Interview: Safdar Imam Hyder, senior costing specialist at Omantel, Oman: “US operators are doing it better and Omantel should learn its pricing lessons from them.”

Safdar Imam Hyder, senior costing specialist at Omantel

Safdar Imam Hyder, senior costing specialist at Omantel is appearing on Day Two of the of the LTE World Summit, the premier 4G event for the telecoms industry, taking place on the 24th-26th June 2013 at the Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands. Ahead of the show Hyder tells us how device launches are boosting excitement for LTE in the region amongst consumers, how LTE is a revenue opportunity for operators and why RCS services are critical for operators to be able to compete with OTT.

What major developments have there been with regards to the LTE industry in your region this past year?

We are witnessing a broadband explosion in the MENA region, especially in the GCC where broadband revenue has been growing steadily at a double digit rate over the last three years. Telecoms revenue in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is expected to grow by 27 per cent between 2012 and 2017 according to Analysys Mason, mainly due to data on 3G and 4G networks rolling out faster and faster.

Since the first launch of LTE in Saudi Arabia in September 2011, LTE has been launched in all the GCC countries such as UAE, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain. Here in Oman, LTE deployment is in full swing with both the tier one operators Omantel and Nawras launching – Omantel using both TDD and FDD and Nawras using FDD. Roll-outs have been accelerated in 2013 after the TRA issued spectrum licenses to both the operators at 1.8GHz.

The LTE World Summit, the premier 4G event for the telecoms industry, is taking place on the 24^th-26^th June 2013, at the Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands. Click here to download a brochure for the event.

Omantel, a pioneer LTE service provider in the Sultanate of Oman, has announced the launch of the second phase of its FDD 4G LTE network with coverage extended to new areas. With the latest LTE devices launches from Samsung, BlackBerry and Huawei, LTE fever is catching up fast with the general users in the Omani market, especially with the youth in the gaming and video applications. Expectations are high for launches of newer devices and Omantel is progressing well on expanding LTE 4G coverage to almost all major cities of Oman by the third Q313, with its vendor, Huawei.

Pricing for LTE is a controversial subject. Are operators getting it right?

I see LTE as an opportunity to boost ARPU for operators, but it all depends on pricing. Ever since the advent of the technology, billing and charging systems have been riding a wave of change. If Omantel is able to adapt to the new ecosystem we can lead our market to a new era of data connectivity and technological advancement; what is known as the “smart society”. This country has all potential parameters for developing as an e-society with one of the highest ratio of utilised bandwidth per user.

The biggest challenge that operators here are now facing is to get their charging models right. Having learned from their 3G experiences, we know that unlimited offers are a risky proposition in LTE era. In a recent survey, out of 65 operators polled, only three per cent are offering unlimited plans. The combination of new billing options and reluctance to offer unlimited plans is bringing about a new wave of pricing innovation.

Most of the pricing alternatives currently used for LTE are conventional in concept except those of shared plans. Simply, already implemented pricing schemes are being perfected and developed. However, LTE pricing is still in its infancy, evolving differently in various regions. As LTE pioneers European operators are wary of unlimited pricing and have opted for LTE rental premiums in the range of 50-80 per cent, with unit costs per megabyte of almost half compared to rest of the world.

US operators, after an initial fumble in the race to launch 4G networks, are developing new pricing models. They are choosing to be technology-agnostic and have opted to price the new generation telecoms access (mostly data) according to the number/type of connected devices and the data volume consumed. This provides users with an affordable way to use data either stationary or on-the-go and for operators to increase revenue per customer. In my opinion US operators are doing it better and Omantel should learn its pricing lessons from them.

Do you think that LTE offers great opportunities for monetisation or does it present challenges?

I think LTE or any high-speed mobile data network offers great opportunities for monetisation. This is because mankind is undergoing an amazing ‘mobile revolution’. Every day we see new upcoming developments in fields like mobile video, social media applications, mobile marketing, mobile health, mobile money and M2M, and all are made easier via LTE. Both the clients and consumers side have great business need for LTE and there is immense potential in that. But the challenges are fierce and unequal competition with OTT providers, whom are more focused and faster at executing on services and product development. As such, mobile operators are in great danger of becoming simply utility service providers with low-value dumb data pipes for third parties.

Do you believe that RCS services can genuinely help the industry compete with OTT?

Internet penetration is growing massively in Oman with more than two million users. OTT services such as Viber, PalTalk, Google Talk, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger have already been unblocked in Oman by a memo issued by the Oman TRA to all operators in April 2012 and are now easily accessible on desktop and mobile devices. Skype might also follow the suit.

RCS does provide a competitive advantage to MNOs by introducing IP-based communications services to their own platform and enabling them to compete with OTT service providers. Realising the importance of multi-service IP network in the lives of the people and the economy in general, regulators all over the world are aggressively protecting or promoting OTTs. As these OTT players eat into traditional telco revenues, technologies such as RCS provides a solid foundation for crafting a compelling user interface, building a brand around services and incorporating differentiating features that most operators traditionally do not seem to be good at.

According to Jeremy Green, a principal analyst in Ovum’s Telco Strategy Practice, by 2020 VoIP alone will have cost the global telecoms industry $479bn in lost revenues. Therefore the importance of adopting RCS is all the more critical.

Interview: Director, Greenet, Netherlands: “We believe that proper broadband connections are a must for everyone.”

Bart Heinink, is owner and director of Greenet

Bart Heinink, is owner and director of Greenet, an ISP that offers a fixed-line replacement service using LTE. He will be speaking on this subject on Day Two of the LTE World Summit, the premier 4G event for the telecoms industry, taking place on the 24th-26th June 2013 at the Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands.

Please give me an overview of Greenet and its major achievements.

Greenet is a provider that focuses on the areas of the Netherlands where fixed-line broadband connectivity is poor and expensive. We believe that proper broadband connections are a must for everyone. We first focus on the needs of customers by targeting areas with poor broadband connections. After gaining commercial commitments we construct dedicated LTE networks used for fixed-line replacement. We are very successful in demand bundling (up to 90 per cent participation) and will launch our first network in April. After that we have a solid commercial basis that will allow us to quickly roll-out LTE networks at specific locations as a dedicated for Fixed2Mobile (F2M) substitution.

Why is LTE important to you and where does LTE fit into your strategy?

LTE finally enables mobile technology to live up to the promise it has offered for a long time, but which as yet has not come true. It offers a true alternative for fixed-line broadband. We offer LTE in the market as an alternative for fixed-line connectivity by bundling enough demand to be able to invest in dedicated LTE F2M capacity.

Could LTE be viewed as a threat or an opportunity for fixed-line operators?

Most certainly as both. In highly populated areas LTE will not be able to offer the required capacity to both fulfil mobile as well as ‘fixed’ demand. At home or at hotspots fixed-line connectivity and Wi-Fi off-loading cannot be replaced by LTE, nor can LTE live up to the bandwidths fixed-line networks can offer.

Having said that, LTE is a very efficient and adequate alternative to fixed lines in certain areas. LTE connectivity is around 10 times cheaper than constructing a FTTH network. In areas where FTTH is not viable, LTE definitely offers a true alternative if the network is designed in a way that guarantees sufficient and dedicated capacity. Given these prerequisites, the European Commission recognised that LTE is an adequate alternative for fixed NGA networks.

What are the chief technical challenges you are facing?

The major challenges we are facing are:

• Availability of spectrum. Sufficient capacity for offering an alternative for fixed lines requires sufficient spectrum.
• Ability to offer TV and video services. We hope transport technology, quality of service management on LTE will develop rapidly in order to be able to offer competitive TV offers via LTE.

What opportunities will the cloud offer to ISPs and MNO?

For a start-up like Greenet the cloud offers significant opportunities. Services that were complicated and expensive to offer as a small operator, can now be offered via the cloud. Business telephony is an example but also OTT TV and video services.

What do you think will be the most exciting developments in the industry in 2013?

I think it will be the industry living up to the promise that LTE offers. For understandable reasons the take-up of LTE in Europe as well as our home market the Netherlands has been quite slow. We see 2013 as the year mobile broadband will make a significant step-up in its capabilities and market potential.

Interview: Head of international standardisation and IP management, DT, UK: “competing with OTT is not the goal of Deutsche Telekom.”

Michele Zarri, head of international standardisation and IP management, Deutsche Telekom, UK

Michele Zarri, head of international standardisation and IP management, Deutsche Telekom, UK, is speaking on VoLTE vs OTT Voice on Day Two of the LTE World Summit, taking place on the 24th-26th June 2013, at the Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands. Speaking ahead of the show, Zarri explains why he feels the operator provided voice services will still offer benefits to consumers over OTT VoIP applications.

What is your timeline for VoLTE and what benefits will it bring?

Early versions of VoLTE have already been launched in some markets such as Korea and Hong Kong. Operators are currently focussing on deploying LTE, but deployment of IMS platforms, accelerated by the desire to launch Joyn, is taking place simultaneously. Additionally, given the availability of devices compliant to the GSMA’s IR.92 standard, expected during the course of 2013, there is no technical impediment to launching VoLTE. As a consequence I expect to see commercial services rolled out by the end of this year (2013) in most developed markets with international roaming launched within two years after that.

From an operator point of view, the main benefit of VoLTE is being able to provide the voice service natively over the packet switched access, while avoiding disruption to back-office processes. This removes the last constraint justifying the running of circuit-switched networks; therefore achieving the objective of moving fully to the more efficient packet-switched access.

What appeal will VoLTE have to consumers over and above their favourite OTT apps?

Today customers are already replacing the mobile operators offered voice service with their favourite OTT application. The reasons why OTT apps have not been adopted in large scale therefore is not the availability of broadband mobile access, but due rather to the benefits offered by operator-supplied voice. Such advantages will not be lost in the migration to VoLTE. What I am thinking of is reach (call and be called by anyone), security (a trusted relationship with the operator and strong encryption), privacy (user data is safe with an operator), familiar interface (voice client is natively integrated in the handset), seamless user experience (use of phone numbers, set of supplementary services), predictability (well-known charging scheme) and, last but not least, quality, as the network is configured to prioritise voice traffic over other types of traffic.

The LTE World Summit, the premier 4G event for the telecoms industry, is taking place on the 24^th-26^th June 2013, at the Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands. Click here to download a brochure for the event.

Will VoLTE sound significantly better than current voice calls?

Calls between two VoLTE users will use the HD voice codec, resulting in a far superior experience. In fact HD Voice is already available over 3G networks, therefore in time the vast majority of the mobile to mobile calls will enjoy the benefits of such a codec. Fast forwarding a few years, as IMS allows the device of the caller and of the called party to negotiate the codec used, it is imaginable that new and more powerful codecs will be introduced and used for Voice over IMS calls.

Why was VoLTE not baked into LTE from initial launch of the technology?

The goal of 3GPP when developing LTE was primarily to create a radio technology that could meet the IMT‑advanced requirements issued by ITU, therefore the service layer was not in focus. Furthermore, in 2008, when the LTE specifications were released, IMS was already a three-year old technology and earmarked as the means to create voice services over a packet switched access. In fact, you will notice that no service except connectivity was, to use your expression, baked into LTE, though the low-latency target and support for guaranteed bit-rate were evidently tailored for the support of voice and other multimedia services.

