EC adopts technical rules for 800MHz band

bealtine

EC adopts technical rules for 800MHz band Thursday 6 May 2010


The EU is harmonising use of the 800MHz band in order to avoid disruptions to mobile broadband services. The European Commission has adopted a decision establishing technical rules on the allocation of radio frequencies in the 800 MHz band aimed at avoiding harmful interference for broadband services. In several EU countries the 800 MHz frequencies are being freed up due to the switch from analogue to digital broadcasting. If member states decide to change the existing frequency allocation for broadcasting, they must apply the technical rules in the EC's decision in order to make the spectrum suitable for wireless broadband applications. The decision stops short of requiring EU countries to make the 790-862 MHz band available for electronic communication services, but the commission is considering including this in its forthcoming Radio Spectrum Policy Programme, which will take account of a recent consultation on the subject and the March Spectrum Summit organised by the commission and the European Parliament. The commission would like to see the member states adopt a common approach of deploying mobile broadband in the digital dividend spectrum, in the hopes of replicating the success of GSM after the region harmonised use of that technology. The EC said the 800MHz band offers a cheaper way for mobile oeprators to roll out next-generation LTE networks, leading to quicker roll-outs and expanded coverage.

watty

Well, then they should remove the 1800MHz from Mobile and give it to Fixed Wireless as the Mobile operators are hardly using it.

They decided to do this years ago which is why there is the advice to close Analogue TV by 2012. Technically we have not even launched Digital Terrestrial yet due to Government blinkers demanding a parallel Pay TV service (which can never be profitable or competitive). RTE has now been waiting for TEN years for the go ahead for DTT.

It's frankly hard to beleive that Ireland will join the Mobile 800MHz LTE party on time. However LTE on 800MHz will not provide Next Gen Broadband or 100MBps. LTE is about x4 better than lightly loaded 3G, but only in 20MHz channel. In a 5MHz channel its the same performance as a couple of users on 3G and twice as good (200kbps vs 100kbps) as heavily loaded 3G/HSPA+

So if the Regulators decide there has to be "competition" the channels will be 5MHz and speed often no better than existing 3G! They need single national infrastructure operators and maybe separate retailers if they want dsl and esb illusion of competition. That way there is 100% utilisation of the spectrum and x4 to x8 of existing 3G/HSPA+ performance.

Unfortunately they are doctrinally wedded to idea of multiple infrastructure operators. The 900MHz GSM licences are running out soon. The really logical thing is to remove the 913 to 917 ish GSM guard band and have 864Mhz to 878MHz as the Guard band and pair 878MHz .. 960MHz with the 790MHz .. 862MHz for higher capacity FDD LTE, using 800MHz for upload and 900MHz for download.

But Comreg's and Ofcom's current intention seems to be to recycle the 900MHz GSM for 3G. This does almost nothing for Data usage (3 operators and limited channel space) and simply allows mainly cheaper 3G voice call rural coverage. It would be wasted spectrum in the Cities. Remember that voice calls per €20 spent by consumer are 100x to 400x more profitable for the Mobile operator.

LTE gives very little advantage to operator for voice calls. So much so that they nearly forgot to add the voice part of standard to LTE. LTE uses VOIP and "NGN" ip backhaul for calls (but Skype or Blueface would need a non-QOS Internet access with no assurance of connection as the operator's own "VOIP" is transparent to the user, no different to making a current voice call on UPC's or Digiweb's or Magnet's internal NGN VOIP via a DECT handset in phone socket on their Modem)

But 4G (LTE & WiMax Mobile) is at 2500MHz (2.5GHz) and 2300MHz (2.3GHz) too. But The Irish Government contravened EU and International agreements they signed and gave 2.5GHz to MMDS services. Also Eircom has sat for years on the 2.3GHz when anyone else would have lost the licence. Eircom has the ONLY national Fixed wireless licence in the State and you can't buy a service using it.

The 800MHz band is the so called Digital Dividend (= money for Government selling off licences!) from closing UHF analogue TV.

The USA uses 800MHz already, but not for LTE. If there is not concerted EU action with a pan-Eu standard like GSM the danger is fragmented market and problems and extra costs for consumers. The Problem though is that Comreg and Ofcom particularly beleive in highest bidder gets spectrum and bidder decides how it is used. Bidder deciding how to use spectrum (i.e. which Wireless standard) should ONLY apply to Fixed Wireless services. Not Broadcast or Mobile.

* See also http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/10/2010/

Sponge Bob

watty wrote: »

They need single national infrastructure operators and maybe separate retailers if they want dsl and esb illusion of competition. That way there is 100% utilisation of the spectrum and x4 to x8 of existing 3G/HSPA+ performance.

In a nutshell all the operators should be 'virtual' in one physical cell and 20mhz wide in this band and share one aggregated backhaul that breaks out to the carrier in Dublin....although we may have a 5th operator by then to complicate matters a tad. That's if it is to be any real use...most especially in rural areas where the NBS will be a well known joke by end 2012.

NBS v2 what