Both LTE TDD and LTE FDD offer several advantages and disadvantages to Indian telecom operators who are fine tuning their wireless broadband strategies.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) consultation paper on IMT Advanced (LTE Advanced) says that both LTE TDD and LTE FDD will be widely used, while it is anticipated that LTE FDD will be the more widespread.
Since LTE has become backward compatible with 3G and 2G technologies which use paired spectrum, LTE FDD using the paired spectrum can form the migration path for the current 3G/2G services.
Recently, Infonetics Research said that around 74 percent of the operators from the 3GPP camp plan to take the W-CDMA to HSPA+ to LTE migration path. 11 percent of respondents are deploying LTE as a greenfield network.
This is significant for mobile operators in India as most of the leading players are in the process of deploying 3G. Migration to LTE Advanced will be easy for such 2G / 3G operators.
Mobile operators in India who are yet to decide about their broadband strategies after winning the BWA spectrum will also get a clear picture about the spectrum availability in India if TRAI pushes its recommendations on LTE Advanced, the true 4G. If there is enough clarity on LTE / 4G spectrum, operators such as Airtel and Aircel will be able to rethink about their LTE TDD strategy.
If operators are aiming for LTE FDD, it can be a short term setback for telecom equipment makers such as Qualcomm, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Huawei, ZTE, etc. These equipment makers are actively pushing for LTE TDD and are in the process of guiding promoters like Mukesh Ambani and operators like Vodafone to spend funds on LTE TDD to unveil BWA services.
According to Infonetics Research, close to 2/3 of operators don’t know when they will trial LTE-Advanced, though 5 percent are already testing the technology and 16 percent plan to trial LTE-Advanced in 2013.
Half of respondents believe it is very important to start construction of their LTE network with macrocells first, followed by a mix of small cells (microcell, picocells, femtocells) as an augmentation to optimize coverage.
“As we anticipated back in 2008, HSPA+ is the default bridge to LTE and there is mounting evidence that LTE is the bridge to 4G (aka LTE-Advanced). The early LTE adopters had solid compelling reasons to move to LTE swiftly but the 3GPP crowd remains pragmatic and will not put the cart before the horse,” said Stephane Teral, principal analyst for mobile and FMC infrastructure, Infonetics Research.
The number of firm network deployment LTE commitments has more than doubled since June 2010. Comparing HSDPA, HSUPA, HSPA+ and LTE growth 6-12 months post their commercial launch, the GSA report proves that LTE is the fastest growing mobile network and the recent rapid increase in mobile data traffic, currently supported primarily by HSPA and HSPA+ systems, is driving the interest in deploying LTE.
According to GSA, LTE is the fastest developing mobile system technology ever. The number of operators investing in LTE has increased to 98 percent since June 2010, while the number of firm deployment commitments has more than doubled (107 percent) in the same period.
The current TRAI consultation paper is a timely one. It will assist operators to plan their long term investments in technology and spectrum. India wants telecom operators to think long term and they should invest in proven technologies.
Baburajan K
[email protected]
