LTE World Weekly- Ericsson shows off LTE, Maxis & Etisalat do trials

This week Ericsson showed off LTE Voice & 100 Mbps data call in SA. While Malaysian Operator Maxis Conducting LTE Trials, ZTE and UAE-based operator Etisalat have completed LTE Trials.

TeliaSonera gearing up for LTE launch in Gothenburg, Sweden next week.

Follow the links below for more.

Malaysian Operator Maxis Conducts LTE Trial

Malaysian mobile communications service provider Maxis Berhad has successfuly conducted the 4G LTE trial and has demonstrated dowload speeds of up to 104 Mbps.

Ericsson shows off LTE Voice & 100 Mbps data call

Ericsson has demonstrated LTE with a speed of 100 Mbps alongwith Voice over LTE (VoLTE) call at their local offices in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Australia to auction LTE spectrum in second half of 2012

Australian Government has decided to release 126 Megahertz of broadcasting spectrum as a digital dividend.This spectrum will become available as a result of the switch to digital-only television br

Poland's LTE tender by end of 2010

Polish telecom regulator Office of Electronic Communications (UKE), intends to launch a tender for LTE radio spectrums this year.

ZTE LTE Trial For Etisalat Complete

ZTE and UAE-based operator Etisalat have completed LTE Trials. The project was conducted in the Etisalat headquarters in Abu Dhabi's according to c114.net.

TeliaSonera gearing up for LTE launch in Gothenburg, Sweden

TeliaSonera is preparing for commercial launch of 4G/LTE in Gothenburg, Sweden’s second largest city soon.

Alcatel-Lucent demonstrates LTE Connected Car at G-8/G-20 Summits’ International Media Center

Alcatel-Lucent is demonstrating the LTE Connected Car concept in the ‘Experience Canada’ pavilion at the International Media Center for the G-8 and G-20 Summits during June 23 – 25, 2010.

NTT DOCOMO plans LTE femtocell launch in 2011

NTT DoCoMo plans to launch commercial LTE femtocells between 2011 and 2012.

Indian Operator Aircel may choose both WiMAX & TD-LTE

India's GSM service provider Aircel has indicated that it may choose WiMAX or TD-LTE for 2.3GHz spectrum deployments or it can roll out both.

Verizon Wireless launches LTE user trials in 5 cities

Verizon Wireless is moving to “friendly user trials” of LTE in five unnamed cities.

Ericsson to showcase LTE in South Africa

Ericsson has planned to demonstrate LTE with a speed of 150 Mbps and HSPA Evolution with up to 84 Mbps at their local offices in Johannesburg, South Africa from 21 June – 16 July, according to

LTE to account for over 60% of 4G-enabled mobile devices in 2014

Baseband modem integration into mobile devices will reach 2 billion by 2014 despite market and technical hurdles, according to a recent report by In-Stat.

LTE World - Telstra , Vodacom test LTE, Verizon on track

This week Verizon declared that it LTE deployment plan are on track and on pricing Verizon indicated that it may not offer unlimited data plan. In Australia mobile industry warned on delay in LTE auction, Telstra continued LTE test and achived 100Mbps in downlink.

In South Africa Vodacom launched LTE trials amid news that it may walk away from auction due to nearly impossible conditions put by regualtor.
With RIL's big win (Infotel) India focus has moved from WiMAX to TD-LTE, and Alcatel-Lucent declared today to shift focus in India.
Follow the links below for more.

Alcatel-Lucent India shifts focus to LTE, Services

Alcatel-Lucent has decided to shift the focus of its R&D unit in Chennai, India from WiMAX to LTE, according to Mr Vivek Mohan, President of Alcatel-Lucent's global services business and Managi

Verizon Wireless to follow tiered pricing model for LTE

Verizon Wireless may not offer unlimited data plans for LTE services, instead it can switch to tiered pricing, according to chief financial officer of Verizon Communications Inc., John Killian.

Telstra & Nokia Siemens Networks achieve 100Mbps downlink over 75km

Australia's Telstra & Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) have achieved a peak download speed of 100Mbps and upload speed of 31Mbps over a 75km distance using LTE technology.

Delay in LTE spectrum allocation to hit operators, users

According to a new report from Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) delays in the commercial launch of LTE will place increasing pressure on capacity and increase costs as operat

TeliaSonera to launch 4G LTE in Visby on June 30

TeliaSonera is ready to launch 4G LTE in Visby, Sweden on June 30 . It would become the third city in the world with commercial 4G network.

Vodacom demonstrates LTE trial network

Vodacom has launched its live LTE trial network in Midrand, first in Africa. Vodacom has fully integrated its LTE network with its current 3G/HSDPA network and uses the same spectrum.

