Are Device Manufacturers Ready for LTE?

At CES this year, Verizon Wireless launched a series of devices, including four Smartphones: the LG Revolution, the HTC Thunderbolt, the Motorola Droid Bionic and the Samsung SCH-I520. A few other devices, a couple of hotspots - job done.

Speaking to many device manufacturers over the years, usually they wait at least six months after a network has launched before they even start to think about developing devices on any kind of scale. A key difference between 3G and LTE deployments is the time between the first tests and network launch is much smaller, so there is much less time for testing the network, QoS and devices. Operators will still be finding protocol and interoperability issues and will continue lab testing of devices and services because everything is new. So if network maturity has always been key, then why rush to get so many devices out into the market so early?

There are a few possible reasons. Samsung LG and HTC have been the most agressive device manufacturers for LTE and are keen to gain a piece of the smartphone market in which Apple so far has dominated. Samsung has already launched the first LTE dual-SIM smartphone with MetroPCS, so are keen to develop devices and be seen as leaders in the industry.

The more likely reason is that Verizon Wireless is keen to close the gap on AT&T in the US smartphone market, where AT&T has built a sizable lead largely due to the iPhone. In fact in 3Q10 AT&T had more than twice as many smartphone subscriptions as Verizon, with 49 million compared to 20 million at Verizon, according to Informa Telecoms & Media data.

It is an interesting strategy from VZW, as they have always touted the fact that the quality of thier network is far superior to that of AT&T, although this is unlikely to be the case early on with thier LTE network. One would have expected the likes of VZW to take their time to get the network to a good standard before they launching lots of devices. Instead they seem to have taken a leaf out of AT&T's book. Perhaps they have realised that customers don't care about the network or which technology an operator uses - its all about the devices.

What Opportunities does LTE Provide for MVNO's?

In the Verizon Wireless conference webcasts one of the things talked about was how applications and devices can be sold either going through the operator's channels, but that companies could also use the MVNO model (VZW called it the wholesale model) to sell devices directly to the consumer.

VZW has set up nPhase with Qualcomm. As described on their website: nPhase is an enabler of Machine to Machine (M2M) and Smart Services solutions across industries including energy, healthcare, consumer products, telematics, heavy off-road machinery, industrial equipment, and commercial products. We enable our clients with complete end-to-end solutions that wirelessly connect their products and business assets to deliver ground breaking possibilities for new business models, differentiation and growth.

What possibilities does this bring to the table for MVNOs? Should MVNOs be looking at personalised healthcare services or smart metering, since they have the experience of working with the operators to provide these sorts of services? Wireless Logic the MVNO based in the UK is already looking at M2M and sees embedded connectivity as a strong prospect. The US based MVNO Wyless is also working with healthcare providers to develop niche healthcare services serch as remote monitoring applications.

MVNOs seem best placed to provide value added services for specific vertical markets. It will be interesting to see what other innovative ideas MVNOs can come up with and what the impact of having LTE and a bigger pipe will be.

Is Skype the Future of Voice?

The industry has decided that IMS (or VoLTE) is definately the solution to providing voice over LTE, but recent announcements by the likes of Verizon Wireless who will be joining forces with Skype, was an interesting move.

From March, consumers in the USA will be able to get Skype on a wide range of VZW phones, including the BlackBerry, Droid by Motorola, Eris by HTC and the Motorola Devour. The service will allow users to make and receive unlimited free Skype-to-Skype voice calls and send and receive instant messages. The devices selected for the Skype deal are likely to be generating most of the revenues from data anyway. Could this be VZW starting to look a new business models for its upcoming LTE network?

Commenting on the announcement, Dario Talmesio, Senior Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, said: “The Skype/Verizon announcement demonstrates that mobile operators are beginning to change their attitude towards VoIP providers, they have gone from blocking to managing what they consider to be an issue."

VZW isn't the first operator to embrace this level of openess. 3UK launched “Skype on 3” back in May 2009 and celebrated it billionth phone call over Skype last month. Preferring to offer free voice for it customers and generating revenues from data only, this has proved to be an extremely successful business model in them in the UK.

