New Evolve Coalition Pushes for LTE-U, LAA

A new coalition called Evolve has been founded to promote the consumer benefits of unlicensed spectrum and new technologies for unlicensed spectrum such as LTE-Unlicensed (LTE-U) and Licensed Assisted Access (LAA).

The founding members include Competitive Carriers Association, CTIA – The Wireless Association, Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, Qualcomm Incorporated, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

The EVOLVE coalition says it will attempt to influence the policy process related to technologies like LTE-U and LAA, especially to head off efforts to bar those protocols from Wi-Fi spectrum.

LTE-U and LAA were designed from the ground-up to operate cooperatively with Wi-Fi and other signals, the group argues.

Cable TV companies and leading app providers are on the other side of the debate, and would prefer a ban on use of those technologies. The Wi-Fi Alliance for example, has asked the Federal Communications Commission to prohibit certification of LTE-U devices, citing concerns about the fairness of contention protocols.

Sprint Will Not Bid in 600-MHz Incentive Auction; Who Else Might Enter?

Sprint says it will not participate in the upcoming incentive auction for 600-MHz spectrum, which could have a number of ramifications. The move is not unexpected. Sprint has the most spectrum of any of the four national providers and also labors under a debt burden and cash flow crunch.

After its acquisition of Clearwire, Spectrum easily has access to more spectrum than it arguably needs at the moment, though many would argue Sprint could benefit from access to more lower-frequency spectrum, which provides better coverage.

In fact, Sprint has suggested it could sell some of its spectrum to raise cash. The Clearwire acquisition added 133 MHz of spectrum for Sprint. Leap Wireless spectrum now is owned by AT&T while MetroPCS spectrum was gotten by T-Mobile US.

Because of the unusual nature of the upcoming incentive auction, sellers have to be convinced to relinquish their spectrum before it can be released for auction. So higher payouts provide more incentive for releasing spectrum than lower payouts.

Losing a major bidder does not likely help much, in that regard, especially since a portion of the spectrum has been set aside for bidders other than AT&T and Verizon. Unless other bidders appear, that reserved spectrum might have only one leading bidder, T-Mobile US.

But that’s where the possibilities are most uncertain. Given a chance to acquire spectrum without confronting rival bids from AT&T, Verizon or Sprint, might third parties decide it is time to buy spectrum and create their own networks?

Might this provide an opening for Comcast, Altice, Google, Apple or some other contender? The announced decision by Sprint certainly will lead to discussions about the possibilities.

Globally, Mobile Broadband will More than Double by 2020

Mobile is not the only way people around the world use, and will use, voice and Internet access services. But mobile will be the dominant way, for most people get voice and Internet access, according to the International Telecommunications Union.

How to Monetize Wi-Fi Remains a Key Question

Historically, it has not been clear precisely how most Wi-Fi hotspot networks can create a viable business model. In most cases, the business case relies on indirect drivers.

For consumer or business Wi-Fi applications, the service provider business case relies on indirectly on Wi-Fi, and directly on the revenue stream created by Internet access service.

That is why cable TV companies, fixed network telcos and mobile operators built their own amenity hotspot networks. Doing so provided additional value for subscribers to their respective Internet access services.

A few providers such as Boingo have built businesses serving traveling workers, with direct revenue streams.

Some would argue the business model continues to be challenged. Most Wi-Fi operators spend more money on equipment than they collect in Wi-Fi service revenues, Madden argues.

Mobile operators also face declining average revenue per user, even as they are compelled to keep investing in additional capacity.

So Madden argues roaming partnerships are the obvious answer. There are challenges, to be sure. Wi-Fi interests are not happy about mobile proposals to incorporate Wi-Fi networks into their Long Term Evolution protocols, allowing mobile operators the ability to bond Wi-Fi with mobile capacity.

LTE-Licensed Assured Access (LTE-LAA)and Wi-Fi Link Aggregation (LWA) provide examples, he says.