Is any kind of VoLTE launch practical without SRVCC widely implemented?  (In a network without SRVCC implemented, please explain what happens when a VoLTE call is made to a handset that goes out of LTE coverage?)

Indeed SRVCC will be important functionality in the early days of VoLTE due to the expected patchy LTE coverage. However, when operators start rolling out voice over HSPA, which has also been profiled in GSMA, the occurrence of SRVCC events will become much less frequent, since the far more efficient packet switched handover will be used instead to move from LTE to 3G. Other positive aspects are that field tests by Deutsche Telekom have shown that the predicted long interruption of the service in case of SRVCC have been overestimated.

As a VoLTE call would fail when the handset goes out of coverage, operators are unlikely to deploy VoLTE until SRVCC is available and will instead rely on CS Fallback, whereby the handset moves to a legacy access technology prior setting up a call.

Do you believe that RCS services can genuinely help the industry compete with OTT?

Contrary to this widespread misconception, competing with OTT is not the goal of Deutsche Telekom. Arrogant as it may sound, Deutsche Telekom will not lower its standards to those of some of the OTT offers currently available to consumers. The goal of RCSe is instead to offer an integrated and secure service for which there is demand in the market, adding all the benefits described above for VoLTE as well as other specific ones. RCS will also show that even traditional mobile operators can offer innovative services. For example, Joyn is a product based on the RCS-e standard and provided by the mobile operator community. The next version of RCS will be fully supported by IMS, bringing additional benefits for the consumer.

Interview: Michael Wu, Director, Wireless Access Technology Development, Telus, Canada: “Monetising LTE investment was a key business challenge for Telus.”

Michael Wu, Director, Wireless Access Technology Development, Telus, Canada is speaking on the subjects of HetNets at the LTE World Summit, the premier 4G event for the telecoms industry, taking place on the 24th-26th June 2013, at the Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands. Ahead of the show we speak to the Wu to find out more about backhaul strategy, network optimisation and business challenges.

What were the chief technical and business challenges you faced when you rolled out LTE?

TELUS first launched LTE services in 14 metropolitan areas across the country in February 2012, and since that launch we have expanded coverage to reach more than 70 per cent of Canadians, with plans to cover even more by the end of this year. From a technological perspective, the key challenge was really about making iRAT (inter Radio Access Technology) work between UMTS and LTE. The iRAT handoff between UMTS and LTE had very limited global deployment at that time and there were issues tied into the devices as well. As happens when implementing most new technologies, the timescale was underestimated and it took us longer than expected to complete the development. With the growth of social media, Internet mobilisation and consumerisation, monetising LTE investment was a key business challenge for Telus, as it is for all carriers. Customers expect to pay less but enjoy more data consumption at better speeds.

The LTE World Summit, the premier 4G event for the telecoms industry, is taking place on the 24^th-26^th June 2013, at the Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands. Click here to download a brochure for the event.

What impact does LTE have on your backhaul strategy and technology choices?

LTE enables services to operate at faster speeds and at lower latency. This relies on much more stringent backhaul performance. When Telus launched UMTS in 2009, we implemented an all-IP backhaul deployment, which enabled us to prepare for the LTE upgrades.

Are small cells important for your roll out and how can they successfully be integrated into the network?

Small cells were not the key consideration for our initial LTE rollout. This is primarily because LTE small cell technology was not mature at that time, and there were no LTE small cells available. That said, at Telus we believe small cells will be the key element to address future exponential growth of data traffic. We are continuing to explore small cell technology and believe the successful integration of small cell into the macro LTE network will be made possible once key features mature, such as eICIC, and RE in LTE Release 10.

What are the key techniques for network optimisation in LTE and what effect can it have on the customer experience?

LTE introduced many new technologies, such as 2×2 MIMO and OFDMA. For these, the traditional RF optimisation techniques such as drive testing and antenna down‐tilt will not satisfy the requirements for network optimisation. In the market today, there are many different kinds of techniques: MIMO optimisation, RET based third-party SON tools, SON based real-time optimisation and others. Some of them are mature while others are still under development. These optimisation techniques greatly improve customer experiences by fixing network problems in real-time instead of potentially waiting week after week due to the nature of troubleshooting complexity in the LTE world.

Some fear that the dedicated backhaul required for every small cell installed will destroy the economic benefits that they bring in terms of offload. What’s your view?

Backhaul technologies for small cells are still evolving so it is too early to make that statement. In my view, the adoption of small cell backhaul will depend on each operator’s individual business case – what infrastructure they have today and what they will build in the future, and also whether they are looking for partnership to leverage others’ infrastructure or not. Ultimately, the winning strategy will be providing enough backhaul capacity for small cell traffic growth, while maintaining an attractive investment return.

Why is the LTE World Summit such an important show for operators to attend?

The LTE World Summit is the main event in the global wireless industry where all the key players are present. The Summit represents a unique opportunity to share information with other operators and key vendors, get a stronger sense of where the industry is at and assess new developments with other industry players. By speaking at the conference and representing Telus, I see this as an opportunity to recognise the success of Canadian business in the global marketplace, and more specifically showcasing Telus as a leader in technology innovation and introduction. By demonstrating that Canada continues to have a healthy balance of regulation and free market economics, we are ensuring the future of a healthy and vibrant mobile broadband sector.

Interview: Senior technical operations management expert, TRA Lebanon: “Operators are looking for partnerships with OTT providers.”

Dr Imad Holballah, activng CEO of the TRA Lebanon

Dr Imad Holballah, activng CEO of the TRA Lebanon, is delivering the opening day keynote on Day One of the LTE MENA conference, taking place on the 13th-14th May 2013 at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai, UAE. Ahead of the show we find out more about the complex challenges regarding spectrum that are impacting the roll-out of LTE in the Middle East.

How advanced is data usage in Lebanon?

The dominant player in the mobile arena in Lebanon is the Ministry of Telecommunications (MoT). The MoT has rolled out two 3G HSPA+ networks throughout the country and these are being run by two network operators, Alfa and Touch. The 3G networks can theoretically deliver speeds up to 4Mbits/s. However, the average speeds users experience are normally only in the range of 0.3 – 1 Mbits/s – so the need to move to next generation technology is clear. In Q1 2013, major ISPs entered the 3G data market by introducing new prepaid data SIM cards for tablets, dongles and Wi-Fi routers. In addition, the MoT has recently been testing LTE (mainly at 1800MHz) on both network operators, in preparation for a full launch in the near future.

The LTE MENA conference is taking place on the 13^th-14^th May 2013 at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai, UAE. Click here to find out more about the event.

Can you tell me about the spectrum auction process in your region and how it has impacted LTE deployments?

LTE spectrum bands are generally not being auctioned in Middle East countries. Rather LTE network deployments within the region have been utilising frequencies already assigned under current licenses, e.g. Mobily Saudi Arabia, Nawras Oman, Ooredoo Qatar and Etisalat UAE. An auction to sell LTE radio spectrum in Bahrain was halted after a wireless broadband operator appealed against its exclusion from the sale. In Lebanon, the Ministry of Telecommunications assigned spectrum on the 800 and 1800MHz bands without going through a spectrum auction, given that the mobile market has not  been liberalised yet.

What are the key challenges that the TRA is facing in terms of getting LTE deployed?

There are many challenges facing LTE deployment in the region. One of the key challenges we see involves the availability of combined spectrum bands for coverage and capacity purposes and to ensure optimal indoor coverage. 800MHz is currently licensed for analogue TV operators awaiting the digital switchover so it could be used for coverage along with other capacity bands (e.g. 2.6MHz)

There will also need to be rules and procedures to encourage infrastructure sharing, particularly involving active sharing (e.g., Single RAN and spectrum sharing) and passive sharing of towers and ducts. A decision on coverage obligations will need to be made on whether it will be applied to specific spectrum bands or licensed to mobile operators irrespective of the operating band. Another issue is that there is a shortage on backhaul spectrum frequencies to satisfy LTE deployments and we need to speed up the process of deploying optical fibre cables for E-node B backhaul. Finally, the availability of multimode multi-band LTE devices is a problem as these are not widely available in the market.

What are the primary concerns of operators in your region and what are the key challenges that they face in the next 12 months?

The major concern of mobile telecom operators is riding the data tsunami in the MENA region while the voice market continues its gradual decline.  OTT applications (such as Skype, WhatsApp, Viber) that bring “free voice” and/or “free SMS” are a direct challenge to legacy voice and SMS revenues.

To counter this, operators are looking for partnerships with OTT providers to bundle their services into their triple-play packages. There will also need to be investment in data compression technology to better manage growing data volumes. Additionally, the availability of a simplified and flexible spectrum licensing regime will reduce administrative burdens and spectrum harmonisation and the greater availability of multi-modes multi band devices are essential.

Is there a strong desire from operators for lower frequencies for LTE and is there a desire for a common band (e.g. 1800MHz)

Operators in the region are certainly interested in acquiring low frequency bands for LTE deployments due to their excellent propagation characteristics (e.g., better indoor coverage and greater outdoor coverage). In MEA, operators have started to deploy LTE deployment on 800MHz band. The UAE is preparing to launch it soon and Ooredoo Qatar launched its first LTE network on 800MHz Band 20. In Lebanon, the two mobile operators also started LTE pilot projects early this year for networks on 800MHz. 1800MHz is also popular as an international frequency to aid global LTE roaming and about 10 out of 16 LTE Networks in the Middle-East were deployed on that frequency.

Does LTE throw up any specific issues such as bill shock through excessive data usage?

The LTE issues are essentially the same as that of 3G. To avoid ‘bill shock’, mobile operators in Lebanon are currently relying on sending several SMS messages to warn the subscriber of their data usage at 50 per cent, 80 per cent of their data limit, when they have hit it, and of the charges when they are roaming. Despite these efforts some consumers in Lebanon are still facing high bills such as when roaming for the first time, due to the lack of experience in the data usage, and sometimes when they sign up for a lower cost plan that does not fit their data usage needs. 

Moore’s Law Is No Joke — Pile Of Electronics From 1993 Fits In Your Palm Today | Singularity Hub

Reblogged from MisterDTV:

There’s nothing like a well-conceived picture to drive a point home. You know the point, right? Sure you do. Hint: It’s in the title.

via Moore’s Law Is No Joke — Pile Of Electronics From 1993 Fits In Your Palm Today | Singularity Hub.

Picture. A thousand words. Wow. Makes you think - and telecoms is at the centre of it.

Will LTE prove to be a life-saver?

LTE isn’t just a great technology for uploading pictures of the cake you just baked to Facebook – it could soon prove to be a life-saving technology. What the public is becoming increasingly aware that LTE is the technology behind ‘4G’ not many realise that plans are underway in the US for it to be to be used to build a public safety network.

This is a network that is set aside from the regular communications networks, exclusively for use by first responders in an emergency situation, such as terrorism or natural disasters. While these systems already exists it is hoped that the introduction of LTE will enable these first responders to act even more quickly and effectively thanks, in the main, to one of LTE’s key features – speed. An LTE public safety network should be several times faster than the networks currently in place, enabling information to be sent and received faster and more reliably.

