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 may not be ready for a large scale deployment in near future. The operator is adopting a middle strategy to upgrade their current network to HSPA+ and LTE later.

T-Mobile all set with HSPA+ to answer immediate data demand. T-Mobile has rolled out HSPA+ services in more than 25 major metropolitan areas in last four month’s time to extend its 3G networks which will support 21 Mbps peak data rates. Their new HSPA+ network covers 75 million populations, and plans to cover 185 million people by the end of this year.

Clearwire has been expanding the network so fast that it has become the biggest construction company in the US. Clearwire strives to reach 2 Million customers by end of 2010. The network is now available in 44 markets in US covering over 50 million people. Things will get really interesting later in 2010 when Clearwire and Sprint take their 4G mobile broadband network to New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, Denver, Minneapolis, the San Francisco Bay Area, Miami, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburgh for a 120 million person strong data footprint.

Reliance Industry marked its entry in telecom with nationwide BWA spectrum in India, after completion of five years agreement with younger brother. The operator paid close to $2.6 billion to win 2.3 GHz ( 20 MHz) nationwide spectrum in the country.

Qualcomm pumped $1 billion to protect TD-LTE: Qualcomm won 2.3 (20 MHz) GHz spectrum in four telecom circles of India in the recently held BWA spectrum auctions. Qualcomm’s final bid was INR 4912.54 crore or approximately USD 1.045 billion.

The Battle of LTE and WIMAX is fierce in India after auctions: Qualcomm protected entry of WiMAX in India by winning four circles and all the other players like Aircell ,Bharti, Augere and Tikona is watching Reliance controlled Infotel’s move for BWA technology choice.

Infotel holds the future of WiMAX in India. The WiMAX camp spearheaded by Samsung, Hauwei and ZTE is convincing Infotel for immediate WiMAX deployment to enter market in similar timelines as 3G. Their 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 and do away with competition from Ericsson, ALU and Nokia.  Ericsson, Nokia , ALU and Qualcomm is taking every possible step to avoid WiMAX deployment in India.

LTE TDD Devices Availability for Indian BWA Operators: Our research indicates that the commercial availability of TD-LTE chipsets will start as early as Q3, 2010 by handful of suppliers and majority would be ready by Q1-2011 or later. Most reasonably it will at least take three to six months for ODM’s to supply finished products.  Expect first commercial shipment of TD-LTE chipsets after Q2/Q3-2011.

Teliasonera became world’s first operator to launch LTE network. Teliasonera launched two commercial markets last year covering about 400,000 people in the two countries’ capitals, Oslo and Stockholm. TeliaSonera has nationwide 4G/LTE licenses in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. During the first half year 2010, TeliaSonera has also opened up 4G for pilot customers in Finland, Denmark, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.

NTT DOCOMO LTE Plans on track, all set to launch services in December 2010: NTT DoCoMo has been at the cutting edge of the mobile data evolution by creating new markets and it is aiming to launch its LTE service in December 2010. DoCoMo plans to invest in the region somewhere around JPY343 billion in its new LTE network. The operator has indicated installation of 20,700 Base Station covering 51.10% of area by 2014. It strives to acquire massive 17.7 Million consumers in their new 4G network by 2014.

KDDI announced LTE plans and contracted Motorola and NEC to supply LTE equipment. KDDI Corp. has awarded contracts to Motorola and NEC Corp for the supply of base stations and ancillary equipment to build its next generation long term evolution (LTE) network. KDDI announced its plan stating investment of 515 Billion Yen in new LTE Network which will start in November 2011 and likely to reach full coverage by 2012. The operator has indicated installation of 29,361 Base Station covering 96.5% of area by 2014. It strives to acquire 9.84 Million consumers in their new 4G network by 2014.

UQ WIMAX growing steadily, 7000 base stations live on air. UQ Communications is already ahead of its deployment schedule as compared to LTE, and plans to cover 55% of the Japanese population (most major cities) by the end of March 2010, with the goal of covering more than 90% of the Japanese population by FY2012.

Softbank of Japan looks set to be the first major operator (outside of Philippines) with more revenues coming from data services than voice. Softbank is upgrading its 3G networks to support 42 Mbps Dual Carrier HSPA to cater its rapidly growing data business.  Softbank plans to invest in the region somewhere around JPY207.3 billion in its new LTE network.  The operator has indicated installation of 9,000 LTE Base Station covering 60.63% of the area by 2014. It strives to acquire 5.41 Million consumers in their new 4G network by 2014.

LTE-Advanced & IEEE 802.16m WiMAX both officially selected as 4G standard by ITU . LTE-Advanced and IEEE 802.16m WiMAX satisfied the ITU requirements as 4G standard, effectively being selected as the ITU 4G standards during ITU-R WP5D meeting which was held from June 9 through 16 in Vietnam

Korea Telecom plans LTE in 2011, it continues to expand WiBRO in five metropolitans and plans 27,000 WiFi Hotspots by September 2010. KT announced plans in May 2010 that it will work with electronic giants such as Samsung and LG-Ericsson for a high-speed LTE network. Investment for the LTE network could start in 2011 .

New investments are expected in Korea to promote WiBRO Adoption. KT to expand WiBRO in five metropolitans markets and established a joint venture with Samsung and Intel to promote WiBRO.

CMCC begins LTE trials with Shanghai expo, but for all practical purpose may only start large scale LTE deployment in 2012. CMCC kicked of TD-LTE network with shanghai expo. Motorola, ALU, Huawei, Sequans, ALU, ST Ericsson, ZTE , Nokia and Ericsson is testing their equipment.

CMCC rolled out 108,000 TD-SCDMA base stations and acquired 7.69 million 3G subscribers.   China Mobile set up 108,000 base stations in total, with a combined investment of over CNY90 billion (USD13.16 billion) by the end of March 2010 claimed 7.69 million 3G subscribers, from its total user base of 780 million.

Download Report : Global 4G operator update 1H-2010

OFDMA based 4G networks can support reuse one deployment through the use of;

• Ability to power control and vary the coding rate of control channel;

• Fractional power control with coordination with controller based overload control messages in UL;

• Support of very low code rates;

• Incremental redundancy based HARQ;

• DL and UL ICIC further enhance single cell frequency reuse;

• Multi-Antenna techniques.

One of the key goals is to increase spectral efficiency and overall SINR of the system. However, users at the cell edge are particularly susceptible to increased interference resulting in reduced throughput due to higher transmit powers required and inter-cell interference. Therefore Interference coordination as methods to reduce inter cell interference is gaining momentum and industry attention.

Figure 1: Intercell interference scenarios

Fractional Frequency Reuse

: In its simplest form is Fractional frequency re-use (FFR) implements a reuse scheme-n (n > 1) system. A reuse-n system partitions a geographical area into n regions, each of which is exclusively allocated to a band in such a way that cells physically close to each other are assigned with different bands to avoid dominant ICI. Cells that are sufficiently far from each other may reuse the same band, and how frequently the reuse is practiced is dictated by the reuse factor n. For instance, n = 3 if the same band is reused every three cells. However, segmenting frequency re-use suffers from reduced spectral efficiency.

Therefore FFR in 4G systems(LTE and WIMAX) tries to define a sweet spot where the cell center of neighboring cells share the same band, while their cell edge are separate on orthogonal bands. Besides, the cell-center and cell-edge bands in neighboring cells are non-overlapping. The colour on the spectrum is shown to match the colour of the geographical area.

Figure 2: Illustration of Fractional Frequency Reuse

Possible ICIC implementation in LTE

ICIC in downlink

Two common implementations that will be supported for Downlink ICIC are static and semi-static. Static ICIC is initially planned which also includes the need for some level of system planning. Semi-static ICIC utilizes an event triggered message (RNTP) over the X2 interface and reduces the system planning impact. Relative Narrowband Tx Power (RNTP) is transmitted when the Tx power exceeds a specified threshold. The frequency of the RNTP transmission is limited to no more than 200 ms to prevent overload of messaging.

DL Static ICIC implementation: Figure 3 shows the concept of DL ICIC using inverted Reuse scheme. Some restricted PRBs (also called non-preferred frequency zones) are defined per each cell and the base stations transmit at a certain constant nominal power across the entire bandwidth except for those restricted PRBs. The restricted PRBs can be transmitted at a lower power (e.g. 10 dB lower than the nonrestricted PRBs) which results in a soft fractional frequency reuse scheme or there may not be any transmissions at all in the restricted PRBs which results in a hard fractional frequency reuse scheme.

Each cell can then schedule its cell edge users in the restricted PRBs of its closest neighbor and hence they can realise an improved SINR as the neighboring cell is transmitting with a lower power or not transmitting at all on those PRBs. The classification of users is done in two groups: cell inner users and cell edge users. Reporting of the users can be done based on some metrics such as path loss for UL or CQI reporting for DL.

