mobile providers.

Tom Alexander, CEO of Everything Everywhere, said: "We strongly believe that by sharing our network and mobile services in this way, we can make a valuable contribution to the economics of rural broadband service. Our work with BT is providing a testbed for new technologies such as 4G LTE which, with the correct allocation of sub-1GHz spectrum from the government, has the potential to make a real impact on the way in which we communicate in the future."

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