Skype has just released software for Nokia's Symbian operating system, expanding its reach to more than 200 million smartphones around the world, allowing users to make free Skype-to-Skype calls rather than using voice minutes. Nokia has been ramping up Internet services to boost its sales in the highly competitive smartphone market. Last month, it began giving away its navigation software, Ovi maps. Skype added that it will soon release its service for other Symbian devices from handset makers including Sony Ericsson.

The majority of mobile operators however, have yet to make a firm decision on mobile VoIP. Operators have realised that future revenue growth will be from data services and that in the future - and especially with the introduction of LTE, voice will just be one of many applications on the handset or smartphone. But voice still accounts for a major part of operator revenues and they want to hang on to it for as long as they can.

Lack of LTE Devices, Still a Worry?

At this years Mobile World Congress, vendors were announcing LTE devices of all shapes and sizes. Besides modems, vendors showed netbooks and portable Wi-Fi hotspots that are compatible with LTE.

Perhaps the most impressive of the devices was the E398 modem unveiled by Huawei. The E398 is the world’s first triple-mode LTE modem compatible with all three major network standards: LTE, UMTS, and GSM. The triple-mode modem is based on Qualcomm's MDM9200TM chipset and will enable end users to seamlessly switch from LTE to either UMTS or GSM. The modem also supports multiple mainstream LTE frequencies.

The Huawei E398 modem will be initially launched in the world's first LTE/GSM shared network in Sweden operated by Net4Mobility, a joint infrastructure venture between Tele2 Sweden and Telenor Sweden.

Toshiba at the Mobile World Congress show this week showed off its Satellite T130 notebook PC with an integrated LTE network module from Sony Ericsson. During demonstrations at MWC the PC-maker demonstrated data download speeds of up to 16Mbps. This is significant as the PC is one of the first few with the high-speed connection option.

The AL600 from ZTE is being developed for the North American market and will operate in the 700MHz band, which Verizon will use in its upcoming network. The modem will also operate LTE in the 2.6GHz band,to cater for European operators. ZTE is also working on a portable Wi-Fi hotspot that lets users share an LTE connection using Wi-Fi.

Samsung’s new LTE netbook, bolstered with the presence of its own in-house designed LTE modem chipset Kalmia has been dubbed the world’s first LTE netbook PC. The device was also demonstrated at the MWC. Kalmia, which enables the development of a small form factor netbook with LTE capability, was brought to the fore by way of a live video streaming via the company’s own LTE network equipment on the Samsung netbook N150.

LG announced its LD100, a LTE data card, at CES in January. Anritsu demonstrated data throughput of up to 100 Mbps downlink and 50 Mbps uplink speeds on the LG device at MWC. LG also demonstrated handover between LTE and CDMA with their VD13 device. The company came up with a device for the Handover back in August, the M13, but the VD13 is an even slimmer device!

Perhaps less well known is that Ericsson is also working on integrating LTE into laptops and notebooks. The company is most known for its mobile networks, but it also sells modules for integrating mobile broadband into laptops and netbooks. Ericsson's module will operate in multiple frequency bands for LTE and HSPA. But it won't start shipping the module until LTE has become a "mass market" technology, and that won't happen until the beginning of 2012, according to Ericsson.

Huawei and ZTE will ship its modems -- the E398 and the AL600 or AL620, respectively -- by the end of the year. Samsung promises to ship its modem during the first half of 2010, according to a spokesman. But operators only expect to get their hands on a limited number of modems, with volume shipments starting in the beginning of 2011, according to Magnus Zetterberg, CTO at Telenor Sweden.

One of the things vendors have to think about more about when designing products for LTE is which frequencies they will operate on as operators will be using various frequency bands for LTE. LTE pioneers Verizon Wireless, NTT DoCoMo and TeliaSonera will all use different frequency bands for their respective LTE network. So for roaming in the U.S, Japan and Europe to work, modems will have to support 700MHz, 2100MHz and 2600MHz with more bands likely to be needed in the future.

