By Charles Moreira
As would be expected in a highly regulated industry such as telecommunications, the deployment of fourth generation (4G) cellular communications technologies such as LTE (Long Term Evolution) would, without exception, be subject to internationally agreed treaties and be governed by respective national regulations.
In Malaysia, its deployment indeed is regulated by government agencies such as the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
However, work on defining the characteristics, requirements, standards and specifications for next generation networks after HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access) and EVDO (Evolution Data-Optimised) began within the industry itself.
One of them is the Next Generation Mobile Networks or NGMN Alliance, an industry association founded in 2006 by the world’s leading mobile operators, working in partnership with its 36 sponsors among communications systems and equipment vendors, as well as advisors in academia.
Besides the operators having jointly defined and published the requirements for the next generation of mobile networks beyond HSPA and EVDO in 2006, the NGMN Alliance also exchanges information of immediate concern amongst its members and interacts with the industry’s leading standards development organisations such as the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the 3G Partnership Project (3GPP) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE).
It also provides input in areas of frequency allocation requirements to the International Telecommunications Union – Radiocommunications Group, World Radiocommunication Conference (ITU-R WRC).
Besides that the NGMN Alliance also provides information about tangible commercial conditions which must be established, for instance, by providing greater transparency for royalty rates and recommendations on patent pools.
NGMN Alliance projects
Its projects include – the establishment of clear functional and non-functional requirements; scenarios for effective spectrum utilisation; the sharing of operational experience in up and running networks; provision of input to standards development organisations; the identification and removal of barriers to successful implementation of attractive services; the provision of a networking platform to assess and to address technology challenges; and to evaluate and drive technology evolution.
Examples of its collaborative projects include that between SK Telecom and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on 25 February, 2013, whereby the South Korean operator and the European vendor would jointly evaluate NSN’s newly launched Radio Applications Cloud Server (RACS), which enables liquid applications – namely, innovative network technology that helps operators provide a truly unique and personalised mobile broadband experience by turning base stations into a local hub for new service creation and delivery that exists closer to the mobile subscriber.
Whilst initially the Alliance successfully enabled the launch of commercial LTE services in 2010 through its working groups on Technology, spectrum, intellectual property rights, ecosystem and trials; moving forward the Alliance now addresses end-to-end quality-of-services (QoS) and user experience issues, architecture evolution and cloud, operational excellence and efficiency, and implementation aspects.
The Alliance’s other initiatives include events such as the Converged Operations Showcase in Frankfurt, Germany on 8 May, 2013.
Key milestone
Meanwhile, a key milestone for the world’s telecommunications industry was the announcement by the ITU-R World Radiocommunication Conference on October/November 2007, of globally harmonised spectrum for use by International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT-2000 and IMT-Advanced), including additional spectrum allocations in new bands. These include :-
– 20 MHz in the band 450−470 MHz (globally)
– 72 MHz in the band 790−862 MHz for Region 1 (Europe) and 3 (Asia)
– 164 MHz in the band 698−862 MHz for Region 2 (Americas)
– 100 MHz in the band 2.3−2.4 GHz (globally)
– 200 MHz in the band 3.4−3.6 GHz (no global allocation, but accepted by many countries)
The ITU-R formally announced IMT-Advanced in March 2008. IMT-Advanced is a set of specifications for 4G mobile communications, which specify peak download speeds of up to 100Mbps while fast-moving such as in trains and cars and 1Gbps when slow moving such as while walking or while stationary.
Not quite 4G yet
It must be noted that IMT-Advanced technologies include LTE-Advanced and other technologies such as Mobile WiMAX Release 2, also known as WirelessMAN Advanced or IEEE802.16m. Current Mobile WiMAX and LTE technologies do not achieve 1Gbps peak download speeds, so for a while it was hotly debated as to whether they could accurately be described as 4G, even though many operators did for marketing purposes. (PULL QUOTE)
On 6 December, 2010, the ITU-R allowed Mobile WiMAX, first-generation LTE and other beyond-3G technologies to be considered as “4G,” provided they represent forerunners of fully IMT-Advanced compliant technologies or are substantial improvements over existing 3G technologies.
These spectrum would not be available immediately, but opened to the market following transition periods of several years. However, they formed part of a new Radio Regulation treaty in all relevant regions and countries and are crucial for the success of next generation mobile networks.
Treaty organisation
It should however be noted that the ITU which is the United Nations’ specialised agency for telecommunications, is not a global regulatory body but rather a global telecommunications standards body and treaty organisation, whose members include 193 countries and over 700 private-sector entities and academic institutions in relation to terrestrial and satellite communications.