As such, an LTE-based system called FirstNet is currently being discussed in the US and  the opening sentence of this report prepared for the US Congress on FirstNet, indicates how acutely the issue is felt in the country, stating that, “[on] September 11, 2001…. communications failures contributed to the tragedies of the day.”

The recent events on 20 April in Boston have once again brought attention on the progress being made in developing a newer public safety network and in a recent meeting of the FirstNet board the matter of how an LTE powered FirstNet could have helped in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing was discussed.

According to this report the most relevant assistance it might have brought was to board member Kevin McGinnis, who is also CEO of North East Mobile Health Services. He said that he can monitor the health of up to 20 patients on his smartphone in real time – but to do that a robust reliable network is required. Presumably this isn’t so that he can ‘work from home’ but rather he can help more people by being in more places at once, as it were, by having life-saving data at his fingertips.

Another example given at the meeting was by board member Charles “Chuck” Dowd, deputy chief of the New York City police department who said that bomb squads from different areas sometimes pooled resources and used real-time HD video to work together to diffuse devices. HD video is of course one of the things the LTE does best.

In an interview with the LTE World Series earlier this year, Tony Gray, board member of the TETRA & Critical Communications Association (TCCA) and chair of the Critical Communications Broadband Group (CCBG), pointed out that the public safety community can benefit from the economies of scale the LTE provides, lowering prices and time-to-market of equipment, which up to now has been proprietary and expensive. However, he also pointed out that LTE as a standard will have to adapted to meet the specific requirements of the critical communications community in the areas of group-based operation, fast call set-up and off-network, device-to-device working.

This and other issues will be addressed at the LTE Public Safety expo that is taking place on the show floor on day two of the LTE World Summit on Tuesday 25^th June. At the expo, which is free to attend, you’ll also get to hear from other key Public Safety experts such as Emil Olbrich, lead project engineer for NIST, and Herman van Sprakelaar, who is in charge of tactical management for the Netherlands Police.

While we all hope that critical communications will never have to be used, it is reassuring to know that LTE technology will soon be on hand to assist in these worst-case scenarios.

The LTE World Summit, the premier 4G event for the telecoms industry, is taking place on the 24^th-26^th June 2013, at the Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands. Click here to download a brochure for the event.

Interview: CTO, SK Telecom, South Korea: “SDN and network virtualisation technologies hold great promise for mobile carriers.”

Dr J W Byun, the CTO of SK Telecom, South Korea is speaking on Day One of the LTE World Summit, taking place on 24-26 June 2013 at The RAI, Amsterdam. Ahead of the show we speak to him about how SK Telecom has been able to extend its global lead in LTE and gives some insights into what he sees coming down the line for telecoms.

SK Telecom is a leader in LTE technology and have been one of the first to go live with VoLTE? Why do you think you were able to do so when other operators have not done so?

We were able to achieve nationwide LTE rollout at a rapid pace as Korea is a small but densely populated country. Moreover, Koreans are already used to fast Internet speeds and their expectations are getting higher and higher in terms of network speeds and device features/capabilities.

As Korea’s top mobile carrier, SK Telecom has developed strong technological capabilities in mobile telecommunications and accumulated extensive knowhow in network operation over the past 29 years. Based on its long-standing partnerships with many telecommunications equipment manufacturers and device makers, SK Telecom was able to maintain its market leadership by developing the most innovative LTE technologies and securing the richest line-up of mobile devices.

After launching Korea’s first LTE service in July 2011, the company saw its LTE subscriber base expand rapidly thanks to its premium service quality and customer care. With the spread of LTE, the company shifted its focus to developing and providing diverse services specially designed to match the needs of LTE users, allowing them to get the most out of the LTE network. In addition, on August 8, 2012, SK Telecom has launched the world’s first nationwide VoLTE service to enable users to experience premium-quality voice services.

Are you also intending to be one of the first to pioneer RCS services and what impact do you think it will have on customers mainly using OTT services?

SK Telecom has already commercialized an RCS service named joyn.T. Launched on 26 December 2012 the number of joyn.T users reached 1.57 million in April, 2013. The strong growth of joyn.T is attributable to the fact that it

1) Enables joyn.T users to send free messages (SMS, MMS) to anyone including those who have not downloaded the joyn.T application.
2) Offers diverse differentiated features such as live video sharing and location sharing.
3) Can become interoperable with RCS services of other mobile carriers throughout the world.

The LTE World Summit, the premier 4G event for the telecoms industry, is taking place on the 24^th-26^th June 2013, at the Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands. Click here to download a brochure for the event.

Where are you with LTE Advanced and carrier aggregation in particular?

At Mobile World Congress 2013, SK Telecom showcased Carrier Aggregation using a smartphone for the first time in the world and we plan to commercialize LTE-Advanced by launching Carrier Aggregation (CA) in the second half of this year, using a combined total of 20MHz (from the 800MHz and 1800MHz bands).

However, last year, in July 2012, SK Telecom became the first company in the world to commercialise Multi Carrier (MC) – a technology that enables operators to choose one frequency band from multiple carriers to provide more seamless and reliable LTE services at faster speeds – by building 1.8GHz base stations. Going forward, these MC-capable base stations can be easily turned into CA-capable equipment through software upgrades so as to support LTE-Advanced from the second half of 2013.

Do you believe that RCS services can genuinely help the industry compete with OTT?

RCS service sets itself apart from the traditional OTT offering through its unique features. It provides guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS) since it is offered over the managed IP network of the operators and hence is carrier-grade. In addition, it can be grown into a more comprehensive service with the addition of diverse features developed based on the global RCS standards. SK Telecom plans to add attractive features that are combined with communication services, such as HD Voice (VoLTE). Furthermore, as many mobile operators around the world are promoting the development of RCS services based on the same specifications, these services are expected to become a universal service that can be enjoyed by all customers around the world regardless of network and carrier.

Is VoLTE part of your plans and what benefits will it bring both to operators and consumers?

For customers, VoLTE improves voice quality over 3G voice calls by 40 per cent by utilising a wider bandwidth (50~7000Hz) compared to 3G voice calls (300~3400Hz) and Adapted Multi-Rate Wide Band (AMR-WB) codec, which handles 2.2 times wider frequency bandwidth than that of 3G voice calls. Moreover, the call connection time is less than 0.25 to 2.5 seconds, two to 20 times shorter than 3G voice calls. VoLTE also provides seamless conversion between voice and video calls.

Moreover, VoLTE has helped mobile operators strengthen their competitive edge over third-party players, while paving the way for the creation of new and creative all-IP-based business models.

Where do small cells fit into your plans, and what benefits will they bring?

In the LTE-Advanced environment where data traffic is expected to increase dramatically, small cells will become the most crucial part of mobile operators’ strategy. Small cells enable operators to expand network capacity using their existing frequency resources in the most cost-effective manner. SK Telecom has deployed 50,000 femtocells including 3,000 LTE femtocells. To realize the true benefits of small cells, SK Telecom plans to develop and apply cell virtualization technologies such as Super Cell. Super Cell enables mobile operators to use cell virtualisation technologies to enhance network capacity by minimising inter-cell interference, ensure seamless call quality by removing handover, and benefit from cost-efficient operation of networks.

Are there any other key innovations in your network compared to others operators?

SK Telecom’s premium quality LTE service is supported by innovative LTE network technologies like Multi Carrier, LTE femtocells, Downlink CoMP (Coordinated Multi-Point) and SON (Self-Organizing Network), all of which were commercialised by SK Telecom for the first time in the world. The application of these advanced technologies, combined with SK Telecom’s long-established know-how and experience in network operations, is making the company’s networks even stronger, faster and smarter.

The company is also making constant efforts to keep developing core LTE-Advanced technologies to lead the full-fledged opening of the era of LTE-Advanced. It has successfully demonstrated, for the first time in the world, core LTE-Advanced technologies like Enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (eICIC), Uplink Cooperative Multi-Point (CoMP), Carrier Aggregation (CA) and Transmission Mode 9 (TM9).

Pricing for LTE is a controversial subject. Are operators getting it right?

LTE operators around the world are introducing many different types of price plans for their LTE subscribers. As for SK Telecom, it is offering a wide variety of LTE price plans in order to meet the diverse needs of customers and to encourage them to experience the advantages of the ultra-fast network in the most convenient and cost-effective manner. They include flat-rate plans, specialised plans for different age groups such as the elderly and teenagers, and optional data-only plans.

For instance, the company’s most recently launched (March 22, 2013) fixed-rate price plan named ‘T&T Sharing’ provides customers with unlimited intra-network voice calls as well as unlimited intra-network and inter-network texting. The company also modified its existing LTE data plans to lower the cost burden on customers by allowing them to add one data-only device to use the same data pool for free.

Moreover, in January 2013, SK Telecom introduced the ‘LTE Data Gift Program’ that allows customers to give their remaining data to other LTE users through a simple process.

How will affordable LTE roaming be achieved?

LTE roaming costs are expected to become as affordable as that of 3G roaming through close partnerships between mobile carriers. This will occur as LTE services spread across the globe. Recently, the members of the Bridge Alliance reached a consensus that LTE auto-roaming takes an important role in the future direction of next-generation roaming services, thus calling for strategic partnerships between carriers around the world.

After launching the world’s first LTE auto roaming service under partnership with Hong Kong’s CSL on June 1, 2012, SK Telecom has launched the service in Singapore by joining hands with M1 (October 1, 2012) and SingTel (March 1, 2013). Recently, SK Telecom has also started the service in the Philippines (April 1, 2013) by partnering with Globe Telecom.

What are the biggest changes you see coming down the line for mobile telecoms?

It has long been their dream of mobile operators to create mobile networks strong and smart enough to provide optimal network quality at all times. In the world of ever-increasing data traffic, they have been making heavy investments in their network infrastructure to prevent worst-case scenarios involving network overload. As a pioneer in the development of the global mobile industry, SK Telecom has already launched and refined its LTE network and is currently moving rapidly towards the era of LTE-Advanced.

Along with its efforts to realise unprecedented network speeds, SK Telecom also plans to promote the development of the Software-Defined Network (SDN) and network virtualisation technologies to make its network more powerful and attractive. SDN and network virtualisation technologies hold great promise for mobile carriers and will have a huge impact on the industry over the next five years. With SDN and virtualization technologies applied to the existing mobile networks, operators will be able to significantly reduce their network investment costs as they can install a number of software services within a single system, and flexibly adjust the amount of resources needed for each of them. Moreover, they will be able to offer optimal network quality for a particular service being used by customers located in a highly-congested area.

Interview: “LTE and fixed-line will keep walking together for a long time”: CTO, Equateur Telecom, Congo

Wilgon Berthold Tsibo, CTO, Equateur Telecom, Congo

Wilgon Berthold Tsibo, CTO, Equateur Telecom, Congo is speaking in the LTE Operator Strategies track on Day One of the LTE Africa 2013 conference, taking place on the 9th-10th July 2013 in Cape Town, South Africa. Ahead of the conference we speak to him about the particular challenges Africa is facing as local telcos look for roll-out LTE.

