Mobitel in Slovenia will launch LTE at 800,1800 and 2600MHz

Eastern Europe is to gain another LTE player with the news that Mobitel, a Slovenian mobile network operator, has deployed a test network based on the next generation mobile technology.

Mobitel said that it was able launch an LTE network for internal testing just a few days after receiving additional test frequencies. It said that it was able to achieve speeds of 100Mbps, with latencies that were half that of its HSPA+ network. It characterized these initial test results as “excellent” and promised users a “state-of-the-art” experience.  Once fully deployed the  network will operate at a trio of frequencies, taking in 800Mhz, 1800Mhz and 2600MHz, which should enable it to provide the right balance of coverage for densely populated and more remote areas at the greatest network efficiency.

The network is at the pre-commercial launch stage and Mobitel said that it would look to gradually expand the network alongside its existing GSM and HSPA network. The latter currently offers theoretical speeds of 21.6Mbps and it intends to offer dual carrier HSPA delivering top speeds of 43Mbps.

The operator said that the network is the result of two years of technology investments that have been made with an eye on implementing LTE and LTE Advanced further down the road.

Mobitel’s use of 1800MHz will go down well with major European players Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom and TeliaSonera who all called for the frequency to be used worldwide as a standard for LTE. In a recent interview with Telecoms.com Mike Wright, director of networks and access technologies for Australia’s Telstra’s explained that re-farming 1800MHz made a lot of sense for many networks looking to roll out LTE. “If you look around the world, many operators actually own 1800. Our view is that it actually makes sense for a lot of operators to look to re-farm and use it more efficiently”.

Panasonic Toughbooks now feature 21Mbps capable HSPA Ericsson chips

Ericsson has announced that its embedded HSPA mobile broadband chip will be used in upcoming 2011 Panasonic Toughbooks.

Panasonic Toughbooks are rugged laptops and tablets designed to be used in places that regular notebooks wouldn’t stand up to the task, such as construction sites to mountain areas, making integrated mobile broadband, rather than using external dongles, an essential feature.

Stephen Yeo, marketing director of Panasonic Computer Products Europe, said in a statement, “Ericsson’s F5521gw module is an ideal addition to our market-leading Panasonic Toughbooks. The long battery life, low power consumption, high performance and cost-effectiveness are exactly what Toughbook users need as they work in environments that would destroy the average laptop.”

The vendor said that its F55221gw PCI Express Mini card module operates on WCDMA, GSM and EDGE networks, and will support HSPA with download speeds of up to 21Mbps and upload speeds of up to 5.8Mbps. First launched in September 2010, it is based on Ericsson’s proven ST-Ericsson Thor 21Mbps thin modem and is first mobile broadband module for notebooks to support this speed.

Ericsson said that two new smaller and thinner modules would be available later this year and would be fitted to even smaller devices such as media players and personal navigation devices.

The company recently picked up a gong at the Informa LTE Awards 2011 for the best contribution to LTE R&D.

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T-Mobile's Rocket 3.0 dongle will enable customers to take advantage of its 42Mbps HSPA+ network upgrades

T-Mobile USA said it has doubled the headline speeds of its HSPA+ network to 42Mbps in 55 US markets, taking the fight to rival LTE network operators. It will this week release a mobile broadband dongle capable of making use of the increased speeds, the ZTE manufactured T-Mobile Rocket 3.0.

The device will cost $99.99 after a $50 mail in rebate, on a two year service agreement.

T-Mobile makes the move as it prepares to be bought out by AT&T, pending approval by the FCC. AT&T recently demoed a working LTE network claiming it would deliver speeds of up to 28.7Mbps. While T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network speed nominally exceeds this, the company has not made any claims of the real-world speed it expects customers using the service to receive. However, in a statement it did say that it expected its customers to “experience more consistent 4G speeds when creating and sharing mobile content, streaming and connecting through mobile video, and participating in multiplayer gaming”.

“We are continuing the aggressive expansion of America’s Largest 4G Network, and also doubling our speeds in more than 50 markets this month,” said Neville Ray, chief technology officer, T-Mobile USA, in a statement. “While customers with existing 3G and 4G devices will benefit from our continued network enhancements, new devices like the new Rocket 3.0 laptop stick will enable customers to reap the benefits of even faster 4G speeds.”

T-Mobile USA is currently the fourth largest operator in the US with 10.47 per cent market share according to Informa WCIS statistics. The leading operator Verizon wireless recently announced that it has expanded its LTE network to a total of 55 US markets.

