Philip Marnick, CTO of UK Broadband is speaking at the LTE World Summit, taking place on the 23-24 May 2012 CCIB, Barcelona, Spain.

Philip Marnick, CTO of UK Broadband is speaking at the LTE World Summit 2012, taking place on the 23-24 May 2012 CCIB, Barcelona, Spain. UKB will be the first operator to launch a commercial LTE service in the UK. Ahead of the conference Telecoms.com speaks to him about why UK Broadband’s extensive spectrum holdings and wholesale model will make it significant player in the UK LTE market.

Tell us a bit about UK Broadband and what are you about.

UK Broadband (UKB) is a subsidiary of PCCW Hong Kong. We are the largest holders of commercial spectrum in the UK with 124MHz of LTE spectrum in TDD bands 42 and 43 at 3.5GHz and 3.6GHz. We’ve got 6 x 20MHz channels there; which makes us one of the largest holders in the world. We have started to switch on our networks in London in Southwark on the South Bank and in Reading, where we are providing TD-LTE. We thought these were a good mix of buildings and customer demographic that could really show what this technology could deliver. We will offer commercial services in May of this year (2012).

How were you able to acquire that much spectrum?

We first acquired the spectrum in 2003, and we were able to gain some more in 2010 when we acquired another company. We’ve been offering WiMAX services in various parts of the country since 2003 and since then we’ve been doing lots of R&D for our parent company in Hong Kong because we had lot of spectrum here. We’ve been seeing how the technologies performed.

You’re operating LTE at different frequencies to the rest of Europe. Are you concerned about your eco-system?

We recently established the Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI) group to further enhance and push the ecosystem for 3.5/3.6GHz. As you may know there is an awful lot of TD-LTE spectrum held across the world:  operators from Canada, in Europe the Middle East and Asia. Up until now it’s been used for WiMAX and various other things but now it’s part of the LTE bands which were put in release 10.

There’s now an emphasis to push forward [with TD-LTE] and we were the first to do it. We already have some devices here and we’re expecting mobile devices to come later this year. As we go into next year we’re expecting mobile phones too. We are expecting a MiFi device available to us in September of this year that will be commercially available. The MiFi device is quite interesting as it effectively enables people to get the full benefit of high speed broadband without having to change out all their devices. Most devices people have today have wifi in them, from cameras to computers, to tablets. The use of wifi means that they can use mobile services wherever they happen to be. It gives the people the ability to use almost any device they’ve got and use it on a 4G network.

What will be the primary customers for your network?

That’s one of the things that we’re looking to do so to make sure that we can offer wholesale services to [operators, so] when they have got capacity hotspots, [they can] offload traffic to us. One of the devices we have is a home modem device – a fixed line replacement. In London I think its 1.5million people who don’t use fixed line broadband but use broadband at home by other means. There’s students, those who come to the UK for a short time, and don’t want to pay for fixed broadband. There will be customers available through a variety of channels. [The first announced is its deal with Swindon council]. And one the things we could offer them are home broadband services provided by very, very high-speed mobile. And the speeds we’re achieving are higher than you’ll get from your typical ADSL2 line.

What sorts of speeds are you seeing?

The system can connect at up to 100Mbps and that’s the sorts of things that you see in marketing. In reality, when we’ve been testing in buildings we’re seeing speeds of 50Mbps. On drive tests we’re sustaining average speeds of over 30Mbps across the cell.

How are you achieving these speeds compared to the US operators operating on lower frequencies?

In the real world they’ve not actually got much spectrum. They are using 10Mz channels, whereas I’m using 20MHz channels. And my cell sites are actually using 20MHz per sector. So each of my cell sites is actually using three 20MHz channels. Other operators have interference issues or other limitations with regard to spectrum, but because of the amount of spectrum we have we can deliver these sorts of speeds.

So what you’re saying amount of spectrum rather frequency is more important

As data demand increases the effective size of the cell site decreases anyway. If you look in places like London cells are going to have to be smaller. For indoor penetration yes, low frequencies are very good but when you get smaller cell sites the higher frequencies are actually no disadvantage. And in fact, if you want to have fewer interference issues with their neighbours, you’ll get more out of higher frequencies. It is really enabling us to deliver the sort of promise that people talk about for LTE Advanced. Effectively LTE Advanced is using 20MHz channels, which is effectively what we’re doing.

