MOBILE BROADBAND WIRELESS ACCESS

Emerging telecommunications applications such as multimedia streaming, music download, on-line gaming and content browsing are popular examples of the digital revolution we have been facing as the world gets connected.Fixed broadband access has already become an urban commodity in the developed countries, but so far there have been few means of delivering these bandwidth-consuming services effectively and affordably to the significant number of rural and mobile users.

However, recent advances in e.g. signal processing, radio protocols, and mobile network infrastructure are now enabling the concept of mobile broadband for consumers around the world.

Mobile broadband is defined here as the potential to transfer low-latency user data with speeds exceeding 256 kbit/s while roaming the network with seamless handover between adjacent cells. This paper presents the different mobile broadband technologies with commercial availability already or within a few years.

Related regulation aspects are important factors affecting the regional markets. Analysis of the current market situation, significant vendors’ strategies and foreseen future developments are also used to draw the conclusions about the respective potential of these technologies.

Currently there are a number of different technologies for broadband wireless access for both fixed and mobile applications. Some of them are completely proprietary, based on vendor-specific solutions that are noninteroperable, while others are based on open standards developed by industry working groups. In the following subsections, we briefly describe the fundamental characteristics of the currently most significant wireless broadband technologies, focusing on key metrics such as operating frequencies, channel bandwidth, cell sizes, user data rates and latency, handover capabilities, and timeframe of availability.

Energy Efficiency Analysis for Mobile Broadband Networks

A recent analysis report by ABI Research finds that WiMAX and metro Wi-Fi technologies are both more energy cost effective than cellular technology.

The report, "Energy Efficiency Analysis for Mobile Broadband Networks," pushes this as an important finding since carriers are moving to high-data-rate mobile broadband access which will cause rapidly-increasing energy consumption (energy costs represent the third most significant operating expense for cellular carriers).

The observation comes into stark relief against the backdrop of rapidly-increasing energy consumption as carriers move to high-data-rate mobile broadband access.

For those broadband networks, energy costs represent the third most significant operating expense (OPEX) for cellular carriers, and fluctuating energy costs are a significant area of concern for business planners, said the report entitled, "Energy Efficiency Analysis for Mobile Broadband Solutions." The move to higher data rates means that the energy required per subscriber arising from increasing data uptake will push per-subscriber energy OPEX for cellular solutions past acceptable barriers—unless carriers move from a traditional cellular-only approach to one that integrates WiMAX and metro Wi-Fi.

Stuart Carlaw, director of wireless research at ABI Research, says that

From a pure coverage perspective WiMAX is twice as energy-cost-effective and metro Wi-Fi is 50 times more energy-cost-effective than WCDMA. When data traffic is factored into the equation, WiMAX can accommodate 11 times today's average data consumption and still be more energy-cost-efficient compared to WCDMA.

A recent ABI Research study found that the total energy consumption arising from mobile broadband service delivery is forecast to grow from 42.8 billion kilowatt hours (KWh) in 2005 to 124.4 billion KWh in 2011. The Asia Pacific region will account for the majority of this growth.

(Note: The editor has not done his due diligence research to determine whether ABI Research is in any way connected to businesses or organizations that have a financial interest in the outcome this reports covers.)
Click here for information how to download the full report.

DoCoMo to upgrade 3G network at low cost: paper

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc. (9437.T: Quote, NEWS , Research) will upgrade its 3G network for less than one-tenth of what it cost to roll out the existing infrastructure, the Nikkei business daily reported on Thursday, sending shares in the telecommunications giant up more than 2 percent.

The "super 3G" network will enable downloading and uploading of data such as video and music clips at up to 260 times the speed of DoCoMo's existing third-generation (3G) service. The paper said DoCoMo plans to introduce the new service in 2010.

It has been said that DoCoMo's networks lag behind those of KDDI, but with this new network DoCoMo will be in a leading position, and that is likely why investors are picking up the stock.

The paper said DoCoMo would keep initial investment on its super 3G network down to 100-200 billion yen ($841 million-$1.7 billion), but spokeswoman Mamiko Tanaka said the company has not decided on the size of its spending on the new service.

