Mobile technology in fast lane

By Jennigay Coetzer - Business Day, 9 June 2009

Analysts predict that wireless and mobile broadband data traffic will increase tenfold by 2015 and that its growth will be spurred by operators moving to fourth generation (4G) technology, known as Long Term Evolution (LTE).
LTE can deliver mobile data services at one sixth of the price of existing mobile technologies and will support more bandwidth-hungry applications like video, TV and gaming.
Demand for mobile broadband will also be driven by applications such as mobile commerce and payments and mobile internet access.
Juniper Research says in a recent report that revenues from mobile broadband subscribers using LTE will exceed $70 billion globally by 2014.
This will mostly come from developed markets like the US, Western Europe and China.
LTE will offer broadband speeds up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps) or more, which is five times faster than the best current mobile data service and 20 times faster than fixed line ADSL.
This translates into practical user download speeds of 80 Mbps.
Research company Analysys Mason says network operators are likely to begin to implement LTE in 2010, with the bulk of it happening within two to three years.
It says LTE-enabled devices are expected to be available from the second half of this year.
But the challenge will be for operators to successfully integrate LTE into their existing infrastructure.
China Mobile, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone recently made a joint announced that they have made significant progress in developing LTE technology.
Robert Wuestenenk, senior manager for broadband networks at Ericsson says it is significant that major industry players like Verizon and AT&T are backing LTE and not WiMAX and that the likes of Vodafone and Deutche Telecom are testing the technology.
Ericsson is a member of the industry groups that are setting the standards for LTE-capable mobile phones and testing the technology.
LTE is initially expected to offer speeds of 60 Mbps, increasing to 100 Mbps in three to five years.
In practical terms, this should allow users to download data at an average speed of 10 Mbps, depending on how far they are from the base station and how many people are accessing it simultaneously.
The maximum 3G speeds currently on offer anywhere in the world is 14.4 megabits per second, with average practical download speeds of about 10 Mbps.
In South Africa, the maximum speed of 3G is 7.2 Mbps, but there are talks of migrating this to 14.4 Mbps.
But in Australia, telecommunications operator Telstra is ready to go commercial with a 40 Mbps 3G service, which is the current maximum speed for this technology.
“The speed could be pushed higher with minor hardware changes and software upgrades,” says Wuestenenck.
He says operators are keen to push the capabilities of their current networks to the limit before moving to LTE, which will require them to build a parallel network to support it.

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Tags: ADSL, Analysys Mason, China Mobile, Ericsson, Juniper Research, LTE, mobile, mobile broadband, Robert Wuestenenk, telecommunications, Verizon Wireless, Vodafone, WiMAX