FarEastTone to have APT700 for LTE by Ericsson

http://sunilmobiletelecom.blogspot.in/2014/08/apt700-700-mhz-band-auction-for-mobile.html
http://sunilmobiletelecom.blogspot.in/2014/10/advantages-of-700-mhz-spectrum-over.html


In my previous posts , I have highlighted the APT700's momentum, now...

FarEasTone of Taiwan is teaming up with Ericsson to launch LTE with APT700.
APT700 becoming highly in demand at various APAC & LATAM markets.

It helps the operator to have the capacity to serve more customers and provide extensive indoor coverage quality , all these at the very same network gear cost of any 2300/2100/1800 band LTE network.

SRVCC - Single Radio Voice Call Continuity : Is it possible in India ?

Most of the existing operators having heavily invested CS Core network elements across the entire country. Launching IMS Core as a replacement for these network elements is not a easy jobs from the economical and practically not that easy.

Geography & Customer base are huge with highly complex interconnects across the nation.

SRVCC requires top quality GERAN/UTRAN .

Which is still a question mark....due to many factors including the above pointed Geo + Population.

Even-though Reliance JIO starting with LTE + IMS Core , it may not have a strong target GERAN/UTRAN network. I don't think that there is a partner to do so, instead they may opt for CSFB which helps RJIO and its partner in more better way in terms of implementation.

The 1800 MHz they have acquired is not for GERAN/UTRAN instead they may use it for LTE-FDD Network.

So conclusively, SRVCC may not come to India...

Figure 1 :- SRVCC Concept Diagram from Radisys Whitepaper

SRVCC Background :-

With IMS as core (already deployed), SRVCC become the ultimate choice for Japanese and US mobile operators to provide multimedia services. It was easy for them to go for SRVCC instead of troublesome CSFB ( only in congested areas) with complicated requirements in terms of tecchnical capabilities at UE & Network.

Figure 2 :- SRVCC ecosystem

Figure 3 :- SRVCC Evolution Path

SK Telecom - South Korea : LTE Network Evolution Strategy Diagram

SK Telecom is the leading operator in South Korea with close to 16 Million Subscriber. Which is 56% of their total customer base.

SK has 47% share in the total south Korean LTE Subscriber base i.e. 33.83 Million.

• CA
• Multiband CA
• FDD+TDD CA
• Repeaters

           etc....

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