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Tuesday, 26 June 2007 |
Not
Oklahoma, not the late nineteenth century. GSMA stakes claim to 900MHz for 3G…
Hard on the heels (quiet days in cliché?) of the UMTS Forum’s warning that lack of spectrum could jeopardise the market prospects for 3G-plus (click) comes a call from the GSM Association (GSMA) for regulators to open up the 900MHz band for use by 3G service providers. According to an Ovum study carried out on behalf of the GSMA the widespread deployment of 3G networks in the 900MHz GSM spectrum band, as well as the 2100MHz band, could enable an additional 300mn people across Asia, Europe and
Africa to experience mobile broadband services by 2012.
The Ovum analysis goes on to suggest that the greater range of radio waves in the lower spectrum band and their ability to provide better coverage in buildings would enable operators to achieve much broader 3G coverage, particularly in rural areas. It further argues that a 3G network in the 900MHz band would achieve up to 40% greater coverage than a 3G network in the 2,100MHz band for the same capital expenditure. The cost-effectiveness of 3G at 900MHz, says Ovum, would be of particular significance in developing countries, many of which are looking to HSPA to provide high-speed Internet access in the many regions that lack fixed-line infrastructure. However, Ovum cautions that the level of success of 3G in the 900MHz band will depend on multiple countries making this spectrum band available in a harmonised way, so that equipment manufacturers have a large market to target and can quickly achieve economies of scale, particularly for handsets.
“National governments need to coordinate their spectrum policies to enable the widespread rollout of HSPA in the 900MHz band,” ventures Tom Phillips, chief Government and Regulatory Affairs officer of the GSMA. “Such coordination would make HSPA at 900MHz a cost-effective way to provide valuable broadband services to the many people untouched by the high-speed Internet revolution that has swept through the developed world.”
Ovum envisages that operators would use 900MHz to provide widespread 3G coverage, supplemented by 3G at 2,100MHz in urban hot-spots that need more capacity. The extensive use of both the 900MHz and the 2,100MHz bands for 3G in Asia–Pacific countries could lead to 450mn people in the region using 3G by 2012, if all operators chose to deploy 3G and the majority of investment goes into 3G at 900MHz. If 3G were restricted to 2100MHz alone, Ovum forecasts there will be just 200mn people using 3G in the region by 2012.
“As well as requiring lower up-front investments than 3G/HSPA at 2,100MHz, a 3G network at 900MHz is more cost-efficient and is better at handling both voice and data traffic, compared to GSM,” said Stewart Anderton, principal consultant at Ovum Consulting. “But 900MHz is one of the most used spectrum bands in the world and regulators must be careful to avoid interference with existing GSM services or interference across national borders.”
John Williamson |
