New Brtoadband Licencing in GSM Bands

spongebob

Comreg announced that they would let the Mobile Operators provide Broadband using their EXISTING spectrum around 900Mhz and 1800Mhz .

The tech comes under the unwieldy name of 1XEV-DO also known and EV-DO and is relatively new. News.Com carried a story on it Here a few months back. Note that it is undergoing trials in the US.....nobody seems to have 'launched' as such. The 'DO' bit stands for Data Only, it is a voice free mobile service in essence.....although you must be static to use this mobile service at high speed

The weird thing is that EV-DO seems to be a subset of CDMA- 2000 . CDMA-2000 is the US 3G standard and NOT the European one which is known as W-CDMA-2000. Are Comreg allowing the deployment of non standard equipment here then??????

There is a jargon buster Here to help y'all.

There is an even newer faster variant called 1xEV-DV on the way later which will be able to handle 3-5Mbit . Again it seems to be a further development of the US standard.

Does this decision mean that Meteor now have a 3G licence....albeit for data only ?

M

flywheel

At some Qualcomm presentations last year they were at pains to get more 'friendly' names for their technologies, acknowledging that CDMA 1x RTT wasn't exactaly consumer friendly (they were getting the carriers to drop the RTT part and just call it '1x'), the presenters also termed 1x EV-DO as High Data Rate (HDR).

The first US commercial 1x EV-DO service was launched at the end of October '02 by Monet Mobile Networks in Duluth Minnesota as a mobile broadband service

Qualcomm had 1x EV-DO trial, their next generation (from 1x RTT) what they called their data optimized 'evolution', running Washington DC previous to the Monet launch and were [they said] very happy with how it was going. Some decent detail of 1x EV-DO on their site: www.qualcomm.com/cdma/1xEV

HTH,
BrianG

davej

As is my understanding, 1XEV-DO is relatively easy to implement so long as you already have CDMA2000 set up - it's just a matter of inserting a channel card into the BSC. As you point out this is not the standard in Europe and I don't think operators are going to buy the infrastructure to carry it, especially since they've already invested in W-CDMA. It seems to me this will be more popular in the US.

davej

spongebob

1EV-DO can be offered over frequencies already in use because our 3G standard will operate over different (higher) frequencies.

Logically, even though it is a subset of the US 3G standard, it will not interfere with the European 3G standard if deployed.

If Meteor started to offer a service which is essentially a subset of 3G (US Flavour) despite their not having a 3G licence (European Flavour) what would happen then I wonder?

M

yellum

A number of technology options exist which could meet these requirements. For example, EDGE (Enhanced Data in a GSM environment) is an evolution of the European GSM standard which enables data rates of up to 384 kbit/s to be delivered in a mobile environment. As a GSM standard provision of EDGE services is already covered by the operators’ existing licences

That was also in the "Extending Broadband Access within Licensed GSM Radio Spectrum" document.

Anyone familiar with EDGE ?

http://www.mobilecomms-technology.com/projects/edge/
States:
Enhanced data for global evolution (EDGE) is a high-speed mobile data standard, intended to enable second-generation global system for mobile communication (GSM) and time division multiple access (TDMA) networks to transmit data at up to 384 kilobits per second (Kbps). As it was initially developed just for GSM systems, it has also been called GSM384. Ericsson intended the technology for those network operators who failed to win spectrum auctions for third-generation networks to allow high-speed data transmission.


For EDGE to be effective it should be installed along with the packet-switching upgrades used for GPRS. This entails the addition of two types of nodes to the network: the gateway GPRS service node (GGSN) and the serving GPRS service node (SGSN). The GGSN connects to packet-switched networks such as internet protocol (IP) and X.25, along with other GPRS networks, while the SGSN provides the packet-switched link to mobile stations.

The additional implementation of EDGE systems requires just one EDGE transceiver unit to be added to each cell, with the base stations receiving remote software upgrades. EDGE can co-exist with the existing GSM traffic, switching to EDGE mode automatically.

bk

I thought part of Hutchinsons 3G license is that they have to sell wholesale access to their 3G network to other companies (a bit like DSL bitstream).

So I would think that Meteor plans on doing this in order to build a 3G presence.

In fact come to think about it, it would be in Meteors interest to get involved in various wireless LAN technologies, they have nothing invested in 3G tech, so they have nothing to lose by selling cheap wireless.

Alternatively I wouldn't be surprised if Hutchinsons buys Meteor, immediate brand awareness, customer base and a 2G network.

The funny thing is that we might even see the likes of Eircom and Esat re-enter the mobile market through Hutchinsons network.

I could easily imagine Meteor/Eircom/Esat and others without 3G licenses, selling dual mode phone services that work over WLAN where available and 3G (over Hutchinsons network ) where not.

Ah isn't competition great.

yellum

I'd have serious doubts that the existing mobile companies possiblly apart from Meteor would bring this out.

02 and Vodafone will want to honour their investment in 3G and won't want to bother going with this other new technology. Until 3G they are making a fortune (well charging a fortune) and so wouldn't want to upset that apple cart either.