Please give me an overview of Equateur Telecom and tell me more about your customers and the wider MNO market in the Congo.

Congo is a country of four million inhabitants and there are more than 3.8 million mobile phone users; a penetration rate of 95 per cent. The MNO market Congo is composed of four operators : MTN Congo, Airtel Congo, Warid Congo & Equateur Telecom Congo (ETC),  known under the trade name of Azur-Congo. MTN and Airtel enjoy the largest market share (41% and 40% respectively) due to the length of time they have been established in the country – nearly 15 years. Warid, with six years market presence has 11% market share, and finally Azur Congo (ETC) holds 8% of the market after three years.

ETC is the fourth mobile operator in Congo Brazzaville and launched in 2010 in two main towns of the country – Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire. ETC has a commercial 2G license at 900 and 1800MHz frequencies and currently ETC is engaged in a deployment to achieve nationwide GSM coverage by the end 2014. We also offers EDGE services.

The customer base is mostly composed of young people, ages between 16 and 29 years old who are addicted to new technologies.

What are the biggest challenges to rolling out LTE in the Congo and the wider continent?

Most of Congo’s networks are 2G networks with some 2.5G services. One operator has started 3.75G services, but success has been limited. The biggest challenges to an LTE roll-out in the Congo will be mastering the equipment swap from 2.5G to 4G. After the swap, the second challenge will be obtaining terminals that are compatible with LTE, in order to make the product accessible to the whole population.

The LTE Africa conference is taking place on the 9^th-10^th July 2013 in Cape Town, South Africa. Click here to download the brochure for the event.

Will LTE act as a fixed-line replacement in Greenfield areas in Africa?

LTE won’t be a fixed-line replacement in Greenfield areas in Africa, but LTE is coming to reinforce the capacity and the diversity of services in Greenfield areas. LTE and fixed-line will keep walking together for a long time, because the availability of terminals constitutes a brake on the African LTE market boom.

What are the challenges around moving from WiMAX?

The challenges around moving from WiMAX to LTE are first and foremost adapting infrastructure to the Long Term Evolution technology and also ensuring the compatibility of terminals for the use of LTE services. Though they are close technologies in terms of development, the major challenges remain terminal availability.

FDD or TD-LTE – what is your technology preference and why?

Our preferred technology is Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD)-LTE because FDD is very good in situations where the uplink and downlink data transmissions are symmetrical (which is not usually the case when using wireless phones). More importantly, when using FDD, the interference between neighbouring Radio Base Stations (RBSs) is lower than when using TDD. Also, the spectral efficiency (which is a function of how well a given spectrum is used by certain access technology) of FDD is greater than TDD.

Are you considering network sharing agreements to lower costs and what are the regulatory issues surrounding this?

The strategy of sharing infrastructure is good as it reduces both CAPEX and OPEX. It reduces CAPEX for new operators entering into the business, because it does not have to raise large amounts of capital for its roll-out and it enables it to cover a large amount of territory through building sharing agreements. In return, the new operator will significantly reduce the OPEX of the site owner (fuel, electricity, maintenance, security, capacity) through its participation in the operational costs of the site. It will also enable the site owner to have a faster return on investment.

What particular challenges does Africa face in terms of backhaul provision?

The particular challenges are the availability of capacity at long distances from sites. Most operators use satellite links to serve remote areas but these links are very expensive and we cannot assure  quality during inclement weather. The emergence of different optical fibre platforms across Africa may be a solution.

How do small cells fit into your strategy?

In our strategy, small cells are a vital for 3G data off-loading, and we will also find also small cells vital for managing LTE Advanced spectrum more efficiently compared to using just macro-cells. The current cell architectures cannot support the exponential growth in demand for data transfer over the long term. The new radical concept of small cell networks can provide a viable solution economically and ecologically.

Double trouble – How EE is able to double its speeds and why it isn’t entirely good news

This morning EE, the only national LTE operator in the UK announced that come the summer, it would be doubling speeds of its 1800MHz LTE network for its subscribers.  The increase offers a maximum headline speed of 130Mbps, which in the real world would translate to average speeds of 20Mps. The increase will initially be available in ten cities – Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield – and would be done by the end of June.

How is this possible? At the launch CEO Olaf Swantee explained that it was doubling the bandwidth it would be using from 2x 10MHz to 2x 20MHz.

EE has loads of spectrum to play with. In the recent auction, in addition to its considerable 45Mhz at 1800 (63% of all UK 1800 holdings)  it has also acquired 5MHz of 800 spectrum  and 35MHz at 2.6GHz. It therefore owns 36% of all UK spectrum.

Not though that the increase will only happen on the 1800MHz layer. It certainly won’t offer it on 800MHz as it won’t offer that same level of speed as EE simply doesn’t have the bandwidth to support it.

As its UK competitors start to ready themselves to launch LTE, for EE the move is timely, as it gives them another strong point of differentiation. In fact they could be crying into their base stations. Vodafone owns the next largest chunk of spectrum with 20MHz of 2.6GHz while H3G tops out at 15MHz of 1800.

Did EE hold back the launch then just got marketing reasons? Not so, says Monsoor Hanif, director of network integration and LTE at EE who I spoke to after the launch I spoke to and he assured me that the speed increase was always in its schedule and that it did not depend of the success at auction.

However, on a technical level it was not ready to launch at 2x 20MHz he said. Its 1800 spectrum has of course been used for voice and according to Hanif the delay was to ensure it managed that transition to 4G smoothly without affecting the quality of its voice calls. “To take away 10MHz from your 2G spectrum, that’s a massive challenge and we did that very fast. And we didn’t impact the 2G quality – we actually improved it. Could we have done it at day one? Only if we were reckless.”

The major fly in the EE ointment though is that if people were complaining about the paucity of its data bundles at launch, it’s going to be even worse come the summer when those in the ten launch cities will be able to chow their way through their allowances at even more astonishing speeds.

I asked this directly to Olaf Swantee but his answer essentially side-stepped the question. He said that its T-Mobile customers on its unlimited Full Monty tariff  average out at 1.4GB for heavy users. But in the previous sentence he also said that 4G users user more than 3G users.

So if you’re increasing your speeds, why not increase the bundles?

People like the simplicity Swantee said. “They like the fact that it’s a simple portfolio. You cannot get data bill shock as you can’t run out of our bundle.” Well that’s true, but it doesn’t really address the issue.

In the notes supplied with the event EE says the increased speeds will enable it to be ready to stream Ultra HD 4K movies – the next generation beyond Full HD 1080p. However, how it can square this with its modest data bundles is beyond me – as while the network may certainly be fast enough to handle it – most people’s wallets certainly won’t.

Swantee also said that the overall bundle appeals to many – the Film Store, the 2-for-1 cinema deals and the tethering. It’s true, all of those things are great value-adds, but there’s no getting away from the fact that price wise EE LTE remains a premium proposition.

Shock of the new: As mobile tech hits 40 has mobile progress gone stale?

You may have noticed the stories doing the rounds that today (3^rd March 2013) marks 40 years since the mobile phone call was made – cue the traditional picture of the large brick-like mobile that those of a certain age will remember sharp-suited ‘yuppie’ types brandishing in the mid-80s.

And they did actually do this. A former boss used to tell the team repeatedly that back in the 80s he had once been able to pull over in a lay by on the motorway and secure a crucial deal because he was one of the only ones of his sales team to invest in a mobile phone. Gordon Gekko eat your heart out.

The first call was famously made by Martin Cooper, a Motorola employee who tells the tale of confused New Yorkers gawping at him in confusion as he walked around the street apparently makes a phone call – not something that up until then could have been done without the aid of a very long phone cable.

It’s called the shock of the new.

I clearly recall the experience of encountering a man in a bank who was patently a bit mad. He was walking around seemingly having a conversation with himself at the top of voice despite that fact that he wasn’t holding a phone. I remember staring at him wide-eyed as he walked around bellowing, and literally moving away to avoid this clearly crazy person. Except of course he wasn’t crazy. I didn’t realise it at the time (it was 1997) but he was just a man with a hands-free headset and no sense of the need for privacy.

Martin Cooper, a senior engineer at Motorola, who made the first mobile call

While Cooper garnered his first amazed looks in 1973, it was 10 years for the first truly mobile phone models to appear at a cost of around $3,500, which incidentally makes the £600 SIM-free smartphone handsets we have now appear to be reasonable value.

However, these days that ‘shock of the new’ advance in mobile phone technology has arguably all but disappeared. The last time I experienced anything like it was at the launch of the Apple iPhone when I attended back in 2007. After all, it was an event which ushered in a new era of the mobile phone as a truly multi-faceted tool – a combination of mobile phone, internet device, and music player.

That was 10 years after my confusion at the loud shouty man and his hands free cable, but the muted responses to the latest models of smartphones, whether they be from Apple, Samsung or Blackberry point to a slowing down of innovation. Will it be 2017 before the next truly game changing leap is made?

In our recent interview with Eric Hoving, the CSO of KPN suggested that LTE will enable that new level of generational leap but that it won’t be to the devices – it will be to the way the internet presents itself.

“You’re going to see a different internet now as a result of LTE. What we have today is not a mobile internet — it’s mobile access to the internet…. If I go to the McDonalds website when I’m walking in Amsterdam I want to experience a different website to when I am at home. LTE will finally allow the internet to go mobile.”

To me, this sounds like Hoving is trying to describe Web 3.0 – just as dynamic web sites and enhanced interactivity defined Web 2.0, mobile will define web 3.0.

The game changer can’t be said to be LTE itself – as in the first instance it provides a smoother and more pleasant smartphone experience – it doesn’t change the game in and of itself. However, whatever device or service will come next it will certainly rely on widespread, if not ubiquitous, fast network coverage, and LTE and its immediate successor LTE Advanced will be crucial to that.

So happy 40^th birthday for the mobile phone call, and here’s to the next ground-breaking milestone in mobile technology.

Interview: Chief strategy, innovation & technology officer, KPN Group: “LTE will finally allow the internet to go mobile.”

Erik Hoving, Chief strategy, innovation & technology officer, KPN Group

Erik Hoving, chief strategy, innovation & technology officer for KPN Group in The Netherlands, is opening the conference on Day One of the LTE World Summit, the premier 4G event for the telecoms industry, taking place on the 24th-26th June 2013, at the Amsterdam RAI, The Netherlands. In an interview ahead of the show we spoke to him about KPN’s LTE launch and the effect that 4G services will have on consumers and the internet in general.

Where are you with your LTE deployment in the Netherlands?

As part of a valuable packet of spectrum, KPN acquired 800MHz frequencies in the Netherlands in December last year. We have two paired blocks of FDD – 2 x 10MHz.  We obtained the license to use the 800 MHz spectrum on 1 January 2013 and we officially launched LTE on 4 February, just six weeks after the end of the auction. We’re in the middle of a huge roll-out scheme in the Netherlands, increasing coverage every week. This summer we expect to have covered half of the Dutch population with 4G. We initially launched in the greater Amsterdam area where the financial centre is.

