RF&WirelessBlog

Everything Everywhere gets Ofcom approval for 1.8GHz LTE Autumn launch

UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has given permission for mobile operator Everything Everywhere, the joint venture between Orange and T-Mobile in the UK, to use its existing 1.8GHz spectrum to launch LTE services as early as next month, while its competitors will have to wait until the LTE spectrum auctions later in the year. Ofcom's decision was based on the benefits to consumers of an early LTE rollout.

Drive test equipment downsizes to move from van to motorbike

Livingston is providing ATS-Group with the hardware and software for a more streamlined approach to testing the performance of mobile networks, known as drive testing. ATS-Group has been contracted by a mobile operator to execute drive tests across the whole of London, for analysis of base stations now being deployed to combat the growing issue of wireless congestion.

Normally this type of testing has to be executed via equipment that is housed in vans. However, ATS-Group has developed a solution where the complete system can be carried on a motorbike. This has three major advantages over the conventional, cumbersome methodology. Firstly, it is more agile, as motorbikes have proved to be considerably better than vans at coping with the urban environment – easily negotiating their way through the traffic that clogs the arterioles of the city. Secondly, it has a far lower ecological impact, as less fuel is consumed to carry out the tests. Finally, the running costs involved will be markedly less.

Second US Tier-1 contract for Celcite’s network optimisation tools

A second Tier-1 mobile operator in the USA is using Celcite Management Solutions’ COPS network optimisation platform. Celcite says it has received an order for nationwide deployment of its COPS (Customised Optimisation and Self-Performing Solutions) Enterprise platform for configuration and parameter management. This news follows the announcement of the first Tier-1 mobile operator to use Celcite’s solution back in 2010.

MWC 2012: ZTE introduces commercial basestation for LTE-Advanced with inter-band carrier aggregation

Chinese infrastructure vendor ZTE Corporation has today launched an LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) inter-band dual-carrier commercial basestation at Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, Spain.

The new LTE-A basestation is based on the company's SDR hardware platform, and introduces inter-band carrier aggregation and MIMO (multiple input and multiple output) technologies. These technologies can double peak rate for individual users, enabling high-speed downloads of up to 270Mb/s in the downlink and meeting growing data service demands. During the congress, ZTE also demonstrated the basestation's inter-band carrier aggregation capabilities on two bands: 20MHz at 2.6GHz and 20MHz at 1.8GHz.

As frequency resources are becoming increasingly valuable, carrier aggregation technology will help assist operators with separate and discontinuous frequency resources because it can aggregate multiple carriers and increase frequency utilisation rate. This technology also enables greater bandwidth, higher user throughput and can solve the problem of rapid throughput decrease in the cell edge.

At the same time ZTE launched a next-generation TD-LTE multi-mode picocell basestation, aimed at mitigating problems associated with rapidly increasing mobile service data requirements. It also provides comprehensive coverage and capacity offloading to supplement macro coverage - it can be deployed in hot spots, blind spots, cell-edge spots and indoors dependent on traffic. It is also compatible with micro, macro and femto basestations.

Based on ZTE's SDR platform it supports LTE and WiFi simultaneously. Because of this, operators can configure Pico to work in WiFi to attract users at the initial stages of LTE construction, and later transfer them to TD-LTE/WiFi dual-mode as the LTE network matures. Moreover, the Pico can work in CPE mode and use TD-LTE as wireless backhaul while simultaneously working as a WiFi access point. The relay-assisted product also enables operators that lack wireline backhaul resources to efficiently develop their advanced heterogeneous LTE networks.

ZTE's LTE products are in use with high-end operators in Europe, North America and Japan. As of the end of 2011, ZTE had won 30 LTE commercial contracts across the globe, including with CSL, H3G, Vodafone, Softbank, Zain and others. The company has also deployed test networks in cooperation with more than 100 operators all around the world, including in Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East.

Celcite reveals latest operator contract for its multi-technology SON solution

Celcite has received an order from a Latin America mobile operator for its COPS-Enterprise multi-technology SON software and COPS-VIPCare customer experience management software. The company will also provide managed services for all of the operator’s networks, spread across several countries in Latin America. This new business takes the number of cells COPS will be managing to over one million, which Celcite says is the largest number currently being managed by any single management and optimisation enterprise platform.

LTE makes US debut: “new era of 4G” says Strategy Analytics

Verizon Wireless launched its 4G LTE network last week in 38 major US metropolitan areas, which together allow it to potentially reach more than 110 million people.

Clear Mobitel announces UK LTE trial in 800MHz ‘Digital Dividend’ spectrum in Cornwall

Clear Mobitel, whose headquarters are in the UK, has announced this week that it will carry out the UK's first live LTE trial in Cornwall, UK, using the 800MHz 'Digital Dividend' spectrum. The 800MHz RF band was previously occupied by analogue TV transmissions until the completion of the digital switchover in the South West in April 2009. Meanwhile in a separate announcement Strategy Analytics has released figures indicating that more than 40% of LTE devices will operate in the lower frequency bands of 700 – 850MHz up to 2014.

Roke Manor and picoChip femtocell has 40km range

Roke Manor Research has developed a 3G femtocell reference design with wide area coverage up to a 40km range, using picoChip's technology as the development platform. As well as giving coverage of an area more than 40,000 times the size of that traditionally offered by femtocells, itt is also the first design of its type to support full mobility at speeds of up to 120km/hour. Roke says that this dramatic improvement in range has been achieved by modifying the physical layer code.

Tektronix launches user interface for network monitoring and management

Tektronix Communications has introduced Iris Performance Intelligence (IPI), a user interface to enable teams that are responsible for network, service and IP performance. IPI is a new addition to the Iris suite of products, and provides end-to-end analysis and reporting capabilities coupled with a flexible and powerful KPI/KQI modelling engine that allows operators to better link desired business outcomes to events that occur at the network level.

Enhanced version of WeFi software launched for locating Wi-Fi hotspots

With the anticipated growth in importance of Wi-Fi as a means of offloading data traffic from overburdened cellular networks, the means of locating and automatically connecting to suitable hotspots is becoming a priority. Now WeFi, a company that has already created a database of over 56 million Wi-Fi access points worldwide, has launched an updated version of its free connection software for PC and Android mobile phones. The software locates and categorises available Wi-Fi hotspots, with user-friendly mapping of all access points relative to a specific street address.