LTE World Weekly - Nokia Siemens Networks wins LTE deal

This week Nokia Siemens Networks won $7 billion LTE contract from Harbinger and acquired Motorola's Wireless Network Assets. Vodafone Germany announced selection of Ericsson, Huawei for LTE development.

Alcatel-Lucent continues showcasing of ng Connect Program and extended it to Asia Pacific region.

Follow the links below for top stories of the week.

ZTE and CSL deploy Dual-Band LTE Commercial Network in Hong Kong

Posted on 22 July 2010

Telstra's subsidiary, Hong Kong’s mobile network operator CSL and ZTE plan to deploy commercial 1800 MHz/2600 MHz dual-band LTE network.

ICASA withdraws invitation for spectrum applications

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has withdrawn the invitations to apply (ITAs) for radio frequency spectrum licences in the 2,6 GHz and 3,5 GHz bands.

COSMOTE to launch LTE pilot network

Greek mobile operatore COSMOTE is ready to launch a LTE pilot networks with speeds of 100 Mbps.

UCell gets 4G license in Uzbekistan

Uzbek mobile operator UCell has received the license for 4G LTE mobile technology.

ng Connect Launches New LTE Connected Car during 2010 Shanghai World Expo

The ng Connect Program has extended it's initiative in Asia Pacific region with the launch of a new LTE Connected Car concept coincident with the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

Vodafone Germany selects Ericsson, Huawei for LTE development

Vodafone Germany has named Huawei and Ericsson as a technology partner for LTE development.

Spirent adds LTE to CDMA Handover test capability

Spirent Communications has added testing capability to verify LTE to CDMA handover of mobile device signals using lab-based test equipment.

Exalt Introduces 4G/LTE-Ready Microwave Backhaul Platform

Exalt Communications has introduced microwave backhaul platform, ExploreAir™, with highest throughput and longest range in the microwave and millimeter wave spectrum.

Nokia Siemens Networks wins $7 billion LTE contract

Harbinger Capital has awarded eight-year, $7 billion contract to Nokia Siemens Networks to build and operate a LTE network for wireless providers and other businesses.

Nokia Siemens Networks Acquires Motorola's Wireless Network Assets

Nokia Siemens Networks will acquire the majority of Motorola’s wireless network infrastructure assets for US $1.2 billion in cash.

Ericsson wins managed services contract from China Mobile

Ericsson has won managed services contract from China Mobile Hebei, a provincial company of China Mobile.

Nokia Siemens & Motorola to close deal soon

Motorola is close to selling its network business to Nokia Siemens Networks for $1.2 billion reports Reuters citing an unnamed source.

Is TD-LTE ready for commercialization?

While TD-LTE seems to have taken lead over WiMAX, still industry perception is that WiMAX is a much more mature technology than TD-LTE.

Omantel demonstrates 4G LTE network

Oman's leading telecom operator Omantel has commissioned a 4G LTE network & claims to achive very high speed data transfer.

LG's LTE modem approved by the FCC

FCC has approved a new LTE USB modem from LG. LG VL600 is approved with support for CDMA EVDO 850/1900MHz and LTE 700MHz.

LTE World Weekly - Tele2, Clear Mobitel, Optus & Orange announce LTE trials

This week Tele2 (Netherlands), Clear Mobitel (Cornwall), Optus (Australia) & Orange (Moldova) announced LTE trials.

Ericsson demonstrated end-to-end TD-LTE solution in Shanghai, China; MegaFon announced plans to start LTE tests in Kazan, Russia this year. Follow links below for more

FCC initiative to free satellite spectrum for mobile broadband

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has initiated steps to make additional spectrum available for new investment in mobile broadband networks.

China Mobile Completes TD-SCDMA/TD-LTE Tests

China Mobile & Huawei have completed the testing of China's first TD-SCDMA/TD-LTE network in Wuxi, Jiangsu province reports China Business News, citing Biao Wan, President of Huawei Wireless Pr

LTE-based embedded PC card sales to top US$3.8 billion in 2014

Revenue from mobile broadband cards (standard PC cards and embedded cards) grew 6% in 1Q10 over 4Q09 to $1.55 billion worldwide, according to Infonetics Research Report.

Tele2 launches LTE pilot in Netherlands

Telecom Operator Tele2 has launched an LTE test network in Netherlands.

Clear Mobitel to trial LTE in Cornwall

Clear Mobitel has planned live consumer LTE trial in the 800MHz Digital Dividend spectrum in UK. Clear Mobitel will conduct the LTE trial in a zone which is centered on the Caradon Hill area o

Australian Telco Optus conducts LTE trials

Australian operator Optus is conduncting LTE tests and has achieved 50 Mbps downlink and 20Mbps uplink speeds. Trials of the new network are currently underway in Sydney.

500,000 new 4G Subscriptions in 2010

4G technology deployments and subscriptions will begin to take root in 2010 but only in North America and Western Europe reports In-Stat.

Orange Moldova & Alcatel-Lucent demonstrate LTE

Orange Moldova has made a public demonstration of LTE technology in Chisinau.