With the GSMA focusing its efforts on roaming for LTE, this should help to encourage device manufacturers that there is sufficient momentum and demand for LTE devices. It should also make operators that think that LTE is not ready, think again...

What Advanced Applications Will We See On The LTE Network?

Verizon Wireless announced that it is updating its specifications for LTE devices that will run on the network. These new specifications are aimed at helping developers to design products and services that will run on the operators' LTE network, which is scheduled to launch in 2010 in 25 to 30 US markets.

Verizon Wireless said the updated specs will address network access, SMS requirements and data retry test plans. In addition, new information about lab and signaling conformance, open development device approval will be included. The new specs will be outlined in a webcast on the 20th of January.

What will be interesting to see after the webcast is what new applications and business models the application developers come up with. VZW wants the LTE network to expand existing types of applications while opening up entirely new classes of applications at the same time. One example that has been pointed out by VZW is the possibility of appliances such as refrigerators being fitted with wireless monitoring devices. A missing part, for instance, could be pinpointed via a wireless link, cutting service costs. Innovation in advanced video and gaming services are also envisioned by VZW.

It will be interesting to see if other operators deploying LTE at the moment push as hard for new devices and services for LTE as VZW has. TeliaSonera for instance, who have already launched their LTE network, has an agreement with Samsung who is providing it with a USB dongle. There does not seem to be a plan for anywhere near the same level of activity that we have seen with VZW when it comes to launching new devices and apps. So do operators need to go to all the trouble the VZW is?

Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson are the "founding participants" at VZW's LTE Innovation Center in Boston, MA. A group of venture capital firms are also participating in the core working group at the center. In addition to Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson, other participants in the core working group include Charles River Ventures, Northbridge Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, New Venture Partners, and Redpoint Ventures.

An interview with Tony Malone, CTO of VZW can be found on the LTE World Series You Tube channel. Tony spoke at the LTE Americas conference in Dallas in November 09.

Operators Don't Just Want to be a Dumb Pipe

The net neutraility argument continues. The FCC is due to vote on new net neutrality rules tomorrow whilst Verizon has warned the commission not to pass rules barring operators from favouring certain types of content or applications over others or from degrading traffic of Internet companies that offer services similar to those of the carriers. But does net neutrality understate the role of sound network management practices and ignore the real benefits that smart networks deliver?

Most operators are now seriously attacking the idea that they should be considered "dumb pipes" whose sole job is to neutrally push traffic from content providers. With user experience and the personalisation of services expected to be a key differentiator between networks, when operators do decide to invest in LTE, they plan to generate revenues from offering tiered pricing and an extensive API offering. Knowing what the customer is using his/her data for will be crucial to offering the right service to the right customer.

Taking away the operators' ability to favour certain content and to create tiered services may take away the financial incentive to invest in network upgrades. Again this is the argument being put forward by Verizon, if it is not able to make a return on the huge investment being made in it LTE network, then it seriously impacts on future investments and the future quality of service that operators can provide.

Has Telefonica Been Lagging a Little too far Behind with LTE?

Telefonica has become the latest global operator to LTE trials and has has selected six vendors to launch test projects in six different countries in preparation of rolling out LTE-based networks

Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks will represent Europe while Japanese vendor NEC and Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE will fill out the remaining three slots making the selection of vendors quite the East-West mix.

Telefonica isn’t limiting its trials to Europe. In addition to building networks in Spain, the UK, Germany and the Czech Republic, Telefonica will also run trials in Argentina and Brazil, interesting as they have only recently rolled out HSPA and it seemed to most that LTE is still a really long way off. Each vendor will be given a different country and will deploy its e-Node B base stations this year for the six-month testing period. Telefonica also said that the trials won’t necessarily be limited to six vendors or six countries. It will be open to other suppliers, which could leave the door open to players like Fujitsu and Motorola of Telefonica does indeed decide to cast the net wider.

Telefonica has no projected timeline for deploying LTE and in most of its markets doesn’t even own free spectrum. In fact, Telefonica said that the results of the trials will largely inform its LTE rollout strategy rather than the other way around.