Why have the big four operators not gone for TD-LTE spectrum?

Most operators are based on voice networks so they’ve gone for FDD. But in a world of data people will always download more than they upload. We’re going to see ratios of 9:1 which is where TDD will come into its own. I think the world is in a transition phase where we’re moving from a voice world into a world of data. You’ll see both TDD and FDD being used to service the markets that they are most appropriate for. For me, it’s about designing networks for tomorrow, not yesterday’s network. We have to design networks that are designed for data, not for voice.

Why do you feel your wholesale model will be successful?

We are moving into a world where people need to collaborate. If you look at the forecasts, data is growing rapidly. Ofcom has suggested by 2016 the UK will have spectrum limits even after the auction. So there’s a requirement to use more spectrum bands to deliver what they customers are starting to expect; and that is high speed [mobile broadband]. We are moving to a world that when you are moving from inside to outside, wherever you happen to be, there has to be the capacity to be able to deliver the user experience that people have come to expect.

What’s your view on unlimited data and bandwidth caps?

What we need to do is deliver package that meets user expectations and does not make them feel uncomfortable using data. The problem today is that a lot of users feel that if they use too much it costs them too much. We’ve been pushing for years for people to start using data and now we’re saying, please don’t use so much of it – it’s seems a bit odd doesn’t it. For us it will be a case of optimising the packages as they go along, making sure that the price is right for the data usage.

The LTE World Summit is taking place on the 23-24 May 2012 CCIB, Barcelona, Spain. Click here to register your http://ws.lteconference.com/interest.

This makes the Future of Mobile 2012 Westminster e-Forum sound a little more dramatic than it was – nobody threw any chairs, or punches, and the tone was collegial throughout – but it was certainly fascinating to see O2, Everything Everywhere and Three discuss the impending 4G auction and proposals to let Everything Everywhere launch 4G over its existing 1800MHz spectrum.

David Dyson, Three’s CEO, called on Ofcom to reinstate a guarantee for access to sub-1GHz spectrum. This guarantee, which had been included in last year’s first consultation document but was missing from the second consultation released in January, would have helped Three get a portion of the 800 and 900MHz spectrum that Vodafone and O2 currently hold; lower frequencies would improve Three’s coverage and signal strength by quite a bit.

Naturally, Nicholas Blades, who heads Telefonica O2 UK’s bid team, was less enthralled by the idea of his company losing some of its low-frequency spectrum to a rival. He did agree, however, with Dyson’s concerns about Everything Everywhere getting to launch 4G before all the other operators, framing his argument in terms of “haves” and “have-nots”.

Meanwhile, Everything Everywhere’s Kip Meek defended his company’s plan to roll out LTE using the existing 1800MHz spectrum by saying it is inappropriate to deny LTE access to customers when so much of the rest of Europe has it, and attributing the disagreement to fundamental clashing economic interests between operators. Meek had his own suggestions for Ofcom, saying the regulator should “step back” and simplify the auction; the company has had to divest some of its existing 1800MHz spectrum, and Meek said the regulator had made this process more complicated too.

The morning’s first session was a little less contentious, focusing as it did on m-commerce, mobile payments and NFC. The most interesting discussion in this session came from Russell Sheffield, of Paythru, whose m-commerce platform is designed to allow secure financial transactions over customers’ mobiles. A drawback of existing m-commerce services, Sheffield suggested, was that they rely too much on changing customer behavior – not all retailers will be willing or able to add NFC card readers to their shops, nor will all customers be willing to load money onto a mobile wallet, if it requires the extra step of moving their money from their bank account. Paythru calls its solution frictionless, as it is designed to work across all handsets, networks and banks, without requiring special card readers or apps to be installed.

Of course, m-commerce is a sector where most of the UK’s operators have already set aside their differences, given that Everything Everywhere, O2 and Vodafone have teamed for a joint venture to enable mobile payments and mobile marketing. Just don’t expect the arguments about spectrum allocations to be resolved so easily.

