BEYOND 4G

AT&T surpassing Verizon Wireless to become second largest wireless operators only after China Mobile in Q1, 2010. AT&T delivered strong wireless growth in the first and second quarter, led by continued growth for mobile broadband services, significant demand for iPhone 4 and iPad 3G and rapid adoption of connected devices such as eReaders, global positioning systems, alarm monitoring systems and a host of other emerging products.

Figure : Quarterly Wireless Revenues (1 Jan 2010 to 31 March 2010)

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In the recent years, the ARPU from voice service has been declining due to the factors of discounted services and shorter phone calls. DOCOMO has seen downward trend in aggregate ARPU and is planning to offset this by taking steps to increase packet ARPU. In FY 2010, the ARPU from packet service is expected to surpass voice ARPU. To strengthen packet based services and reverse downtrend of aggregate ARPU, DoCoMo is planning to promote usage of flat-rate service. In FY 2009, the revenues from voice declined 12.9% year-on-year and Read more…

Executive Summary

Verizon’s LTE Plans on track, all set to launch services in November 2010. Verizon is all set to launch LTE in 25-30 markets before year end (Boston and Seattle by 15^th , November) , covering about 100m citizens.  It is expected that operator will launch 4G iphone in Q1, 2011. Verizon and AT& T now controls over 69% of US mobile data market and  has seen biggest jump in data revenues along with Softbank, AT&T and DoCoMo(11%) in first Half 2010.

AT&T announced their 4G partners to build LTE network. AT&T announced their plans to build LTE network, and contracted Alcatel Lucent and Ericsson as their LTE equipment suppliers.  However the operator believes that LTE has its own time to come and Read more…

New generation 4G systems like LTE and WIMAX is designed to support frequency reuse-1 mechanisms to enable a universal frequency reuse pattern providing operators with best achievable use of their valuable spectrum. Ever increasing interest is shown by companies and operators to find mechanisms to allow reuse1 deployments. This article will cover one of the key enabling technologies i.e. ICIC and its application in allowing universal use of Reuse 1 networks.

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Global spectrum availability for LTE

The initial deployment in LTE is expected in 700 MHz for the US, 2.1 GHz for Japan and 2.6 GHz in Europe. The 2.3/2.5 GHz TDD band for deployment is available in China, India. The new LTE systems will support existing bands of GSM/W-CDMA/HSPA, as most of the devices will support multiband operation, and it will allow operators to smoothly introduce LTE services in dense markets and gradually proliferate for a national coverage. A brief update of spectrum availability for LTE is presented below. Read more…

By BP Tiwari (Beyond4G)

The LTE camp is euphoric about Qualcomm wining four circles which further got comprehensive media attention as Reliance controlled Infotel expressed their interest towards LTE. All the other players like Aircell ,Bharti, Augere and Tikona is watching Reliance controlled Infotel’s move for BWA deployment

The WiMAX camp spearheaded by Samsung, Hauwei and ZTE will try to convince Infotel for immediate WiMAX deployment to enter market in similar timelines as 3G. The strategy is not impending from the fact that they do not have a LTE roadmap, but rather their eagerness to enter the agreement with Infotel and secure their mobile data business. Read more…

The unprecedented levels of the recent India 3G & BWA spectrum auctions will keep broadband access out of the reach of many India’s population while putting significant financial strain on service providers ability to deliver services. It is not my intention to reprimand the whole 3G and BWA auction that took place after repeated delays and embarrassments in India. However the high price of spectrum will make people of India the real defeaters. I am not surprised to read Mr. Mittal’s view in financial express where he commented “The bidding which is happening for broadband wireless access is wrong and the same was the case with regard to the 3G auctions which preceded it. The government may be in a celebratory mood with high revenues, but having bid so high, one thing is ensured: Tariffs for 3G services will remain high and unaffordable for large sections of people.” Mittal added that one year down the line, everyone would come to know who all are able to consolidate 3G services, having bid so high for just 5 MHz spectrum. Read more…

By : BP Tiwari

When I first started observing people’s relationships and routines with television, things were rather straightforward: some people had DVRs while others still used VHS, some downloaded movies from file sharing sites while others bought pirated DVDS or rented from a local shop, some had TV on 24/7 while others consciously limited TV. The lines between TV, PC and mobile phones were rather firmly set with particular types of activities and content adhering to each device, content not typically shifting screens and communication between or among them infrequent or requiring a particular level of technical know-how. Today, as more people adopt new internet-enabled devices and services, people’s daily media consumption is extending far beyond the reach of the stationary, shared television sets offering TV channels. Read more…

By BP Tiwari

The industry around 4G FDD is clearly evolving towards LTE as major operators committed their plans or intentions to move into LTE. However, the 4G TDD path for LTE is not going to be an easy ride owing to the competition from WiMAX. Most of the current WiMAX deployments are in TDD and operators would certainly like to recover their investments before migrating to any other evolving technologies in near future.

Operators have also realized that the investments made in building network based on WiMAX TDD cannot be turned in to LTE-TDD overnight even if they like to. Clearwire for instance acquired more than 300k subscriber last quarter marking its entry to 1 Million mobile broadband clubs. If they choose to migrate to LTE, what will happen to those 1M wimax devices? By the time TDD LTE matures clearwire will acquire anywhere between 3 to 5 Million subscribers and upgrading a 5 Million serving WiMAX network to a new TDD LTE RAN might just not be a practical case. I am sure Yota , UQ, Atheeb, Taiwanese WiMAX operators and new WiMAX deployments expected in India would also face with similar dilemma. Read more…

By BP Tiwari

Mangos are my favorite summer fruit. I buy most of my mangoes in Mumbai at a nearby local shop. Back in my hometown we buy most of the mangos from local mango market; otherwise it comes from our mango farms. I am on vacations these days and visiting my parents in my hometown. Yesterday , in a cheerful mood my mother said, why don’t you sell those excess mangos to market? I was all excited to experience the selling session of mangos in the local mango market. Fortunately our mangos are of good quality and I was eager to make a good impression of skilled mango seller in front of my parents. Read more…