Post by Jeremiah Ratadhi on Jul 10, 2012 15:22:16 GMT 7
Long Term Evolution – a long way evolution in emerging countries
“Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” is an hard ancient question. However in telecommunication world, if network technology is an egg, and handset is a chicken, the answer is very easy.
Network technology standard is always determined first by standardization body such as IEEE, ETSI, 3GPP or 3GPP2. After the standard finalized, the chipset manufacturers can start their design and production. Usually it takes 6-9 months for handset vendor to produce commercial handset to the market. Last but not least, the operator deploy the technology to its network.
Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a technology standard of 3GPP Release 8 finalized in 2008. Telia Sonera become the first telecommunication operator to launch LTE in 2009. Up to June 2012, there are 64 LTE operators worldwide in 34 countries.
As the technology roadmap, LTE perform better then its predecessor 3G (WCDMA/HSPA+). LTE bandwith range is up to 20 MHz that deliver up to 100 Mbps download throughput. With OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access), LTE eliminate cell breathing (coverage reduction due to inter subscriber interference) and pilot pollution happened in WCDMA/HSPA+. LTE latency also drop significantly, since the LTE flat architecture reduce RNC/BSC node and embedded the function to eNodeB (BTS).
However, in emerging countries such as Indonesia, LTE stil a long way to go. In most countries, LTE was deployed either in 2600 MHz, 700 MHz, and some also refarm its existing 2G (GSM) 1800 MHz or 3G 2100 MHz for LTE. While in Indonesia, the LTE assigned bandwidth still utilized by other services : 2600 MHz for Satellite Broadcast, 700 MHz for TV Broadcast, 900 and 1800 MHz is fully utilized by 2G voice services.
With spare 3rd 3G frequency channel in its pocket, Indonesian regulator still focus on auction this channel to 3G operators. However, with the exponential data growth, in short term 3G won’t be enough. Therefore government should start considering spectrum allocation for LTE.
Several aspects to consider in allocating LTE spectrum
a. Market share
The more countries/operators are using the frequency, the cheaper network equipment and handset are. Currently many countries using LTE in 2600 or 700 MHz. Many 2G operators also start to refarm its 1800 MHz for LTE, however, since up to now, Voice over LTE has not been commercialized, its hard for many operator to shift its 2G voice traffic in 1800 MHz.
b. Frequency Band
With current 3G broadband service served in 2100 MHz, 3G coverage is around 1-2 km in dense urban area. If higher frequency band is chosen for LTE eg 2600 MHz, the coverage become less. Despite of coverage/performance degradation with higher frequency, less coverage means more BTS required/more investment. The natural impact is operator may not reduce its broadband tariff or tend to increase it to cover the required investment.
c. Bandwidth
On of LTE advantage over its predecessor technology is its bandwidth range flexibility from 3.5 MHz up to 20 MHz. The beauty of LTE relies on its ability to maintain the spectrum efficiency over wide bandwidth. To avoid future spectrum arrangement, the LTE Advance as roadmap of LTE shall also be considered. LTE Advance require at least 100 MHz spectrum frequency.
With this in mind hopefully LTE technology evolution will become reality in the near future in emerging market, as the ‘egg’ – LTE handset such as new Ipad already come first to emerging market.
Author : Jeremiah Ratadhi
“Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” is an hard ancient question. However in telecommunication world, if network technology is an egg, and handset is a chicken, the answer is very easy.
Network technology standard is always determined first by standardization body such as IEEE, ETSI, 3GPP or 3GPP2. After the standard finalized, the chipset manufacturers can start their design and production. Usually it takes 6-9 months for handset vendor to produce commercial handset to the market. Last but not least, the operator deploy the technology to its network.
Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a technology standard of 3GPP Release 8 finalized in 2008. Telia Sonera become the first telecommunication operator to launch LTE in 2009. Up to June 2012, there are 64 LTE operators worldwide in 34 countries.
As the technology roadmap, LTE perform better then its predecessor 3G (WCDMA/HSPA+). LTE bandwith range is up to 20 MHz that deliver up to 100 Mbps download throughput. With OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access), LTE eliminate cell breathing (coverage reduction due to inter subscriber interference) and pilot pollution happened in WCDMA/HSPA+. LTE latency also drop significantly, since the LTE flat architecture reduce RNC/BSC node and embedded the function to eNodeB (BTS).
However, in emerging countries such as Indonesia, LTE stil a long way to go. In most countries, LTE was deployed either in 2600 MHz, 700 MHz, and some also refarm its existing 2G (GSM) 1800 MHz or 3G 2100 MHz for LTE. While in Indonesia, the LTE assigned bandwidth still utilized by other services : 2600 MHz for Satellite Broadcast, 700 MHz for TV Broadcast, 900 and 1800 MHz is fully utilized by 2G voice services.
With spare 3rd 3G frequency channel in its pocket, Indonesian regulator still focus on auction this channel to 3G operators. However, with the exponential data growth, in short term 3G won’t be enough. Therefore government should start considering spectrum allocation for LTE.
Several aspects to consider in allocating LTE spectrum
a. Market share
The more countries/operators are using the frequency, the cheaper network equipment and handset are. Currently many countries using LTE in 2600 or 700 MHz. Many 2G operators also start to refarm its 1800 MHz for LTE, however, since up to now, Voice over LTE has not been commercialized, its hard for many operator to shift its 2G voice traffic in 1800 MHz.
b. Frequency Band
With current 3G broadband service served in 2100 MHz, 3G coverage is around 1-2 km in dense urban area. If higher frequency band is chosen for LTE eg 2600 MHz, the coverage become less. Despite of coverage/performance degradation with higher frequency, less coverage means more BTS required/more investment. The natural impact is operator may not reduce its broadband tariff or tend to increase it to cover the required investment.
c. Bandwidth
On of LTE advantage over its predecessor technology is its bandwidth range flexibility from 3.5 MHz up to 20 MHz. The beauty of LTE relies on its ability to maintain the spectrum efficiency over wide bandwidth. To avoid future spectrum arrangement, the LTE Advance as roadmap of LTE shall also be considered. LTE Advance require at least 100 MHz spectrum frequency.
With this in mind hopefully LTE technology evolution will become reality in the near future in emerging market, as the ‘egg’ – LTE handset such as new Ipad already come first to emerging market.
Author : Jeremiah Ratadhi