Even if they were to offer this technology I'm sure they'd charge the same or higher rates than the current gprs rates which are pricey to say the least.

I dunno but I think the only way to bring about fair priced broadband access with this technology is to allow third parties to use the technology and just pay the mobile companies a standard (cheap) fee for the use of the network.

One thing though is fair play to the ComReg for sourcing this technological idea and bringing it to the attention of the market here. Theres definetly a strong drive in the ComReg to bring about as many broadband access routes as possible lately.

The IrelandOffline message has sunk in I think.

bk

Originally posted by yellum
I'd have serious doubts that the existing mobile companies possiblly apart from Meteor would bring this out.

02 and Vodafone will want to honour their investment in 3G and won't want to bother going with this other new technology. Until 3G they are making a fortune (well charging a fortune) and so wouldn't want to upset that apple cart either.

That is why I siad Meteor/Eircom/Esat, they all have nothing invested in 3G and have no massive 3G licenses to pay off.

thegills

Eircom are definitely considering entering the mobile space as soon as their 3 year ban ends. Have Esat not got a similiar ban in place after their sale to O2.

As regards the Meteor I would hardly call 1% market share and 250 base stations as having a customer base and a 2G network,

yellum

bk:

You talked about the mobile companies using 3G and WLAN technologies.

I could easily imagine Meteor/Eircom/Esat and others without 3G licenses, selling dual mode phone services that work over WLAN where available and 3G (over Hutchinsons network ) where not.

This technology Muck mentioned is not 3G but it can interact with it in some ways. It is not WLAN technology either.

We both agree that Meteor might do this ( I won't speculate on Meteors future as I believe there was some post that had to be removed recently after a legal letter ) and we both seem to agree that the other two mobile companies would be slow to roll it out. So therefore should there be some sort of bitstream like access for other companies that want to do it ? Right now its only those with existing GSM licences that can do it.

Eircom have definetly said they might get back into GSM by buying service from Vodafone / O2 , but is there something in place to allow them to offer this new broadband like service ?

And who's to say that they don't just offer it at a fractionally cheaper rate than the existing operators ? It needs to have an "affordable" price pushed on it.

spongebob

Originally posted by yellum
bk:

This technology Muck mentioned is not 3G but it can interact with it in some ways. It is not WLAN technology either.

It IS 3G , but is part of the US 3G Standard....It is not part of the EU 3G standard which is what Comreg have licenced to Hutchison 3g, Oh-Pooh and Voodoofone

It may be a heavy hint to Hutchison that they should BUY Meteor. Meteor would appear to be the carrier with the least to lose from deploying this tech, Oh Pooh and Voodoofone have 2.5G on which they charge a bleedin fortune while they must have 53% 3G coverage by 2007 or something like that as well.

Right now its only those with existing GSM licences that can do it.

There is a heavy hint to those with GSM licences and Spectrum in the Comreg doc. I suspect that only existing licenced spectrum may be used. There is a possibility it may be only used in less busy cells in rural areas from my reading of the doc. Comreg will not issue any more new spectrum I suspect.

By the way WTF happened to to the 800Mhz block that was freed up when the old 088 analogue mobiles were turned off ......does anyone know offhand?

M

yellum

Originally posted by Muck
It IS 3G , but is part of the US 3G Standard....It is not part of the EU 3G standard which is what Comreg have licenced to

I knew that . I don't give a toss about American 3G. European 3G is where its at.

Just saw this on Qualcomms website about 1xEV-DO:

1xEV-DO is commercially available in Korea today. 1xEV-DO ASICs have been in production since September 2001, and devices and networks have been designed and manufactured based on these commercial ASICs. There is broad industry support from device and system manufacturers, and many significant milestones have been collectively achieved by the industry participants, making 1xEV-DO a proven and low-risk technology.

1xEV-DO isn't that new anyway so it might be cheap enough to implement.

spongebob

Originally posted by yellum
I knew that . I don't give a toss about American 3G. European 3G is where its at.

1xEV-DO isn't that new anyway so it might be cheap enough to implement.

ya bastid. .... anyway, have a look at this product here

http://www.airprime.com/news01_07_03_release.htm

or that site in general.

God bless Korea may I also say, they are as advanced in broadband wireless as they are in DSL

M

flywheel

Originally posted by Muck
God bless Korea

and people living in Duluth, Minnesota

wonder if their town is twinned with one in Korea!

BrianG

JTMan

Originally posted by Muck

It may be a heavy hint to Hutchison that they should BUY Meteor.

3 (Hutchison) are very unlikely to buy Meteor. They have said that they want NO 2G legacy. There is also hints that 3 have a deal with the ESB to use their sites. Would they do a deal with the ESB and buy Meteor as well? I can't see both happening.

Although I have been warned not to personally speculate on Meteor's future, I read with interest an article on the back of the Sunday Tribune a few weeks ago that speculated that Meteor may fold