3 Italia's network will be LTE flavoured at some point this year

Europe will soon gain another LTE network after 3 Italia announced that it has signed an agreement with Ericsson that will see the vendor upgrade the operator’s network to LTE offering speeds up to a theoretical limit of 100Mbps. The operator said the upgrade would be ready for a commercial launch in 2012, but did not give an exact time frame.

The upgrade would also deliver support for HSPA at up to 42Mbps, which 3 Italia said would be ready by the end of March 2012.

Vincenzo Novari, 3 Italia’s CEO, said in a statement that: “We are taking another step toward meeting the demand for mobile broadband connectivity and services from Italian consumers and enterprises. We are making HSPA+ coverage available on the entire nationwide network from the end of March and will launch LTE services already in 2012. Our network will become even more efficient at handling data traffic, ensuring a better quality of experience for our customers.”

3 Italia has been working with Ericsson since 2001, when the operator first rolled out its 3G network. The partnership extended to managed services on 2005 and a deal to extend its network to upgrade its WCDMA/HSPA network was entered into in 2009.

In the Italian spectrum auction last year, 3 Italia won two 10MHz blocks of FDD spectrum in the 2.6GHz range, 30MHz of 2.6GHz TDD spectrum and 2 x 15MHz in 1.8GHz. It missed out on the more attractive 800MHz frequencies however after it did not bid.

He has been sat in a cell for over a year, refusing to post bail and stands accused of taking bribes to sell spectrum to prospective mobile operators at discounted rates; “virtually gifting away an important national asset at throw away prices” in the words of a Supreme Court Council of Ministers.

India’s 2008 2G licence sale was intended to attract foreign investors into India, and after spectrum was purchased by Indian companies, a number of overseas players did indeed entere the fray. Norway’s Telenor, Sistema of Russia, Etisalat of the UAE and Batelco of Bahrain all joined forces with Indian businesses to launch services to the country’s 1.2 billion-strong population.

Telenor partnered with an Indian real estate firm, Unitech, which bought spectrum in the 2008 sale, while Etisalat set up a JV with Swan Telecom, a new company set up by the founders of another real estate firm, DB Realty. Reliance Telecom also subsequently purchased a 9.9 per cent stake in Swan Telecom.

Swan and Unitech are alleged to have played a part in the corruption scandal, which leaves their foreign partners twisting in the wind.

Special public prosecutor U.U. Lalit, representing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), questioned the circumstances in which the spectrum was acquired:

“Swan Telecom and Unitech got the telecom licences despite their complete ineligibility [to use them]. Both the companies off-loaded their shares soon after getting the licences and garnered around Rs 7,300 crore ($1.48bn) in the process,” he told the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Shyam Telelink Limited and Shyani Telelink Limited decided to operate together with their combined 21 licenses, and during late 2008, Russia-based group Sistema bought majority stake in the company, which now operates under brand name MTS India.Bahrain’s Batelco set up a subsidiary company, BMIC Limited, which acquired 42.7 per cent equity in STel for BD65.8m ($174.5m).

Now though, all of the companies that bought spectrum are set to lose those licences, and no form of compensation is on the cards.

Telecoms.com understands that the companies now under investigation by the CBI are Unitech, Reliance Telecom, Swan Telecom, Loop Telecom and Essar. Energy group Essar was found to have a controlling stake in Loop while also holding a stake in Vodafone.

It has been suggested that Unitech and Swan Telcom sold stakes in their firms to Telenor and Etisalat at much higher rates than acquired them for. Telenor Group injected INR 61.35bn ($1.25bn) operating capital directly into Unitech Wireless to take a majority stake in the company. Etisalat has said it invested more than $1bn into Etisalat DB. It has been reported that Unitech’s 22 Pan-India licences cost a mere Rs.1,658 crore ($337m) at the time of purchase.

For now the foreign investors are not being accused of conniving in any part of the scandal. In addition to the fact that they all paid higher rates for access to the spectrum, there was apparently little or no suspicion of any corruption in the 2G spectrum allocation at the time that Etisalat and Telenor decided to invest. And they, it seems, did not find any cause for concern when they did their due diligence.