What handsets did you launch with?

We launched with four handsets – the Nokia 820 and 920 Windows 8 handsets, the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Huawei P1 Ascend. Recently we added the Sony Experia Z, The Samsung Express, the ZTE Grand Era, the HTC One and the Blackberry Z10 to our handset line-up. We also launched with a Samsung tablet and a 4G Mobile Hotspot– a mobile router translating LTE to Wifi.

Are you concerned that there wasn’t an Apple device you could launch with?

The 800 MHz frequency, which will be deployed in 4G networks all over Europe, is not yet supported in Apple’s products. However, we expect that all major handset suppliers will support this frequency on new 4G phones for the European market, next to the 1800MHz and 2600 MHz frequencies.

What speeds are you seeing from your network?

The average speeds that we want to offer to customers on our 4G network are 20 Mbps down and 10Mbs up; we see that we are realising those speeds, and very often reach higher maximum speeds. This is actually so much faster than what we were used to in 2G-3G networks.

What would you say were the biggest technical challenges you faced as you rolled-out the network?

From a technological perspective, the thing that is almost always underestimated moving from 3G to 4G, is the significance of switching to full IP. An IP network is very different from a traditional mobile voice network. It requires different skills with regards to load balancing, to the core network architecture, signalling etc.

Do you think LTE will usher in truly innovative services?

First of all I think that 4G is going to be a unique experience for end-users.  Seeing is believing. The customer experience will improve ’hugely’.  The quality of your mobile internet experiences is just so much better. This may open up a lot of new opportunities. Things like gaming will become more important, more exciting for customers. Additionally, if you have a strong presence on the business market as we do in the Netherlands, the coverage inside buildings is much better. You’re going to be able to reach much higher internet speeds on tablets when you’re inside a building.

If you want to be a little bit more visionary what I predict is that the internet itself will change. In the past 20 years we went mobile and then we introduced the mobile internet at the end of the 90s but you had to wait so long [for web pages to load] that most didn’t bother. You’re going to see a different internet now as a result of LTE. What we have today is not a mobile internet — it’s mobile access to the internet.

In principle the internet today is designed for fixed [connections]. When you look at most websites, whether you are in your office or at home you get the same website, but what you’re going to see is that the internet access is going to go mobile. If I go to the McDonalds website when I’m walking in Amsterdam I want to experience a different website to when I am at home. LTE will finally allow the internet to go mobile.

What’s your view on TD-LTE as an emerging technology?                                    

Well I think TD-LTE is way bigger than we know in Europe. There are three major companies, China Mobile, Softbank and Bharti Airtel supporting it – and our German unit E-Plus is part of that alliance. TDD is a frequency and a protocol that works very well for data transfer. It’s an extremely interesting protocol to use for data transportation.

What are your favourite gadgets at the moment and what don’t you want to leave the house without?

I will never leave the house without my wallet! Wouldn’t it be great if I would only have to take my mobile phone with me and it would contain everything – my keys, my credit cards, my security cards, my entry cards?  We all know it’s possible. With NFC technology, with all the technologies that we have available it’s an application world and it could be developed.

Finally, what continues to excite you about your role?

This industry is very, very interesting. It’s a long-term investment industry. We have to take decisions for three, five, eight years in advance because if you don’t do that you can end up investing in the wrong things and you can invest too early or too late, which can massively impact your profitability in the long run. The LTE roll out for example. We planned long in advance, and that is why we’re so successful now.

Interview: IP Transmission Senior Manager, MobinNet: “Mobile broadband is a foundation not only of how people work but how they live.”

IP Transmission Senior Manager, MobinNet

Ali Tahmasebi, IP Transmission Senior Manager, MobinNet is speaking on mobile broadband strategies on Day One of the LTE MENA conference, taking place on the 13th-14th May 2013 at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai, UAE. Ahead of the show he tells us more about the pressures on networks and how LTE is helping operators deal with the traffic growth.

Most markets have seen exponential data traffic growth. What are the patterns you are seeing in your region?

The mobile broadband networks in the region have continued to explode and traffic has increased exponentially. This increase has been related to an increasing number of broadband users and their demand for high-speed services due to a proliferation of end-user devices such as tablets.

The enabling factor has been the broadband technologies that have evolved to address the exploding amount of data traffic. This has been through several means such as improved spectral efficiency and enhancements such as dual-carrier, MIMO and smart antennas that have increased the number of bits per second and Hertz, of which LTE is the most impressive example.

As the Middle-East’s largest WiMax operator, here in MobinNet, the traffic pattern has increase exponentially as well. Fortunately the traffic-speed slope has increased a bit more than that of traffic volume.

What steps can operators take to mitigate the effect of ‘chatty apps’ placing too much signaling pressure on a network?

Today, mobile broadband is a foundation not only of how people work but how they live – they communicate in a mobile oriented world. As the many different types of smartphone are increasing daily, the impact of ‘chatty apps’ is becoming ever more evident.

One of the way to resolve this to offload through wifi networks in order to route data traffic directly to the internet without passing through the mobile operator’s network. Considerations have to be made to address pricing and charging issues for this such as a flat/fixed monthly rate.

What are the challenges around maintaining customer satisfaction under increasing pressure on the network?

Customer satisfaction is a core concept and in a very competitive market it is one of the key areas of focus for mobile operators. The main parameters in this regard are users’ connection speeds, network performance and availability and pricing methods. Multiple access technology in the network, wifi offload, flexible quality of service (QoS) and policy based charging are the methods to deliver the desired service to the end users.

Despite the growth and opportunity around data, will monetisation of LTE be difficult?

I don’t believe it will be difficult; it is feasible. We have enough experience on mobile broadband networks such as 3G and WiMax and with its features such as flat architecture and spectral efficiency LTE has further decreased the overall cost for operators to deliver data.

How are you going about predicting what is required in terms of network expansion over the next 2-5 years.

Trends show mobile broadband traffic increasing at an exponential pattern in both traffic speed and traffic volume. From a technical and commercial point of view it is possible to calculate and predict the slope of the traffic growth curve for the next 2-3 years.  The existing 3G networks will adopt with the latest HSPA+ release to enable users to enjoy high-speed services. Most operators are looking to trace in detail the success story of the big operators that have already deployed LTE. Wifi offload and roll-out more new sites play the main role during this transition time.

In terms of backhaul the aim is to provide more flexibility in order to handle the surge of data traffic generated by HSPA+/ LTE networks. As such it is necessary to define a hierarchical topology including access, hub and metro sites. The backhaul dimensioning should be based on the theoretical peak data rate of access technologies and consider statistical multiplexing in aggregation nodes. As a deployment scenario, the main backbone connections and backhaul to backbone interfaces should be 10G ports. The backhaul will also depend on the location of the sites.

The LTE MENA conference is taking place on the 13^th-14^th May 2013 at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai, UAE. Click here to find out more about the event

Interview: Technical manager, Mobinnet, Iran: “The biggest challenges for us will be transitioning into an IPv6 world.”

Shamim Nael is the Technical director of operations and maintenance at Mobinnet Iran.

Shamim Nael, technical manager, Mobinnet, Iran is speaking on Day Two of the LTE MENA conference, taking place on the 13th-14th May 2013 at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai, UAE. Ahead of the show we speak to him about the transition of Mobinnet from WiMAX to LTE and about his concerns regarding the development of the TDD eco-system.

How are you managing the transition from WiMAX to TD-LTE?

By carefully considering the future of our network growth, we ensured that we were future-proofed by buying equipment that supported LTE. We also designed the backbone to be powerful enough to meet the all the standards and features that are already being used in modern high-tech telecom environments.

What are the chief technical challenges you expect to face over the next 12 months?

One of the biggest challenges for us will be transitioning into an IPv6 world. Despite several committees working together on a conversion program (including Mobinnet), there is still no announcement from the regulatory organisation about how and when we’re moving over.

Does it make sense to think of LTE as a fixed-line replacement in certain cases?

I don’t think so. In my opinion fixed lines will not be replaced by radio technologies. History shows both fixed and mobile networks developing in parallel, supporting high-tech services with no harm to each other. I remember what happened when IP technology leaked into Telecom world and made a huge revolution on it. We need to keep in mind it’s not the first nor last time that some major technologies may cause remarkable changes in core systems.

What do you consider to be the greatest benefits of the TD-LTE eco-system?

What are the trade-offs between FD-LTE and TD-LTE? The main differences between them lie in their band type. FD-LTE requires paired spectrum with different uplink and downlink channels. TD-LTE uses unpaired spectrum, transmitting uplink and downlink assignments on the same channel. Thanks to the TD-specific frame structure, TD will typically have a smaller link budget than FD. This means that TD-LTE usually caters for smaller cells than FD-LTE. So it’s up to provider’s policies to choose whether use TD, FD or mixed of both in their network. In short, I believe TD-LTE offers more robust radio performance in city environments and also a simpler network implementation because of single-band operation.

The LTE MENA conference is taking place on the 13^th-14^th May 2013 at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai, UAE. Click here to find out more about the event.

Interview: CTO, Sprint: “Interoperability between FDD and TDD offers exciting new opportunities.”

Stephen Bye, CTO, Sprint

Stephen Bye, CTO at leading US operator Sprint is speaking on Day One of the TD-LTE conference, taking place on the 23^rd-24^th April 2013 at the Fairmont Singapore Hotel, Singapore. Ahead of the show we speak to him about Sprint’s role is leading the TD-LTE charge.

How is the progress of your LTE rollout going in the US?

We are very excited about 2013.  We continue to make solid progress and we have strong momentum. We have been launching five to ten LTE markets each month since July 2012. For the rest of 2013 – we plan to launch in more and more markets. As of early February, we have launched LTE in 58 cities and announced nearly 170 more where LTE is coming soon. We have well over 200 markets where we already have one or more sites on air for 3G enhancements and/or LTE.

Why you believe that TD-LTE is a better choice for delivering mobile data than FDD LTE?

We support the use of both. Their use is linked to specific spectrum allocations. We are using FDD-LTE with Band 25 and Band 26, while we are also working very closely with Clearwire on support for Band 41 TDD-LTE.

There are big changes afoot for Sprint – you have announced plans to acquire Clearwire, and in turn Softbank has announced its intention to buy 70% of Sprint. Assuming these go ahead could you summarise how this will reposition Sprint in the US market in terms of spectrum and economy of scale?

Even as a standalone business, our wholesale relationship with Clearwire provides us with access to additional LTE capacity to support the data needs of our Sprint customers.  Our Network Vision architecture allows for better strategic alignment and the full utilisation and integration of additional spectrum bands, while achieving operational efficiencies and improved service for customers as the spectrum and network is migrated to LTE standards.

Sprint spent heavily to get the iPhone. What impact is this having on Sprint and how critical is it for you that the next version will offer support for TD-LTE?

The iPhone has been an important device in our portfolio and, with our competitive ‘Truly Unlimited’ plans we have been able to win over new customers to Sprint. For the last reported quarter, 4Q 2012, we sold nearly 2.2 million iPhones in the quarter, with 38 per cent of the activations being new customers to Sprint.

