Myanmar to Authorize a 4th Mobile Operator

Myanmar has formally invited proposals from local public companies to create a fourth mobile operator, in partnership with a foreign company. Myanmar also is planning to auction off additional spectrum.

Mobile uptake in Myanmar has soared since Myanmar opened up its mobile market, allowing Telenor and Ooredoo to enter the market.

In July 2015, Telenor had grown its subscribers to more than 10 million, while Ooredoo reported  3.3 million at the end of April, 2015.

Myanmar also is allocate more sub-1-GHz spectrum in the 700 MHz, 850 MHz, and 900 MHz bands.

As you would guess, as mobile adoption--especially of smartphones--grows, new demand will be created for subsea bandwidth to Myanmar.

As of the end of the first quarter of this year, mobile penetration in Myanmar stood at 25 percent,  up from less than 19 percent at the end of 2014.  

In a significant development, half of people buying a mobile phone buy a data plan, while 70 percent of all the phones sold are smartphones.

Myanmar  has about 30 Gbps of international bandwidth, with Telenor and Ooredo adding another 10 Gbps, and another order of magnitude to come over several years.

There are currently 3,000 mobile towers, but the country needs 15,000 to 20,000, and 25,000 km more transport facilities.

Sri Lanka to Launch Internet Access Using Google Project Loon Balloons

Sri Lanka has become the first country to support deployment of Google Loon-based Internet access.

Still, many details are unclear. Some reports indicate the initiative is going to offer free Internet access across the entire country. Other reports suggest a wholesale model is planned.

Also unclear are which uplink and downlink protocols will be used. Google originally tested Wi-Fi, but found that unsatisfactory. Instead, it recently has been testing Long Term Evolution platfroms, and therefore likely also has been testing 3G.

If 3G or 4G is the uplink and downlink, then involvement by mobile operators is likely. None of those questions yet have been answered in public. It remains possible that such involvement is planned, but that full agreements have not yet been reached with one or more mobile operators.

“The entire Sri Lankan island--every village from (southern) Dondra to (northern) Point Pedro--will be covered with affordable high speed internet using Google Loon’s balloon technology,” said Sri Lanka Minister of Foreign Affairs Mangala Samaraweera.

Officials also said local ISPs will have access to the balloons, reducing their operational costs.

According to Muhunthan Canagey, head of local authority the Information and Communication Technology Agency, Google is expected to finish sending up the balloons by next March 2016.

The agreement between Google and the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) did not immediately detail any other commercial agreements, such as whether the services will be sold at wholesale to retail ISPs and mobile service providers, and if so, on what terms.

But it will be tough to compete with “free,” if Sri Lanka’s government itself provides free access at speeds comparable to mobile Internet access.

There are 2.8 million mobile Internet subscribers and 606,000 fixed line Internet subscribers among Sri Lanka's more than 20 million population.

It is not entirely clear what protocols will be supported. Project Loon recently has been working with mobile operators to support Long Term Evolution protocols. If that remains the case for commercial deployment, the whole-nation coverage will occur with uplinks and downlinks from mobile service provider cell sites, using LTE, not the Wi-Fi protocol.

DOCSIS 3.1 Deployments Will Support Access Greater than 1 Gbps, Up to 10 Gbps

It sometimes is hard to immediately grasp the importance of new protocols in the broader telecommunications business, and DOCSIS 3.1 is no different.

The latest generation of a standard used extensively by the global cable TV industry supports access bandwidth up to 10 Gbps over standard hybrid fiber coax networks used by cable operators.

New research by IHS Infonetics suggests cable operators globally will have at least 33 percent of residential subscribers able to use by DOCSIS 3.1-enabled headends by April 2017.

That means an ability to provider bandwidth exceeding a gigabit.

Precisely how much bandwidth can be provided will vary. The standard includes available contiguous bandwidth ranging from 24 MHz to 192 MHz. The greater the bandwidth, the higher the potential speed.

Taiwan to Auction 190 MHz of New LTE Spectrum in 2015

Taiwan’s National Communications Commission plans to auction Long Term Evolution spectrum in the fall of 2015, with awards by the end of the year.

Minimum prices have been set at a total of TW $14.4 billion (US $460.4 million).

The 2.5 GHz and 2.6 GHz frequencies will expand the amount of LTE spectrum available in Taiwan by the award of six licenses.

It remains to be seen how aggressive bidders will be, as the last auction of 4G spectrum found operators paying high prices, with the obvious implications for capital recovery.

In that intensely competitive 4G auction in 2013, operators wound up paying 2.3 times the reserve prices. Greater caution is expected this time around.  

In 2013, the 4G auction raised TW$118.6 billion (US $3.79 billion).

It is possible seven or more entities, including five mobile operators, will be bidding.

