Telecom to start 4G LTE trial

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Telecom to start 4G LTE trial

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BDFL - Memuneh
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#728494 7-Dec-2012 12:49

Correct. What I've heard is that this trial is data only for now...

hamish225

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#728528 7-Dec-2012 13:51

Is it actually possible to provide voice services over LTE, or is it a data only service?
They might have to keep 3G running along side it for ever if no one invents a voice service for it!

*Insert big spe*dtest result here*

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#728532 7-Dec-2012 13:54

hamish225: Is it actually possible to provide voice services over LTE, or is it a data only service?
They might have to keep 3G running along side it for ever if no one invents a voice service for it!

LTE is data only. All LTE carriers use fallback to GSM/WCDMA/CDMA for voice. Commercial VoLTE series seem likely to hit mass market around 2014 at the earliest.

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#728625 7-Dec-2012 15:42

old3eyes: 2600 band?? this won't go thru wet paper if the WiMax tests on Sprint a couple of years ago are anything to go by. Once you entered a building it was gone unless you put the fone beside a window..

Maybe the 2600 will be used to provide broadband in the rural areas with an outside antenna?

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#728628 7-Dec-2012 15:47

I think 700 is better for rural areas as it goes further.

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#728655 7-Dec-2012 16:26

kawaii:
old3eyes: 2600 band?? this won't go thru wet paper if the WiMax tests on Sprint a couple of years ago are anything to go by. Once you entered a building it was gone unless you put the fone beside a window..

Maybe the 2600 will be used to provide broadband in the rural areas with an outside antenna?

2600 was designed for metropolitan areas.

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#728658 7-Dec-2012 16:33

You do of course have to understand why 2600 even exists - and that's because when the LTE spec was created using other bands for LTE, particularly across the entire EU, wasn't possible. Historically spectrum allocations had been technology specific, so existing bands such as 1800 couldn't be used for LTE.

With changes to that it's seen the rollout of LTE in the 1800 band and WCDMA in the 900 band. This has in turn lead to single RAN solutions from Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia Siemens that allow far more efficient use of these bands, especially if you're running say GSM and LTE in the 1800MHz band. Single RAN is vastly superior in many ways, and it's interesting to see Alcatel Lucent don't yet have a single RAN solution.

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#728662 7-Dec-2012 16:41

Such as Vodafone D2 in Germany using 800/2600MHZ LTE TDD Single Ran solution by Huawei. Launched December 2010.

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#728716 7-Dec-2012 19:31

chevrolux: So iPhone 5 doesn't support 2600. And as far as I can see the Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 doesn't either. So unless they sell the GT-I9305 who is going to be able to use this 2600 band? Is there a nexus or Htc phone around that does it?

Nokia Lumia 920 supports 2600MHz LTE band along with several others like 800, 900, 1800 and 2100.

Do whatever you want to do man.

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#728737 7-Dec-2012 20:30

sbiddle:
hamish225: Is it actually possible to provide voice services over LTE, or is it a data only service?
They might have to keep 3G running along side it for ever if no one invents a voice service for it!

LTE is data only. All LTE carriers use fallback to GSM/WCDMA/CDMA for voice. Commercial VoLTE series seem likely to hit mass market around 2014 at the earliest.

Ah understood, hence why alot of the tablets have this band but not many phones. All very interesting.

All of this is pretty cool but I can see the data just being overly expensive to use at home compared to VDSL or UFB. Maybe having this network available will mean things like Chromebook will take off in a big way in that there would be plenty of speed to stream music and movies and things.

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#728744 7-Dec-2012 20:51

chevrolux:
sbiddle:
hamish225: Is it actually possible to provide voice services over LTE, or is it a data only service?
They might have to keep 3G running along side it for ever if no one invents a voice service for it!

LTE is data only. All LTE carriers use fallback to GSM/WCDMA/CDMA for voice. Commercial VoLTE series seem likely to hit mass market around 2014 at the earliest.