The fourth annual LTE North America Conference takes place in Texas, US, November 8-9

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Telstra is the first carrier to roll out LTE in Australia using refarmed 1800MHz spectrum

Telstra, the Australian telecommunications company has announced that it has switched on the first base stations in  Australia that use LTE technology. The stations are located in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane and the telco said 4G data had been sent over the network for the first time.

The move follows Telstra’s announcement earlier in the year that it would upgrade its existing ‘Next G’ HSPA+ network in key areas such as major business districts. The operator has partnered with Ericsson on the network roll-out, with Sierra Wireless providing dual-mode mobile broadband dongles.

“With more than a million mobile and wireless broadband customers joining Telstra in the past 12 months, and data usage on the Next G network doubling every year, the increased network capacity LTE will provide is vital,” Mark Wright Telstra’s networks & access technologies executive director said in a statement.

The network operates in 1800Mhz spectrum that has been refarmed from 2G services. At the recent LTE World Summit in Amsterdam, the major European carriers Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom and TeliaSonera all called on the industry to adopt this spectrum as the frequency of choice for rolling out LTE worldwide.

Earlier this month it was revealed that Australia’s telecoms sector was the most hated industry in the country, following a barrage of complaints at poor performance. While most of these were directed at Vodafone Hutchison Australia, Telstra and rival Optus also attracted increased complains over the past year.

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Three Sri Lankan carriers have announced their LTE plans this month

Sri Lankan telco Dialog Axiata has launched 4G/LTE network trials at a variety of locations across Colombo. The trials are taking place in parallel with the carrier’s countrywide expansion of HSPA+ services and, according to the carrier, is “the first exposition of an  LTE network in the South Asian region.” The pilot networks are running on Huawei kit.

The trials, which have gone live in the Colombo Fort, Colombo 2, 3 &4 and Narahenpita areas of the city, recorded data speeds in excess of 100Mbps in indoor demonstration mode, dropping to 40-50Mbps in typical outdoor usage situations.

Dialog Axiata operates under the Dialog Mobile brand in Sri Lanka. Having launched as the country’s fourth operator in 1995, it has the largest subscriber base in the country, with 6.9 million subscribers and a market share in excess of 30 per cent. In 2006, it was the first carrier to roll out a 3G network in the region.

Earlier this week, rival carrier Mobitel – the mobile division of state-operated Sri Lanka Telecom – announced that it had signed an agreement with the country’s Board of Investment (BoI) to deploy its own LTE network, which it says will involve the deployment of 1,000 LTE base stations supplied by ZTE. Mobitel has also completed LTE trials, reporting 96Mbps upstream and 49Mbps downstream speeds. The agreement with the BoI means the carrier will be exempt from import duty on its LTE kit. Etisalat Sri Lanka is also looking to join the LTE party. This month, it announced the completion of its “LTE-ready” network; the telco is awaiting the allocation of commercial spectrum but has launched its “3.75G” network in the meantime, which it claims is the first in the country and makes it the only all-IP player there.

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Hungary's Magyar Telekom will be moving from 2G straight to HSPA+ with LTE to follow, thanks to Ericsson upgrades

Magyar Telekom, the Hungarian operator and part of the Deutsche Telekom group, has selected Ericsson to overhaul its ageing network.

Ericsson said it would upgrade Magyar Telekom’s network using its multi-standard RBS 6000 radio cabinets. These will initially deliver HSPA+ services but will enable the network to be smoothly upgraded to LTE once spectrum licenses have been allocated. Some 200 base stations will be upgraded providing HSPA+ speeds up to 21Mbps in Budapest and other locations around the country.

Istvan Maradi, chief technology officer of Magyar Telekom said in a statement, “our partner, Ericsson, will make sure our network will meet the most demanding expectations and help us to stay on top in Hungary. It also makes sense for us to prepare our network for the easy introduction of LTE functionality by using Ericsson’s multi-standard network.”

Nils de Baar, head of global accounts for DT Group at Ericsson, said: “We believe in Magyar Telekom’s wise decision to introduce a multi-standard technology when the aging 2G network needs a strong boost. This will bring both a reduction in OPEX and a better user experience, while also preparing the network to meet the ever-growing demand for mobile broadband.”