LTE-LAA drops the cost per bit of LTE services, up to 10 times. In fact an LAA small cell will actually carry more capacity than a macro LTE sector, at a fraction of the cost. Also, LAA, as a matter of billing, looks to the consumer just like consumption wholly on the mobile network. There’s your monetization plan, at least for tier one mobile providers.

LWA, on the other hand, could help smaller mobile operators. Network operators that don’t have strong LTE coverage would not benefit much from LTE-LAA, because they won’t be able to maintain an LTE anchor channel most of the time.

These operators are more likely to select LWA (LTE-Wi-Fi Aggregation), where LTE is used when it’s available, but Wi-Fi is used at other times.

This approach still uses an LTE control channel wherever possible, but allows for wider use of Wi-Fi networks owned by other players. The key benefit of LWA for the mobile operator: LWA avoids the multi-billion dollar expense of building out widespread LTE coverage. The cost-sensitive tier of the mobile market, including prepaid users and many urban users, will go in this direction, Madden argues.

Madden expects many LTE operators will use both approaches, with LTE-LAA where small cells are deployed and LWA in other locations.

“If the big cable companies and wireline Wi-Fi providers are willing to open up a Hotspot 2.0 roaming deal with major mobile operators, then we see a path toward healthy profit for everyone,” Madden argues.

Ofcom Raises Spectrum LIcense Fees About 310%

Ofcom has raised annual spectrum license fees about 310 percent for mobile operators, who collectively now pay £64.4 million, but will be paying £309.9 million under the new rules.

Total fees payable by operators will now be £199.6m per year. Half of the increase takes effect on 31 October 2015.

The second half takes effect on 31 October 2016, with full fees payable annually from that point.

In part, the fees--set to reflect market value of spectrum--reflect results of the spectrum auction in Germany.

Ultimately, the cost of such license fees and all other costs are recovered from customers, so U.K. mobile operators will have to adjust somewhere. Assuming debt service or loan obligations, dividends cannot easily be cut, U.K. mobile service providers are going to look for other ways to pay the higher license fees.

Current and revised annual licence fees for 900 MHz and 1800 MHz spectrum

All figures £m	Vodafone	Telefonica	EE*	H3G*	Total
Current	15.6	15.6	24.9	8.3	64.4
Proposed Feb 2015	62.6	62.6	77.3	25.8	228.3
Final decision	49.8	49.8	75.0	25.0	199.6

Orange to Light IoT LoRA Network in First Quarter of 2016

Orange believes the company will earn perhaps 600 million euros in Internet of Things (IoT) revenue by 2018, with initial commercial operations expected in the first quarter of 2016.

Some of that revenue is expected to come from IoT connectivity services provided by a new Low Power Wide Area network (LPWAN), a specialized network designed to support many devices with rather low bandwidth requirements with low-power operation and lower cost.

The coming Orange LoRa network will cover the whole of metropolitan France.

“As a part of our new strategic plan Essentials2020, Orange has an ambition to become the number one operator for the Internet of Things,” said Stéphane Richard, Chief Executive Officer of Orange.

LoRaWAN was developed to support wireless battery-operated Things.

LoRaWAN network architecture is typically laid out in a star-of-stars topology in which the gateway is a transparent bridge relaying messages between end-devices and a central network server in the backend.

Gateways are connected to the network server using standard IP connections while end-user devices use single-hop wireless communication to one or many gateways.

All end-point communication is generally bi-directional, but also supports operation such as multicast enabling software upgrade over the air or other mass distribution messages to reduce the on air communication time.

LoRa uses spread spectrum technology and supports data rates from 0.3 kbps to 50 kbps. To maximize both battery life of the end-devices and overall network capacity, the LoRaWAN network server is managing the data rate and RF output for each end-device individually by means of an adaptive data rate scheme.

LoRa is one of a number of protocols supporting IoT networks.

4 Billion People Do Not Yet Use the Internet

Some 4.2 billion people globally do not have regular access to the Internet, according to the United Nations Broadband Commission. How fast that divide can be effectively erased is the issue.

