IHS Global Insight Perspective | |
Significance | This is the year of LTE in the United States and small carrier MetroPCS appears to have gained a coup by announcing the first LTE handset. |
Implications | Verizon has far larger ambitions for its LTE network, as indicated by the number of backhaul agreements announced, and any potential first-mover advantages for MetroPCS may be limited beyond bragging rights. |
Outlook | MetroPCS has based its reputation on low cost rather than leading edge services. Having gained some scale, it may seek to add some chrome to its basic offering. |
Dallas-based, low-cost, contract-free, wireless carrier MetroPCS has reiterated plans at the CTIA Wireless Convention for the launch of an LTE network, with services scheduled to begin operating in the second half of 2010, reports the Dallas Morning News. The network will first launch in Las Vegas and "various metropolitan markets".
As first announced in September 2009, the first handset to launch with the service is to come from Samsung. Previously described as a dual-mode CDMA/LTE device, it is now named as the SCH-r900, which was also announced at the show (see United States: 16 September 2009: MetroPCS Announces Vendors for Late 2010 LTE Network Deployment Plans). A handset was shown—a standard slab touchscreen form factor—though no details were made available. However, 4G Wireless Evolution reports that it is a re-working of the Windows Mobile-based SCH i900 or Omnia, which looks unlikely to generate the frenzy among phone aficionados that the specifications for the first WiMAX handset, the HTC EVO, unleashed when shown off by HTC and Sprint earlier in the week. The HTC EVO is due on the Clearwire network this summer. It has an impressive specification list, although the announcement notably lacked the usual guestimates on battery life beyond being "comparable" (see United States: 24 March 2010: U.S. Carriers Unveil Handsets, Services, and Network Plans at CTIA Wireless Convention).
Carrying the first LTE handset could be something of a coup for the small carrier—Verizon has indicated that handsets will not be available until next year, with its initial LTE services limited to data cards. However, AT&T has already made disparaging comments on the early movers, with Chief Technology Officer John Donovan noting, "2012 will be the time when you'll have decent handsets, decent quantity of handsets, and decent choice of handsets … It's going to drain the battery like crazy, and it's going to be a fat brick" (see United States: 22 March 2010: Verizon's LTE Deployment On Track; AT&T Notes Useless Until 2012). However, much of the work on optimising LTE technologies, such as OFDM and MIMO in handsets, will have been in progress, with WiMAX-based handsets, which share the same technologies, and Korea-based Samsung, where the pre-WiMAX WiBro service has a longer legacy, having significant experience with this. Clearwire—the only major WiMAX carrier in the United States—noted the similarities between the two technologies and reiterated a desire to see convergence of the two technologies. This is a likely recognition that WiMAX faces a tough battle to gain the scale necessary to be a long-term, widely used technology in developed markets, and Clearwire has noted the ease with which it can adapt its network due to the similarities between the two technologies.
The first LTE network launched last year when TeliaSonera beat its initial 2010 launch window by activating the networks in Sweden and Norway in late 2009, but there has also only recently been agreement on how to carry voice calls over the LTE network, which is primarily a datacentric system (see World: 6 November 2009: Vendors and Operators Agree on Voice over LTE Solution and 17 February 2010: GSMA Adopts One Voice Initiative Standard for 4G).
Reports from the Dallas Morning News also note that Samsung will be providing infrastructure and, while it launched its portfolio of LTE infrastructure, this contradicts the initial announcement that it would only be providing the handset. Ericsson was the main infrastructure vendor in previous announcements. Information Week also reports that Samsung is collaborating on "handsets, infrastructure and services", mentioning Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent as infrastructure partners for Verizon Wireless, but not for MetroPCS.
Samsung's LTE solutions include enhanced node B (eNB) products, including rack types, remote radio heads, picocells, and distributed antenna system (DAS) hosts. The network solutions use an open network architecture supporting multi-vendor solutions and feature a scalable, single rack, enhanced packet core (EPC), along with IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) products.
Verizon also made a slew of announcements on its own LTE deployment, mainly naming a number of backhaul partners:
- Verizon Telecom will provide variable capacity fibre-optic Ethernet links between some 3,500 cell sites and switching facilities in 25 states plus the district of Columbia.
- Paradigm Telecom, already a backhaul supplier, will deploy MPLS and the 802.1Q standard across custom-designed, proprietary fibre networks in the south, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas.
- Telecom Transport Management Inc. (TTM) will provide Ethernet backhaul over fibre and licensed microwave wireless in portions of Minnesota.
- Fibertower will provide similar fibre and microwave links in Ohio and Michigan.
- Conterra will provide similar fibre/microwave backhaul services in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia, offering both SONET/TDM and native Ethernet capability.
- CenturyLink’s Ethernet Private Line service will support cell sites in Las Vegas.
- Qwest Communications will provide Mobile Ethernet backhaul over fibre in the western United States, noting that wireless backhaul is expected to be a significant growth product.
- USCarrier Telecom will provide Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) transmission over its high-capacity optical transport network and will supply backhaul links between major Verizon Wireless switch centres throughout Georgia and Alabama.
- PalmettoNet’s Fiber to the Tower service will be used in North and South Carolina.
- DukeNet Communications will provide Ethernet-based backhaul services in the south-east.
- Alcatel-Lucent has been named as a major supplier for LTE equipment, including Radio Access Network (RAN) and Enhanced Packet Core (EPC), and parts of the IP Multi-Media Subsystem (IMS) network. This will include the 7750 Service Router, 7705 Service Aggregation Router (SAR), and the 5620 Service Aware Manager.
Outlook and Implications
Verizon has been testing its LTE network in Boston and Seattle since August 2009 and aims to cover 25 to 30 markets (roughly 100 million people) by the end of 2010. The network operates in the long range and penetrative 700-MHz spectrum, and is capable of peak download speeds of 40-50 megabits per second (Mbps), peak upload speeds of 20-25 Mbps, and average data rates of 5-12 Mbps on the downlink and 2-5 Mbps on the uplink in real-world environments. MetroPCS appeared to indicate in live tests that it would not be able to quite meet these speeds, although it may be able to launch before Verizon, largely due to the smaller, metropolitan network that it operates. The Samsung LTE phone is a coup for the smaller company, but will do little to generate the buzz that it is looking for if the only innovatory element about it is the addition of an LTE radio. The details of the HTC EVO launch have left the phone forums abuzz with the weight of expectation and for the first time seems to create the kind of momentum that Sprint has been looking for with its early foray into what it calls "4G".
Backhaul has obviously been identified as a major issue for the LTE network deployment. The slew of announcements from Verizon are there to show that Verizon is attempting to avoid the kind of bottlenecks that have hindered AT&T as it deals with the rising demand for data services unleashed by the iPhone's popularity and smartphones' higher demands for data.