3G UMTS

3G cellular systems, most notably UMTS, are currently the most widely deployed mobile broadband technology with a huge established presence in terms of operators, customer base, brand, deployed base station sites, and backhaul capacity. Standardized by 3GPP in its Release 5, HSDPA is a tremendous performance upgrade for UMTS packet data, enabling peak data rates up to 14.4 Mbit/s, although the initial limit is 1.8 Mbit/s.

Latency is also reduced, and spectral efficiency is improved as well. These improvements are achieved through improved modulation and coding, and implementing fast scheduling and retransmissions at base station level.

Although most WCDMA/HSDPA deployments are based on FDD where different radio bands are used to separate downlink and uplink transmission, 3GPP specifications also include a TDD version of UMTS where both transmit and receive functions alternate in time on the same radio channel. This can be beneficial for the many asymmetric data applications that consume more bandwidth in the downlink than in the uplink.

A TDD radio interface can dynamically adjust the downlink to uplink ratio accordingly, and thus can balance both forward link and reverse link capacity. Spectral allocation is also more straightforward, as TDD requires only one band instead of two bands and a further guard band in FDD. UMTS TDD is also known as TD-CDMA and has been commercialized by the vendor IP Wireless. (Rysavy 2005)

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MOBILE BROADBAND WIRELESS ACCESS

Emerging telecommunications applications such as multimedia streaming, music download, on-line gaming and content browsing are popular examples of the digital revolution we have been facing as the world gets connected.Fixed broadband access has already become an urban commodity in the developed countries, but so far there have been few means of delivering these bandwidth-consuming services effectively and affordably to the significant number of rural and mobile users.

However, recent advances in e.g. signal processing, radio protocols, and mobile network infrastructure are now enabling the concept of mobile broadband for consumers around the world.

Mobile broadband is defined here as the potential to transfer low-latency user data with speeds exceeding 256 kbit/s while roaming the network with seamless handover between adjacent cells. This paper presents the different mobile broadband technologies with commercial availability already or within a few years.

Related regulation aspects are important factors affecting the regional markets. Analysis of the current market situation, significant vendors’ strategies and foreseen future developments are also used to draw the conclusions about the respective potential of these technologies.

Currently there are a number of different technologies for broadband wireless access for both fixed and mobile applications. Some of them are completely proprietary, based on vendor-specific solutions that are noninteroperable, while others are based on open standards developed by industry working groups. In the following subsections, we briefly describe the fundamental characteristics of the currently most significant wireless broadband technologies, focusing on key metrics such as operating frequencies, channel bandwidth, cell sizes, user data rates and latency, handover capabilities, and timeframe of availability.

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Mobile Broadband

To understand Mobile Broadband it is important to understand the terms broadband and mobile separately first.

Mobile access technology is a technology used for communication; to transmit data between network element and user device via radio frequency waves. In order to facilitate the service continuity, network infrastructure is required to manage radio resource and mobility. The information data is routed via different network elements in the infrastructure. Example of this type of network infrastructure are GSM Network Evolution (WCDMA, HSDPA, HSUPA, HASP) or CDMA Network Evolution (CDMA2000 1X EV-DO, EV-DO Rev A, EV-DO Rev B, Flash OFDM).

Broadband is the system of sending and receiving small packets of data, from one computer to a server computer and hence forth. Conventionally this data would get transferred using cables with optical fiber. Data flows via these cable wires like packets of information and get delivered and vise versa.

Increasingly sophisticated technology in modulation technique and cellular network architecture provides a platform for data to be delivered via cellular radio network in a more power and spectrum efficient way. Its objective is to provide continuous wireless access to packet data networks. However from the data rate and latency performance perspective, it is quite close to the fixed broadband access; such as cable modem and ADSL.

The advantages of mobile broadband are numerous: simply a user can be connected on the move:- everywhere and anytime.

EvDO provides very high data throughput, with a theoretical maximum speed of about 2 megabits per second. HSDPA speeds theoretically can reach 3 mbps and faster--so fast that some people call HSDPA a "3.5G" service.

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Hutchison 3 X-Series

Under fire in the UK, mobile operator 3 had to perform well today under the watchful eye of Canning Fok, here from Hutchison Whampoa, in Hong Kong. He's actually Canning Fok Kin-Ning, Group Managing Director, Hutchison Whampoa Limited.

After the speech from Canning Fok - an extempore explanation of the world as seen from the Far East, where Hutchison has many times been accused of getting it wrong, and has many times made a shedload of money, the stage was handed over to Frank Sixt, Group Finance director. It's not his job to justify the performance of 3 UK, but to say where he wants to go.

Here's his explanation of what he wants to do, and where mobile broadband should be. Of particular note is his condemnation of the "3" approach to an Internet connection - the "walled garden" - which, he says, is not the way forward.

Thanks Canning. We have indeed waited a long time to be able to do this.

Full report...

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Cost of Mobile Broadband

By the end of 2006, the device vendor average sale price (ASP) for HSDPA devices will be as high as $350 versus $370 for EV-DO Revision A (EV-DOrA) devices, according to analysis in Future Mobile Broadband: HSPA, EV-DO, WiMAX<E, a new strategic report by Informa Telecoms&Media. This means the retail price of these devices will be around $450 or higher. The average bill of materials (BOM) for a handset supporting HSDPA is expected to be in the region of $200 vs $215 for a device supporting EV-DOrA. In comparison the BOM for HSUPA mobile phones is estimated at $250 in 2008 when these devices will be first launched.