Figure 3: Downlink ICIC static implementation

ICIC in uplink

Two implementations also exist for Uplink ICIC. Static ICIC includes the need for some level of system planning. Semi-static ICIC utilizes an event triggered message (HII and OI) over the X2 interface and reduces the system planning impact. High Interference Indicator (HII) and Overload Indicator (OI) are event triggered messages. HII is sent indicating the PRBs and subbands where the serving cell intends on scheduling cell edge UEs and thereby causing high interference. OI is sent indicating low, medium, or high interference levels. Care needs to be taken when utilizing ICIC in a multi-vendor eNB environment, as the behavior of the eNB is implementation specific when receiving ICIC related indicators.

Figure 4: Uplink ICIC implementation

DL Static ICIC implementation: In the uplink, the main idea is to concentrate all interference in specific portions of the bandwidth, known as the Trash Heap. Figure 4 shows the concept of the Trash Heap which consists in designating a portion of the bandwidth in each cell to bear the brunt of the interference from neighboring cells. As for DL, the users are classified in two groups, inner cell and cell edge users, using a any algorithm based on CQI reports for DL and path loss estimation for UL. And as for DL, the soft fractional frequency reuse concept is applied and included in the concept of Trash Heap. For cell edge mobiles, the uplink scheduler will assign resources in the Trash Heap of the mobile’s strongest neighbouring cell, which is identified by event triggered reporting. If the scheduler needs to assign the mobile outside the Trash Heap, it does so with a reduced transmit power spectral density (PSD) level, which is implemented through an absolute power control command in the UL scheduling grant. The idea here is to concentrate the bulk of the inter-cell interference in a small portion of the total bandwidth, thereby preventing the majority of the users from getting impacted by this interference which is now localized to certain sub-carriers.

Possible ICIC implementation in WiMAX

WiMAX Release 1.0 allows reuse 1 deployments, however most of the commercial systems are deployed in reuse3. The initial implementation of WiMAX in reuse 1 will be realized by FFR based techniques. Specific implementation of FFR techniques is presented in WIMAX 1.5 and WiMAX 2.0 papers.

The effect of inter-cell interference in reuse 1 systems of WiMAx results in MAP and traffic performance degradation especially in cell edge areas. Interference mitigation technique is needed to alleviate the cell edge performance degradation. Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (ICIC) may be used as the key technique for making reuse 1 work better.
ICIC implementation in WiMAX is possible with signaling information exchanges within Base stations over R8 interfaces.

Possible implementation of ICIC in downlink:

The WiMAX systems can implement DL ICIC to solve DL inter-cell interference problem in reuse 1 systems.

• It can automatically adjusts both frequency usage and Tx power pattern considering interference pattern from neighboring cells
  
• Edge user throughput is increased by coordinating inter-cell interference which is needed to exchange scheduling information among BSs
  

Possible implementation of ICIC in uplink:

• Automatically controls MS Tx power based on load information exchanged among BSs
  
• It is needed to exchange scheduling information and measurement reports form MS
  

Figure 5: ICIC implementation in WiMAX

Download PDF Version Enabling reuse 1 in 4G Networksv0.1

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.

The companies which are involved in TDD LTE system development are ALU, Ericson, Motorola, Huawei, ZTE, Nokia and Samsung to name few. Huawei has a working trial network in china shanghai, followed by Motorola who has also deployed TDD LTE indoors. Nokia Siemens in a bid to be the part of big LTE ecosystem from China has opened a new lab Hangzhou R&D facility.

Most of the suppliers are working towards ensuring their base stations are ready as early as possible to grab markets share where WiMAX is gaining momentum especially at TDD space in India. In bid to accelerate uptake and proliferation of LTE, suppliers are aggressively developing LTE systems and strengthening ecosystem. The case of LTE in India is especially promoted by QUALCOMM, Nokia, ALU and Ericsson.

The new BWA operators are midst of this battle of titans who are ensuring their interests in mobile data business in India. In this short article I would like to present my own findings to provide new BWA operators with sufficient data to decide their technology choice and decisions. The data is collected from various research reports, direct discussions and Industry news.

TDD LTE Base Station availability for India BWA operators

Supplier who has WiMAX experience and are working for LTE products will become the first to supply LTE TDD trial equipments in Indian market. It is expected that ALU, Motorola and Huawei can quickly demonstrate a working LTE TDD systems followed by Nokia and Ericsson in a quarter or later. Trials are expected to happen in Q4-2010 time-frame. Readiness to ship equipment for mass scale deployment of LTE TDD is not expected to happen before Q1/Q2-2011.

LTE TDD Devices Availability

The most interesting of all is the LTE TDD device ecosystems. Let me report some broad time-lines based on my data which I have captured over period of time talking to industry experts and analysis reports.

• The commercial availability of chipsets will start as early as Q3, 2010 and most of them would be ready by Q1-2011.
• Most reasonably it will at least take one quarter more for ODM’s to supply finished products i.e. Q2-2011.
• We have experienced from wimax that time to complete device interoperability’s cannot be shortened beyond a specific period of time and hence the devices ecosystem would most likely to be ready by Q2-2011.Only USB dongles are expected in this time frame.
• Expect additional one quarter for Indoor Devices

When do we see handsets and Smartphone’s in LTE TDD?

• The commercial availability of chipsets for handsets and Smartphone’s is not expected before Q2- 2011.
• Most reasonably it will at least take one to two quarter more for ODM’s to supply finished products.
• It is reasonable to expect readiness of handsets by 2012

It is my estimation that most operators will launch their 3G services by November 2010. Four 3G operators per circle are expected to launch services apart from the old mobile data players who are operational with Ev-Do Technology.

• It is critical for BWA operator to launch their mobile data services in similar timelines otherwise the operator will face intense competition and early market entry benefit will be lost.
• If BWA is launched in similar timeline as those in line with 3Goperators the chances of mobile data from BWA technology ( WiMAX today, LTE later ) can succeed in winning a bigger market share.

  

• Ability to offer QoS , time and volume based unlimited plans will play an important role is customer behaviors in choosing mobile broadband networks as wireline is very limited in country.
• It is imperative to launch services before 3G operators or parallel with 3G operators to take that early lead and outperform competition to become market leader.

Finally, I have presented that it is reasonable to expect a mature TDD LTE ecosystem evolving around only after Q2-2011 for commercial deployments. Up to this period acquiring customers and retaining market share could be the best strategy for BWA operators. WiMAX could be explored for immediate deployment. It is imperative for BWA operator to start the services in the similar timelines when 3G networks are made available to compete and take the early market entry advantage. A long term strategy could be centered on or around TDD-LTE with initial deployment happening in WiMAX with migration plan towards LTE TDD. The Migration to LTE can be achieved in phased manner as suppliers are developing LTE products and in most cases it can be seamlessly upgraded with new software’s and channel cards. Operator can also look to 16m migration which has an added advantage of reusing existing devices.

Note: Views expressed here are my own and by no means reflect my company’s opinion. You can ask for more detailed analysis report at admin@beyond4g.org

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.

It appears like operators too has recognized the fact and asked leading 16e suppliers to take 16m research and development in priority and show them a working 16m system quickly. The ecosystem of 16m could be as large as TDD-LTE or better since all WiMAX TDD operators will naturally migrate to 16m, while the only operator who is behind TDD-LTE is China Mobile. If Indian BWA operators choose WiMAX path than odds are quite high that 16m TDD ecosystem may supersede TDD-LTE.

Samsung, Motorola and Huawei may demonstrate a working 16m trail systems to their operators by end of this year. IEEE standardization is on track and it is expected to release final 16m draft by Q1 2011. Sequans and Beceem plans to release 16e/16m based engineering samples in early 2011. The development effort for migrating core network elements like ASN-GW, AAA and others to 16m is estimated minimal and hence early readiness can be expected.

The whole battle of LTE vs WiMAX is basically turning around two facades. First, It is highly publicized that Performance of LTE –TD based system will be superior to 16e. Second, TD-LTE ecosystem will bring vast economy of scale to operators. I spent some time to figure out the performance of TD-LTE and WiMAX 16e. Since WiMAX 16e doesn’t support 20 Mhz channels, on a 10 MHz of channel bandwith following observations were noted.

• Most of the current WiMAX deployments are on a reuse 3 network. If WiMAX is deployed in reuse 3 network and LTE is deployed in Reuse 1 network, than performance of WiMAX systems is better than LTE Rel 8. Data presented below is measured in different commercial wimax networks and LTE is based in NGMN simulations.

  

• LTE Rel 8 was ratified recently (2009), and in LTE release 8 special attentions were given to introduce methods to circumvent interference and improve overall network efficiency. 16e if deployed in reuse 1 scenario will perform inferior as compared to LTE Rel8. This is one of the major rationales behind most of the 16e deployments in 30MHz of spectrum.
• 16m is expected to be deployed in reuse 1 networks and has more advanced interference mitigation techniques and supports even higher spectral efficiency than LTE Rel 8.

  

WiMAX Forum recognized these aspects and in the last general meeting at Taiwan, they have included features like interference mitigation, frequency reuse 1 support, downlink beamforming and 4X2 Mimo in their technology roadmap for 2010. Roadmap features will be further enhanced to support IMT-A requirement by 2012 with introduction to 4×4 Mimo, self organizing networks, multicarrier and enhanced locations services.

It would be interesting to see how the 4G TDD ecosystem shapes but definitely 16m has a important role to play.