Having blundered into this mess, they now face the prospect of losing substantial investments; and of being forced to lay out more capital if they want to stay in a market where they have built significant subscriber bases. They couldn’t be blamed if they decided to write the whole thing off as a bad job, but they seem motivated to pursue their Indian adventures.

Telenor’s VP for group communications for mobile, Tor Odland, told Telecoms.com: “We definitely don’t think of it as a lost cause. It will be challenging but we are inspired to continue.”

Batelco has exited the Indian market in the short term, selling its stake in STel to Indian firm Sky City Foundation Limited for the same $174.5m that it acquired it for. However, the Bahraini operator intends to re-enter the Indian market after the sale is complete and said that it is open to other opportunities later down the line.

Etisalat has written off a figure of $827m, the value it places on its operation in India, and warned that it may suffer a further financial impact as a result of the scandal, but the UAE operator said it is still considering its strategic options in India.

As if to rub their noses in it, the new Indian telecoms minister seems breezily unconcerned about their plight.In comments to the local press Kapil Sibal said: “Protection of interests is not the function of the government. Any party that feels aggrieved can approach the courts.”

(This appears to be at odds with what is happening elsewhere in the country, as India has recently liberalised foreign investment regulations in many of its key sectors, opening up commodity exchanges, credit information services and aircraft maintenance operations to foreign firms.)

The extent of corruption in India has now presented itself on a world stage, and if the allegations made against Raja and the other defendants in this case are true, it suggests that fraud and corruption are still a deep–rooted problem in India – just not enough of one to deter foreign investors like Telenor and Batelco. It seems strange that the aggrieved foreign investors are not making more of a fuss about their losses.

Verizon Wireless will acquire 122 AWS spectrum licences for $3.6bn, subject to approval

Verizon Wireless has announced that it will be acquiring Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum from a number of other US carriers in a bid to boost its LTE offering. The announcements as the US is facing a spectrum shortage, and Verizon’s rival AT&T is awaiting the outcome of its proposed merger with T-Mobile USA, which if blocked, will leave it needing more spectrum for its own operations.

Verizon intends to buy 122 AWS spectrum licences  from SpectrumCo, a joint venture between cable companies Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. The firm will pay $3.6bn for the spectrum.

Comcast owns 63.6 per cent of SpectrumCo and will receive approximately $2.3bn from the sale as a result, whereas Time Warner Cable owns 31.2 per cent of the firm and will receive approximately $1.1bn.  Meanwhile, Bright House Networks owns 5.3 per cent, and will receive approximately $189m.

Verizon has also agreed terms for a spectrum swap deal with Leap Wireless. Under the terms of the agreement, Leap will acquire 12 MHz of 700 MHz A block spectrum from Verizon Wireless for $204m, and sell its excess PCS and AWS spectrum to Verizon in various markets across the US for $188m.

The companies anticipate that the transactions will close simultaneously, subject to regulatory approval.

In addition, Leap Wireless’ majority-owned venture, Savary Island Wireless, has entered into an agreement with Verizon Wireless to sell its AWS spectrum in various markets for $172m.

Verizon Wireless claims that by buying this AWS spectrum, it can bring even better 4G LTE products and services to its customers—and according to Sara Kaufman, an analyst at Ovum, the deal puts the carrier in a much stronger position to compete on LTE.

“Acquiring spectrum that it can use for LTE is a key objective for Verizon, and this deal gives it a lot of spectrum that it can use for its 4G services,” she said.

“AWS is not the preferred spectrum for LTE, but it can be used for it; T-Mobile has a great deal of AWS spectrum that AT&T is looking to gain for its LTE endeavours if that acquisition goes ahead, and I would imagine that this is entirely Verizon’s objective from this deal.”

The cable companies that co-own SpectrumCo were keen to sell spectrum, according to Kaufman, as they will be gaining large sums of cash for spectrum that they purchased some time ago with the intention of establishing wireless service. But the cable firms have not been successful in adding wireless to their portfolio of services and have not found the right formula to entice customers.

The cable companies also announced that they have entered into several agreements with Verizon, providing for the sale of various products and services.

Through these agreements, SpectrumCo’s co-owners and Verizon Wireless will become agents to sell one another’s products and, over time, the cable companies will have the option of selling Verizon Wireless’ service on a wholesale basis.

