Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

No Rural Broadband on 800MHz, No Roaming to Ireland on 2.6GHz

Options
  • 31-10-2011 2:32pm
    #1
    watty
    Registered Users Posts: 32,417 ✭✭✭✭


    The EU Council of Ministers has thrashed out a proposal for harmonising the 800MHz band for telephony services across Europe, potentially allowing for 4G roaming in 2013.

    The deal has been agreed between ministers and the MEPs making up the Industry Research and Energy Committee; it now needs to be voted through by the full committee membership, and approved by the parliament, but as it stands it will see EU members obliged to clear a space at 800MHz before 1 January, 2013.

    Roaming across Europe should be possible by then, anyway, at the 2.6GHz band, which has been recognised for 4G use around the world.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/31/eu_800_harmonisation/

    But not in Ireland which is using 2.6GHz for MMDS
    But the 800MHz spectrum, the "digital dividend" bands made vacant by the move to more-efficient digital television broadcasting, offers much better range so is more suited to providing coverage in rural areas.

    Manufacturers making handsets will obviously include 2.6GHz connectivity, but this decision should encourage them to support 800MHz too and push the rest of the world to turn their analogue TV channels into digital telephony too.

    So as expected the Mobile operators don't what to build a "proper" density of LTE base stations for a "broadband" like service, but duplicate 3G City coverage with 2.6GHz and duplicate GSM Rural coverage with 800MHz. Given the amount of spectrum, the insistence on multiple operators and the number of base stations we can expect maybe 200% speed improvement on heavily used cells, or 200% increase in capacity on heavily used cells and 50% speed improvement overall.

    Also except in the case of "promotional" packages the price per month will be higher.


Advertisement