SK Telecom to commercialize LTE in 2011

SK Telecom plans to greatly improve 3G network performance and promote early commercialization of the next-generation LTE technology.

Alvarion joins TD-LTE wagon

Alvarion has announced support for TD-LTE standard in its 4Motion solution. Alvarion’s all-IP 4Motion solution is the foundation of the company’s OPEN WiMAX ecosystem.

Ericsson demonstrates end-to-end TD-LTE solution

Ericsson showcased its complete end-to-end TD-LTE solution for the first time today, together with ST-Ericsson devices at a China Mobile event in Shanghai, China.

MegaFon seeks LTE tests in 2010

Russian operator MegaFon plans to start LTE tests in Kazan, Russia this year. It will be the second after another operator Scartel, which will test in Kazan.

source: LteWorld

VoLGA adds 3G, new LTE features

The VoLGA Forum has announced a set of new features for delivering mobile voice and SMS services over LTE. New features included are:

• support for SIM-less emergency calling
• optimized voice-bearer routing
• host APIs for LTE handsets

In addition to above VoLGA has extended its architecture to support 3G/HSPA in phase 2 specifications. New specifications now support Voice (and other CS services) over LTE via Generic Access (VoLGA) and "VoLGA" service over UTRAN packet access.

Addition of 3G via VoLGA is surprising however it gives another option to provide seemless voice service via existing 3G packet switched networks. With this enhancement now voice calls can be placed via 3G packet network using VoLGA and handover to CS is also possible. With VoLGA over UTRAN packet access, following new options are possible for voice calls.

• handover from E-UTRAN to a UTRAN PS domain (Voice Call remains VOIP)
• handover from UTRAN PS to a GERAN or non-VoIP capable UTRAN target cell (Voice Call switches from PS voice to CS Voice)

See below the roaming architecture in UTRAN PS case, for E-UTRAN refer VoLGA wiki.

It would be interesting to know why VoLGA Forum has extended VoLGA services to 3G, as of now it just gives another option for operators to use VoLGA for 3G PS as well. Concept is similar to UMA/GAN, radio access network has been replaced from WiFi to 3G UTRAN.

Just to mention VoLGA does not support CS to PS handover from GERAN/UTRAN CS domain to E-UTRAN or UTRAN PS.

source: LteWorld

LTE World Weekly - Tele2 & Telenor to roll out LTE, Scartel and Rostelecom allowed to build LTE

This week, Tele2 & Telenor announced plans to roll out LTE in Sweden by year end while Zain Kuwait is experimenting with LTE. IPWireless and Altair Semiconductor announced a partnership to develop a suite of multi-band LTE modem products that will support key frequency band.

Further Russian regulator Roskomnadzor announced that Russian operators Scartel and Rostelecom can use their existing WiMAX radio frequencies for deploying LTE networks.

Follow the links below for more LTE news this week.

Top 3 Russian mobile operators seek transparent 4G spectrum allocation

Russia's top three mobile operators MTS, MegaFon & VimpelCom have asked the Communications Ministry not to allow the distribution of LTE-frequency on non-competitive basis as companies mi

Small Base Stations Vital To LTE & WiMAX Deployments

According to a new In-Stat report small cell base stations—femtocells, picocells, and microcells—are going to have a large role in this deployment strategy.

Interview with Eran Eshed of Altair on LTE developments & trends

LteWorld had the opportunity to interview Eran Eshed , Co-Founder and VP of Marketing and Business Development at Altair, a leading developer of ultra-low power, small footprint and high perf

Sagem Wireless and ST-Ericsson to collaborate on LTE

Sagem Wireless and ST-Ericsson will collaborate on the development of multimode LTE/HSPA+ reference designs, devices and modules.

Scartel and Rostelecom allowed to build LTE on their frequencies

Russian telecommunications regulator Roskomnadzor announced that Russian Wimax operator Scartel and national operator Rostelecom can use their existing radio frequencies for deploying LTE networks.

IPWireless and Altair Semiconductor to Develop Multi-Band, Multi-Mode LTE Modem

IPWireless and Altair Semiconductor have announced a partnership to develop a suite of multi-band LTE modem products that will support key frequency bands ideally suited to global LTE deployments.

Four operators get BWA spectrum

The Indian government has allotted spectrum to four operators paving the way for starting high-speed mobile broadband.

Zain Kuwait experiments with LTE

Mobile service provider, Zain Kuwait is experimenting with LTE and have achived 150 mb/s download speed.

ABI Research: 2011 belongs to LTE

According to a new ABI Research report 2011 will be the year of LTE, as both Verizon Wireless in the United States and NTT DoCoMo in Japan are expected to begin wide-scale roll-outs by the end of 2

Nokia sells wireless modem business to Renesas

Nokia & Renesas Electronics have forming a strategic business alliance to develop modem technologies for HSPA+/LTE and its evolution.

Tele2, Telenor to roll out LTE in Sweden

Swedish telecom operator Tele2 & Norwegian partner Telenor plan to launch 4G LTE network in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmo, Karlskrona and Lund cities this year.