Its members from Malaysia include the Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture, the MCMC, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Cybersecurity Malaysia, operators such as Altel Communications, the Axiata Group, Celcom Axiata, Green Packet, Maxis Mobile, MEASAT Satellite Systems, and Telekom Malaysia. They also include regional and international organisations located in Malaysia, such as the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development and the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyberthreats (IMPACT).
Members also include Malaysia’s permanent mission in Geneva and Malaysia’s permanent mission to the United Nations in New York.
The authority steps in
Malaysia’s LTE journey can be said to have begun on 21 October, 2010, when it was learned that the MCMC had earmarked 20MHz blocks in the 2.5GHz and 2.6GHz bands for nine candidates – namely the four cellular operators Celcom, DiGi, Maxis and U Mobile, WiMAX operators Asiaspace, REDtone, Packet One Networks (P1) and YTL, plus a new ‘operator’ Puncak Semangat.
This announcement was received with much controversy, even among operators earmarked to receive the spectrum blocks. Among them, Celcom’s parent the Axiata Group preferred that the spectrum was allocated based upon contest, with clear criteria on elements such as service roll-out, past performance, management track record, commitment to consumers, and financial ability.
U Mobile would have preferred a market-based approach whereby the spectrum was awarded to serious bidders, after proper consultation with the industry so that its competitive impact and benefits to consumers could be realised.
Another operator felt that spectrum allocation based upon dividing 180 MHz into nine 20MHz blocks per player was a rather “arithmetic” way of going about it and that the MCMC should have approved candidates’ business proposals first before it allocated the spectrum.
However, REDtone felt it deserved the award, since it had not received 2.3MHz spectrum for Peninsular Malaysia but in Sabah and Sarawak, where it had invested millions of ringgit over the past two years to deploy its WiMAX network there.
Anyway, the MCMC stuck to its guns and would formally allocate these spectrum blocks to these operators on 1 January, 2013, subject to them submitting by 14 January, 2011, a detailed business plan to achieve 50% LTE coverage within five years or the reservation would be withdrawn. (PULL QUOTE)
Also, once approved, the assignments would be made only after the recipients had posted an irrevocable bank guarantee of RM10mil to guarantee compliance with their business plan.
20MHz not enough?
It was also felt that 20MHz was insufficient for reasonably good coverage and quality-of-service. For instance, an Axiata Group spokesperson felt that in accordance with international best practices, the allocations should have been in 40MHz. The Axiata spokesperson says that 20MHz is “quite inadequate’’ as “in accordance to world best practices, typical allocations to date have been in 40MHz blocks or two blocks of 20MHz per operator.
An industry expert felt that at least 30MHz was required for adequate frequency re-use, especially since at 2.6GHz, LTE’s range would be shorter than with lower frequencies, so operators would have to deploy more base stations to cover the same area, which would result in a higher risk of interference between neighbouring base stations.
In cellular communications, the operator subdivides its assigned spectrum block into seven sub-blocks, each of which is used in a base station arranged honeycomb-style in a cluster of seven cells, so that cells using the same sub-bloc of frequencies are distant enough from each other to avoid interference with each other.
Meanwhile, the MCMC began to re-allocate frequencies currently used for applications of lower economic or social value to higher-value applications, including spectrum in the 700MHz and 800MHz band, which can also be used for LTE. The 1,800MHz band formerly used in many countries for GSM service, has been re-allocated for LTE. LTE can operate in about 43 different bands, ranging from 700MHz to as high as the 3.8GHz.
Technically speaking, 2.6GHz and 2.3GHz have sufficient bandwidth for coverage of urban areas where there is a high-density of users within a small area. On the other hand, while lower frequencies are unable to provide as large a number of users with LTE-type speeds, they have a longer range, which makes them more suitably used in sub-urban or rural areas where user-density is much lower. LTE over these lower frequencies is also more economical for operators to deploy, since they require fewer base stations to cover the same area, and also especially where there are fewer users, hence lower revenue potential.
Spectrum and AAs
Once an operator gets spectrum, it will also have to apply for what the MCMC calls an “apparatus assignment” (AA), to get access to a block of airwaves between two points.
Whilst some believe the difference between “spectrum” and “AA” is purely academic and that they actually mean the same thing, others believe that the issuance of AAs enables the MCMC to withdraw the right to use that spectrum from operators which sit on valuable spectrum instead of using it.