Suggested Articles:

• 16m for operators
• IEEE expects WiMAX 2 standardization by summer
• MIMO Schemes in 16m

Expected average data consumption for iPad users will stay around 3 GB/Month as per my estimates. Average monthly data consumption will remain somewhere between iphone and notebooks. The increased data consumption of iPad users can present wireless operators with some serious challenge to deal with in coming days. We already hear about 3G cellular networks being swamped with growing data traffic from millions of Apple iPhones. Although carriers are optimistic of offloading a large amount of iPad traffic to Wi-Fi access points when using services indoors and charge a different tariff for that. However I am really unconvinced about availability of Wi-FI networks all the time. Although , AT&T has scored a deal to offer unlimited 3G data on 3G-capable versions of the iPad for $29.99 a month. I still suppose that MACRO networks will serve most of the user generated traffic from iPads .

iPad is a real nice data centric deice which is capable of doing almost everything a net-book can perform. I think real drivers of data in iPad would be social applications especially photo sharing, streaming video like YouTube and movie downloads from Netflix etc. In his new whitepaper “STATE OF THE (MOBILE) BROADBAND NATION” Chetan reported that average performance of 3G networks in US is around 250 kbps in downlink and 120 kbps in uplink.

I suggest if you come across to watch you tube video at these 3G networks than expect some delay, buffer and degraded performance. Although this is not anticipated in Wi-Fi zones but serious video challenges is expected in 3G Macro zones. If you not leveraging video in iPad and then you are underplaying.

Nevertheless the real beauty of iPad is the fact that device is fully unlocked and there is no contract. I suggest you go ahead and test the new 4G WiMAX RAN available in to AT&T price, than even better as you will be able to connect your 3G iphone, your laptop and iPad and get unlimited Wi-Fi US with the 3G/4G hotspot device available with sprint or clearwire. It would be a good idea to test these handy 3G/4G hotspots which can really take your iPad experience couple of times higher with new 4G based WiMAX RAN. If you can find an unlimited data plan similar data.

GIGAOM reported average data rates of 1.2 to 1.7 Mbps in downlink and .6 to .8 Mbps in uplink from sprint 3G/4G mobile hotspot in WiMAX coverage zone. That’s what I am saying; WiMAX and iPad compliment each other when it comes to data.

Fortunately, I had the opportunity to meet executives from Qualcomm, Ericson and Nokia as the spectrum auctions are approaching. We discussed range of interesting topics especially their intentions for pushing TD-LTE and maturity of TDD-LTE for a commercial deployment in a very price sensitive market.

Data Point 1 : China Mobile is shifting from their current plans of 2.3 GHz to 2.5 GHz as 2.3 GHz is extensively used by military of China and hence suppliers claim that CMCC will provide enough ecosystem development opportunity for India to achieve economics of scale is not very rosy. This is a fresh development and will have impact on TD-LTE products in 2.3 GHz frequency. Immediately, CMCC, Clearwire and other TDD proponent submitted new work item in 3GPP group to prioritize the development of TD-LTE in 2.5 GHz.

Data Point 2: India is a price sensitive market and current prices of LTE TDD devices are way too high for a meaning full deployment. I am told that the price of devices in Teliasonera Network is in the range of US$ 150 which is too far above the ground as compared to current prices of WIMAX dongles. Current prices of WiMAX dongles are in the range of sub US$ 30 . The curve of device prices to reach sub US$ 30 would be essentially be same as we witnessed in WiMAX, and it may take up-to 12-24 months to reach those levels. Situation is further worsened by limited operators planning to deploy LTE TD in 2.3 GHz.

Data Point 3 : Ericson and Nokia believes that TD-LTE is ready , but Huawei and ZTE has very different view and as per them it will take at least two more years for TD-LTE to reach current levels of WiMAX as CMCC is still deploying their TD-SCDMA networks and they will actually wait sometime until capex incurred in up gradation from TD-SCDMA is recovered. CMCC will continue showcasing TD-LTE trials and other competitive advantages as they are also interested in controlling TD-LTE IPRs.

Believe it or not, the price which Indian operators will pay for acquiring BWA spectrum would be in the range of US$ 500M to 1 B. The chance of operators waiting for TDD-LTE to get matured for deployment is not a practical case. Operators will instead develop a strategy of smooth migration towards their next evolution with approach to acquire customer today and remain profitable in coming year. As I also reported earlier that number of broadband connections in India is less than 2% of total voice subscriptions. The market has potential and what 2G has done in voice; 4G will repeat the story in Data.

WiMAX migration towards LTE Rel 8 is possible with major suppliers like Huawei , ZTE , Motorola and Samsung committing a path towards TDD LTE in case market dynamics favors TD-LTE. Radio is LTE capable and with replacement of baseband units, same hardware can be migrated to LTE Rel 8.

Thanks,BP

• The Indian wireless market grew at 32% Y/Y in the period between December, 2008 to 2009.
• India continues to be the hottest market on the planet in terms of net-adds with (again) a world record-setting month in Jan 2010 with 19.9 million net adds.  For the year 2009, India added 177 million subs vs. 106 million for China. Combined, one year of growth in these two market is equivalent to the size of the third largest market – the US, to date.
• Total Wireless customers in India surpassed 575 Million in Feb 2010.
• India became number two wireless market and the world order is : China, India, US, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Germany, Pakistan and Italy.
• 3 Members joined the 100M subscription club from India :Bharti , Reliance and Vodafone .
• For India, data ARPU continues to stay below $1.0 as most of the new adds are voice only subscribers and there is continued price pressure in the market.
• In Q4 2009, Bharti Airtel was leading wireless operator in country with average ARPU of US$  3.94.
• India wireless Industry has witnessed heavy competition and operators wireless ARPU has declined at 8 % Q/Q.
• Reliance and TATA DoCoMo launched GSM services this year and fueled intense competition in Voice traffic.

India Internet Market Update

• Total internet customers in country were approximately 14.6 Million by Q4 2009.
• BSNL/MTNL is leading internet market share in India with over 10.9 Million consumers controlling approximately 75% of the internet market.
• Number of broadband connection in country was approximately 7.5 Million in Q4,2009. The number of broadband connections is less than 2 % as compared to number of current voice subscribers in India.
• Observed average ARPU of Mobile broadband service  2-3 times higher than voice as it stands at US$ 12 current
• With new 3G and BWA operators expected to launch services in 2H 2010, average data ARPU of mobile broadband service is expected to decline 2% Q/Q.
• TATA , Reliance, BSNL and MTS launched Ev-Do based mobile broadband services in top markets and robust growth in mobile broadband access ( dongles ) were witnessed.

What is expected in 2010 and 2011?

• Wireless subscribers are expected to grow to 747 Million by Dec 2010.
• Ev-Do (dongle) based subscribers are expected to surpass 2 Million by Dec 2010.
• 3G spectrum for four operators and launch of 3G services in top markets
• BWA spectrum for 3 operators and Mobile broadband services in top markets in India.
• Data growth in expected with new BWA operators deploying WiMAX/LTE.
• BSNL WiMAX launch in 3 circles and expected to expand to more circles
• For India, Growth of 3G and BWA technologies is expected to be limited in 2010 due to limited initial markets.
• In 2010, Mobile broadband growth is expected to be fueled by Ev-DO systems.
• Starting at a low base, India will experience the highest increase in smartphone penetration, which will triple over five years, and number of smartphone users, which will grow 5.5 fold by 2014. The growth of smart-phones will be driven by 3G and BWA networks.
• 3G iphone will fuel growth with availability of 3G networks in 2011.
• USB Dongles for Mobile data is expected to become mainstream device for mobile data.
• In 2011 , wireless broadband is expected to surpass number of wire-line connections in India.
• WiMAX could get significant foothold if three BWA operators deploys nationwide Mobile broadband market.

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

With over 70 mobile WiMAX deployments worldwide in 2.3 , 2.5 and 3.5 GHz and continuously growing , the role of WiMAX 2.0 is pivotal for operators to support humongous projected growing data demands and stay competitive in mobile data networks. The time to market and early competitiveness of WiMAX release 1.0 was successful in getting initial attraction from operators but there triumph will largely depend in continuous innovation and new suite of standards which will enable affordable and reasonable data services for their consumers.

16m will play important role to provide evolutionary path to Mobile WiMAX Release 1.0 operators to remain competitive in ever challenging mobile data networks and provide a platform for delivery of new services. It will also play an important role in shaping 4G mobile networks by supporting IMT-A requirement by updating its IEEE Std 802.16 standards to meet the requirements of next generation mobile networks targeted by the cellular layer of IMT-Advanced.

WiMAX 2.0 or 16m standards work will be completed by the end of this year and the first 16m release will be available for industry by July, 2010[1]. Based on the inputs from supplier and past standardization experience it appears that operators will have WiMAX 2.0 systems for deployment as early as 2012. Work on the standard has been progressing very quickly, the experiences with 802.16e and even some of the learning’s from LTE  has enabled quick completion of standards.

Following are the key vital features of WiMAX 2.0 which is incorporated in standards and presented in this whitepaper.