Local operators currently offering LTE services include Ambit, APT, Chunghwa Telecom, Far EasTone, Taiwan Mobile and Taiwan Star Telecom.

NCC: Frequency band units to be released for 4G operation
Band unit code	Frequency range	Total bandwidth (MHz)	Floor price (NT$m)
D1 (2 matched units)	2,500-2,520MHz; 2,620-2,640MHz	40	3,500
D2 (2 matched units)	2,520-2,540MHz; 2,640-2,660MHz	40	3,700
D3 (2 matched units)	2,540-2,560MHz; 2,660-2,680MHz	40	3,700
D4 (2 matched units)	2,560-2,570MHz; 2,680-2,690MHz	20	1,900
D5 (single unit)	2,570-2,595MHz with 2,570-2,575 being a guard band unit	25	900
D6 (single unit)	2,595-2,620MHz with 2,615-2,620 being a guard band unit	25	700

Source: NCC, compiled by Digitimes, July 2015

Three Protocols Contend for LTE-Wi-Fi Spectrum Sharing

Aside from all the work being done on pre-5G and full 5G, in a great rush, there are important developments in the 4G spectrum sharing area as well, both to allow Long Term Evolution sharing and sharing of Wi-Fi and LTE.

As you might expect, the amount of jockeying for position is intense. At least three different protocols for supporting LTE sharing with Wi-Fi are pushed.

LTE-U is supported by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).

License-Assisted Access (LAA) is a version of LTE-U specified in release 13 that includes Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocols to ensure WiFi and LTE can coexist. It is mandated in the Europe and Japan, but not the United States and some other markets.

MuLTEfire is a protocol developed by Qualcomm that doesn't require a licensed anchor channel, so that venues or cable companies without licensed spectrum, also can deploy LTE-U.

Sponsored Data Dramatically Boosts Asia Consumer Mobile Plan Buys

A survey of 3,500 people across seven Asian countries, including India, China and South Korea found that 62 percent would consider sponsored data packages that provide free access to specific content.

Perhaps more to the point, Facebook now says Internet.org, which works with mobile service providers to provide no-cost access to key applications, boosts new mobile Internet access net additions net additions about 50 percent faster than is typical.

In fact, Internet.org has found that more than half of new Internet.org users wind up buying a mobile data plan within the first 30 days.

"Content providers, mobile service providers and consumers have been stuck in a no-win situation when it comes to mobile data usage," said Mary Clark, Syniverse CMO. "Consumers want to use more data along with richer mobile engagement, and operators and content providers are missing out on the revenue that this usage could deliver."

Nearly half of respondents (49 percent) said they would be willing to accept coupon offers from data-use sponsors, 42 percent would be willing to accept offers from entertainment businesses, 31 percent from restaurants, bars and cafes and 29 percent from travel firms.

The survey suggests sponsored data plans could significantly affect consumers' content consumption.

Data-intensive content, such as subscription video services (which are currently the most costly services to access), would see increases in usage of 40 percent. Consumption of subscription-based music services by 25 percent.

Other services expected to see moderate increases include free video services, voice and video calling services over data networks, and online games.

Consumers are most willing to accept sponsorship for reduced or free data costs from entertainment providers, restaurants and travel companies.

Consumers also understand and are willing to accept sponsored messages and advertising in exchange for free access to websites, social networking and video services.

Those findings should not come as a shock. For any desired product, lower prices boost consumption.

Data-intensive content, such as subscription video services (which are currently the most costly services to access), would see increases in usage of 40 percent," Syniverse said.

Sponsored-data packages could, calculates On Device Research, lead to a $6 billion revenue opportunity for mobile operators and their partners--in Asia alone--within the next five years.

"Our analysis shows that the sponsored-data model has the potential to substantially affect consumers' behavior favorably for all parties involved," said Sam Brown, CEO of economists Strategic Economic Engineering Corp (SEEC) who worked with On Device Research to calculate revenue.

Multi-Band Spectrum Auctions for India in Early 2016

India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) plans to hold a big spectrum auction in early 2016 supporting services for 2G, 3G and 4G networks, including first-ever 700 MHz frequencies supporting may also be on offer for the first time ever.

The auction also will include spectrum at 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz.

Under the new spectrum rules, all the bands can be used to offer any telecom services using any technology. That is a change.

Historically, each band was licensed for a particular technology approach.

So 800 MHz and 1800 MHz can be also used for 4G, while 900 MHz can also be used to offer 3G, for example.

Some of the spectrum that will be auctioned presently is licensed for active mobile operators, but additional new spectrum also will be auctioned.

That is likely to include 15 MHz of previously-unsold capacity in the 2100 MHz band, 5.4 MHz in the 1800 MHz band, 9.8 MHz in the 900 MHz band and 22.5 MHz of bandwidth in the 800 MHz band.

In 2100 MHz, 15 MHz will be available. About 30 MHz will be available in the 700 MHz band.

