UK-DCMS proposal may Lead to "Mexican standoff " between operators and can hamper service quality

Recently UK government’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) proposed to use "National Roaming" Concept to over come the coverage issues (Black-spots).

Vodafone-UK gone ballistic over this proposal as usual like whenever it observes something abnormal in terms "technological" aspects. Unfortunately it is forced to do the same everywhere where ever it operates around the world.  :-))


The reason which upset the RED GIANT is , technically it is going to be a suicidal attempt to  create a "NR" hotspots in between big strong coverages to cover those "Black Holes". DCMS's intention is good but the result such NR attempt will create huge issue in mobility aspects of customers. Even CDR-Call Dropt Rate will increase manifolds than before. As sensed by Vodafone this move will hamper existing happy customers also and the trouble extends to everybody who gets partnered in this effort. At th end It will be like a "Mexican standoff " between all parties.

Whereas UK-DCMS is not part of it and laughs at the stand...

I am really surprised at DCMS's proposal, always UK remained as one of the standard 
reference point for many countries and regularities around the world.

I will post some of the possible situations as picture in coming days as time permits.

I had similar situation when I was handling the technical part for the 2G/3G-ICR implementation for major OPCOs in GCC & India. 


Scenario-1 or 2 : A designated area is defined as "NR" Coverage, So that coverage border management is perfectly ok with relevant mobility parameters etc.

Scenario-3 : When a customer moves from West to North East / South East, hee needs to travel via many black holes / blind spots of Operator-A. If A is forced to use the NR to cover those black holes then the entire network will go for a toss in terms of performance of mobility & calls/session continuity etc. I have never seen a managed service operator can agree for this situation without demanding exclusions in key performance areas of SLA.

The best way forward is looking at Small/Femto cells in a shared site strategy.

UK-DCMS demanded a proposal from all the operators of UK and declared Nov-26 as the last date for the submission.

Even though Vodafone-UK has been loud enough to point out the "Mess" in the proposal, there is heavy silence from other biggies like O2/T-Mobile.

 Reference : http://www.mobileeurope.co.uk/Press-Wire/messy-proposal-for-expanding-uk-mobile-coverage-is-unworkable-says-vodafone

5G Technology Candidate :- Authorized Shared Access (ASA)

Authorized Shared Access (ASA) -- a new technology that enables dynamic access to underutilized spectrum frequencies is becoming a forerunner to become a 5G Technology or part of it.

Cognitive Radio Trial Environment (CORE) is the consortium performing the required field tests and  product development.
NOKIA is the lead in this work group.

The key concept is, mobile operators to share unused frequency bands from TV broadcast networks/ WiFi Networks / Licensed / unlicensed spectrum, with robust quality of service for both parties [ The source and the target ]. This requires a highly complex logical system to work at all the sides to ensure the offloading in sync with different access technologies.Also the objective covers a minimum impact to UE, including software/hardware changes.

Advantages of 700 MHz spectrum over a 2500 MHz spectrum

Just like somebody explained long back... " lower the frequency longer the distance" ...   :-))

Reference : http://sunilmobiletelecom.blogspot.in/2014/08/apt700-700-mhz-band-auction-for-mobile.html

It is a proven theory that a LTE 700 MHz is going to be a killer in case of LTE Services before 450 MHz can make a pitch in the competition. Because many of the major LTE markets are already having strong push to deploy 700 Mhz spectrum.

Both FDD/TDD modes are available in 700 MHz spectrum.

The below pictures are self explanatory of benefits/advantages over other spectrum...