• New spectrum in FDD and TDD band
• Support of IMT-A frequency bands
• At least two fold increase in average data throughput from the current Release
• Advanced interference management methods to support true reuse 1 deployments as compared to current reuse 3 deployments
• Round trip access latency is reduced to less than 10-20 ms levels which will allow more demanding services like online gaming etc.
• Support for self organizing networks
• Support for femtocells
• Support of Relays stations
• Support for Location services
• Support for enhanced multicast and broadcast services
• Multicarrier aggregation upto 100 MHz
• Co-existence of 16e and 16m base stations and backward compatibility
• 2-3 fold improvement in VoIP calls per MHz ( Optimized for voice)
• Coexistence of multi-technologies like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and WiMAX
• Inter Radio Access technology handovers( 3GPP)
• Improved scheduling and new QoS class

It is more apt for operators who have already deployed their networks with release 1.0 to migrate to WiMAX2.0  as the release 1.0 devices are backward compatible with 16m systems and the performance of 16m systems is adequate to support the requirements of IMT-A and other competing technologies like LTE and LTE-A.

While this paper will cover all the aspects of 16m performance and features for operators , aspects of coexistence of release 1.0 and release 2.0 systems  is presented for WiMAX operators.

Download white paper here:  WiMAX 2.0 for operator v1.0

SU-MIMO: Single-user MIMO (SU-MIMO) schemes are used to improve the link performance, by providing robust transmissions with spatial diversity, or large spatial multiplexing gain and peak data rate to a single AMS, or beamforming gain.

Both open-loop SU-MIMO and closed-loop SU-MIMO are supported for the antenna configurations presented above.

For open-loop SU-MIMO, both spatial multiplexing and transmit diversity schemes are supported. For closed-loop SU-MIMO, codebook based precoding is supported for both TDD and FDD systems. CQI, PMI, and rank feedback can be transmitted by the mobile station to assist the base station’s scheduling, resource allocation, and rate adaptation decisions. CQI, PMI, and rank feedback may or may not be frequency dependent. For closed-loop SU-MIMO, sounding based precoding is supported for TDD systems.

MU-MIMO: Multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) schemes are used to enable resource allocation to communicate data to two or more AMSs. MU-MIMO enhances the system throughput.

Multi-user transmission with one stream per user is supported for MU-MIMO. MU-MIMO includes the MIMO configuration of 2Tx antennas to support up to 2 users, and 4Tx or 8Tx antennas to support up to 4 users. Both unitary and non-unitary MU-MIMO linear precoding techniques are supported.

For open-loop MU-MIMO, CQI and preferred stream index feedback may be transmitted to assist the base station’s scheduling, transmission mode switching, and rate adaptation. The CQI is frequency dependent.

For closed-loop multi -user MIMO, codebook based precoding is supported for both TDD and FDD systems. CQI and PMI feedback can be transmitted by the mobile station to assist the base station’s scheduling, resource allocation, and rate adaptation decisions. CQI and PMI feedback may or may not be frequency dependent. For closed-loop multi -user MIMO, sounding based precoding is supported for TDD systems.

Multi BS MIMO

Multi-BS MIMO techniques are supported for improving sector throughput and cell-edge throughput through multi-BS collaborative precoding, network coordinated beamforming, or inter-cell interference nulling. Both open-loop and closed-loop multi-BS MIMO techniques can be considered. For closed-loop multi-BS MIMO, CSI feedback via codebook based feedback or sounding channel will be used. The feedback information may be shared by neighboring BSs via network interface.

COMP – Coordinated multi-point (CoMP) is a new class of transmission schemes for interference reduction in the 16m technology. Enabling features such as network synchronization, cell- and user-specific pilots, feedback of multicell channel state information and synchronous data exchange between the base stations can be used for interference mitigation and for possible macro diversity gain. The collaborative MIMO (Co-MIMO) and the closed-loop macro diversity (CL-MD) techniques are examples of the possible options. For downlink Co-MIMO, multiple BSs perform joint MIMO transmission to multiple MSs located in different cells. Each BS performs multi-user precoding towards multiple MSs, and each MS is benefited from Co-MIMO by receiving multiple streams from multiple BSs. For downlink CL-MD, each group of antennas of one BS performs narrow-band or wide-band single-user precoding with up to two streams independently, and multiple BSs.

Downlink MIMO Modes

Uplink MIMO Modes

Performance of Different MIMO Schemes

The new advisor to prime minister of India, Sam Pitroda today said broadband penetration should connect 100 million people in the next five years from the current 10 million. “For 1.2 billion people, 10 million broadband connections is a meager figure. I hope 100 million people are connected in the next five years through broadband,” Pitroda, who was responsible for the first telecom revolution, said.

It was expected that wireless operators like Tata Communications, Bharti, Reliance and Aircell would certainly contend to grab as much spectrum as possible. The submission by Orange has sent some early signals of international participation and we might expect some more competition by other leading global data operators. Google also said to be keen on joining the race, the BWA auctions could well be a closely fought affair as the government has said it will auction only two slots of airwaves.

Just before the auction, Private equity (PE) funds agreed to infuse $823 million (Rs 3,730 crore) into two Indian companies on Wednesday, signaling the return of big-ticket deals in a sign of growing investor confidence in the nation’s economic growth prospects. Goldman Sachs Strategic Investment Fund, Oak Investments Partners and Indivision India Partners, the PE fund promoted by Future Group chairman and India’s organized retail pioneer Kishore Biyani, bought a 73.95% stake in Tikona Digital Networks Pvt. Ltd for $398 million. Capital infusion just before the auction is expected to pull new entrant in the spectrum rush.

QUALCOMM bid for BWA spectrum has actually raised eyebrow in industry making clear intention of preserving LTE TDD spectrum until the technology get matured for large scale deployment. Please note the most of the wireless LTE deployments are planned in either 700MHz, 2.1 GHz,1.6 Ghz and 2.5 GHz in FDD bands. The ecosystem for LTE TDD in 2.3 GHz might take 1-2 years from now to reach the level of product prices that WIMAX has reached by now. Indian broadband market is at nascent stage and 4G technologies like LTE and WIMAX has the potential to repeat the same growth which was witnessed in voice with 2G technologies.

The battle between WiMAX and LTE supporter is expected to grow as Chairman of WiMax Forum India, CS Rao said: “This move by Qualcomm, if it emerges as winner in the bid, may result in the hoarding of precious spectrum. Thus, India would lose an opportunity to serve 20 million subscribers on a slot of 20 MHz by 2012. India cannot afford losing such precious resource of spectrum for immature, untested and unproven technologies. All Indian operators have tried and tested WiMax and they understand the potential of WiMax for broadband services growth in India.

The base price of the spectrum is roughly US$ 350 Million and it is expected to reach US$ 1 Billion in view of the number of operators willing to get hold of the spectrum. The amount of money operators will have to pump will naturally push immediate deployment to get their investment returned as soon as possible. WiMAX as being more matured has the distinctive advantage of immediate deployment.

Vmax Telecom, a WiMax network operator in Taipei, has put mobile Internet devices (MIDs) inside 1000 cabs from the M-Taxi company to offer free Mobile WiMax wireless services.

The use of WiMax-enabled devices in taxis is meant to popularize WiMax as well as give people something to do if they’re stuck in traffic or need information such as the latest movie times, said Teddy Huang, chairman of Vmax, at a news conference in Taipei. The value-added service will also hopefully bring more customers to the taxi company, M-Taxi, he said.

The MIDs are small, flat devices with 7-inch touchscreens made by Tecom Inc. that work with a stylus. They are attached to the back of the front passenger seat inside the taxis. The devices have embedded WiMax and GPS (Global Positioning System) chips and use Microsoft’s Windows CE 5.0 operating system. They are loaded with video and audio codecs and are meant to entertain people as they ride taxis across Taipei. The devices are 216 millimeters long by 132mm wide and 24.5mm thick.

There are lot of other MID’s which are in Pipelines and ODM’s are working for their launch. I will highlight some of the commercial ones in this article.

• Samsung Mondi : 4.3″ (800×480) high resolution interactive touchscreen that puts your browser, camera, email and messaging literally at your fingertips
  

‘

• Dmedia M0, WhiteMAX, Triband WiMAX-enabled MID
  

2.3/2.5/3.5 triband WiMAX networking ,thin compact design, a luxury 4.3-inch widescreen display M0 has built-in instant messaging and VoIP capabilities.

• UMID MID : Wireless connectivity options: WiBro (Korean WiMAX provider), HSDPA, WiFi and Bluetooth
• 
  

• VILIV: X70: The Viliv X70 is powered by an Intel Atom Silverthorne Z520 1.33GHz processor with the SCH US15W chipset. It has 1GB of memory, 8GB/16GB SSD and 30GB/60GB hard drive. The X70 comes with a 7-inch 1024×600 LCD touchscreen, integrated support for WiMAX, HSDPA, WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0. The X70 has a SD/SDHC card slot, stereo speaker and integrated microphone. It runs Windows XP or Linux.