Ah understood, hence why alot of the tablets have this band but not many phones. All very interesting.

All of this is pretty cool but I can see the data just being overly expensive to use at home compared to VDSL or UFB. Maybe having this network available will mean things like Chromebook will take off in a big way in that there would be plenty of speed to stream music and movies and things.

DC-HSPA is "faster" than your standard home ADSL2+ connection. Never actually used a mobile connection for anything other than smartphone and occasional tethering usage, nothing intense, data is just too expensive. That's the same reason I don't see the point of LTE, unless it makes data a lot more affordable

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#728752 7-Dec-2012 21:03

P1n3apqlExpr3ss:DC-HSPA is "faster" than your standard home ADSL2+ connection. Never actually used a mobile connection for anything other than smartphone and occasional tethering usage, nothing intense, data is just too expensive. That's the same reason I don't see the point of LTE, unless it makes data a lot more affordable

IMHO speed is an important feature of LTE but is far from being the major driving factor behind it.

What makes LTE so exciting is the fact the mobile network goes from being a circuit switched product with data being a bolt on (WCDMA + HSDPA) to being a fully 100% IP based air interface that has no legacy circuit switched architecture. This is truely a massive change.

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#729032 8-Dec-2012 16:59

sbiddle:
kawaii:
old3eyes: 2600 band?? this won't go thru wet paper if the WiMax tests on Sprint a couple of years ago are anything to go by. Once you entered a building it was gone unless you put the fone beside a window..

Maybe the 2600 will be used to provide broadband in the rural areas with an outside antenna?

2600 was designed for metropolitan areas.

If this quote in Computerworld is anything to go by
"Spectrum bands
Telecom CEO Simon Moutter told Computerworld last month that 700MHz spectrum provides significantly better coverage than higher bands. He says that in the 1800MHz spectrum the signal range in an urban area is 200-500 metres; with 700MHz the signal range in rural areas is 7-10 kilometres."

What is 2600 band going to give you, 100 meters??

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/telecom-to-begin-4g-lte-trial-on-friday

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Old3eyes

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#729037 8-Dec-2012 17:14

It's been said that 1800Mhz LTE requires 50% less sites than 2600Mhz to deploy an identical coverage footprint.

1800Mhz will be a key LTE frequency in NZ. Don't just assume that carriers are waiting for 700Mhz and will deploy solely in that band. There are significant advantages in deploying higher bands such as 1800 / 2100 as capacity in metropolitan areas because the signal doesn't travel as far which is very important when designing an RF network.

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#729063 8-Dec-2012 18:53

I note AT&T will be rolling out LTE advanced next year.

AT&T executives confirm 4G LTE Advanced rollout will start next yearBy Shawn Knight

On December 6, 2012, 11:00 AM EST
Comments 6

According to a recent report from Eric Costa and Ken Hyers of Technology Business Research, AT&T is planning to introduce true 4G wireless service next year. The new service, officially known as 4G LTE Advanced, is essentially what LTE was meant to be from the get-go (recommended read: Everything You Need To Know About 4G Wireless Technology).

That’s right; the high-speed wireless service that we all know and love today is only operating at a fraction of what the standard was intended to run at. Current 4G technology offers speeds that are around one-tenth to one-twentieth of what LTE is actually capable of. We could ultimately end up with wireless speeds topping 100Mbps.

AT&T executives speaking at the Consumer Analyst Conference late last month told those in attendance that the company would begin rolling out LTE Advanced networks during the second half of 2013.

If you recall, AT&T announced plans to invest $14 billion to finish building out their LTE network by the end of 2014. The decision to start working on 4G LTE Advanced before the standard 4G LTE rollout is complete is certainly interesting but in the competitive wireless landscape, any opportunity to one-up the competition will likely be taken.

It could be a huge opportunity for AT&T to beat Verizon to the punch in terms of sheer data speed. As you know, Verizon has the largest 4G LTE network in the US thanks largely in part to the fact that they had a sizable head start over AT&T and pretty much everyone else.

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