"It has been said that DoCoMo's networks lag behind those of KDDI, but with this new network DoCoMo will be in a leading position, and that is likely why investors are picking up the stock," KBC Securities analyst Naruhito Morooka said.

"I can't say if the amount of the investment is reasonable or not, but it looks like its fairly low compared with what it would accomplish," he added.

Shares in the country's biggest mobile phone operator rose 2.1 percent to 192,000 yen by the midday close, outperforming a 0.74 percent gain in the benchmark Nikkei average <.N225>. Tokyo markets were open only for the morning session on Thursday.

Low investment costs may enable the mobile phone operator to cut fees for consumers, which could help it retain users, the paper said.

DoCoMo competes with KDDI Corp. (9433.T: Quote, NEWS , Research) and Softbank Corp (9984.T: Quote, NEWS , Research) in Japan's $78 billion mobile phone market, in which competition has intensified since the introduction of mobile number portability, under which customers can switch carriers without changing phone numbers. Continued...

3G UMTS / WCDMA Subscriptions Hit 100 Million - 3G (press release)

Fantastic numbers and statistics and rosy forecast and potential for 3G (mainly WCDMA technology) mobile industry by the UMTS forum. Full report by UMTS Forum.

It's been another incredible year for 3G and in particular for WCDMA. We expect much of this spectacular growth over the next few years to come from markets like India, China, Eastern Europe and Latin America

But looking at what those 3G (WCDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA) operators have spent, for spectrum (126 billions dollars in year 2000-according to report by Internation Herald Tribune) and mobile network infrastructure, 3G (WCDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA) could have been overhyped. The detail report here.

Telecom companies misjudged the value of 3G licenses and paid way too much. Governments holding the auctions were only too happy to oblige, basically blackmailing the industry.

And 3G (WCDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA) operators in Asia which have been busy rolling out their own UMTS (WCDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA) networks, are not successful either, even though these operators did not pay through their nose for the spectrum licenses. 3G's disappointing debut worldwide had less to do with sky-high auction bids than with the industry's failure to find applications that would bring customers running.

The expectations for 3G were very high," said Eleana Liew, a Singapore analyst for the consulting firm Gartner. "But there isn't anything drawing them into the new service.

So what exactly is/are the killer application/s those 100 millions subscribers are using with 3G network? Anyone has any clue yet? What exactly are these subscribers "subscribing" to?

All-you-can-eat 3G? Not Really

The rollout of 3G-HSDPA (third-generation/High Speed Downlink Packet Access) mobile data services around the globe looks good so far, but the carriers may be painting themselves into a corner.
To get subscribers to buy the high-speed services and start using them, mobile operators are offering some "unlimited" data plans that allow as much streaming, uploading and downloading as the customer wants in the course of the month -- within certain terms of service. Some uses, such as hosting a Web site, typically aren't allowed. Below are some of the data service plan offered by various mobile operators, with the "unlimited usage" with so called "fair usage policy"!

M1, SG: for unlimited usage
S$22 (US$14.17)	384Kbps,
S$38 (US$24.48)	1.8Mbps
S$68 (US$43.80)	3.6Mbps

[Excessive (downloading or uploading more than 2 GB each month inclusive of video streaming, video calls, email access, VOIP calls, downloading and uploading of any content), $0.01 per KB in blocks of 10KB]

Maxis, MY: for unlimited usage
MYR$69 (US$19.50)	384Kbps,
MYR$98 (US$27.70)	768Kbps

[total usage per month shall NOT exceed 3GB of data volume transmitted (total upload and download usage)]

Vodafone, UK:
£25 ex VAT (US$49)	250MB per month
£45 ex VAT (US$88.1)	unlimited usage

[customer's UK usage must not exceed 1Gb per user account in a month]

CSL, HK:
$138 (US$17.79)	60MB
$268 (US$34.55)	150MB
$538 (US$69.36)	unlimited

[maximum volume of 1GB per subscription in a month]

Cingular, US:
$39.90 (US$39.90)	20MB
$49.90 (US$49.90)	50MB
$79.90(US$79.90)	unlimited

[maximum data volume usage not found]. detail plan

Flat-rate tariffs and fair use: mobile operators gear up for HSDPA

In order to boost revenues significantly it is critical that the price of the flat-rate tariff is set an appropriate level.