  

Thanks ,BP

For operators, meeting this demand translates into technology upgrades and more cell towers, both leading to higher CAPEX spending. To achieve a return on their network investments, it’s important to evaluate technologies based upon spectral efficiency. WiMAX technology, with its superior 4G performance and the flexibility of its uplink/downlink ratio, is well positioned to cost effectively meet wireless broadband capacity needs compared to HSPA (3GPP Rel. 6), HSPA+ (3GPP Rel. 7), and LTE (3GPP Rel. 8).

Check out the latest Intel WiMAX Program Office (WPO) white paper by Geng Wu and Caroline Chan WiMAX, 3G and LTE: A Capacity Analysis to learn more.

The amount of traffic internet will generate would compel operators to offload data from their Macro Base station to indoor base stations. At least two solutions are on the table for operators, Femtocells and Wi-Fi offloads.  Both approaches solve the backhaul issue by using customer or 3rd party links (DSL,,MetroE, T1/E1, WISP or others).

WiMAX Femtocells are tiny mobile cell sites using the mobile operators licensed spectrum, supporting all devices and all services.  Thus WiMAX femtocells are a great way to extend coverage and create higher capacity.  If you want to extend data service in places where macro cell coverage is poor, a WiMAX femtocell could be an ideal candidate.  However, WiMAX operators also have an option of extending indoor coverage through Wi-Fi access points. We will examine aspects of WiMAX Femtocells and Wi-Fi for indoor coverage in this article.

Architecture and deployment ease

Femtocell based architecture will require all the management and data traffic to pass through ASN-GW and a security gateway to perform functionality of handovers and security procedures defined in IEEE 802.16e. On the other hand Wi-Fi based systems do not require data traffic to pass through any central location and has much flatter and architecture as compared to WiMAX femtocells. Of course there are associated advantages of using S-GW and ASN-GW in case of WiMAX femtocells.

Economics

The current prices of WiMAX Femto access points are 5 to 10 times higher than the level of prices which Wi-Fi devices have reached. Operators controlled femtocells will come across challenging business economics and retail customer might not be interested in buying WiMAX femtocells at the current price levels. I do not perceive huge demands of WiMAX femto access points in near foreseeable future and hence it would be very difficult for operators to push femto based solutions to their customers. In fact covering a particular building with operator controlled femtocells for providing higher capacity and coverage would face severe ROI challenge as the cost of WiMAX femto Access points and associated infrastructure is way too high as compared to Wi-Fi Access points.

Spectrum

I would definitely emphasize that the amount of data growth expected in the next decade would keep operators always hungry for spectrum. 83 MHz of Wi-Fi spectrum in 2.4 Ghz is ideal for operators to cater the mobile data demand generating out of indoor locations. The next version of wi-fi which is called 802.11n has support for MIMO and even data rates up to 300 mbps can be supported in these tiny access points. The cost of 802.11b/g and 11n devices is not significantly higher.

Worldwide I see operators demanding at least 30MHz of spectrum for BWA application in 2.3, 2.5 and 3.5 Ghz. Most the current WiMAX deployments are in reuse3, and I spot no spectrum left for operators for in building femtocells. In those scenarios Free Wi-Fi spectrum in 2.4 Ghz will in fact help operators to provide sufficient capacity generating from indoor usages.

Devices

The primary sources of mobile data demand are laptops, notebooks and smart phones. Laptops and notebooks have Wi-Fi connectivity.  Wi-Fi chipsets are prevalent and has almost 100% availability in laptops other internet centric devices. Wi-Fi has reached matured level of availability and WiMAX embedded devices will reach these levels in next 5-7 years. ABI research projected 1 billion Wi-Fi chips in 2011 and global shipment of Wi-Fi enabled cell phones to get doubled in between 2009 and 2011. Wi-Fi is not just prevalent in internet centric devices like Laptops and notebooks, actually 90% of the smart phones will be Wi-Fi embedded modules by 2014. The current Wi-Fi chipsets are very competitive in prices and Intel has plans to embed WiMAX+WiFi in their MID’s and all future internet centric devices. [4]
.Intel is ready to ship 6250 – kilmer peak chipsets which will have 2×2 11a/g/n and 16e wimax in 2.3/2.5 and 3.5 GHz. The 11n version is capable of supporting peak data rates up to 300 mbps. There next silicon (evanspeak, targeted for MID’s) which is will support all in one module of 1X2 11 agn , 16e , Bluetooth and GPS in 2.3, 2.5 and 3.5 GHz bands.

Roadmap

WiMAX release 1.5 will focus on WiMAX-WiFi-Bluetooth coexistence and forum is also addressing and evaluating handovers between Wi-Fi and WiMAX.[5]

Summary

PICO base station and Repeaters will continue to play important role in extending coverage, and generating additional capacity in WiMAX Networks [6].. The economics of deploying PICO base stations in enterprise buildings and commercial hubs is encouraging. However, WiMAX Femtocells looks challenging from business case and deployment perspective. I believe that Wi-Fi will continue to complement WiMAX networks and there are numerous other advantages associated with Wi-FI for retail consumers. We have already observed WiMAX+WiFi router introduced by Cealwire ( clearspot),yota(Yota egg) and UQ as demonstration of their capabilities. Operators must keep Wi-Fi in their access strategy in building next generations mobile data networks.

Thanks

Intel continues its commitment to worldwide Mobile WiMAX business, with plethora of new chipsets covering all the segments to empower internet based devices. Intel is currently shipping kilmer peak based chipsets which houses 2×2 11n/g and 16e WiMAX in bands of 2.3,2,5 and 3.5 GHz in pinetrail platforms.

The other segment fastest growing segment in mobile data networks is the new genre of devices called MIDs and smartphone. Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) and smartphones are paving the way with advanced and highly efficient audio, video, camera and imaging usages, along with premium content delivery. Driving this effort is the Intel® Atom™ processor-the world’s smallest processor. And the next-generation is coming to us in 45nm high-k system-on-a-chip (SoC) process technology, codenamed Moorestown. Intel will launch mooestown platform based Evanspeak silicon which will have 1X2 11 agn , 16e , Bluetooth and GPS in 2.3, 2.5 and 3.5 GHz bands.

At this year’s Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Intel Fellow and Chief Platform Architect for the Ultra Mobility Group, Shreekant (Ticky) Thakkar discussed the various usage models surrounding this exceptional, low-power processor that is effectively creating a big computer experience in a small and pocketable device. In volume, MIDs, handheld productivity devices, portable media players, game consoles, navigation devices, along with high-end Smartphone’s will see an influx in the growing mobile landscape as Moorestown enables immersive experiences, such as:

• Live video streaming
  
• Video chat and video conferencing
  
• Quality picture and video clip captures along with editing capabilities
  
• Instant upload of pictures, video clips, blogs, and more to the Internet
  
• Mobile TV and video services
  
• Streaming audio
  
• Voice memo recording
  
• 3G, WiFi, and WiMAX options for always-on, always connected (AOAC)
  

Moorestown SoC process technology offers hardware accelerated HD video playback, allowing users to render video on local or external displays. Moorestown also offers support for key codecs and file containers, enabling DRM protected video playback and media frameworks with hardware acceleration. And with a strong MIDs ecosystem in place supporting Moorestown, users will encounter compelling, connected experiences with additional enabling software including Linux, Real, Adobe, Eyecon, Move Networks, Inc., Discretix, and LiveCast.

Watch Intel’s video from MWC

Download Moorestown platform presentation here…

Mobile WiMAX is one of the promising technologies, and it promotes low-cost deployment and service models as well as Internet friendly architectures and protocols. This paper briefly overviews the current version of  mobile WiMAX, mobile WiMAX Release 1.0, which is based on IEEE 802.16e-2005, and expands on the upgraded version, mobile WiMAX Release 1.5, which is based on IEEE 802.16-2009.  Release 1.5 enhances wimax performance as compared to its predecessors.  This release will support operators with improved data rates, higher coverage and allow new services to be offered in their current Radio networks. Recently WiMAX Forum has published network specification for release 1.5. In this paper we will delineate the key enhancements of WiMAX release 1.5 that will help operators to deliver the best out of their wimax networks.  We will broadly cover the following aspects in the current whitepaper.

• Release 1.5 PHY , MAC and network features
• Significance of release 1.5 to network operators
• Migration aspects of release 1.5

Paper Summary

WiMAX systems based on release 1 have shown significant advantage over their 3G competitors when it comes to deliver all IP based data services over wireless. Mobile Data is one of the fastest growing segments in wireless, and mobile data traffic will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 108 percent between 2009 and 2014.[1]

We have presented that WiMAX Release 1.5 is an important interim step before operators can fully migrate to a completely new release to deliver the unprecedented growth expected in mobile data segment. WiMAX Release 1.5 has support for improved antenna systems which will help operators to delivery superior capacity and improved coverage .Operators who are planning voice over WiMAX will benefit with new persistence scheduling mechanism introduced in Release 1.5.

Location based services ,USI architecture, and Ethernet based services will allow operators to generate additional revenues from their commercial WiMAX networks and these initiatives holds the promise of much closer interworking with internet application providers and network service providers. Policy based charging and dynamic Quality of services will provide intelligent charging mechanisms to enable delivery of new services models.

