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back to article GSMA sees 2.6GHz future

The GSMA argues that the majority of the 2.6GHz band should be LTE-friendly, conceding that WiMAX needs some space to play in the interest of neutrality. The details come in a report (pdf) from the GSMA, the industry body representing GSM-based-mobile operators, which argues that 340MHz of the 2.6GHz band should be allocated …

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  1. MFR

    An unfortunate misunderstanding

    I am one of the authors of the 2.6GHz report for the GSMA and hence hardly a neutral observer. However, I must protest against the perpetuation of a serious misunderstanding in this article about the report. The article implies that FDD=LTE and TDD=WiMAX. However, in the report we explicitly state and show by referring to the intense development being put into TDD LTE (led by China but involving Western as well as Chinese vendors) including the stress on maximizing its commonality with FDD LTE, that LTE will be available for deployment in TDD spectrum at 2.6GHz and other frequencies. There is no basis for the implication that the GSMA expects any 2.6GHz spectrum allocated to TDD to lie unused "as WiMAX dies." TDD LTE will be available while if you believe the WiMAX Forum so will FDD WiMAX. It is high time to abandon the idea that technology neutrality or fair competition between LTE and WiMAX are the same thing as or require neutrality in how spectrum is allocated between FDD and TDD modes of operation. As the report shows, the realities of interference mean that allowing freedom of choice in use of TDD and FDD is in a mild way equivalent to letting people decide which side of the road to drive on in the name of individual freedom (although electromagnetic collisions are less lethal than vehicular ones).

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  2. Peter Curnow-Ford

    Ustrung Quotes GSMA Director as saying....

    hi,

    Yes but the GSMA also said,

    “There is clear evidence that the volume of data flowing over mobile networks is growing rapidly and is being accelerated by the popularity of smart phones and the growth in music and video downloads,” said Tom Phillips, Chief Regulatory Affairs Officer at the GSMA. “The report highlights that the 2.6 GHz band will allow operators to address rapidly increasing traffic volumes in an efficient and harmonised way. Recent licensing of this band in Hong Kong, Norway, Finland and Sweden, for example, has highlighted that there is more demand for paired (FDD) than unpaired spectrum (TDD) and that the ITU’s recommended Option 1** plan is the best structure to stimulate market growth in a technology-neutral and competitive environment.”

    from this link, http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?doc_id=186640, under the heading of "Report: 2.6GHz Spectrum Key for LTE".

    Peter

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