South Africa's latest mobile carrier, 8ta, has launched Blackberry services

South African incumbent operator Telkom is to offer ‘free’ mobile YouTube streaming to Blackberry devices in an effort to “Shake up the market.” The fixed-line player’s move into the mobile space took place last year, when it launched its 8ta division. Since then, the unit has pursued an aggressive pricing plan in a market previously known for high tariffs, not least for mobile data packages.

The ‘free’ YouTube offering (which is actually capped after 500Mb) coincides with the network’s launch of its Blackberry service and will include free Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) for the first three months as well as free and unlimited calls to a designated, fixed-line Telkom number. Other operators offering Blackberry services in South Africa charge for YouTube access.

The offer is available from April 24 and takes place in the context of an increasingly competitive mobile and data market in South Africa. The past few months have seen rival operators Cell C and Vodacom engaged in a tit-for-tat series of complaints against each other, with each accusing the other of misleading advertising in terms of their 3-and-4G offerings. Third-placed Cell C was forced to change its 4G branding relating to its HSPA+ network following complaints from both MTN and Vodacom. The carrier launched its 42Mbps HSPA+ network in Port Elizabeth this week, four days after rival Vodacom.

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Vodafone South Africa has launched its HSPA+ service

South Africa’s biggest carrier, Vodacom, has announced the launch of its HSPA+ network. Following the upgrade of 1,000 base stations in the country’s major cities, the carrier is now offering speeds of up to 43.2Mbps and says that this latest development clears the path for 86.4Mbps. According to Vodacom, a further 1,000 3G towers will be added to the telco’s current crop of 4,200 this financial year.

The announcement comes in the midst of intense competition between Vodacom and third-placed rival Cell-C, which is due to launch its high-speed network in the 900Mhz band on Tuesday. Vodacom, which operates in the 2.1GHz band, has previously cited spectrum scarcity as an inhibitor of the carrier’s expansion plans, causing it to focus on smart, capacity-oriented upgrades within existing constraints. Vodacom SA has said that it plans to cover 90 per cent of the country within the next three years;  40 per cent are currently able to access the upgraded service.

HTC's Sensation will boost T-Mobile's 4G roster when it lands in the summer

T-Mobile USA has announced that it will bring the HTC Sensation 4G handset exclusively to its network later this summer though pricing and exact availability of the HTC handset are yet to be confirmed.

The Sensation will run on T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network at 900MHz and 1200MHz frequencies and with its cutting edge specifications is likely to sit at the head of T-Mobile’s existing roster of HSPA+ devices such as the MyTouch, Galaxy S and G2x.

The device will be powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Qualcomm Snapdragon 2 processor backed with 768MB of RAM. It will sport a large 4.3in and have an 8-megapixel camera on the rear capable of 1080p video capture, as well as a camera on the front for video calling. It will run the Google Android 2.3 OS.

T-Mobile’s 4G hotspot device went on sale earlier this week further expanding T-Mobile’s card in the ‘4G’ area. While there has been some controversy over the use of describing HSPA+ and LTE networks as 4G, the ITU-R recently agreed that any of the “evolved 3G technologies” could be described as coming under the 4G umbrella.

T-Mobile is the fourth largest operator in the US with 10.8 per cent of the market according to Informa statistics. The largest incumbent, AT&T, is currently seeking regulatory approval to acquire T-Mobile USA.

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T-Mobile is now offering a Mobile Hotspot device that runs on on its HSPA+ network

T-Mobile USA customers can now purchase a 4G Mobile Hotspot device enabling up to five wifi devices to connect to its network. The device is available on a two-year contract at a cost of $79. It features a memory card slot, weighs 74.8g and has a four-hour in-use battery life  with 100 hours of standby time.

But the launch has once again brought to the fore the controversy over 4G branding in the marketplace. While rival Verizon’s 4G network is based on LTE, T-Mobile’s next-gen service is based on HSPA+. Meanwhile, Sprint also markets its WiMAX based network as 4G.

It’s all pretty confusing and in fact, the ITU-R organisation has set the standard for true 4G as providing 100Mbps when mobile and 1Gbps for low mobility situations, speeds which no current service currently provides.

In a forthcoming interview with Telecoms.com, Dan Warren, senior director of technology at the GSMA took umbrage at operators leaping to describe their services as 4G, stating that, “the use of 4G now is marketing at its laziest”.

According to Informa statistics, T-Mobile USA currently has a 10.8 per cent overall market share compared to 30.9 per cent for Verizon Wireless, while Sprint has 16.31 per cent of the US market.

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