Operators getting ready to embrace LTE in second half of year

The transition to 4G LTE started in 2009 with TeliaSonera’s launch in December. Although it is going slow but up to 22 LTE networks are expected to be in service by end 2010, further at least 45 are expected to be in service by end 2012. According to a GSA LTE report, 110 operators in 48 countries are currently investing in LTE networks.

3.6% of mobile devices with baseband connectivity are expected to be using 4G standards in 2014, according to ABI Research report. Despite the early lead of WiMAX, LTE is expected to account for over 60% of 4G-enabled mobile devices in 2014.

In addition to the well established commitment to new 2.6 GHz and digital dividend spectrum (800 MHz in Europe, 700 MHz in the Americas) for LTE, a number of operators are also considering deploying LTE in the 1800 MHz band.

A number of LTE trials & launch has been reported in last couple of months and it appears that operators around the world are ready to embrace LTE, 2010 & 2011 are certainly going to be year of LTE. LTE has clearly defeated its 4G rival WiMAX with a number of vendors & operators switching the side in first half of this year. Now TD-LTE is being seen as successor of already deployed or planned WiMAX networks.

TeliaSonera is expanding its LTE coverage in Sweden as planned and have launched LTE in Visby on June 30. A total of 25 locations in Sweden have been planned for LTE coverage by TeliaSonera before the end of the year.

Verizon Wireless is on track to commercially launch its LTE 4G network in 25 to 30 markets in 2010 and says that by 2013 the LTE coverage map will match it's current 3G coverage map. According to a rumor Verizon Wireless will begin rolling out its LTE network starting on November 15th this year.

Australia's Telstra and Huawei recently reported LTE trials using 1800MHz spectrum in Victoria.

Last week Ericsson conducted first trials of TDD LTE in India using 2.3GHz band while Mobilkom & Telekom Austria conducted a live LTE demonstration on the A1 network.

NTT DOCOMO had also began trial of its LTE commercial network in June and appears to be on track for launch in 2010 as well.

Ofcourse there is huge list of reported trials so far this year, I just mentioned few recent ones.

source: LteWorld

LTE World Weekly - TeliaSonera expands LTE network, More LTE tests, trials from Ericsson, NSN & Huawei

This week TeliaSonera opened the 4G LTE network in Visby for its customers, with this launch Visby has become 3rd city with comercial LTE network after Stockholm and Oslo.

TeliaSonera also launched Samsung's modem that works with 2G, 3G and 4G LTE networks.

Ericsson announced LTE trials Taiwan & India. While Huawei & Telstra demonstrated LTE in 1800MHz band, Nokia & NSN Conducted LTE tests in 800 MHz Band.

Huawei, Telstra demonstrate LTE in 1800MHz band

Australia's Telstra and Huawei are conducting LTE trials using 1800MHz spectrum in Victoria.

Ericsson demonstrates LTE in India

Ericsson has conducted first trials of TDD LTE in India using 2.3GHz band, Ericsson made first data call at the Experience Centre, Ericsson Forum, in Gurgaon.

Public Safety Alliance backs propsed alternative spectrum auction

The Public Safety Alliance (PSA) has announced its support for alternative spectrum that could be auctioned to commercial carriers to provide sufficient federal funding to quickly construct, mainta

Nokia & NSN Test LTE in 800 MHz Band

Nokia Siemens Networks & Nokia are conducting LTE interoperability tests in 800 MHz Band.

Ericsson & Chunghwa Telecom declare Taiwan's LTE field trial result

Ericsson and Chunghwa Telecom Laboratories have announced Taiwan's first LTE field trial results.

NEC shipping LTE LRE for NTT DOCOMO

NEC has announced the beginning of shipment of Low power Radio Equipment (LRE) for NTT DOCOMO LTE base stations.

TeliaSonera Opens Comercial LTE Network in Visby, Sweden

TeliaSonera has opened the 4G LTE network in Visby for its customers, with this launch Visby has become 3rd city with comercial LTE network after Stockholm and Oslo.

TeliaSonera Launches 2G, 3G & 4G combined Modem

From 30th June, TeliaSonera is offering Samsung's modem that works with 2G, 3G and 4G LTE networks. Modem is available for sales in Telia stores in central Stockholm and Visby.

Mobilkom demonstrates LTE in Austria

Mobilkom & Telekom Austria have conducted a live LTE demonstration on the A1 network.

Docomo to lease LTE services

Japanese operator NTT Docomo will lease access to its new high-speed mobile LTE network to companies when it begins operation in December, Nikkei reported.

Verizon Supports New Spectrum Initiative

Verizon Wireless has announced the support for President Obama's Spectrum Effort.

Shaw Selects Nokia Siemens Networks to provide 3G/LTE Network

Canadian cable operator Shaw Communications has selected Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) to provide the radio access network and core equipment for Shaw's next generation wireless network.

NEC launches backhaul solution for HSPA+ and LTE

NEC has launched a ultra-high capacity backhaul solution "ePASOLINK".

TeliaSonera opens LTE network in Malmo & Gothenburg

Earlier this week TeliaSonera opened LTE network in Malmo & Gothenburg, Sweden.