Additionally, the cable companies and Verizon Wireless have formed an innovation technology joint venture for the development of technology to better integrate wireline and wireless products and services.

“From my perspective, it seems as though that will favour Verizon in that the cable companies will very likely be selling more of Verizon’s services than the other way around,” commented Kaufman.

“For the cable companies, the spectrum that they hold is valuable, so this gives them a big influx of cash that they can use for more important, relevant objectives. At the same, they don’t close the door on being able to offer wireless, as Verizon has the brand and expertise to do that better, as is evidenced by their leading position in wireless,” she added.

The deal is subject to approval by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), but Kaufman doesn’t anticipate any major resistance to the transaction.

“It’s certainly not a deal that is on the same scale as the T-Mobile-AT&T merger – and there’s been spectrum purchases that have happened in the past, so it’s not an unusual transaction for Verizon or spectrum holders, so I don’t anticipate the same kind of resistance to the T-Mobile acquisition,” she concluded.

Indian's BSNL wants a refund for spectrum after making heavy losses

India’s state-owned operator BSNL has offered to hand back its Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum for 17 states to the government, and is seeking a $1.67bn refund after making heavy losses.

The firm wants to hand spectrum back to the government after having made a loss of $1.2bn over the past 12 months, primarily due to high staff cost and payments made for acquiring 3G and BWA spectrum.

Last year, it paid over $1.7bn to the government for spectrum during the BWA auction, and was allotted non-standardised band of BWA spectrum for 21 states. However, the company still wants to retain its spectrum in the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana.

Over the past 12 months, BSNL has paid more than 47 per cent of its total income in salary to its employees, and the firm is now preparing a voluntary retirement plan to staff as part of its efforts to revive the company.

Meanwhile, US chipmaker Qualcomm is set to receive its broadband licence, after it was told it could lose its $1bn investment and ISP licence that it won in the country’s BWA auction.

The firm paid for wireless spectrum in a state auction in four of India’s states. The ministry had earlier cited Qualcomm missing the deadline for applying for an ISP licence as one of the reasons for rejecting the application, and that it had applied for four separate licences, whereas it should have applied for just one.

However, the US firm has now confirmed that it has received a letter from India’s telecoms ministry, offering to grant the company a licence covering all the four states.

The company had previously said it fully complied with the application process and will work with the Indian authorities to resolve the matter.

Philippine operator PLDT is willing to sacrifice 10MHz of spectrum to get the green light to acquire rival Digitel

The incumbent operator in the Philippines has offered to give up some of its excess 3G spectrum, in an effort to clear the way for regulatory approval of the acquisition of a rival.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co (PLDT) is willing to offload 10MHz of its 3G frequency in an attempt to push through its bid to acquire rival Digitel, a source familiar with the matter told The Manila Times. At present, the PLDT group has a combined 25Mhz of 3G frequency.

The 25Mhz that the firm currently owns comes from acquisitions that the operator has recently made. 15Mhz of its spectrum is owned by subsidiary Smart Communications and another 10Mhz by Connectivity Unlimited Resources Enterprises (CURE), a company that Smart Communications had previously acquired.

The source said that PLDT is likely to give up the 3G frequency of CURE because it is in the lower frequency band. CURE’s uplink frequency bandwidth is in the 1955Mhz-1965Mhz range and its downlink frequency in the 2145Mhz-2155Mhz range.

Meanwhile, Smart’s frequency is in the 1920-1935 Mhz/2110-2125Mhz range, and so has the least amount of interference and allows for the clearest over-the-air transmission.

If PLDT sells off its 10MHz to gain the green light for the acquisition, it will be able to replace it with Digitel’s 10Mhz of 3G frequency, which is in the 1925Mhz-1945Mhz and the 2125 Mhz-2135Mhz range.

Another rival, Globe Telecom, had previously said that PLDT should divest its excess frequencies, particularly in 3G for re-distribution to Globe and other telcos, if it is to go ahead with the acquisition.

A Senate committee has looked into the proposed acquisition and has issued a report saying the deal complied with Philippine laws. The report added that there was no basis to indicate that the deal will restrain competition within the telecom industry or hurt public interest.