Will Sprint continue with its unlimited data strategy for LTE?

We continue to offer our customers simplicity with our unlimited data plans and they offer a great value to new and existing customers. These plans have been very successful for Sprint, and we plan to continue to offer them to customers.

With both FDD and TDD spectrum what are the challenges around interoperability?

Interoperability between FDD and TDD offers exciting new opportunities.  Significant progress has already been made to ensure that users can operate between these two duplex modes. Working with our key suppliers and other operators, Sprint continues to work on evolving the interoperability specification to enhance the already existing solutions. The continued work in 3GPP, defining the test specifications and developing interoperability specifications, are critical to achieving economies of scale and broad adoption.

Does TD-LTE offer up any specific challenges around backhaul?

No, operators have the same challenges for backhaul regardless if it is a TD-LTE system or an FDD system. The bigger issue is having a more competitive backhaul market in the US.

What plans do you have for carrier aggregation?

Carrier aggregation is something we are studying but do not have anything to share at this time.

Where do small cells fit into your strategy?

We remain on the same strategic path shared last year. Small cells and heterogeneous networks are just one piece of a larger solution. In theory it looks great. The challenge is the cost of large-scale small-cell physical deployment.

What do you think will be the most exciting new development in the TD-LTE market in 2013?

2013 represents a year where we are seeing more wide-scale deployment and adoption of TD-LTE technology. This is important to achieve the necessary economies of scale and we look forward to helping build the ecosystem for TD-LTE.

The inaugural TD-LTE Summit is taking place on the 23^rd-24^th April 2013 at the Fairmont Singapore Hotel, Singapore. Click here to download a flyer.

Interview: Customer services executive director, Cable & Wireless, Panama: “[LTE] presents challenges, but also opportunities.”

Fortunato Bertello is customer service executive director for Cable & Wireless, Panamá

Fortunato Bertello, customer services executive director for Cable & Wireless, Panama, is speaking on day one of the LTE Latin America conference, taking place on the 16th-17th April 2013 at the Windsor Barra Hotel, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Ahead of the show we speak to its customer services executive director about its LTE roll-out.

How has your roll out been going?

The move to LTE has brought many changes not only in terms of technology, but also in terms of customer processes as well so it has been very challenging keeping pace with our road map as it was previously defined.

Do you think that LTE offers great opportunities for monetisation or does it present challenges?

Definitively it does present challenges, but also opportunities. Currently we are in the advanced stage of rolling out an M-Wallet project, taking advantages of LTE features.

To what extent does the introduction of LTE raise the bar in terms of customer expectations?

Customers are demanding more ways to do business and make transactions so we have to solve the problem of how to enable them to do that. LTE is one of the enablers of that.

What do you think will be the most exciting new development in LTE in 2013?

From the customer service perspective, which is my expertise LTE in 2013 will present valuable opportunities to consolidate virtual channels of interaction, increasing self-service, service-on-demand, and providing a channel for instantaneous feedback to give control to the customer. This empowerment will be translated from the customer service representative to the customer.

 The LTE Latin America conference is taking place on the 16^th-17^th April 2013 Windsor Barra Hotel, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Click here to find out more about the event.

No lag for SK Telecom as it turbo boosts LTE

Following on from our LTE at MWC round-up from last week, I thought we’d go into a little bit more depth on what SK Telecom is doing. Why? Because SK Telecom is one of the world leaders in LTE. According to Informa WCIS stats, as of December 2012 South Korea leads the way with LTE with 32.5% of all subscribers in the country using LTE. It has 7.5m of its subscribers on LTE subscriptions, some 25% of its total user base and it hopes that by the end of 2013 that will go up to 60%. It’s an ambitious figure but it does enjoy coverage of 98% of the country.

When you consider that in the UK, O2 has just been awarded the licence for 800MHz spectrum with an obligation to provide 98% coverage, the difference is stark. In a nutshell, South Korea is way ahead.

Clearly it is in its interests to get everybody across to LTE as soon as possible. It will want to recoup those investments it’s made in LTE and the more people move across the sooner it can leverage the benefits of the lower cost-per-bit of LTE.

If you want to know more about SK Telecom’s latest LTE advances first-hand, Dr Byun Jae-woan is speaking at the LTE World Summit in June. Click here to download a flyer for the event.

No surprise then that at Mobile World Congress SK Telecom said that it would be taking things to the next level and demoing LTE Advanced, with plans to commercialise it in the second half of 2013. After all with strong competitors in the form of KT Corp and LG U+ it can’t afford to rest on its laurels.

The LTE Advanced it showed at MWC consisted of ‘Super Cell’, a concept that uses cell virtualisation to improve network capacity by reducing inter-cell interference. It also helps to ensure better call handovers between cells. It’s still possible to get cut off when travelling between cells today so that’s a welcome improvement.

Top speed is the big news though and the LTE Advanced solution can comfortably deliver 150Mbps to a handset.  A 1.4GB HD movie would download in just 75 seconds SK Telecom is pleased to tell us. (Thunk. Don’t worry, that’s just the sound of someone who’s just signed up to EE on a 500MB cap hitting the floor after fainting).

LTE. It’s fast in a completely different way to a McLaren F1. (See below)

SK also demonstrated VoLTE, which the company has successfully deployed. This is in large part thanks to its widespread LTE coverage layer, which means it doesn’t have to worry about the tricky business of handing over calls to 2G or 3G.

Another good news story for LTE from the house of SK, was that it announced that it had an impressive one million users on its Joyn.T application, all garnered in just 50 days since its launch in December 2012.

Joyn.T, is the RCS-based offering created by operator in a bid to give them a tool to be the OTT guys such as Skype and WhatsApp. It’s good news for the Joyn backers the GSMA, which had to contend with Deutsche Telekom announcing that it was delaying its Joyn deployment for more extensive testing.

On the infrastructure side the news was the SK Telecom was working with Nokia Siemens Networks, the struggling telecoms infrastructure vendor that has seen resurgence in recent months.  NSN was boasting of its so called ‘Liquid Application’ technology, the main thrust of which is essentially to put more intelligence into the base stations in a bid to improve latency. This is a good move.

What many people don’t realise is the latency enhancements in LTE are where most of the real world perceived benefits come from. It’s all about responsiveness. Poor latency is like turbo lag in a car on a race track full of cars. If you have to wait for ages for the boost to come in, and you don’t have long stretches of road ahead of you to make use of that top speed you’re going to lose out to more nimbler connections with lower top speeds but faster responding turbos.

If that seems a little confused it’s because the parallel occurred to me as was failing to leave slower cars behind despite driving a McLaren F1. (In the Xbox 360 game Forza 4 that is – I don’t own a McLaren F1 in real life you probably won’t be surprised to know). It was the laggy turbo in the F1 you see, and the track didn’t let me go above fourth gear at any point, so despite its 240 mph top speeds its potential bandwidth couldn’t help me. Much like a high bandwidth connection with low latency. If NSN’s Liquid Application can improve latency and top speed, it’s the best of both worlds.

SK Telecom has been boosting its backend bandwidth too though, with the announcement in January that it would be moving from 40G to 100G upgrades, giving it 8Tbps to play with on its optical network.

SK Telcoms’s CTO and Head of Future Technology R&D Division Byun Jae-Woan

Other interesting developments that came out of MWC this year for SK Telecom were its indoor location positioning technology, its innovative healthcare solutions such as Smartcase that used mobile connectivity to send medical information to doctors remotely, and FREND, which provide on-site diagnosis of major diseases and send that information again for 3G or 4G.

However, for SK Telecom I’d say MWC 2013 was mainly about LTE. The GSMA certainly thought so and here is a picture of SK’s CTO and Head of Future Technology R&D Division Byun Jae-Woan, proudly displaying the award the operator won from the Global Mobile Awards 2013 for the 4G LTE with PETA Solution – a cocktail of technologies to improve LTE performance involving multi carriers, femtocells, VoLTE, SON and Advanced Smart Cloud Access networks.

 

LTE and wifi: two halves of the same coin

As I’ve mentioned in a recent post I’ve recently switched to EE, mainly to get LTE, and on the whole it’s excellent. However, the downside is that I had to move away from the unlimited data I was used to when I was on GiffGaff (an MVNO of O2 – Telefonica UK).

I now have a data cap of 3GB of data a month, which from what I can gather in on the large side compared to the average mobile user. I came close to using all of this one month but usually keep well under – and wifi is key to this.

Aside from wifi access at work, I’ve been taking more time to sign up to wifi networks when they present themselves and recently that seems to have been happening more often.

I’m not sure if it’s because I’m now being forced to pay more attention to wifi hotspots because of my data cap, or if BT has recently got its finger out, but I’ve found BT wifi hotspots seemingly pop up quite a lot. As EE’s data packages offer from access to BT wifi hotspots this is a Good Thing.

Barclays Bank recently announced a deal with BT to offer free wifi and other places dotted around such as restaurants offer it. That said, somewhat irritatingly there’s no hotspot or indeed EE coverage at the gym I recently joined, and their combined absence puts a rather large dent in my ability to stream music to my phone. Having to cache tracks ahead of time seems a rather dated approach to take.

BT has recently rebranded its BT Openzone hotspots as BT wifi, which makes things a little confusing but it does makes things easier to understand, so it’s a sensible move from a consumer perspective.

The point though is that having that any operator offering a data cap needs to have a solid wifi proposition to go along with it, in order to ensure its users can get a good data experience without worrying about their caps and to act as a backhaul channel to offload data from the core network. It makes sense for the user, and it makes sense for the operator.

The issue is that sometimes the EE app picks up the hotspot and enables access seamlessly – and sometimes it doesn’t, making the process far more clunky – firing up the browser, enter a phone number and passcode in to a launch page and then correcting mistakes and then waiting for it to connect blah, blah, blah. Too slow. Hotspot 2.0 can’t come soon enough.

–

The LTE World Summit, the premier 4G event for the telecoms industry, is taking place on the 24^th-26^th June 2013, at the Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands. Click here to download a flyer for the event.

Interview: Technical Sales Manager,Mobile Services, Telenor: “It is important to measure the QoS experience.”

Torbjorn Pettersson, Technical Sales Manager – Mobile Services, Telenor, Sweden

What major developments have there been with regards to the LTE industry in your region this past year?

The main developments this past year have been the operators launching their LTE projects as well as LTE roaming projects. A major development was the establishing of Diameter Routing Agents (DRA) to enhance interoperability, enable global roaming coverage and to greatly improve network security.

What are the chief technical challenges you are facing?

The main challenges are to ensure DRA is correctly implemented, dealing with Circuit Switched fall-back issues and to enable operators to connect to an LTE signalling partner (such as Telenor Global Services).

What are the key techniques for network optimisation in LTE and what effect can it have on the customer experience?

In our experience it is important to measure the QoS experience in order to improve the customer experience of downloading, uploading and using new LTE handsets.

Do you believe that RCS services can genuinely help the industry compete with OTT?

RCS will bring great opportunities since it will bridge the gaps between the islands of different OTT applications. It is also important that operators put great effort into launching RCS globally on new smartphones and handsets.

Pricing for LTE is a controversial subject. Are operators getting it right?