LTE-Advanced and IEEE 802.16m WiMAX pass 4G standards-based assessments

LTE-Advanced and IEEE 802.16m WiMAX have cleared the ITU 4G standard requirements, according to Korea Communications Commission.

Motorola offers Single RAN Solution for WiMAX 802.16m or LTE Migration

Motorola is now offering WiMAX Evolution solution for operators to upgrade existing WiMAX 802.16e / 802.16e Enhanced networks to 802.16m or TD-LTE or to add LTE to their existing WiMAX networks.&nb

WiMAX Manufacturers, Providers Agree on New Enhancements

WiMAX equipment manufacturers, service providers and chip companies have reached a major milestone in advancing the speed of data and the efficiency of broadband wireless networks based on the 802.

Globe Telecom Tests LTE

Philippines service provider Globe Telecom has started testing the Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology in collaboration with parent SingTel.

Verizon Wireless: LTE on track and coverage to match 3G by 2013

Verizon Wireless says that by 2013 the LTE coverage map will match it's current 3G coverage map.

Nokia Siemens Networks announces LTE SON offering

Nokia Siemens Networks has launched its SON (Self Organizing Networks) offering for LTE at CommunicAsia 2010 in Singapore. The offering is part of the Nokia Siemens Networks SON suite.

LTE: E-UTRAN UE Classes

UE class determines the speed at which data can be transferred in uplink and downlink directions. For GPRS & UMTS, most of us already are aware of it. LTE have class recomendations as well. Lets have a look at 3GPP proposed UE classes for LTE.

Each radio access technology has defined specific “classes” of terminals in terms of radio capabilities. E.g. in GPRS the “multislot classes” are defined, in UMTS R’99 different dedicated bearer classes are defined and for HSDPA and HSUPA 12 & 6 physical layer categories respectively are defined.

The definition of UMTS R’99 UE classes lead to 7 DL classes and 7 UL classes for FDD out of which only 2 DL and 3 UL classes were commercially realized.

For HSDPA , out of the 12 defined categories only approx. 4 will be realized in commercial HSDPA platform products. A similar situation is likely for HSUPA as well as for the combinations of HSDPA/HSUPA.

Generally the aim to mandate certain essential functions/requirements can help to simplify the system definition as well as the realization options (e.g. mandating 20 MHz of DL reception as well as 20 MHz UL transmission bandwidth significantly reduced the E-UTRAN system complexity).

To avoid unnecessary UE mandatory features but instead defining a limited set of UE radio classes allows simplification for the interoperability testing.

Based on above, 3GPP decided to limit the combination of radio capabilities to a clearly defined subset and ensuring that a given set of parameters is supported by certain UE classes as well as networks for rapid E-UTRAN deployment. It seems unrealistic to mandate only one single UE class which always mandates the maximum capability.

In order to address the different market requirements (low end, medium and high end), the definition of the following UE classes are proposed for LTE:

Class	UL	DL
A	50 Mbps	100 Mbps
B	25 Mbps	50 Mbps
C	2 Mbps	2 Mbps

source: LteWorld

LTE Deployment Status in USA

It has been a long wait for another commercial LTE launch after last year's TeliaSonera launch. TeliaSonera was the first operator in the world to launch commercial 4G LTE services to customers in Stockholm, Sweden, and in Oslo, Norway, in 2009.

USA has still to come up with its first. Many operators have already involved in LTE trials, Verizon Wireless is expected to have first commercial launch.

Let’s have a look at current state of LTE in USA market.

AT&T - Trials 2010/ Launch 2011

AT&T’s has planned field trials of LTE technology later this year, with commercial deployment scheduled to begin in 2011.

AT&T has selected Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson as equipment suppliers for the planned deployment of its higher-speed LTE mobile broadband network.

CommNet Wireless - Trial Q2 2010 / Launch 2011

CommNet Wireless plans to build LTE network spanning parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. CommNet Wireless has contracted with ZTE to deploy a test LTE network

Cox Communications - Potential Launch Q4 2010

Cox has announced the LTE trials running on equipments from Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei in January. COX Communications has deployed the CDMA LTE multi-mode trial using Huawei' s SingleRAN@Broad solution. Cox's LTE trials showed peak speeds of around 25 Mbps with 2x2 MIMO technology over a 2x5 MHz channel.

MetroPCS - Launch Q3/Q4 2010

MetroPCS is on track for LTE launch later this year. MetroPCS plans to initially deploy a commercial LTE network in various metropolitan markets, including the Las Vegas metropolitan area with Samsung Mobile LTE network products. The Samsung SCH-r900 will be one of the first commercially available LTE-enabled, multi-mode, CDMA, 4G handsets. MetroPCS has contracted Ericsson as the infrastructure vendor for its upcoming LTE network.