There is no spectrum shortage in the USA, but too much of it is in the wrong hands

Contrary to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) warning of a “looming spectrum crisis”, there is no shortage of radio spectrum in the USA, according to analyst firm Citi Investment Research & Analysis. However, the firm warned, too much of the spectrum is in the wrong hands.

The company said that US carriers currently have 538MHz of spectrum, and there is an additional 300MHz of spectrum ready to be used, but only 192MHz is in use today.

In addition, 90 per cent of this in-use spectrum is allocated to 2G, 3G and 3.5G services.

“We do not believe the US faces a spectrum shortage,” the firm said.

“Too much spectrum is controlled by companies that are not planning on rolling out services or face business and financial challenges. And, larger carriers cannot readily convert a substantial portion of their spectrum to 4G services, because most existing spectrum provides 2G-3.5G services to current users.”

Stefan Zehle, CEO at consultancy Coleago, told Telecoms.com that the US telecoms industry needs to accept that inefficiencies are inevitable.

“In theory, if you gave all the spectrum to a single operator, that would be the most efficient way of doing it, from a spectrum perspective. But of course, that’s not the most efficient way to do it economically, as you end up with a monopoly,” he said.

“That is why you have to balance the need to have multiple operators and accept inefficiencies in the use of spectrum.”

He added that the issue is not limited to the US, which is relatively balanced. Problems are much starker in markets where there is less spectrum available and more operators, with India being a prime example.

One way many other markets have managed to ensure efficiencies in spectrum allocation is by introducing ‘use it or lose it’ provisions; if operators don’t use the spectrum within a specified period, they have to hand it back to the regulator, but according to Zehle, it will be difficult to implement this in the USA.

“These ‘use it or lose it’ provisions could be quite loose or quite prescriptive in terms of providing coverage in rural communities, for example. In May 2010, the auction in Germany had specific rollout obligation for the 800MHz digital dividend spectrum. This provision is used in a lot of markets, but not in the US, and that’s part of their problem.”

“It’s relatively easy to remedy if you have a new auction but it’s difficult to remedy once it’s done, because if you have assigned the right to the spectrum to someone and they’ve paid for it, it’s difficult to take that away.”

Bulgaria is seeking a fourth carrier

Bulgarian communications regulator the CRC has issued a tender for a fourth 3G licensee in the country. Prospective bidders will be allowed to submit applications for the UMTS licence until November 14, with the award due to take place December 7. The licence will be valid for 15 years and will consist of 2 х 15MHz blocks of FDD spectrum in the 2GHz band.

The initial price for the tender has been set at BGN49.5m (€25m), with a deposit of BGN2m required.

Bulgaria has a total of 7.3 million mobile subscribers, with a penetration rate of 144 per cent at the end of September. The market leader is MobilTel with 5.3 million subscribers at the end of September, followed by Cosmo with four million and Vivacom with 1.4 million users.

Alan Hadden, chairman of the Global Mobile Suppliers Association

As the demand for data from consumers continues to swell, the need to move from 3G to LTE is becoming ever more apparent to carriers. But while the technical and business cases are readily apparent, the real challenge is obtaining radio spectrum. Spectrum is the life-blood of every mobile operator and its scarcity makes its acquisition a difficult and usually expensive undertaking.

Fortunately the LTE standard can be deployed in a wide range of frequency bands, which enables operators to roll it out, at least initially, with whatever spectrum they have available. “The standard allows LTE to be deployed not only in different spectrum, but in different amounts of spectrum,” Alan Hadden, president of the Global Suppliers Association (GSA) tells Telecoms.com. He goes on to say that the standard has been defined to “recognise very much the individual needs either of a particular operator, country or region—or indeed globally.”

While this is a real plus for LTE it does present the problem of wide spectrum fragmentation. According to a recent report from Informa, (LTE Spectrum Strategies and Forecasts to 2016), LTE will be deployed in at least 20 bands worldwide, with a total of ten bands to be used in the Asia-Pacific region. In Japan alone, for example, there are seven bands that have been earmarked by operators.

As the Informa report observes, this lack of consensus over spectrum is a cause for concern. The uncertainly over when spectrum will be released by regulators and how much they will have to pay for it, is causing operators to hold back on deployments, which in turn is potentially slowing down the creation of a worldwide eco-system and stymieing efforts to create economies of scale around devices.