Fortunately, the problem does not appear to be an intractable as was the task of supplying voice connections to the world’s people using the tool of fixed networks. Had we continued to rely on that strategy, perhaps the same four billion would not have use of voice and text message communications.

There are at present perhaps 1.3 billion telephone lines in service, globally. Most of those lines are in the developed world. There are some 572 million phone lines in service in the developing world. Assume half serve business locations. That leaves 286 million consumer lines.

If there are an average of three persons per household, then there might have been 858 million people in developing nations with telephone service by now, not the present situation where global population is about seven billion and the number of active mobile phone subscriptions is more than seven billion, as the ITU reports.

According to one survey, about 81 percent of households in developing regions do not have a fixed network telephone line. Had mobile access not arisen, there would have been just 1.3 billion locations--globally--with phone service.

According to Ovum, mobile cellular subscriptions will grow to 8.5 billion by 2019, of which 6.5 billion will be mobile broadband subscriptions. Indeed, mobile broadband is the fastest-growing ICT service in history, according to the U.N. Broadband Commission.

Though some might be pessimistic, the rapid growth of mobile phone usage, and then ability to leverage that installed base for mobile Internet access, gives many hope that the Internet access divide will be a comparatively easy problem to solve.  

Internet of Things Radio Network Standard Moves Closer to Approval

A new mobile network standard designed to support Internet of Things (IoT) apps moved closer to resolution at a meeting of the 3GPP radio access network technical specifications group.

At a regular meeting, the group decided to standardize NB-IOT, a new narrowband radio technology to address the requirements of the Internet of Things (IoT).

That illustrates the expected importance of IoT--it is a narrowband standard set within the context of networks that keep pushing to add more bandwidth.

The new technology is intended to provide improved indoor coverage, support of massive number of low throughput devices, low delay sensitivity, ultra-low device cost, low device power consumption and optimized network architecture.

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) unites [Seven] telecommunications standard development organizations (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC) and provides their members with a stable environment to produce specifications that define 3GPP technologies.

The project covers cellular telecommunications network technologies, including radio access, the core transport network, and service capabilities, including work on codecs, security, quality of service.

The specifications also provide hooks for non-radio access to the core network, and for interworking with Wi-Fi networks.

The technology can be deployed “in-band”, utilizing resource blocks within a normal LTE carrier, or in the unused resource blocks within a LTE carrier’s guard-band, or “standalone” for deployments in dedicated spectrum.

NB-IoT is also particularly suitable for the refarming of GSM channels.

The final standard will have to harmonize different proposals. Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Intel, LGE, Nokia, Samsung, Sony, and ZTE back the NB-LTE proposal.

Huawei, Vodafone and others back the Narrowband Cellular IoT (CIoT) proposal.

Verizon Open to Leasing Dish Network Spectrum

Verizon Communications says it has no interest in buying Dish Network, but is willing to lease spectrum from Dish, says Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam.

That would solve Dish Network’s “need an operating network” problem, while monetizing some of the value of the spectrum. That wholesale access also would give Verizon additional bandwidth, without requiring that Verizon buy an asset (Dish Network) that does not fit with Verizon’s strategy for video, which is mobile, not fixed or satellite delivered.

Dish controls 40 MHz of mid-band AWS-4 spectrum in the 2 GHz to 2.2 GHz frequency range, 10 MHz of 1.9 GHz PCS H Block spectrum and perhaps 25 MHz of AWS-3 spectrum at 1.7 GHz.

source: Market Realist

Globalstar Says TLPS Does Not Interfere with Wi-Fi at 2.4 GHz

Globalstar’s proposed Terrestrial Low Power Service (TLPS), if approved by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, would be a managed service offering untethered access, operating as a fixed wireless network that resembles Wi-Fi coverage, but with five times the distance and four times the throughput of a typical Wi-Fi hotspot.

That the proposal is supported by iPass suggests the likely business model.  

