News


4G battle begins as rivals confi rm rollouts


rollout programme with the announcement it is launching 4G services on August 29 to custom- ers in London. T e rollout will be extended to


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a further 12 cities, including Ed- inburgh, Liverpool and Sheffi eld, before the end of the year as part of a £900 million investment in the network. T is follows the £802 million Vodafone spent acquiring the widest portfolio of mobile spectrum in the recent auction. T e operator aims to bring indoor 4G coverage to 98 per cent of the UK population by 2015. Unlike EE, which to date has enjoyed a monopoly on 4G services and has promoted its network speeds and coverage plans heavily, Vodafone is placing a strong emphasis on bundled content and tariff plans. T e operator has partnered with music service Spotify and


odafone UK has become the latest mobile opera- tor to confi rm its LTE


broadcaster Sky Sports, with prices starting at £26 per month for a 12-month SIM-only con- tract, directly competing against the cheapest tariff s off ered by both O2


and EE, who recently reduced


its tariff price ahead of increased competition. T e LTE service called Vodafone Red 4G-ready is also available on 24-month plans. Unlimited UK data will also


be provided for the fi rst three months. According to Emeka Obiodu,


principal telco strategy analyst at Ovum: “Ultimately, this focus on business model innovation – tariff (including doubling the data package) and the content deals – is a more assured way of convincing customers to spend the additional £5 per month. And Vodafone will be hoping to use 4G to prop up its ARPU as the likes of Verizon Wireless have done using business model changes – shared data plans.” T e launch of Vodafone Red


4G-ready coincides with that of rival O2


, who recently announced


its own LTE rollout plans. T e operator says it will switch on LTE networks in London, Leeds and Bradford, reaching fi ve mil- lion people at launch. From this base the network will expand with LTE coverage reaching an additional two million people per month until O2


’s 2G, 3G and


4G network reaches 98 per cent of the UK population. Ten new cities will be covered by the end of 2013. O2


invested £550 million in


securing 800 MHz spectrum. EE, which launched 4G LTE


services on October 30 2012, now has 687,000 customers on 4GEE as of the end of June, with 4G services available in 95 UK towns and cities and double- speed 4G available in 15 cities, covering a total of 60 per cent of the population. It is still targeting one million customers by the end of 2013.


Slow growth forecast for private LTE T


he private Long Term Evolution (LTE) market is


expected to show slow growth over the next fi ve years, but longer term the amount of data connections are expected to soar, according to a recently published study from information and analytics provider IHS. The report examined the


increasing data usage by licensed mobile radio (LMR) users over commercial cellular, private cellular – including private LTE – and traditional LMR networks. More than 400,000 data connections will be over private LTE networks by the end of 2017, IHS forecasts, with the number of connections projected to exceed three million by the end of 2023.


4 “Demand for data is


increasing today in many parts of the world, and users are expecting much more sophisticated and high- bandwidth applications over their networks”, noted Jennifer Shortland, analyst for critical communications at IHS. “While the industry appears


to be moving toward private LTE solutions to address growing data demand, this transition will be exceptionally protracted”, Shortland added. “Spectrum allocation – particularly across Europe, where dedicated harmonised spectrum is expected to be assigned for public-safety users – will take many years.”


GSA raises market outlook for LTE networks


ccording to the Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), LTE is offi cially the fastest developing mobile system ever with 107 4G LTE networks launching commercial services in the last 12 months. Currently 200 mobile


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operators have launched commercial 4G LTE networks in 76 countries. The number of countries offering commercial 4G LTE services also went up by 70 per cent in the last year. There are 443 operators in 130 countries now making investments into 4G LTE, which includes 391 fi rm network commitments (i.e. networks that have been launched, or are in the process of being deployed or planned) as well as 52 network carriers who are currently engaged in LTE technology trials, tests or studies. When it comes to the variations of LTE, TDD is the preferred technology choice by operators who have unpaired spectrum.


Out of the 200 live


commercial LTE networks, 18 are LTE-TDD systems, 50 per cent of which have been deployed within combined LTE FDD and TDD networks, which the GSA says is a growing trend. To date, 200 user devices have been announced which now support the LTE-TDD mode. “LTE is an industry success. We have raised our market outlook in view of the quickening pace of commitments and deployments. GSA forecasts there will be 260 commercially launched networks in 93 countries by end 2013”, said Alan Hadden, president of the GSA.


LAND mobile August 2013


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