Download paper below

Little is known about the performance of commercial LTE networks, however I got the opportunity to talk with some of the folks at Intel WiMAX who were part of UQ deployment and were closely involved in UQ WIMAX project in Japan. I really have some fascinating details to report about the UQ WiMAX and their deployment so far.
UQ differentiates itself from other tier1 mobile operators like NTT, KDDI and Softbank by promoting its services as huge pipe for unlimited internet, faster than HSPA, EV-DO and has MVNO business models as their key differentiators. UQ also introduced different plans for different kinds of consumers. UQ offers its services as low as US$4 (called UQ step) and unlimited internet at US$49.2(UQ Flat). UQ Wi-Fi is free for its user and UQ single day pass costs $6.7. UQ is on way to deploy the nationwide WiMAX and by December 2009 they have deployed 6100 base stations.

Samsung is supplying majority of the Macro Base Stations for UQ project. Hitachi is supplying the ASN-GW and I am told that R6 handover between Samsung and Hitachi is completed by now. The other supplier of base station is NEC and handovers between Samsung and NEC is completed in UQ labs. Toshiba, Sony, Panasonic, Onkyo, Lenovo and Acer are shipping products based out of Intel. Other suppliers of devices are Modacom, NECAT, IO Data, Oki . Over 95% of the devices in UQ network are dongles and embedded laptops. Samsung is supplying in-building solution in UQ to cover Railways stations (JR 44 Station), Airports ( Haneda, Narita) , Convention center ( Tokyo Big Site, Makuhari, Mess , pacific yokhama ) , hotels and stores. UQ is also using Kyocera based WiMAX/WiMAX repeaters to improve in building coverage [2].

By December 2009, UQ has reported some 63,000 customers. UQ’s President Mr. Takashi Tanaka said that UQ WiMAX is really fast and most of the places they will be offering speeds up to 10 mbps in downlink. Their peak achievable data rates in good radio conditions with category 5 HARQ is over 20 mbps. Network entry and success rates observed nearly 100% in good radio conditions and over 95% in cell edges. Handover latency is in the range of 60-70 ms, which is better than the current 3G networks deployed in Japan. Network connection time is fairly fast and it is in the range of 2 seconds. IP allocation from DHCP servers may take additional 5-10 second and mostly depend on radio conditions. Performance results reported from UQ’s commercial wimax network is very close to what technology promises. It would be really great to test DoCoMo’s LTE systems with UQ’s WiMAX in coming years. UQ president said in 2010 they will enable global roaming with clreawire and yota .
(The views expressed here are my own and does not reflects my company opinion)
Thanks
Watch this Video from UQ

3G spectrum will be allocated in 2.1 GHz and BWA spectrum in 2.3 GHz band.

Government of India in the policy document outlined that the relevant frequencies are only for 20 years of award. In the case of the 3G Auction, the Government has decided to assign by auction three or four blocks of 5MHz of paired spectrum in the 2.1GHz band in each of the 22 service areas1, as per details given in figure;

In case of spectrum to be awarded in the BWA Auction, the Government will auction two blocks of 20MHz unpaired spectrum in each of the 22 service areas2.Details of the frequencies to be auctioned in each service area in the 2.3GHz band are provided below:

Expected foreign participation and intense competition: As per the released NIA document “Foreign entities are permitted to participate in the Auctions, subject to the provisions of Section 3.1. However, the UAS/ CMTS/ ISP-category ‘A’ licence conditions and the FDI provisions imply that such a foreign entity can operate a telecom service in India only through an Indian company with no more than 74% foreign shareholding (subject to the approval of the FIPB for the foreign shareholding in excess of 49%). However interested foreign entities are allowed to participate in the Auctions directly, and obtain a license subsequently, either through application for a new licence or through acquisition of an existing licensee (subject to the applicable  guidelines).”

Further auction details and full paper can be downloaded from here..

(The views expressed here are my own and does not reflects my company opinion)

Wireless community has stated numerous times about the importance of 700 MHz band which is considered “beachfront property”, implying that this band is very valuable.

But why is it valuable? The simple rationale most often cited is that the 700 MHz band has better propagation characteristics. Smaller cells at 2.6GHz so best suited for hot spots and 700MHz has a better indoor coverage, but more prune to interferences in urban environment.

WiMAX in particular has most of the deployments in 2.3, 2.5 and 3.5 GHz globally. If I refer reports from wimaxforum, it points 245 networks globally deployed in 3.5 GHz and nearly 100 networks in 2.3 and 2.5 GHz bands. While 2.5/3.5 GHz band has some advantages like it suits better for capacity driven deployment in areas which are highly dense in population, the other important consideration is availability of large chunks of spectrum in these new bands. While indoor coverage and mobility (especially in 3.5Ghz) are associated challenges in 2.5/3.5 GHz bands, WiMAX apparently has most of the deployments in these frequency bands globally.

For any operator who is planning a mobile WiMAX network, the major challenge in these bands is related to indoor coverage. Unlike radio planning in cellular world, wimax radio planning approach has seen little divergence from traditional means. Most of the new WiMAX networks are planned based on single wall coverage. Planning based on single wall or 1^st wall allows operators to decrease initial capex in a big way making the overall deployment economics much healthier. I am sure all of us who are involved in mobile wimax deployments will understand associated challenges of indoor penetration in higher frequencies.

So let’s assume an operator has planned his wimax network with 18db penetration loss which is good enough for most of the building material like glass, wood, brick and other types of commonly used building materials. However if there is a stone wall and the customer is in cell edge , we might face challenge as the penetration losses for stone for 90^th percentile is 20.7 db, which is much higher than what we have planned. There is a tradeoff, between quantities of coverage versus number of cell sites required to cover a particular geography. Every single db increases 10% more cell sites as per link budget. I see lot of wimax operators struggling with indoor coverage complexity and in most of the cases they return back customers deposits making the case non feasible for service.

The Russian wimax operator, Yota started their network with condensed capex and highest amount of achievable coverage by using very low building penetration losses. This has helped operator to improve cell radius and ultimately helped to reduce overall capex for initial deployments. Later the same operator introduced WiMAX-Wifi pocket router to improve their indoor coverage as their customer can place these devices near to window and work anywhere within 10-15 meters of the device [1] . This is a brilliant way to reduce initial cost of deployment and complement it with wifi to improve indoor coverage. In the second step, the Russian operator introduced Picocells to improve coverage to those areas where even WiMAX/Wi-Fi devices are not functioning.( since the initial network was planned for outdoor coverage)

Other operators in Asia are taking diverse strategies as their planning is based on moderate building penetration losses to strike a balance between capex required for coverage and indoor penetration. In almost all cases these operators are planning their wimax network for single wall coverage. I found this interesting device which is called WiMAX/WiMAX repeaters [2]. This repeater handles WiMAX signal for both indoor and outdoor, and UQ has developed the WiMAX/WiMAX repeaters together with cooperation from KYOCERA Corporation as both companies developed WiMAX/Wi-Fi repeaters released in September [3] . Release of this repeater is targeted by the end of fiscal year 2009 after license acquisition.

Now most of the repeaters normally amplify noise during their operation. This repeater is capable of performing MIMO and has advanced mechanism to handle especially noise. They have dual baseband processor in donor and acceptor side and this helps in reducing noise before repeating the desired signal. These types of devices could play very important roles in extending indoor coverage.

The last item that I would like to draw attention to, apart from the aspects of smart network planning, repeaters and in-building solutions is the use of higher order antenna systems to overcome the challenge of indoor penetration. If you are planning a wimax network in higher frequency, it might be a good idea to use 4TRX or even 8TRX system in bases station to reduce initial capex and exploit diversity gains in uplink. The individual cost of base stations with higher antenna systems might be higher initially, but the overall business case would be better as they will help immensely in reducing operational costs. Systems with higher antenna systems can also leverage Beam-forming technologies to provide additional downlink link budget gains to further improve capacity and coverage.

(The views expressed here are my own and does not reflects my company opinion)

Thanks

I was reading an article by Andrew Mitchell in which I found KDDI president and chairman, Tadashi Onodera in MWC, “explained to the audience that the economics of mobile broadband and flat rate pricing are “a big headache for operators.” The panel also reviewed the challenge operator’s face in finding ways to pay for infrastructure.  Flat rate pricing and the ever-increasing demand for data services to deliver new applications implies that this challenge won’t be going away any time soon.” KDDI does not plan to implement tiered charging. However China Unicom has plans to introduce Quality of Service (QoS) based differentiated pricing. [1]

Clearwires in US offers unlimited flat internet plans which are starting at US$ 30 without any QoS(quality of service) commitment. They sell their service with best effort delivery of data and promise better speed than 3G with speeds up to 6 mbps.

Yota promotes it WiMAX as a flat unlimited internet with monthly service plan at US$30 and UQ Communications in Japan offers their unlimited flat internet service at US$50. There is no quality of service promised in these networks and I do not see tiered charging in these new 4G RANs. Notable, KT in Korea as well sells their service at flat US$22 and promises speeds up to 3mbps in downlink and 1 mbps in uplink.