Globalstar argues that standard Wi-Fi devices will be able to use TLPS, after a software or firmware upgrade upgrade, a claim that some question.

But iPass, at least, believes TLPS could be a useful new tool to extend its public hotspot network.

Spectrum Trading is a Good Thing; Additional Taxes and Fees Probably are Not

You might argue it is nobody’s fault, but since the communications and content businesses now are ecosystems, it matters what actors do in each part of the ecosystem.

And, at times, it seems even government officials who formally desire far better Internet access take actions that place obstacles in the way of doing so.

Consider recent actions around spectrum trading. India now will allow mobile operators with licenses in the same frequency bands--and subject to limitations on the total amount of spectrum any single company can use in any single area--to share access using those licenses.

That is intended to allow more efficient use of available spectrum, and, in principle, can lower operating or capital costs. Some operators might be able to avoid acquiring additional spectrum, at least for a time, for example.

In other cases, mobile operators will be able to drive new revenue from the deals. Reliance Communications is one example, according to Fitch Ratings.

Also, ability to trade spectrum may curtail excessive bidding in future spectrum auctions.

In other cases, mobile operators with smaller market share, such as Tata Telecom, Videocon Telecom and Aircel Limited, could trade their spectrum assets with larger telcos in the loss-making areas to focus only on profitable geographies.

However, aggressive spectrum trading could be deterred in the short term by new taxes and fees, and by restrictive rules.

First, the rules prevent a telco from owning over 25 percent of available spectrum in any one circle.

Second, a telco may have to pay additional taxes on the revenue derived from traded spectrum over and above the existing spectrum charges.

Third, a seller will have to pay an additional one percent fee on the traded spectrum's market value. And that could wipe out any expected advantages.

The new rules are expected to include payment of higher license fees and usage charges. But the traded spectrum might also be subject to additional taxes.

"There is already the issue of double taxation (higher spectrum usage charge and the licence fee to be paid by both the parties), which we feel will discourage trade of spectrum," said Rajan Mathews, director general of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). "If you are also going to be charged a service tax on a commodity, it will really take away most of the differential of lower-cost benefit which would have accrued through spectrum trading."

When the ecosystem is not aligned, progress stalls. Encouraging more rational spectrum use is a good thing. Attacking the business case with new taxes and fees cuts the other way.

Google Partners with Indian Railways for Public Hotspot Network Across India

Indian Railways and Google will create a network of free Wi-Fi hotspots at 400 railway stations across the country.

As planned, the hotspot access will be provided free of cost after text message validation.

Currently, the download speeds are somewhere in the 7 Mbps range while upload speeds are in 5 Mbps range.

According to reports, the service will allow users to access free Internet at high speeds for first 34 minutes and at reduced speed will reduce after the first 34 minutes.

Indian Railways is currently providing Wi-Fi connectivity in moving trains for select routes like Rajdhani express using satellite communication technology

In a second phase of the deployment, Google will provide Wi-Fi on board moving trains across India.

There is some speculation about what larger vision Google Fiber might have, such as whether Google Fiber might try and replicate the gigabit fixed network in India that it is building in many U.S. cities.

For some of us, that seems less likely than that Google will use the railway backbone as the rudiments of a national backhaul infrastructure. That would be helpful were Google to launch additional public hotspots in urban areas, which, it should be noted, tend to be connected by rail rights of way.

Free Mobile Gets 10 MHz in 1.8 GHz Band

Free Mobile will have the use of 15 MHz duplex in the 1800 MHz band starting on 25 May 2016, ARCEP says.

ARCEP decided to award Free Mobile an additional 10 MHz of spectrum to supplement the 5 MHz duplex which it had already been assigned in theband.

This decision follows through on the decisions adopted on 4 April 2013 and 30 July 2015, which set the terms and conditions for Bouygues Telecom, Orange and SFR refarming the band for fourth generation networks.

As part of those plans, the three operators had to give up a portion of their frequencies for reassignment to Free Mobile.