This is a challenging area with operators competing with each other locally and also for roaming pricing. In European countries pricing is driven by the EU regulation but outside EU it is up to the operators to agree on pricing that is affordable for customers.

What do you think will be the most exciting new development in LTE in 2013?

For me it will be operators launching global roaming LTE data services.

What impact does LTE have on your backhaul strategy and technology choices?

It requires greater planning in terms of security, diameter routing and GTP2 (Global Tunnelling Protocol data traffic version 2) traffic, capacity and QoS.

The LTE World Summit, the premier 4G event for the telecoms industry, is taking place on the 24^th-26^th June 2013, at the Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands. Click here to download a flyer for the event.

Interview: Head Innovation and Trends, ENTEL, Chile: “Speed itself has no intrinsic value to the user – it is apps that create value”

Eduardo Duran, Head Innovation and Trends,ENTEL, Chile

Eduardo Duran, Head Innovation and Trends,ENTEL, Chile, is speaking on Day Two of the LTE LATAM conference, taking place on the 16th-17th April 2013 at the Windsor Barra Hotel, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Ahead of the show we speak to him about the latest LTE developments in the region and the difference LTE will make to its customers.

What major developments have there been with regards to the LTE industry in your region this past year?

The most important development has been the allocation of new frequency bands in the region, such as the 2.6GHz band and the future allocation of the 700 MHz band as part of the Tele Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT) band plan. In Chile, the official journal of the technical standard for the 700 MHz band was published in February 2013, and the basis for the LTE auction will complete mid-2013. This will be welcome, as the exponential growth of mobile users in Chile will require the advent of new technologies such as LTE.

What effect can LTE have on the customer experience?

The low latency of LTE along with QoS management and speed make LTE key to the business sectors and enterprise. It enables a new range of high-speed mobile services that require QoS management with low latency, such as real-time video, video surveillance and M2M.

Where do small cells fit into your plans, and what benefits will they bring to you and to customers?

From a technological perspective, small cells are necessary to cover densely populated areas where data capacity is critical and where we are spectrum restricted, such as  areas where we will only have access to the 2.6GHz band. Small cells can also open a lot of opportunities for high accuracy applications, such as location-based services.

The most important reasons to deploy small cells are to provide

• Increased coverage (indoor coverage)
• Fill-in coverage for areas of high-traffic
• Network off-load

LTE and smartphones make for a powerful combination. What new opportunities and innovations do you foresee in the next few years?

Further enhanced LTE mobile connectivity will not only provide more speed but also QoS and low latency. There will be an explosion of mobile connectivity not only in the number of people using devices, but also by “things” – [M2M]. The development of IPv6 will generate significant opportunities associated with mobility. An additional innovation that I think will gain traction in the next few years is that you will be able to use your smartphone as a secure and safe means of payment.

Is the raw speed of LTE enough to attract new customers or are value added services necessary to make packages attractive?

Definitely speed is not enough. In fact, speed itself has no intrinsic value to the user – it is the applications that create value around speed.

The LTE Latin America conference is taking place on the 16^th-17^th April 2013 Windsor Barra Hotel, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Click here to find out more about the event.

LTE at MWC 2013 round-up

Not so long ago LTE related news at MWC used to be something of a stand-out feature, but with the technology now mainstream in many leading markets round the world it’s now mainstream. Nevertheless there was still plenty of interesting LTE related things happening.

News wise there was an announcement from vendor Ericsson that it was still the number one in 4G and highlighted a major infrastructure deal with Telefonica UK, which operates under the brand O2. O2 has won 2x 10MHz of 800MHz spectrum, and has the taken on the UK regulator Ofcom’s requirement that it provide 98 per cent coverage of 4G in the country by 2017. Which gives Ericsson lots to do.

Small cells are going to soon play an increasingly important part of the LTE landscape. At MWC Aricent and Mindspeed announced that they have joined forces to create a small cell reference design. It features the Transcede T3300 Baseband Processor that supports 20MHz LTE FDD and throughput up to 150Mbps.

Sequans announced its LTE-Advanced chip: the SQN3220. This is part of Sequans’s Cassiopeia platform and adheres to Release 10 of 3GPP specifications, and as such meets the requirements to be considered ‘true’ 4G by the 3GPP.

The Novatel Mifi 2 to be launched first on Bell’s LTE network in Canada.

On the device side Novatel Wireless, the company that introduced the original wireless hotspot device announced the Mifi 2. it features a funky touch-screen display and it will launch first in Canada on Bell’s 4G LTE network in March where it will be known as the Mifi Liberate. Having recently had to use the original, very dated, unit, a screen that enables you to see what it’s doing easily would be much appreciated especially as claims an 11 hour battery life.

Huawei launched a global flagship phone the Ascend P2. As an A.N Other flagship Android phone it’s not that interesting really, but what is interesting is that according to Huawei it can support speeds of up to 150Mbit/s, which makes it faster than other major LTE phones such as the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy SIII. That said, you’d have to have that whole base station to yourself to get that kind of speed and if you do, you’d be spoiling it for everybody else. The other downside is that if that does that person would be pretty easy to spot – they’d be the ones holding the Huawei Ascend P2. How to win friends etc…

The Huawei Ascent P2 is fast. This is not your grandma’s LTE phone.

In terms of future technology SK Telecom, the South Korean operator and one of the world leaders for LTE demonstrated LTE Advanced at the show. It used carrier aggregation techniques to reach speeds double that of current LTE, which is impressive. Unless you’re already using an Huawei Ascend P2 of course.

TD-LTE also seemed to gain real traction at MWC this year, showing that it is a technology that will be a force to be reckoned with. The GTI summit, which took place at MWC was packed out and there were keynote speech from members Bharti Airtel, Clearwire, China Mobile and the GSMA. Notably on the handset side there was support announced by Samsung and Nokia as well as from chip vendors Qualcomm and Marvell. Ericsson and NSN made up the vendors present.

Packed out at the TDD-LTe GTI summit at MWC 2013

At the event, the GTI said that new testing had been done between operators globally. Of note was a completed trial between China Mobile in Hong Kong and KT in Korea and with Clearwire in Hong Kong and in China

At MWC China Mobile revealed a multi-mode, multi-band TD-LTE devices, while LG demoed an Optimus G, it’s first TD-LTE ready handset.

All good news for TD-LTE. But will there be one device to rule them all. There will be according to Qualcomm.

Qualcommm announced the RF360 chip, which it says will be the first in the world able to handle every LTE frequency out there, making a handset using it a one-world LTE roaming phone. In total it support LTE-FDD, LTE-TDD, WCDMA, EV-DO, CDMA 1x, TD-SCDMA and GSM/EDGE. The press release also says it contains, “the industry’s first envelope power tracker for 3G/4G LTE mobile devices, a dynamic antenna matching tuner, an integrated power amplifier-antenna switch, and an innovative 3D-RF packaging solution incorporating key front end components.” To be honest I’m not sure what any of those things are, but it certainly seems as if progress is being made. Even more than the Huawei Ascend P2.

We can expect the RF360 to appear in devices towards the end of 2013, hopefully bringing an end to the pain of LTE spectrum fragmentation.

Interview: CTO, MobinNet: “TD-LTE is a better choice for delivering mobile data than FDD LTE”

Nima Pournejatian is CTO of MobinNet, Iran

Nima PourNejatian, CTO, MobinNet, Iran is speaking on Day One of the inaugural TD-LTE Summit taking place on the 23^rd-24^th April 2013 at the Fairmont Singapore Hotel, Singapore. Ahead of the show we speak to him on the subject of what advantages TD-LTE brings to operators and what MobinNet’s plans are for the technology.

What have been the latest developments in terms of TD-LTE in your region?

There are two major operators in the region which employ WiMAX broadband technology. In order to plan a reasonable migration from WiMAX to a more advanced technology, both operators are going to secure an LTE license. As one of the two major WiMAX operators and the only nationwide wireless broadband provider, MobinNet is going to apply for TD-LTE. The other operator may select the same path. Moreover, recently the WiMAX Forum announced an updated industry roadmap supporting the continued evolution of the WiMAX ecosystem. The WiMAX Forum embraces a network evolution path to accommodate harmonisation and coexistence across multiple broadband wireless access technologies within a WiMAX Advanced network. Therefore, MobinNet’s plan is compliant with the WiMAX Forum’s roadmap.

Why do you believe the TD-LTE is a better choice for delivering mobile data than FDD LTE?

According to my personal experience working with both FDD and TDD technologies TDD deliver higher throughput per sector. This makes for a better user experience for data services and increases the capacity per base station, which lowers investment costs. Therefore TD-LTE is a better choice for delivering mobile data than FDD LTE.

Is the release of an iPhone that supports TD-LTE critical for the long term success of the technology?

It will definitely help but I would prefer the release of a device that is less voice centric. iPad users usually consume more data bandwidth than those of iPhone so perhaps a new iPad/iPod would be more helpful.

Some reports suggest that TD-LTE will account for 23 per cent of all LTE users by 2016. What has been difference this time between TD-LTE and previous time-division telecom technology flavours? (WiMAX and TD-SCDMA)

Firstly, data traffic demand now is not comparable with that of three or five years ago. This motivates more investment in TDD technologies. Secondly, nowadays spectrum is more congested, which means that the remaining spectrum must be used as efficiently as possible. Also the global minutes of voice services per user is decreasing. As a result, by selecting TDD technology, operators can utilise spectrum more efficiently, while addressing the demands of today’s customers. Thirdly, vendors production rates for TD-LTE equipment is much higher that older TDD technologies. This will help to keep prices low and consequently more TD-LTE networks will be built.

Are you concerned by increasing amounts of wifi offload reducing the need for TD-LTE?

One of the main motivations of wifi offload for users is to lower their costs. The severity of this threat for FDD LTE is higher than that of TD-LTE. Price per megabyte in TD-LTE is inherently cheaper than that in FDD LTE.

Does TD-LTE offer up any specific challenges around backhaul?

It depends on the type of the backhaul network. Any broadband service provider which holds a classic microwave backhaul network will suffer from the booming data traffic phenomena. It is expected a TD-LTE operator will need to carry heavy traffic over its microwave backhaul network. If that comes true, microwave backhaul will be a challenge.

What plans do you have for carrier aggregation?

Carrier aggregation depends on the frequency band and available bandwidth. Considering our spectrum limitations, we are not able to activate the intra-band contiguous or non-contiguous carrier aggregation.

What would you say to any operators considering the move to TD-LTE?

To select a technology, the availability of user terminals is the key decision factor. I suggest that operators first check the forecast of production rates of terminals per technology and for each frequency band.

Nima PourNejatian, CTO, MobinNet, Iran is speaking on the subject of “WiMAX to TD-LTE Migration: How and When?” on Day one of the inaugural TD-LTE Summit taking place 23^rd-24^th April 2013 at the Fairmont Singapore Hotel, Singapore. Click here to download a brochure

 

EE bah gum: it’s fast! – EE LTE on test

As my day job involves writing about LTE on a pretty regular basis (as in every day) I always found it quite ironic that up until recently I’d never experienced an LTE network ‘in anger’. Come October last year and UK operator EE changed all of that. It’s taken a while but I’ve finally succumbed to the temptation and signed up to the service. This means I’ve done the full tour of UK operators. I started with T-Mobile in 1998 when it was still One-to-One, later moved to Vodafone (just for 3G – yes really), before moving to O2 (cheap). It means Orange is the only brand I’ve not been billed by, but I am at least now using its network.