The relatively small amount of additional new spectrum means modest but important increases in ability to serve additional customers or provide higher speeds.

15 Mobile Operators Have LTE-Advanced Deployments Supporting 100 Mbps to 300 Mbps

Some 422 operators have commercially launched Long Term Evolution 4G networks in 143 countries, according to data released this week by GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association).

Also, 106 operators commercially launched LTE service in the past year, bringing the total of LTE operators to 677 across 181 countries.

LTE-Advanced deployments have taken hold in all markets around the world, as well.

More than 30 percent of operators are investing in LTE-Advanced system deployments while

88 operators have commercially launched LTE-Advanced service in 45 countries.

Some 15 LTE-Advanced networks support Category 4 devices (above 100 Mbps up to 150 Mbps peak downlink speed) while 73 networks support Category 6 devices (above 150 Mbps up to 300 Mbps).

Several operators are trialling LTE-Advanced technology capable of supporting Category 9 (above 300 Mbps up to 450 Mbps) devices and beyond.

The most widely used spectrum for LTE network deployments continues to be 1800 MHz (3GPP band 3).

LTE1800 is now used in 187 commercially launched networks in 89 countries representing over 44 percent of LTE network deployments.

The next most popular contiguous band for LTE systems is 2.6 GHz (band 7) being deployed in 100 networks. 800 MHz (band 20) is by far the next most popular spectrum choice, used by 91 operators.

While most operators (90 percent) deployed LTE networks in paired spectrum using the FDD mode, the LTE TDD mode (TD-LTE) for operators with unpaired spectrum continues to develop in all regions.

Currently 59 operators have commercially launched LTE service using the TDD mode in 35 countries.

Band 40 (2.3 GHz) is the most widely deployed spectrum. 17 operators have deployed both FDD and TDD modes in their networks. Converged FDD and TDD LTE networks is gaining traction amongst many operators.

How Soon Will Verizon Need More Spectrum?

Verizon Communications continues to argue that it has no particular need for additional spectrum. Some think Verizon is going to need more spectrum in a few years, though.

Analysts at New Street Research estimate that Verizon will run out of capacity in the next two to three years, even if it re-farms all 2G and 3G spectrum, if consumption continues to grow at present rates.

"Densification may delay the crunch by a year or two, but sooner or later the company will need more spectrum," said analysts Jonathan Chaplin, Spencer Kurn and Vivek Stalam.

Macquarie Capital analysts Kevin Smithen and Will Clayton said they are even more convinced now that Verizon "will have network congestion issues on LTE over the next couple of years."

Media consumption, particularly over the top streaming video, is among the chief reasons for the concern, given the bandwidth intensity video represents.  

Sponsored data plans that exempt entertainment video from usage buckets will be among the important new consumption drivers, and ironically could create even more demand than would be the case if entertainment video.

source: Barron's

Sprint Tests LTE Carrier Aggregation

Sprint has promised performance upgrades of its U.S. network, and it appears carrier aggregation (the equivalent of fixed network channel bonding) is one way it plans to do so.

Sprint apparently is testing a bonded 40-MHz channelization (2×20), which will boost data speeds in more than 40 U.S.  markets.

It is believed seven LTE devices will initially be able to take advantage of the new 40-MHz channels, including the HTC M9, the LG G4, the LG G Flex II, Samsung Note Edge, the Samsung Galaxy S6, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and the ZTE hotspot.

source

FCC to Deny Dish Network Spectrum Discount

The Federal Communications Commission reportedly will reject $3.3 billion in spectrum discounts requested by partners of satellite-TV provider Dish Network Corp., for spectrum awarded in the recent AWS-3 auction.

After a review of $13.3 billion of winning bids by two small companies backed by Dish, FCC officials concluded that the two entities didn’t qualify for the small-business discounts, the Wall Street Journal reports.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is said to have circulated a draft order denying the discounts to the FCC’s other four commissioners.

Aside from forcing Dish to pay more for its spectrum, the denial of bidding discounts will not likely affect strategic thinking at Dish, but will force Dish to come up with the full $13.3 billion amount of the bids, rather than the lower $10 billion amount the discounts would have provided.

TV White Spaces In India Challenged by Mobile Operators

Disputes over spectrum licensing policies are routine. So it is with potential TV white spaces spectrum in India, where trials are being considered. In general, Internet app interests prefer release of as much non-licensed spectrum as feasible, while mobile operators generally argue for licensed spectrum approaches.

White-Fi or television White-Space technology works like WiFi on a bigger scale, according to Prashant Shukla, national technology officer at Microsoft India. "This technology has potential to provide free connectivity  to large sections of the Indian population through wider coverage and economical deployment and license-free access."

TV white spaces are viewed as a viable new way to get Internet access to rural users affordably. Mobile operators naturally do not want more competition.


source: COAI