This issue is the prime reason why there is a delay in the production of LTE smartphones. Chipset manufacturers are looking to the operators before they commit, who are in turn looking to what is available from regulators and indeed what other operators are doing. According to Hadden this is why 700MHz is currently the most widely supported frequency for LTE—simply due to its use in the US, where LTE is most widely deployed. What the industry needs then is an awareness of what the most popular bands will be.

“You do have this huge quantity of spectrum options. But for a successful business what you need are standards, common agreements and international alignment. And what’s likely to emerge will be a series of prime bands, or core bands if you will, for LTE.”

According to Hadden the GSM standard is a blueprint for this double-band approach. “It’s a reflection of the success of GSM. GSM was a common band, and a second band was available So if you look at what’s happening in LTE; basically what are the common bands?”

The most popular approach, he says, is to go for a higher frequency band for adding capacity, and a lower frequency band for wider coverage using fewer base stations and in-building penetration. “New spectrum is coming, more or less, either at the higher capacity 2.6GHz level, which is an internationally agreed spectrum for these systems, and then also in the digital dividend space.”

In the US this digital dividend spectrum is the 700MHz mentioned above, which had already been freed up by June 2009.  In Europe however, this process is still in its early stages. According to Hadden, this is having an impact on Asian deployments, which he believes still looks to Europe for its lead in telecoms, if only due to economies of scale around devices.

“The licensing is sort of underway, but I think you need more of the major markets to have completed that allocation. If you look at the big markets whose decisions then impacts Asia, which are the major economies of France, Spain, Germany, Italy and the UK, then the question arises: Which of those has actually auctioned and allocated 2.6GHz?”

Hadden points out that, of these European markets, only Germany has actually deployed LTE. Spain has completed its auction, France is in the process of doing so and the others are all some way off.

As well as 2.6GHz, 1800MHz is also likely to be of great interest in Asia. “The real beauty of 1800,” Hadden says, “is that it’s already a common allocated band that can be used to deploy technologies other than GSM. And in many cases there is adequate spectrum that will allow a competitor to allocate 10MHz for LTE, and that’s really attractive. It’s clearly already happening and, as it does, the ecosystem will begin to support it.”

The evidence is certainly there to back up Hadden’s assertion. Telstra in Australia is starting to roll out LTE at 1800MHz, and is part of an 1800MHz alliance that also includes Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom, which can only help with economies of scale. Singaporean carrier StarHub has also announced plans to use 1800.

One country that looks as though it might be following a different path, though, is Japan. NTT DoCoMo is refarming its UMTS 2100MHz band for LTE, and has called on operators worldwide to show support by following suit, something that Hadden feels is unlikely.

“There will always be solutions found for specific requirements. While DoCoMo is a major player with major market reach, that doesn’t make 2100MHz a major band for LTE. I don’t think that what’s happening in Japan will spill out elsewhere.”

One Asian country that is likely to have an impact on the LTE market worldwide though is China. Its focus on TDD spectrum is being echoed around the world, with many operators choosing to use the technology. The attractiveness of TDD for operators stems from the fact that spectrum tends to be cheaper than FDD, while its time division nature is touted as a better match for the asymmetrical nature of internet use.

For Hadden, the tipping point though is the recent announcement by Clearwire in the US that it will be moving to LTE, using TDD technology. “It’s a positive outlook [for TDD] with the potential for a global standard.  It’s meeting needs and being tested. But what’s important about Clearwire, and with respect to the Chinese, is that it’s the first commitment in a well developed market.”

Ultimately, Hadden believes that identifying core bands is vital for the efficient development of LTE. Aside from 700MHz in the US, he believes that the dominant bands will be 800MHz, 1800MHz and 2.6GHz. While there may be another 16 other frequency bands in operation by 2016, it is these four that could form the basis of a global standard, delivering the benefits of economies of scale to operators and vendors, and the vital ability to roam worldwide for LTE users.

Alan Hadden, will be speaking at the sixth annual LTE Asia conference, which takes place in Suntec, Singapore, on the 5-7th September 2011