But in Asia the trends are quite diverse. Packet one sells it packages with tiered charging [2] and differentiated QoS for home and office users. In India, TATA and Reliance sell QoS based tiered charging in their Fixed WiMAX networks. I see a larger number of operators selling their packages in tiered charging in Asia and Africa.

The data as a percentage of total revenues in countries like India, Brazil, Thailand, Mexico and others are very low as compared to some of the more matured markets in the world. Countries like India and Brazil has less than 10% of total wireless revenues from Data and most of the revenues are generated form SMS based services .On the other hand, nearly all of the major operators around the world have double digit percentage contribution to their overall ARPU from data services. Operators like DoCoMo, and Softbank are over 44%. KDDI, 3 Australia, 3 Italy, 3 UK, Vodafone UK, O2 UK, KTF, Telstra, and 3 Sweden exceeded 30% and many others are on the verge of crossing the 30% mark [3].

3 Australia operators reported the highest increase in data ARPU from 2008 with 31% growth. Other notable percentage increases in ARPU were from 3 Italy, SK Telecom, KTF, T-Mobile Germany, 3 Sweden, and T-Mobile Austria. The Japanese operators saw a decline in ARPU by 3%. In terms of absolute dollar amount, NTT DoCoMo leads the pack with $25 data ARPU. The average Data ARPU .

I see a strong relation with counties purchasing power parity per capita GDP (PPP) and affordability to pay for broadband services. Countries like India, Brazil, and Thailand will continue to sell tiered charging based packages for their customers as their data ARPU is far small than other matured markets. To make broadband affordable and outreach to masses low entry tiered packages would continue to be sold in these markets. Both WiMAX and LTE have capabilities to support this kind of charging mechanism.

I can understand, when KDDI president said “we do not plan to implement tiered charging“, he might be referring to US$50 flat internet which their consumers can possibly pay. In India operator will have to serve five broadband connections at that price ( taking US$10 as average revenues). I am certain we will see tremendous innovation to drive down cost of infrastructure and opex to make broadband affordable but that itself is not enough to provide flat internet in very low ARPU. This could be one of the reasons for China Unicom’s strategy of introducing plan for tiered charging and QoS for their Customer [4]. Tiered charging will continue in low data ARPU countries for making broadband affordable and entry price as low as possible. “It is not wise to sell Mercedes to everyone we need Nano for some”

Thanks

Reports from the first 4G mobile broadband Russian operator Yota has some analogous findings where their average traffic per customer is 10 Gigabytes per month [2]. To analyze operator’s strategies and spectrum requirement I have superimposed Cisco’s findings and other information available from leading ISP’s in a way to create a big picture of mobile data growth in next decade. I have categorized data growth in two segments a) Smartphone’s b) Data centric devices like laptops etc(BWA Application) .

Another work carried out by IMT ( report M2072) has published user data requirement for different countries in next decade for identifying necessary spectrum requirements for technologies beyond IMT2000 especially IMT A. [3]

Two main observations for data operators;

• The average busy hour data consumption for Smartphone will reach 366 MB by 2020 and the average monthly traffic will reach 25GB.
• The average busy hour data consumption for smartphone will reach 1.5 GB by 2020 and the average monthly traffic will reach 171 GB.

I was trying to plot the best possible known spectral efficiencies of mobile wimax, LTE , LTE A and 16m to try to analyze operators and regulators strategies to support the amount of data that would be generated from mobile networks during the decade[4]. Certainly regulators will have to release large chunks of spectrum to cater the demands of mobile data and operators will have to strategize their network rollout too to prepare for the data growth.

I would certainly look the following strategies for managing network traffic growth;

• Early introduction of new generation technologies ( Mobile WiMAX,16m,LTE A etc)
• Offload fixed indoor traffic to femtocells
• Complement Wi-Fi for indoor data
• Network optimization (throttling of heavy data users etc)
• Extending Fibers to cell sites for next generation backhauls
• Optimize video by broadcast methods (Video will contribute over 60% in next decade)

To be able to stay ahead of the demand, significant planning needs to go in to deal with data explosion. New technical and business solutions will be needed to manage the growth and profit from the services. Relying on only new 4G RAN won’t be an effective strategy to manage rising data demand. By introducing new business models and technology solutions such as femtocells, Fiber backhauls, optimization, broadcast video, new types of devices and most important take hold of bigger chunks of spectrum would be the strategies to remain profitable in next decade.

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I was reading a recent article from beccem semiconductors who apparently has biggest market share in wimax chipset about their intent to launch a new chipset which will support LTE. Beceem vice president of business development Lars Johnsson clarified that “Beceem isn’t taking the much bigger LTE chipset market head on—at least not yet. Rather Beceem is producing a dual-mode WiMax-LTE chipset targeting device makers looking to encapsulate all 4G connectivity in a single device. The chipset won’t just be dual-mode; it will support both time-division duplexing (TDD) and frequency division duplexing (FDD), channel sizes up to 20 MHz, seamless hand-off between radio technologies and the plethora of different 4G bands available globally. Combined, those capabilities make it the chipset for any flavor of 4G”, Johnsson said.

In a parallel shift the other prime WiMAX Chipmaker Sequans communication announced that they have licensed unique LTE IP from Dorfour Ltd., a Tel-Aviv-based 4G IC company. The IP enables maximum likelihood performance at four times the efficiency in size and power consumption of competing solutions, contributing a key component to Sequans’ LTE solution. Apparently Alcatel lucent and Motorola ventures have invested in the company for their LTE platform development. [1]

Wavesat the Canadian chipmaker who is running little late to grab the WiMAX Market has also announced their new odyssey chipset family which will allow their customers to design products based on WiMAX, Wi-fi and LTE.

The mainstream Korean suppliers Samsung and LG started their 4G engagements with WiMAX and extending their leaderships in initial LTE devices. [2]

Do you see a common thread here? I often consider whether LTE is competition to WiMAX suppliers or providing some incredible opportunity to new wimax entrants (beceem, Sequans, Wavesat) who have gained the necessary insight about the 4G technologies and are ready to make a mark in one of the highest growing data segment. I am eagerly waiting to hear announcements from other WiMAX chipset during MWC in similar lines.

I am convinced about the fact that there is enough motivation and opportunities for WiMAX Device manufacturers for showing their interest in LTE market;

• Common pool of technology and research for LTE and WiMAX as both the technology has a lot in common. In the positioning paper Driving 4G Motorola said “At Motorola, the WiMAX and LTE development organizations are one team working in close collaboration to bring both WiMAX and LTE to market quickly and with a high focus on quality. Motorola is leveraging upwards of 80% of its WiMAX development efforts to develop a best-in-class LTE platform that will meet early trials and commercial deployments.”
  
• Over a period of time Sequans, Beceem, Wavesat and other new entrants have developed an ecosystem of manufacturers from Taiwan who specialize in making data centric devices. I don’t expect a handset driven LTE market for at least next 2-3 years which would certainly be the place where bigger names would engage, the Taiwanese ODM’s are more than willing to enter the market of Dongles and Indoor Devices in LTE space.( Source : UMTS Forum)

  

• During the wimax ecosystem development the New WiMAX chipset manufacturers have also got an opportunity to work with bigger names like Motorola, Huawei, Samsung, ZTE , ALU which they are leveraging in their LTE plans as these supplier are also developing LTE systems.

The debate over WiMAX and LTE would persist and operators who have profited [3] from deploying early WiMAX are not only the benefactor but it seems like the WiMAX device manufacturers also has a significant role to play in LTE market.

Suggested reading;

Korean suppliers leading LTE device market

The majority of the terminals that we have in current mobile wimax networks are 1 Tx in uplink and 2Rx in Downlink. The advantage of having two receive antennas in downlink allows use of advanced antenna configuration like STBC(space time block codes) and SM (spatial multiplexing ) to achieve higher spectral efficiency and ability to transfer data at low SINR conditions. I would like to cover small comparisons of 1Tx vs 2Tx in uplink in mobile WiMAX devices which will help operators to increase capacity and possibly reduce initial capex too.

Let talk about ecosystem first, Sequans has a working 2Tx based solution and they are trialing in couple of commercial networks especially in clearwire. Beceem is developing a new chipset to support 2TX variant and they should be ready by second quarter or even early. I have not heard about intels plan, but I am sure seeing the mandatory requirement of having higher spectral efficiency in WiMAX 2.0 , they will also have commercial silicon very shortly.

The main business driver s of 2Tx devices are;

;

• BW/Coverage/Reliability/QoS improvements for devices operating in Nomadic usage scenarios (CPEs, MIDs, Laptops, PC-cards)
• System wide coverage benefits (site density reduction) for Nomadic deployments
• UL Capacity/Performance Requirements ( symmetricity in uplink traffic)

So the bigger question is, do we really see a quantifiable improvement of 2TX based devices over 1Tx?