T-Mobile - Commitment to LTE

Unlike its competitors, T-Mobile USA does not own spectrum in the 700MHz band that is being used for the country's LTE rollouts and therefore has no LTE migration timeframe in place. T-Mobile USA is considering leasing network capacity from the private equity firm Harbinger Capital to build its 4G wireless network.

Verizon Wireless - Q4 2010

Verizon Wireless will roll out the service in 25 to 30 markets by the end of this year. Verizon Wireless has selected Alcatel-Lucent & Ericsson as providers of the LTE Radio Access Network (RAN). Enhanced Packet Core (EPC) will be provided by Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Starent Networks. Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens will be the primary suppliers for the IMS network.

Verizon Wireless engineers have reported trials showing peak download speeds of 40 to 50 megabits per second (Mbps) and peak upload speeds of 20 to 25 Mbps and expects LTE average data rates of 5 to 12 Mbps on the downlink and 2 to 5 Mbps on the uplink in real-world environments.

source:LteWorld

3GPP Release 11 Features and Study Items

3GPP has already started work on Release 11. See objectives of features & study items from 3GPP Work Items below.

Advanced IP Interconnection of Services (source: 3GPP Work Item SP-100227)

To specify the technical requirements for carrier grade inter-operator IP Interconnection of Services for the support of Multimedia services provided by IMS and for legacy voice PTSN/PLMN services transported over IP infrastructure (e.g. VoIP). These technical requirements should cover the new interconnect models developed by GSMA (i.e. the IPX interconnect model) and take into account interconnect models between national operators (including transit functionality) and peering based business trunking. Any new requirements identified should not overlap with requirements already defined by other bodies (e.g. GSMA, ETSI TISPAN). Specifically the work will cover:

• Service level aspects for direct IP inter-connection between Operators, service level aspects for national transit IP interconnect and service level aspects for next generation corporate network IP interconnect (peer-to-peer business trunking).
• Service layer aspects for interconnection of voice services (e.g. toll-free, premium rate and emergency calls).
• Service level aspects for IP Interconnection (service control and user plane aspects) between Operators and 3rd party Application Providers.

Study on IMS based Peer-to-Peer Content Distribution Services (source: 3GPP Work Item SP-090491)

The objectives are to study IMS based content distribution services with the following aspects:

Identifying the user cases to describe how users, operators and service providers will benefit by using/deploying IMS based content distribution services. such as with the improvement of Peer-to-Peer technology. The following shall be considered:

• Mobile access only (e.g. UTRAN, E-UTRAN, I-WLAN);
• Fixed access only (e.g. xDSL, LAN);
• Fixed and mobile convergence scenarios;
• Identifying service aspects where IMS network

Study on Non Voice Emergency Services (source: 3GPP Work Item SP-090897)

The objectives of this study include the following questions for Non Voice Emergency Services with media other than or in addition to voice:

• What are the requirements for Non Voice Emergency Services?
• What are the security, reliability, and priority handling requirements for Non Voice Emergency Services?
• How is the appropriate recipient emergency services system (e.g., PSAP) determined?
• Are there any implications due to roaming?
• Are there any implications to hand-over between access networks
• Are there any implications due to the subscriber crossing a PSAP boundary during Non Voice Emergency Services communications (e.g., subsequent text messages should go to the same PSAP)?
• Do multiple communication streams (e.g., voice, text, video emergency services) need to be associated together?
• What types of “call-back” capabilities are required?
• Investigate the load impact of Non Voice Emergency Services in the case of a large scale emergency event or malicious use.

Non Voice Emergency Services will be applicable to GPRS (GERAN, UTRAN) and to EPS (GERAN, UTRAN, E-UTRAN and non-3GPP).

Study on UICC/USIM enhancements (source: 3GPP Work Item SP-090852)

Objectives of this study item are:

• To identify use cases and requirements for new USIM-based services taking into account the GSMA Smart SIM deliverables;
• o identify use cases and requirements for the USIM used inside terminals with specialised functionalities (e.g. radio modems, 3G Notebook terminals) taking into account the GSMA 3GNBK deliverables;
• To identify use cases and requirements to drive the evolution from the traditional USAT to a multimedia USIM toolkit support, with a particular aim to the Smart Card Web Server;

Study on Alternatives to E.164 for Machine-Type Communications (source: 3GPP Work Item SP-100198)

Determine an alternative to identify individual devices and route messages between those devices. Requirements for this alternative include:

• Effectively identify addressing method to be used for end point devices
• Effectively route messaging between those devices
• Support multiple methods for delivering messages, as defined by 22.368
• Support land-based and wireless connectivity
• Make use of IP-based network architectures
• Addressing/identifiers must support mobility and roaming
• support on high speed packet-switched networks when available and on circuit-switched networks
• Consider if there are security issues associated with any alternatives

source:LteWorld