LTE Carrier Aggregation comes to fruition
In the first few months of 2013 there have been signs that LTE Carrier Aggregation (CA) is coming to fruition, with a series of announcements of demonstrations, trials and launch plans by network operators and equipment manufacturers, including: Ericsson, Qualcomm Technologies and Sierra Wireless provided the first public demonstration of LTE Carrier Aggregation at Mobile World Congress (MWC) [...]
Voice over LTE (VoLTE) faces a technology and marketing battle
The latest “Evolution to LTE Report” from the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) includes, among other things, a (very short) list of Voice over LTE (VoLTE) launches around the world. Over two years ago I expressed my concern at the lack of long term solutions for voice over LTE. While the situation is gradually becoming clearer, there is [...]
Enhanced small cells are the key to traffic boom
One of the major themes of 3GPP Release 12 (due for completion in 2014) is enhanced support for small cells in LTE. With mobile network traffic expected to increase dramatically over the coming years, the ability to reuse spectrum many times in dense usage areas will make small cells crucial. In a previous post on [...]
NTT DoCoMo provides 3G/4G indoor coverage with dual-mode femtocells
NTT DoCoMo has announced that it will launch the world’s first combined HSDPA/LTE femtocells in December 2012, to enable improved indoor coverage for both 3G and 4G mobile handsets. Shops and offices will be able to offer high quality 3G and 4G coverage and users will be able to drop back to slower HSDPA services [...]
Everything Everywhere 4G launch put on ice
Last month I welcomed the fact that Ofcom had expedited the introduction of 4G in the UK by allowing Everything Everywhere to launch LTE services in advance of the UK’s forthcoming auction of 4G spectrum. Today, Everything Everywhere revealed its 4G plans in more detail. Under its new brand of “EE” it will offer LTE services [...]
Ofcom decision accelerates introduction of UK 4G
After years of delays to the introduction of fourth generation (4G) mobile services in the UK, yesterday Ofcom announced a decision that could see the launch of LTE services in the UK in the autumn of 2012. Ofcom has approved an application by Everything Everywhere to use its existing 1800MHz spectrum for the delivery of [...]
O2 and Vodafone to pool their networks for LTE
While the announcement has been some time coming, I’m delighted to see that the commercial realities of 4G LTE investment have caused O2 and Vodafone to make a very wise partnership decision. Vodafone and O2 have announced that they will pool their networks of radio masts and antennas, which will accelerate their roll-out of 4G [...]
WiFi offloading is becoming increasingly used
As we have regularly discussed in this blog, WiFi offloading is an important mechanism to curtail the traffic demands on mobile networks. With relatively limited deployment of LTE in many markets, WiFi offers significant benefits for smartphone users, in terms of speed, usage allowances and costs. Devicescape has just reported the results of a smartphone [...]
LTE news roundup
There have been a number of interesting announcements in the last few weeks related to LTE. Firstly, NTT DoCoMo in Japan has announced that the number of subscribers to its LTE Xi service reached two million on 18 March 2012 – an increase of one million subscribers since 24 December 2011. This growth has been [...]
iPad 3 launches with 4G LTE capability
Wednesday 7th March 2012 was an important date for the wireless telecommunications industry. It is the date that Apple announced its new iPad 3. As well as offering a range of compelling capabilities, such as a high-resolution display, the iPad 3 is particularly notable for supporting 4G LTE services. Not only will the iPad 3 [...]
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