 Figure 1 : Rural LTE Coverage for 700 MHz spectrum

 Figure 2 : Rural LTE Coverage for 2500 MHz spectrum

 Figure 3 : Urban LTE Coverage for 700 MHz spectrum

 Figure 4 : Urban LTE Coverage for 2500 MHz spectrum

 Figure 5 : Urban LTE Coverage comparison for 700 & 2500 MHz spectrum for Rural area

 Figure 6 : Urban LTE Coverage comparison for 700 & 2500 MHz spectrum for Urban area

 Figure 7 : LTE Bands and Frequency Bands

 Figure 8 : LTE Bands and Frequency Bands used by Australian LTE Networks

 Figure 9 : LTE Bands and Frequency Bands used by US LTE Networks

 Figure 10 : LTE Bands and Frequency Bands used by Indian LTE Networks

The next upgrade to Samsung Galaxy Camera device

There is a possibility that all Digital Cameras [Amateur ones] may loose their space in coming years.
Many smartphones are available today enables customers overcome Digital Photo/Video on the go capturing ability at a decent quality.

Video Streaming devices like the one presented below may offer a bit enhanced help for customers who are fond of  recording high quality videos with the ability to upload/stream immediately through LTE Network.

Figure :1 - Samsung's Video Streaming Device with LTE Capability

           Figure :2 - LTE Data Growth Drivers and their respective Data Rate + Latency requirements

Ericsson's plan to improvise the HW Platform for their AXE 810 Platform

Ericsson AXE 10 is the old HW Architecture
The same has been improvised to AXE 810 platform

[ "8" in the model name is more of a marketing/sales gimmick to capture the BIG Chineese market ].

They further trying to improvise the HW and bring CLOUD architecture as part of this planned HYBRID system.


Existing :-
*******

The Plan:-
*******

Check the design and other metrics....

Huawei to unveil 4.5G at its MBB Global Forum in Shanghai BY November-2014

Huawei is in preparation of strategic solution in order to bridge the gap between 4G & 5G and use it as a steppingstone to develop a own proposal for 5G Contender.

During the recent GSMA Middle East 360, Hauwei unveiled the summary of the proposed 4.5G development plan to attract regional players to commit for candidature in deploying the Huawei solution in widespread.

The term "4.5G" created a HUGE buzz, but with very small detail on technological aspects it is not clear enough to conclude the expected improvement on existing 4G/LTE solutions.

In summary, Huawei's aim for 4.5G to achieve....

>  10 Gbps
>  100K Subscribers within a km² coverage
>  To serve the evolution between 2016 to 2020

Also willl support...

>  D2D in addition to M2M
>  4K Video Quality
>  3D Video
>  Complete control/service layer in cloud architecture

Pictures are sourced from Huawei's Presentation Slides.

The storm is coming " APT700 - 700 MHz Band Auction for Mobile Broadband "

Although 700 MHZ band is utilized well by US in the past, but in the recent past around 2010 Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) developed the APT700 bandplan to offer the mobile broadband. Mainly focussing on 3GPP Standardized LTE Technology as the vehicle to utilize the 700 MHZ band for better coverage/speed for MBB services.The same has been adopted by Latin America. 

Meantime in US AT&T and Verizon already aggregated their 700 MHZ holding to implement the LTE Technology in widespread.

The benefits are...

• TRUE GLOBAL ROAMING OPPORTUNITY
• SIMPLE UE Hardware and Battery Saving
• Less CAPEX/OPEX for better MBB Services compare to other bands.

The frequency range : 698-806 MHz

Supports both TDD/FDD Mode technology of LTE.

Telstra is one of the major supporter for the same. Australia is one of the landscape that requires such benefits like Better Coverage + Better Speeds.
GSA-the Global mobile Suppliers Association too backing this strongly.

1. The field test carried out by Huawei proves to be 3.6 times of 1800 MHz band and 6 times of 2600 MHz band.
2. In addition to coverage benefits  throughput also 30% / 65% more compare to a 1800/2100 MHz spectrum.

India is planning to do the auction not before 2015 End, GSMA is pursuing the Govt. of India to release the roadmap soon. 

Going to be action full years ahead of us.

There will be two major fractions in future Operators with 2100/1800 band and Operators with 700/800/900 bands. The former being the target for "Small Cells" vendors. :-))

References : 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APT_band_plan_in_the_700_MHz_band#History
http://www.gsacom.com/apt700/
http://www.gsma.com/spectrum/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ZTE-LTE-APT-700MHz-Terminal-White-Paper-ZTE-JUNE-2013.pdf