There are Varity of ways by which operator can leverage 2Tx to their full advantage and the most common and easy to implement option would be to use diversity techniques which will not require any change in Base Station or amendments in standards. To take full advantage of 2Tx advanced MIMO techniques like Marix A in uplink ( will provide additional link stability )and MIMO/Beamforming( provides additional capacity ) will require protocol support . Release 1.5 has incorporated UL MIMO ( MATRIX A & MIMO/Beamforming) as optional feature. A schematic of 1TX vs 2Tx is presented for your understanding. I believe the cost of up gradation to 2TX should be less than 10US$.

MIMO A mode in 2Tx outperforms when it comes to reliable data transmission. MIMO B requires higher SINR but has distinct advantage of improving atleast 20-30% capacity over single transmit antenna device. And do keep in mind that networks which are coverage limited would gain immensely by the additional 3 db gain which operators can leverage to reduce initial base station deployment capex.

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The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is expected this summer to provide final approval for the 802.16m standard, also known as “WiMAX 2.”

Two operators who are bullish for 16m are clearwire and Yota. U.S. ISP Clearwire, currently the largest company to offer commercial WiMAX services in the United States, has said it plans on testing out 802.16m sometime next year in the hopes of deploying it in 2012.

So what do we know about this WiMAX sequel? Well for one, it will be backward compatible with 802.16e, the WiMAX standard currently used by operators in the United States. This means that when Clearwire upgrades to the new standard it will be able to do so at a relatively low cost and with minimal additional cost of up gradation and service disruption. I heard that most of the currently deployed WiMAX Base Stations can be upgraded to WiMAX 2 with new higher capacity channel cards and new softwares. But there is something which is little tricky here, If a 2X2 MIMO systems are upgraded to WiMAX2 the performance advantage would not be very much. With 16e systems we are already reaching Shannon’s limit in peak data rates. Operators need to upgrade to their current 2×2 MIMO systems to 4×2 systems to achieve higher spectral efficiency in similar amount of channel. One of the major improvements in MIMO technologies is the support of Multi User MIMO in WiMAX 2. “Multi-user MIMO can leverage multiple users as spatially distributed transmission resources, at the cost of somewhat more expensive signal processing. In comparison, conventional, or single-user MIMO considers only local device multiple antenna dimensions. Multi-user MIMO algorithms are developed to enhance MIMO systems when the number of users, or connections, numbers greater than on “

The WiMAX Forum is working on an 802.16m certification profile for developers that it hopes to have up and running by the time IEEE finalizes the standard in September. If all goes according to plan, we should start to see WiMAX 2 devices hit the market one year later.

Please note that I have also blogged about Korea’s leading electronics maker and the central government-financed research institute succeeded in demonstrating the newest and fastest version of wireless mobile Internet technology

Reporting from the infrastructures suppliers front, Samsung Electronics and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, or ETRI, released a joint statement in august, saying that they demonstrated Mobile WiMAX Evolution at the JW Marriott Hotel, Banpo-dong, southern Seoul in the presence of members of the Radio communication Sector, a division of the International Telecommunication Union. Samsung in a joint press release claimed peak speed of 149 mbps in downlink /49 mbps in uplink in 20 MHz TDD based system. The peak mobile data rate were 50 mbps in downlink and 11 mbps in uplink.

Motorola, Huawei and ZTE are actively participating in 16m working groups and has readmap to support 16m based systems in 9-12 months after standardization. In all aspects migration of 16m would not be a one time upgrade but a step by step procedure. I expect that multicarrier and support of 20 MHz channels would come first , followed by support of downlink 4 stream ( MU-MIMO ) , multicarrier binding and interference collaboration in control and data plane.

Clearwire, notable deployed 4TRX systems from Huawei Seattle and other cities which would be easily upgradable to a 4X2 16m systems using new channel cards and software’s.

With the new technology, mobile phone users can get faster access to mobile Internet at comparable speeds to Web surfing on a home computer.

Thanks, BP

The current WiMAX incarnation, Mobile WiMAX, is based upon IEEE Std 802.16e-2005 which was approved in December 2005.

Another version of draft called IEEE Std 802.16-2004 addresses only fixed systems.

IEEE 802.16e-2005 improves upon IEEE 802.16-2004 by:

• Adding support for mobility (hard handover between base stations). This is seen as one of the most important aspects of 802.16e-2005, and is the very basis of ‘Mobile WiMAX’.
• Scaling of the Fast Fourier transform (FFT) to the channel bandwidth in order to keep the carrier spacing constant across different channel bandwidths (typically 1.25 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz or 20 MHz).  Constant carrier spacing results in higher spectrum efficiency in wide channels, and a cost reduction in narrow channels.
• Advanced antenna diversity schemes, and hybrid automatic repeat-request (HARQ)
• Adaptive Antenna Systems (AAS) and MIMO technology
• Introduction of  sub-channelization, thereby improving indoor penetration
• Introducing Turbo Coding
• Adding an extra QoS class for VoIP applications.

Recently another amendment to 802.16e-2005 was ratified with name 802.16e-2009 and following MAC/PHY features were amended;

• H-FDD frame structure for FDD support
• Persistent allocation ( to enhance VOIP capacity)
• ARQ enhancement
• ertPS enhancement
• Handover enhancement
• Idle mode enhancement
• MBS enhancement

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Taiwan-based network equipment maker Gemtek Technology has begun shipping its in-house developed portable WiMAX/Wi-Fi routers to the US market, according to the company.

Shipments of Gemtek’s portable WiMAX/Wi-Fi devices came coincidentally with the launch of the 3G/4G Overdrive wireless router by US-based Sprint Nextel, the sources pointed out. The Overdrive router is made by Sierra Wireless.

The availability of the Overdrive routers and Gemtek’s WiMAX/Wi-Fi routers will help global WiMAX network operators to expand their services, the sources commented.

U.S.-based WiMAX operator Clearwire marked its first foray into Europe on Friday with the launch of high-speed wireless Internet services in Malaga, Spain.

Clearwire will offer Internet access under its Instanet brand to consumers from €29.90 per month. The operator said its WiMAX network is able to support download speeds of between 3 Mbps and 6 Mbps, with occasional peak speeds of 10 Mbps.

“Nearly 600,000 Malaga residents will be able to access the Internet immediately and affordably without the disadvantages or delays of traditional ADSL services,” said Gilberto Sánchez, managing director of Clearwire Spain, in a statement.

The arrival of Clearwire’s WiMAX service in Europe comes as the company aggressively drives the rollout of its domestic operations.

The company announced in August plans to launch in 25 U.S. cities by the end of 2009; by the beginning of 2010 it offered WiMAX-based services in 27 U.S. markets. Clearwire, which is 51% owned by Sprint Nextel, aims to cover 120 million people by the end of this year.

Clearwire at the end of November 2009 also made a preliminary joint venture deal with Mexican communications firm MVS Comunicaciones and chip maker Intel to invest $700 million in a wireless broadband network in Mexico covering 23 cities.

Clearwire’s European launch comes at a time when the mobile industry looks increasingly likely to base next-generation broadband services on 3G LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology, rather than WiMAX.

Sweden’s TeliaSonera became the first operator in the world to begin offering LTE services with the commercial launch of its network in Stockholm and Norway’s capital Oslo in December.

The telco said it plans to extend the reach of its Swedish LTE network to a further 25 cities during 2010 at a cost of around half a billion Swedish crowns (£43.3 million).

In the same month O2 UK announced the successful completion of a live LTE trial at its U.K. headquarters in Slough, notching up peak download speeds of 150 Mbps.

LAS VEGAS–Sprint Nextel introduced a 3G/4G wireless router Wednesday night called the Sprint Overdrive that will allow subscribers to share their wireless broadband connection among Wi-Fi devices.

Sprint 3G/4G Overdrive wireless router

(Credit: Sprint Nextel)

The Overdrive router, made by Sierra Wireless, uses Sprint’s 4G WiMax network, where it’s available, to allow customers to access the Internet and then it shares that bandwidth among Wi-Fi-enabled devices. Where 4G service isn’t available, the router connects to the Internet using Sprint’s 3G EV-DO wireless network. Subscribers can connect up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices, such as laptops, cameras, game consoles and other Wi-Fi-enabled devices.

Sprint, which showed off the new device at an event the night before the Consumer Electronics Show kicks off here, claims that the 4G wireless network provides enough bandwidth to allow users to easily wirelessly stream high-definition video and music, play games on consoles like the Microsoft Xbox and surf the Web all at the same time.

The Overdrive will be sold at Best Buy stores in 10 markets. It goes on sale January 10 and it will cost $100 after a $50 mail-in rebate. This price requires a two-year service contract for Sprint’s 3G/4G data service. These plans start at about $60 per month.

Through its partnership with 4G wireless provider, Clearwire, Sprint offers 4G wireless service is 27 markets across the U.S. with more to come in 2010.

The new Overdrive device could make the Sprint/Clearwire 4G service more appealing to consumers. Even though device makers are starting to embed WiMax technology into devices, there are more Wi-Fi devices on the market today. In fact, Dan Hesse, Sprint’s CEO said there are currently more than 4 million Wi-Fi devices on the market. And according to In-Stat, that number could reach 1 billion by 2012. Allowing consumers the opportunity to leverage the Wi-Fi already embedded in their consumer electronic products might be a good strategy to boost subscriptions for the 4G wireless service.