Wireless Blog by Unwired Insight
Dr Mark Heath and Dr Alastair Brydon from telecom consultancy Unwired Insight have authored over 40 major research reports in the telecom industry. In this blog, they provide insight and analysis on the latest developments in wireless services and technologies, including LTE and 4G, spectrum, traffic levels and mobile devices.
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LTE news roundup for April 2012
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 March 18 2012 – an increase of one million subscribers since December 24 2011. This growth has been encouraged by the introduction of the first Xi-compatible smartphones in November 2011. NTT DoCoMo launched its LTE service on December 24 2010. It is particularly interesting to see the recent increased pace in subscriber growth. It has taken NTT DoCoMo less than three months to reach its two-millionth customer, compared with about a year for its one-millionth customer. This progress looks very promising.
Following my recent positive review of the LTE-capable iPad 3, I’m pleased to see that iPad 3 sales have got off to a great start. Apple has announced that 3 million iPad 3 units were sold in the first three days after its launch on March 16 2012. However, it has not been all plain sailing for the LTE-equipped iPad. The iPad 3 does not support all frequency bands associated with LTE across the world, restricting its use to North America. The iPad 3 only supports LTE using 700MHz and 2100MHz frequency bands. Apple’s website now states, “4G LTE is supported only on AT&T and Verizon networks in the U.S. and on Bell, Rogers, and Telus networks in Canada”. In Australia, Apple has been forced to offer refunds to customers who had mistakingly purchased the iPad 3 believing that it would work with Telstra’s LTE network.
The rapid take-up of the iPad 3 will help to drive traffic volumes on LTE networks in the USA. As a sign that US operators are anticipating significant growth in mobile traffic, it has been widely reported that Verizon (in an FCC filing) has predicted a more than 20-fold increase in LTE data traffic from the end of 2011 to the end of 2015.
I’ve written before about how some operators are trying to encourage the substitution of fixed broadband services using LTE. For example, Vodafone Germany has been seeking to migrate its DSL customers to LTE. Up until recently, US operators have preferred to position LTE services as a complement to fixed broadband services. In March 2012, Verizon made the notable step of unveilling its new HomeFusion antenna product, which is more clearly aimed at customers wanting to displace fixed broadband services. The HomeFusion antenna, which is priced at USD200, has to be installed on the outside of a customer’s home (by Verizon). Verizon hopes to offer HomeFusion in all of its LTE markets by the end of 2012. The performance of its LTE network, with downlink speeds of 5-12Mbps and uplink speeds of 2-5Mbps, will be attractive to rural customers currently experiencing patchy DSL services. Verizon charges USD60, USD90 and USD120 for its HomeFusion services with monthly data allowances of 10GB, 20GB and 30GB respectively. While these are generally more expensive (and have lower monthly allowances) than many fixed broadband services, they are likely to appeal to customers unable to get decent fixed network speeds.
About the author:
Mark Heath is co-founder of telecom strategy and telecommunication consultancy company Unwired Insight. He provides regular in-depth analysis on LTE and 4G, and has co-authored over 40 research reports on the biggest issues in the telecom industry.
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 drive the demand for LTE connectivity in countries where LTE has already been launched (such as the USA), but it will hopefully also drive laggard operators to roll out LTE services.
As with all Apple product announcements, there has been much speculation about the timing of the iPad3 launch as well as the features of the new device. In the case of the most recent iPhone 4S launch, it seems that the hype got too far ahead of the reality and some observers felt that the iPhone 4S was a disappointment. We were nervous that the iPad 3 may suffer the same fate.
With all the speculation of retina displays, quad-core graphics and LTE capability, there was a risk that the actual iPad 3 launch would be underwhelming. This has proven not to be the case. With the new iPad 3, Apple has cemented its clear market leadership in the tablet market with an impressive user interface married with leading edge hardware.
There’s no doubt that the iPad 3, which will be officially available on Friday 16th March, will be on many people’s Christmas or birthday list! The iPad 3 has established the tablet as an important, often complementary, device to mobile phones, laptops and desktop PCs. With a larger screen than a smartphone, applications such as Web browsing become much easier when on the move. As well as being a useful travel companion, tablets are equally helpful in the home, for example being used as device to check email and Facebook while watching television.
When we were involved in the early standardisation of mobile systems, we used to envision devices with a compelling set of features, which included long battery life and low weight. With the iPad 3, that vision is now a reality. The iPad 3, which inevitably will followed by a raft of tablets from other manufacturers, will help to make the wireless industry an exciting place to be over the next five years.
Things are so different in the 4G LTE market compared with early 3G. In the early days of 3G, deployment of network infrastructure was well ahead of the availability of terminals. Indeed, NTT NoCoMo in Japan blamed very slow take-up of its 3G FOMA service on the lack of attractive handsets and terminals. Things have turned full circle! Now, 4G LTE is being constrained in many markets, including the UK, by the lack of widespread deployment of networks.
The lack of 4G in the UK is now a subject of interest from tabloid newspapers. The Daily Mail’s recent headline about the iPad 3 was, “Is the new iPad too smart for UK? British fans will fork out for hi-tech ‘4G’ connection but many never be able to use it.” The newspaper then went on to describe that while iPad 3 owners in the UK will end up paying for the privilege of having 4G LTE capability, they will not be able to benefit from this since 4G networks have yet to be rolled out.
We hope that the growing number of mobile users with LTE-enabled devices will increase the pressure on mobile operators to roll out high-quality networks. Then our vision of the mobile industry will finally come to fruition.
About the author:
Mark Heath is co-founder of telecom strategy and telecommunication consultancy company Unwired Insight. He provides regular in-depth analysis on LTE and 4G, and has co-authored over 40 research reports on the biggest issues in the telecom industry.
USA pulls ahead of Europe with LTE
It doesn’t seem long ago that I remember looking across the Atlantic with pride as Europe forged ahead with the deployment of GSM systems, while the USA struggled to keep up with a disparate array of mobile network standards. Not anymore. Last week T-Mobile became the last of the four US national mobile operators to announce its intention to launch LTE services in 2013, while the plans for many European network operators remain unclear.
We have commented previously on the early launch of LTE services in the USA and indeed the plans of both AT&T Mobility and Sprint Nextel to launch LTE-Advanced services in the USA in 2013.
In January 2012, Sprint stated its intention to launch LTE in Dallas, Atlanta, Houston and San Antonio in the first half of 2012.
Now T-Mobile has announced the launch of LTE services in 2013, as part of a USD4billion network modernisation programme. Part of the plan is to refarm existing HSPA+ services to 1900MHz, which has previously been used only to support GSM. This releases the 1700MHz band for LTE and has the added benefit that T-Mobile will then be in a position to support the Apple iPhone with HSPA+ services. Currently T-Mobile is the only one of the big four US operators that is unable to support the iPhone, because its HSPA+ services operate in unsupported bands. With rumours that the imminent iPad3 will support LTE, there was a danger of T-Mobile being seriously left behind by its competitors.
As the USA presses ahead with LTE, the gap between the USA and Europe appears to be widening. France, Italy, Spain and the UK are all currently without LTE networks. The UK doesn’t even have a firm date for the auction of new spectrum for LTE, let alone network operator plans to deploy commercial LTE services. As LTE networks and devices become increasingly prevalent around the world, countries and individual network operators without it are going to look increasingly like the poor relations.