As result, starting on 25 May 2016, Orange, SFR and Bouyges Teleom each will have 20 MHz of 1800 MHz, while Free Mobile will have 15 MHz.

India Spectrum Trading Should Dampen Spectrum Auction Prices

If mobile service providers trade spectrum, they may not have to acquire so much new spectrum, which in turn should lower demand for new spectrum in upcoming spectrum auctions in India, according to credit rating agency Fitch Ratings .

That is, of course, if the firms do not run afoul of government rules about the maximum amount of spectrum any single provider can lease.

Fitch Ratings believes the top three telecom operators--Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular--will acquire additional spectrum from smaller telcos.

Reliance Communications and Reliance Jio, the latest entrant in the mobile market, appear to have agreed to widely share 800-MHz spectrum in most of India’s markets.

Spectrum trading might also be the triggering event for market exits by smaller firms, as trading rules seem to allow smaller firms to transfer spectrum licenses to other mobile operators.

That might include Tata Telecom, Videocon Telecom and Aircel Limited.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited might be able to raise revenues, as they own rights to 900-MHz spectrum.

On the other hand, rationalizing the spectrum market will be limited in some significant ways.

The rules prevent any mobile operator from use of  more than 25 percent of available spectrum in any one circle (market).

Also, the business model must incorporate new additional taxes on the revenue derived from traded spectrum,  over and above the existing spectrum charges.

Spectrum sellers also will have to pay an additional one percent  fee on the traded spectrum's market value.

The other issue is the necessity of paying “market value” for any traded spectrum acquired at below-market cost prior to 2010.

Reliance Communications Spectrum Sharing Deal with Reliance Jio Nears Public Debut

As expected, Reliance Communications and Reliance Jio Infocomm will announce a finalized deal to share mobile spectrum supporting fourth generation networks (4G) over most of India.

The deal will allow Reliance Jio to provide better coverage, while reducing Reliance Communications debt burdens.

The deal enables Reliance Jio to offer 4G services over the 800 MHz band, representing 10 MHz of 4G spectrum, across 10 circles in Mumbai, UP-East, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Northeast, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.

Converting its fragmented airwaves in the 800 MHz band into contiguous or 'continuous' frequencies will be crucial for Reliance Jio to deliver high-quality 4G LTE services on this frequency, many would note.

Reliance Jio also will use the 2300 MHz band for 4G. But that also means reception inside buildings will be an issue. Hence the value of 800-MHz 4G, which will improve indoor coverage.

You might say the Reliance Communications deal with Reliance Jio is among the simpler forms of spectrum sharing that now includes Wi-Fi, TV white spaces and eventually other forms of sharing, such as allowing new commercial users access to licenses held by government entities, without clearing the existing users.

Among the other general categories of spectrum sharing--aside from simple business deals--are methods based on geography, time and coordinated sharing.

Geographic sharing is going to develop as a method of allowing commercial users access to spectrum licensed to government entities, in areas where the government does not generally need to use the spectrum.

Another commonly considered type of sharing is temporal sharing. In this case, two or more users would share access to the same band of spectrum in the same geographic area, but at different times.

That will be the case for expected new arrangements in the U.S. market in bands such as 1695 MHz to 1710 MHz and 1755 MHz to 1850 MHz, as well as 3.5 GHz, for example.

Sharing based on time division can be either predictable or random.

Under a predictable temporal sharing regime, one user agrees not to transmit during particular pre-defined times to accommodate the other user’s services.

Unpredictable or random temporal sharing occurs when the secondary user may have to stop using the specific spectrum on short notice or without warning.

Coordinated sharing involves multiple users accessing the same band of spectrum in the same geographic area at the same time. Wi-Fi has been the best example.

The two potential mechanisms for coordination are databases and cognitive radios. TV white spaces is an example of a service based on use of databases to control interference.

Cognitive radio networks or devices automatically detect devices in its vicinity and coordinate usage in response.

Uncoordinated rule-based sharing generally is the way unlicensed spectrum is used.