A great deal of progress has been made rolling out WCDMA and EV-DO Release 0 (EV-DO) 3G networks worldwide. The industry is now focusing on developing higher bandwidth, 3.5G networks - here referred to as mobile broadband networks (HSDPA/HSUPA, EV-DOrA and EV- DOrB). These networks are promising mobile phone users a broadband experience with throughputs exceeding several megabytes per second.

Full report...

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Mobile operators team up to take on next-gen DSL

Some of the world’s biggest mobile operators are teaming up to take on fixed broadband and try to avoid the expensive mistakes of 3G.

That has highlighted the fierce debate over which standards will win out, and the most cost effective way to move to the next generation of mobile technology.

“We are competing against DSL,” says Joachim Horn, managing director of technology at T-Mobile in Germany. “The world will become copperless. Everything will be mobile at the edge.”

T-Mobile is a founder member of NGMN Ltd, set up by the operator members of the Next Generation Mobile Networks industry body in September. Other founder members include KPN, Orange, Vodafone, Sprint Nextel, NTT DoCoMo and China Mobile.
The body is an important step towards plans to roll out 3G LTE (long-term evolution) services—the next stage in the development of cellular networks based on GSM/WCDMA—as early as 2010.
Full report...

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What Price Mobile Broadband?

By Gabriel Brown | Chief Analyst | 01.04.07

Broadband on the move was always the promise of 3G.

Now, three years after the first 3G networks were deployed, the availability of High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) radio technology allows mobile operators to finally offer wireless broadband services at speeds of up to 3 Mbit/s per user.

Without a doubt, this represents a triumph of technology, engineering, and perseverance. But was it worth it? Can 3G deliver broadband services at prices low enough to attract mass-market customers already faced with an abundance of connectivity at home and at work?

This is one of the questions behind the new Unstrung Insider report, Mobile Broadband Pricing Strategies & HSDPA, which examines and evaluates 78 price plans from 24 different operators in 17 countries to identify winning strategies for mobile broadband service provision.

Vital to the debate is the commercial launch of HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access). With almost 90 networks launched in 2006 and a slew of further network upgrades scheduled for 2007, this technology looks capable of re-casting the economics of wireless Internet services. (See Release 5 to the 3G Rescue and Will the Real 3G Please Stand Up?). It certainly works well enough, according to this end-user review from the U.K., Vodafone’s 3G Broadband Service.

Simply put, HSDPA delivers a vast change in 3G capability thanks to the introduction of more advanced multiplexing and modulation techniques. For the end user, it increases data rates from peaks of 300 kbit/s with regular 3G to almost 3 Mbit/s in advanced HSDPA networks. On the network side, it allows operators to support roughly six times more simultaneous users per cell than before.

Combined with other benefits, such as lower latency (currently in the region of 100 ms to 200 ms), this dramatically improves operator economics and, in theory, means service providers can offer faster, yet lower-cost, services. It's the killer combination that could shake 3G from its slumber.

Pricing services that run over this new network, however, poses a dilemma that echoes the packet- versus circuit-switched culture clash that ripped through the wireline market. It's clear that a metered pay-per-minute/megabyte model is inappropriate, yet how exactly to price services that consume what is still a scarce resource (wireless bandwidth) is difficult, even for operators that are masters at creating tariff structures designed to maximize yield from a mobile customer base.

This challenge has led operators to adopt, or at least to trial, a dizzying variety of pricing schemes. Tariff strategies analyzed in the report include tiered service by data rate; variable data transfer limits; application-specific pricing that sometimes includes a premium voice over IP (VOIP) option; unlimited data plans; extended contract periods; bring-your-own modem deals; special launch offers; discounts for voice subscribers; bundled DSL packages; and embedded modules for laptop leasing schemes.

Such diversity reflects the large number of operators covered in the report that are each working with specific local market conditions. But amid the confusion, from those more enlightened operators, what looks like the sweet spot of mobile broadband pricing is emerging in the form of price plans with data transfer limits of 1GB per month or more on 12- or 18-month contracts with bundled modem cards and overage charges or fair use conditions to mitigate the risk of network congestion from streaming media applications. The average price of this kind contract is around $66 a month.

This highlights another major finding from the research: Very few operators have substantially altered pricing to reflect the improved economics of HSDPA and most have maintained existing tariff structures designed either for regular 3G or, in many cases, even 2G GPRS services. Operators are thus looking to sell faster speeds at old prices.

It’s too early to know if this is a good strategy. There is still not much hard evidence to say that lowering wireless data prices will substantially increase the overall market size, and clearly operators are using high tariffs to fend off low-margin bit-pipe scenarios that they've fought so hard to avoid.

But somehow, it just feels wrong that some of the cost benefits of mobile broadband technology shouldn't feed through to customers in the form of lower prices. Intuitively, that would seem to be in the best interests of service providers.

source: ©— Gabriel Brown, Chief Analyst, Unstrung Insider

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