BEYOND 4G

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…

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…

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…

We are fortunate to watch the evolution of new generation base stations which are playing an ever increasing role in delivering affordable broadband to masses. Commonly referred as compact base stations, are the latest base station design which was recently introduced in to the market by all major suppliers like Motorola, Huawei, ALU, Ericson, ZTE, Samsung etc. They bring 4G operators flexibility and cost savings, while retaining the performance of macro BTSs.

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The industry around TD-LTE is gaining momentum and the appeal of TD-LTE has widened well beyond China. The recent announcement of Qualcomm to bid for TDD spectrum in India to support a TD-LTE deployment confirms the emergence of TD-LTE as global technology, likely to command a substantial market share.

First of all, China mobile is behind TDD LTE global adoption. The operator has announced that it will establish three experimental TD-LTE (time division-long term evolution) networks separately in three coastal cities – Qingdao, Xiamen and Zhuhai – beginning the third quarter of 2010, according to the China-based China Business News and it will migrate its TD-SCDMA based network to TD-LTE as their next evolution.

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I got a request to present difference between WiMAX and 3G. Please find couple of slides which will give perspective of 3G vs WiMAX .If you have particular question, do email me at admin@beyond4g.org .

Thanks,BP