Telefonica is certainly not a leader in the the market, an example of this was when it was named and shamed in the UK for not meeting the regulator's requirement of having 80% coverage in the UK. It is more likely that they just want to have a strategy in place for when the handsets and devices are ready (leaving the voice over LTE problem for everyone else to sort out?) This could be years away, or if other operators such as Verizon Wireless continue to push for handsets and devices then this "critical mass" that needs to be reached for the followers in the industry to start deploying LTE, may be sooner than we all think.

The announcements of new devices from LG, Samsung and Nokia has probably made executives at Telefonica sit up and take notice of how the Industry is rallying around LTE - and that their competitors are perhaps a little too far ahead of them than they would like.

Will LTE Be Reliable When it is First Launched?

“We can build all the bells and whistles and make lots of bold claims, but none of it will matter if the network - and all of the underlying infrastructure that supports the network - isn't fundamentally reliable," This was the comment made by the Verizon CTO, Tony Melone.

Can operators ensure that it will be a smooth evolution to LTE? The launch of the early 3G networks will certainly be in the back of operator’s minds, and with Verizon's promise that LTE will be launched in 25-30 markets next year, and everywhere by the end of 2013; ensuring that everything works when they press the “on” button is no small task.

LTE is expected by some in the industry to have lots of glitches to start with and that it will take some time before the engineers learn how to get the best out of the network, even with all of the trials that have been taking place.

According to Melone, Verizon will focus on delivering the most reliable next-generation LTE wireless network in the USA, and they have already taken a proactive approach on the matter. Various collaborative initiatives are already in place, including:

• Open Development, meant to offer developers the possibility to come up with devices that will work on its network, with more than 55 devices certified to date;
• Verizon LTE Innovation Center, also focused on the development of products based on Verizon Wireless' 4G LTE network;
• Verizon Developer Community and V CAST Apps; a group of application developers focused on helping Verizon on delivering new applications to its users on the upcoming network (V CAST Apps should become available before the end of the year)
• Joint Innovation LabDesignated M2M Focus for Important Market Segments

Another important message to the vendors was the importance of partnerships between operators, vendors and all other LTE industry players, in order to everyone to benefit. But can they all get together to keep costs low in order to reach the mass market?

Tony Melone with be giving an exclusive keynote at the LTE Americas conference on the 4th and 5th of November in Dallas.

Will Huawei Make Any Headway in the US LTE Market?

It is clear that Huawei and Ericsson have been stumping the most contracts for LTE. Huawei recently teamed up with Vodafone Germany to test LTE in the digital dividend band and boasts contracts with TeliaSonera and Telenor. Rival to vofafone Germany, E-Plus also has a pilot, working with Ericsson, in the same digital dividend band.

Huawei's next target seems to be a tier 1 operator in te USA, which unlike Ericsson (with Verizon Wireless), Huawei doesn't have. It has already signed a deal with the cable company Cox Communications for a 3G network, but its the LTE contacts Huawei is after. Huawei recently opened an LTE lab in Plano, Texas and they are hoping to be in the running to become a supplier to AT&T for its LTE network although that deal is unlikely to materialize for at least another year.

Huawei's price competitieveness is putting pressure on vendors such as NSN and Alcatel-Lucent. Its seems as if its only a matter of time that before Huawei makes an impact on the US market.

LTE Americas Brochure Available to Download!

The LTE Americas conference is part of Informa's World Series of LTE events and will be taking place on the 4th and 5th Of November in Dallas. The brochure for this exciting event is now available to download at www.lteconference.com/americas.

The brochure includes information on the speakers, which include Anthony Melone, CTO of Verizon Wireless and Kris Rinne, VP Architecture & Planning at AT&T.