Today the UK operator EE released its first figures since the operator launched its LTE network, and analysts have been fairly downcast on the figures, which show a decline in revenue of 2.6 per cent to £5.96bn. There have been an increase in post-paid subscribers to the service, the EE network includes the Orange and T-Mobile brands, which are 3G only. As EE has not released figures for the number of its new 4G EE customers there’s no way of knowing to what extent LTE has helped. The assumption from analysts though is that if EE has something to crow about, it would be doing so.

So what’s keeping the punters away? The only conclusion can be price. As you might have heard, there’s a double-dip recession on, which is not the ideal environment to get consumers to pay more for faster speeds, especially when they are as heavily capped as EE. Remember the entry-level cap only gives you 500MBs to play with and though the price has dropped to £31, it’s still pricey. To get a decent 3GB on a two-year contract with an iPhone 5 will cost you £46 a month with £99 for the phone.

But is it worth it?

The one thing I can confirm is that it’s fast. In areas of good coverage, which fortunately for me includes both work and home, LTE on an iPhone 5 delivers speeds that consistently put my Virgin broadband 60Mb connection to shame. Speeds of 30Mbps on the downlink and in excess of 20Mb on the uplink are a breathe of fresh air, especially coming from O2’s 3G network which at least for me, was pretty dire, rarely delivering more than 1.5Mbps.

What surprised me was how much difference it made even for the simple things, such as sending iMessages. The progress bar on messages just zips across, making for more natural conversations. Adding a picture to an iMessage used to mean a long wait while the message was painfully uploaded. Now, they go so quickly that the first time I had to check it had actually been sent and hadn’t just failed. All that upload speed is great for sending or posting pictures and videos, which is what more and more of us are doing from our smartphones.

A lovely was to demonstrate LTE is YouTube. It just loads up and starts to play immediately, with no buffering. Suddenly the speed of your device and not the network is the limit. This was brought home to me just today. I was on the train, and had need to watch a YouTube video. Immediately I did so and for once I was not thinking about latency or cell towers, – just the video. This all changed as the video suddenly stopped. I checked and noted that I was at a stop that I knew was an LTE blackspot (West Hampstead Station). 3G was displayed on the phone, but the speed wasn’t there. Result: experience spoilt.

This does seem to be a problem for EE. Even in the West-End of London I’ll see LTE come and go, and while DC-HSPA 3G is fast, I’ve also seen standard 3G, EDGE and GPRS, which means that your handset might well have to cope with switching between five different network standards during the day. No wonder these smartphones struggle for battery life.

If you have to fall back to DC-HSPA though performance is good. In a recent interview with EE’s Principal network architect, Andy Sutton, I was told that as part of its upgrade programme EE also currently has 40 per cent coverage of DC-HSPA on its network, and I can attest to this being pretty solid. However, ubiquitous coverage of either LTE of DC HPSA is still a long way away and clearly improvements can be made in the hand-off between network technologies.

LTE is not just great for video though. Being something of an audio aficionado I enjoy listening to high quality audio when I can. LTE enables me to stream by 24-bit FLAC files to my handset from NAS box at home, with no issues at all, something that was simply impossible on 3G.

As a downside, listening to high quality files on an LTE connection is also a great way for draining your battery, so necessitated purchasing a charging cable for work and plugging in on a regular basis.

I’ve also used LTE as a backup connection at home, when my Virgin connection has ground to a halt, as it sometimes does. This is thanks to the ability to very easily tether via the iPhone 5 hot-spot feature. This was banned by GiffGaff, the O2 MVNO I used to be on, a point of frustration when there was unlimited data to play with.

In my first month I’ve come just under the 3GB limit, which is clearly the sweet spot for me – enough to use the LTE as I want, without having to worry I’ll go over the cap.

What’s also gratifying is the speed at which EE is rolling out the network. At launch it was just 11 cities, and just four months later it stands at 27 cities – with 15 more by the end of next month.

And while I didn’t come to EE because of the value added services I have made use of the bundled wifi, which gives access to BT Wifi hotspots, the ‘EE Wednesday’s Cinema 2-4-1 offer, and the EE Film store, with a free film a week available to download that doesn’t eat into your data package to download.

To be critical, the EE app has just got very confused about my data usage, telling me I’ve used only 800Mb of my 3GB, when yesterday I had almost used it all up. The web site also had no record of my data usage. I also wouldn’t recommend roaming without a pre-pay bundle – the prices are simply eye-watering. Digital Commissioner Neelie Kroes has been working on forcing operators to lower these charges, and for me that can’t come soon enough.

The Clone Phone Lite app also seems pointless. It’s redundant for an iPhone thanks for iCloud, it only comes with a 500MB cap and when I tried to test the app it didn’t recognise my phone anyway.

Overall though, the combination of very fast network speeds and some actually useful value added services, I’d describe the whole EE experience as the most premium feeling package I’ve ever used. Which considering the premium prices is as it should be.

It remains to be seen then how it pans out. I’m relieved that being lucky enough to have an unlocked iPhone 5 without a contract I was able to go for a SIM-only package. This means that I’m only tied in for 12 months – not 24 and come next year they’ll be a pick of other operators offering LTE – (though of course as the iPhone 5 is LTE1800 only I’ll need a new handset to take advantage of them). If I stay, I expect that EE’s packages will be more enticing to the mass market.

So EE: it is expensive, and it can be patchy but as a teacher once described my contribution in class – “when it’s there – it’s really there.”

CSO, Interview: Indosat: “Look to develop the TD-LTE device ecosystem quickly”

Prashant Gokarn, Chief Strategy Officer of Indosat is speaking at the TD-LTE conference in April

Prashant Gokarn, is Chief Strategy Officer of Indosat the second largest operator in Indonesia with over 60 million subscribers. He is speaking on Day One of the The inaugural TD-LTE Summit, taking place on the 23rd-24th April 2013 at the Fairmont Singapore Hotel, Singapore. Ahead of the show we speak to him about where Indosat is with LTE, and more specifically TD-LTE….

You have recently received approval to deploy LTE services. Why is it so important for Indosat to deploy LTE?

Our intention is to differentiate ourselves as an operator on the strength of our high-end wireless broadband. A key way to achieve that is by using our spectrum assets more effectively – which means LTE.

What will the impact of LTE be in Indonesia? What will the key benefits be?

At present, the quality and availability of fixed-line broadband in the country is poor. LTE enables us to offer our customers a high-speed option, which will make video and rich media applications much more accessible to customers.

Why are you selecting TD-LTE? Do you believe the TD-LTE is a better choice for delivering mobile data than FDD LTE?

On the technology aspects, TDD has the advantage in that it can allocate bandwidth to downlink on-the-fly making it more spectrum efficient. However, the ecosystem of TD-LTE is still nascent and under-developed compared to FD-LTE, which today at least, places it at a big disadvantage.

Is there are role for both FDD and TD-LTE in your region? Will they have different use cases?

There is a role for both FDD and TDD LTE. The use cases may be different in the short term as the ecosystem for FDD is better tuned to smartphones while TDD-LTE is still dongle focused

Does TD-LTE offer up any specific challenges around backhaul?

The link budgets and spread mean you need a fairly dense network at 2.3GHz TD-LTE in order to be able to deliver the performance.

What would you say to any operators considering the move to TD-LTE?

Look to develop the TD-LTE device ecosystem, and do it quickly!

Prashant Gokarn, CSO of Indosat will be speaking on Day One of the TD-LTE Summit 2013, presenting ‘TD-LTE in Emerging Markets: An Opportunity for Achieving Sustainable and Economically-Viable Broadband?’ Prashant Gokarn is also participating in the panel discussion: ‘Monetising TD-LTE Deployment: Evaluating the Key Monetary Considerations’ on Day Two of the conference.

The inaugural TD-LTE Summit is taking place on the 23^rd-24^th April 2013 at the Fairmont Singapore Hotel, Singapore. Click here to download the brochure

A price war is coming

If there was any doubt that things are going to get tasty LTE-wise in the UK, it was earlier this week, when 3, the UK arm of telco brand Hutchison, announced that when it launches its own LTE network later in the year it will not be charging a premium. The implication was the users will pay exactly the same as they do now, and as 3 currently leads the market for low-cost unlimited 3G data, that’s a pretty enticing prospect.

It’s also one that shoots a considerable large volley across the bows of the good ship EE, which got itself in the LTE race early by launching a service in November. It was able to do so after pulling off the deft trick of getting the regulator, Ofcom, to let it re-farm its 2G 1800MHz spectrum for LTE.  Having bigged up the benefits of 4G at its launch it then proceeded to make the most of this by launching LTE as a premium service – with high prices for lengthy 24-month contracts with small data allowances, the latter of which the network took a lot of flak for in the press.

With the auction process for the digital dividend 800MHz frequency and 2.6GHz now underway, ironically pushed earlier by Ofcom to reduce EE’s 4G lead-time in the market, EE reacted by announcing lower prices for its entry-level tariff. Instead of £36 a month for 500MB of data it would now only charge £31 a month, which over a 24-month period that’s a significant saving of £90. The price of a handset such as the Nokia Lumia 820, would also come down to £29.99. However, the measly 500MB bundle would remain.

At the other end of the market it would cater for high-end users with a new 20GB a month tariff with a phone and unlimited calls for £61 or the same thing but SIM-only for £41.

It’s not quite the slashing of prices that some had reported though – just one real saving on the entry-level package.

3 is currently offering an iPhone 5 with unlimited 3G data and 2000 minutes for £36 a month, which is more or less the same, aside from 500MB of LTE data vs unlimited 3G. When both of these become LTE, EE will have a problem.

Of course EE does have a couple of decent added value services to offer, such as tethering, inclusive BT wifi, Underground wifi, 2-4-1 cinema tickets (better known as Orange Wednesdays) and  the EE Film Store – but it’s unlikely this will be enough to sway many people away from an unlimited package.

Of course EE does have one key advantage – it has an LTE network that is up and running with coverage is increasing all the time with new markets being announced on a regular basis. What EE needs to continue to do is keep up the marketing pressure on signing people up before the other come online with live networks – which will be around six months from now.

It might get a bit longer to play with as the iPhone crowd won’t switch to LTE unless they can use their favourite fruity phones. The current European model of the iPhone 5 only supports 1800MHz, so all the other operators will be looking at Apple to make them happy and release an 800/2600MHz LTE supporting iPhone next time round – which is unlikely to be until September/October 2013 – a year or so following the iPhone 5 launch.

When this happens one has to imaging that EE’s pricing will look somewhat different to what it looks like at the start of 2013.

Pricing strategies are certainly going to be one of the hot topics addressed at the LTE World Summit 2013, taking place in Amsterdam in June, so be sure to get your plans together now to attend.