T-Mobile International to Skip HSPA+ in Move to LTE
>> T-Mobile Beefs Up LTE Plans
Michelle Donegan
Unstrung
November 04, 2008
unstrung.com
T-Mobile International AG is the latest major mobile operator to step up the pressure on equipment vendors to speed development of the so-called 4G technology, Long-Term Evolution.
Chief technology officer Joachim Horn says that T-Mobile will not deploy high-speed packet access (HSPA) evolution (HSPA+) to get more out of its 3G mobile broadband network and will instead move straight on to LTE.
"If I need to invest into more hardware, I think it's better to start early [with LTE]. LTE is a more future-oriented technology," Horn told Unstrung on the sidelines of the Financial Times World Telecoms Conference in London this week.
"We'll deploy HSPA as long as there is no hardware replacement necessary," he said. "We'll do every other efficiency increase that's software-based." That means T-Mobile plans to upgrade its 3G network only up to peak downlink speeds of 14.4 Mbit/s and skip HSPA Evolution altogether. After that, it wants LTE.
With software upgrades, T-Mobile can boost its current 7.2 Mbit/s HSDPA network up to 14.4 Mbit/s on the downlink. Beyond that, HSPA Evolution (or HSPA+) can boost 3G network speeds to 28.8 Mbit/s and higher, but it requires hardware changes because it needs MIMO antennas. And that's where T-Mobile draws the line.
T-Mobile's mobile broadband plans are in contrast to operators like Telstra Corp., which has taken the HSPA Evolution path, and Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD), which has not closed the door on HSPA Evolution and trialed the technology this year.
And by saying that it will not deploy HSPA Evolution, the German operator has thrown down its LTE gauntlet to vendors so that more research-and-development resources will be allocated to the 4G technology. The operator says it expects the first LTE networks in 2010. (See Swedish LTE in 2010 below)
TeliaSonera AB says it will roll out 4G mobile broadband standard long-term evolution (LTE) over its newly won 2.6GHz spectrum in Sweden. The operator plans to launch commercial services for consumers and businesses in 2010 and have 60 percent population coverage by 2011. The 2010 timeline fits with Verizon Wireless and NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s commercial launch plans. ... The commercial rollout will be "gradual," and start in big cities, according to a spokeswoman. The operator has not yet started trialing the technology and has not yet selected a vendor. TeliaSonera can roll out LTE whenever and wherever it likes because its 4G license doesn't have any rollout obligations. Operators with the new 4G licenses in Sweden won't have to meet network coverage deadlines set by the regulator.
"The question with LTE is: When is the maturity of the technology good enough?" says Horn. "We believe the middle to the end of 2010 is when we'll see the first test networks."
Heavy Reading senior analyst Patrick Donegan says that a lot of 3G operators share T-Mobile's LTE aspirations, but reaching these 4G goals will not be so straightforward. "Whether they will be able to follow through on that will depend very much on the rate of commercialization of LTE and what other 3GPP operators are doing with the HSPA Evolution releases," he says. "If another operator in one of T-Mobile’s markets launches 28.8 Mbit/s, and meanwhile LTE is still a long way away from mass market maturity, it’s going to be difficult for T-Mobile stick to its guns and hold the line at 14.4 Mbit/s.”
The three big operators pushing LTE development are China Mobile Communications Corp., NTT DoCoMo , and Verizon Wireless. And T-Mobile believes it is every bit as aggressive as those three operators and should be included in that list, too. "We're the fourth," says Horn.
Earlier this year, T-Mobile demonstrated LTE with Ericsson AB (equipment and tested an LTE mobile data session with Nortel Networks gear.
T-Mobile is also interested in TD-LTE, the time-division duplex (TDD) version of LTE that China Mobile is backing as an LTE migration path from the Chinese 3G standard TD-SCDMA. TDD uses one channel and timed transmissions to send and receive signals, compared to frequency-division duplex (FDD), which uses different frequencies to transmit and receive and has been traditionally favored by cellular operators.
According to Horn, TD-LTE may not be just for the Chinese market. He says that TD-LTE could potentially be deployed in Europe in the 5MHz of TDD spectrum that most 3G operators have but currently don't use.
"If there is a TDD mode in LTE, then we can use our LTE in our TDD spectrum," says Horn. "Also, future spectrum might not be FDD anymore. We'll have more flexibility if we can choose. The Chinese market will push for it. And we'll see dualmode [i.e., TDD and FDD] chipsets very early in the market."
Whether its TDD or FDD, T-Mobile has big plans for the 4G mobile broadband technology.
"LTE is suited in the long run, [around] 2020, to be the technology that you can consolidate all technologies onto -- GSM and UMTS," he said. "That's a vision for 12 years from now." ###
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