There are a limited number of free passes for carriers in the Americas region. To claim your free pass, please email sabah.hussain@informa.com

NTT DoCoMo plans to launch LTE in December 2010

The Japanese service will initially be aimed at PC users, with DoCoMo offering card-type terminals for laptops, said Ryuji Yamada, president and CEO of NTT DoCoMo at a Tokyo news conference. It will be expanded to include handset terminals from 2011, he said. Those terminals will be dual-mode devices that use LTE networks where available and fall back to 3G networks to provide nationwide coverage. LTE's introduction is also expected to reduce the per-byte cost of data communications.

By 2014 the operator plans to provide LTE service to 50 percent of Japan from around 20,000 base stations. DoCoMo plans to invest between ¥300 billion and ¥400 billion (US$3.2 billion to $4.2 billion) during the first five years of the roll-out, said Yamada.

NTT DoCoMo was the first carrier in the world to launch a commercial 3G wireless service based on WCDMA but based on its LTE roll-out it will likely be beaten this time around by carriers in other countries.

Verizon Wireless is likely to be the first operator to launch LTE in the world. European operators are also getting behind the technology with several tests under way or planned on the continent. TeliaSonera has said it will build a commercial LTE network in Stockholm, Sweden, and in Oslo, Norway.

NTT DoCoMo will be speaking at the LTE Asia conference in Hong Kong on the 8th and 9th of September. For more information and a full line up of speakers, visit www.lteconference.com/asia

Verizon Looking to Beat MetroPCS with its LTE Launch in Q1 2010

According to a report by TechCrunch.com, Verizon is planning to launch Long Term Evolution (LTE) services across its key markets in the first quarter of 2010, in an effort to beat rivals MetroPCS to market. Verizon officially plans to begin testing its networks by the end of 2009 before commercially launching services in the second quarter of the following year.

In March, MetroPCS announced that it was aiming to introduce LTE to its network in the second quarter of 2010

There have been conflicting comments from Verizon with regard to their roll out and launch dates for LTE. These have varied from the following:

Aug. 13, 2008: Verizon said it will roll out the network in 2010 and cover most of the country by 2012
Dec. 10, 2008: Verizon said it would deploy LTE in 2009
Jan. 27, 2009: Verizon said it hopes to have LTE commercially available by the first half of 2010
Feb. 18, 2009: Verizon said LTE will be commercially deployed in 2010 with handsets coming in 2011
May 15, 2009: Verizon said it plans to launch LTE commercially in the second half of 2010

The most recent update is that Verizon will launch LTE trials in Seattle and Boston later this year and plans to launch its commercial service in 30 markets in 2010 and that they plan to have full network coverage by 2013, leading to rumours about Verizon wanting to launch the service in time for the new iPhone tablet, expected in early 2010.

The CTO of Verizon Wireless will be giving a keynote speech at Informa’s LTE Americas conference in Dallas on the 4th of November. For more information visit www.lteconference.com

CTO of Verizon Wireless Speaking at LTE Americas

Anthony Melone, CTO of Verizon Wireless will kick start Informa’s 2nd Annual LTE Americas conference on the 4th and 5th of November at the Westin City Center, in Dallas. Verizon has been leading the operator community and will be the first to deploy LTE, the 4G technology of choice for the mobile telecommunications industry.

Verizon Wireless appears to be keeping their cards very close to their chest, but that just makes the industry want to hear what they have to say even more. The topic is being kept under wraps for now; people will have to come to the conference to find out what the Verizon Wireless message to the industry is.

The LTE Americas conference will also be featuring key speakers such as Kris Rinne, VP Architecture & Planning from AT&T, Egil Gronstad, VP Technology Planning from Cricket Communications and Solyman Ashrafi, Staff VP for LTE from MetroPCS as well as notable names from other key carriers, vendors, associations and device manufacturers in the region. This conference is about bring the ecosystem together and to discuss the way forward for LTE. The fact that this conference is specifically dedicated to LTE is what makes it unique and why people see our events as the place to learn, network and do business across the world.

The LTE Americas conference is part of Informa’s LTE World Series of conferences. Informa has been working exclusively in partnership with the 3GPP who will also have a keynote speaker Asok Chatterjee as well as Stephen Hayes participating in the conference.

For more information visit www.lteconference.com/americas. The brochure will be available early next week!