The final analysis
Finally, all but Asiaspace were allocated spectrum in December 2012. One of the four 2.3GHz WiMAX licensees, Asiaspace shut down its Amax WiMAX service in May 2010 and did not bring it up again.
Both Packet One and YTL Communications will operate TD-LTE service in the TD-LTE part of the 2.6GHz band, while the rest will operate FD-LTE service.
Of the eight, seven got 20MHz (2 x 10MHz) and Puncak Semangat 40MHz (2 x 20MHz). Explaining its decision to allocate twice the bandwidth to Puncak Semangat than allocated to the others, MCMC chairman Dato’ Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi explained last December that it was the minimum Puncak Semangat needed to get started, while the others, especially tier-1 operators such as Celcom, DiGi and Maxis already altogether have over 100MHz of spectrum each, including from earlier assignments for other services.
U Mobile altogether has 55MHz, REDtone, Packet One and YTL altogether have 50MHz each and only Asiaspace has 30MHz from its earlier allocation for WiMAX.
Tarmizi also emphasised that Vodafone is able to serve 20 million subscribers in the UK with a total of 86MHz spectrum, while Celcom, DiGi and Maxis, each with more spectrum than Vodafone UK, respectively serve 12, 11 and 14 million subscribers and say they need more spectrum.
Meanwhile, Celcom, DiGi and Maxis got the OK to also operate LTE service in the 2 x 25MHz blocks they currently have in the 1,800MHz band, and as of April, 2013, Maxis had already offered iPhone 5 4G-LTE service in the 1,800MHz rather than the 2.6GHz band.
That should at least put to rest much of the sensationalism about Puncak Semangat and its billionaire corporate figure Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, by what veteran journalist, the late Auberon Alexander Waugh derisively called “the chattering classes.” The term is often used to refer to pundits, political commentators, the liberal elite and even journalists in a derogatory manner.
For example, an information technology blogger made issue with Maxis’ iPhone 5 over LTE launch, claiming that the iPhone did not operate at 2.6GHz but later retracted his statement when he realised that it was LTE at 1,800MHz which the iPhone supported.
Also, Tony Pua, Democratic Action Party member of parliament for Petaling Jaya North wrote in his blog, “However, what took the industry by surprise was the award of the largest share of the bandwidth of 40MHz to a little known entity Puncak Semangat Sdn Bhd, owned by tycoon Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary.”
However if Pua had done the sums, he would have realised that Puncak Semangat actually got among the least spectrum overall. Well, it got that 20MHz earmarked for but not assigned to Asiaspace which had shut down its WiMAX service over two years earlier.
(This article has appeared in the Q2 issue of Enterprise IT News magazine).
One of them is the Next Generation Mobile Networks or NGMN Alliance, an industry association founded in 2006 by the world’s leading mobile operators, working in partnership with its 36 sponsors among communications systems and equipment vendors, as well as advisors in academia.
Besides the operators having jointly defined and published the requirements for the next generation of mobile networks beyond HSPA and EVDO in 2006, the NGMN Alliance also exchanges information of immediate concern amongst its members and interacts with the industry’s leading standards development organisations such as the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the 3G Partnership Project (3GPP) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE).
It also provides input in areas of frequency allocation requirements to the International Telecommunications Union – Radiocommunications Group, World Radiocommunication Conference (ITU-R WRC).
Besides that the NGMN Alliance also provides information about tangible commercial conditions which must be established, for instance, by providing greater transparency for royalty rates and recommendations on patent pools.
NGMN Alliance projects
Its projects include – the establishment of clear functional and non-functional requirements; scenarios for effective spectrum utilisation; the sharing of operational experience in up and running networks; provision of input to standards development organisations; the identification and removal of barriers to successful implementation of attractive services; the provision of a networking platform to assess and to address technology challenges; and to evaluate and drive technology evolution.
Examples of its collaborative projects include that between SK Telecom and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on 25 February, 2013, whereby the South Korean operator and the European vendor would jointly evaluate NSN’s newly launched Radio Applications Cloud Server (RACS), which enables liquid applications – namely, innovative network technology that helps operators provide a truly unique and personalised mobile broadband experience by turning base stations into a local hub for new service creation and delivery that exists closer to the mobile subscriber.
Whilst initially the Alliance successfully enabled the launch of commercial LTE services in 2010 through its working groups on Technology, spectrum, intellectual property rights, ecosystem and trials; moving forward the Alliance now addresses end-to-end quality-of-services (QoS) and user experience issues, architecture evolution and cloud, operational excellence and efficiency, and implementation aspects.
The Alliance’s other initiatives include events such as the Converged Operations Showcase in Frankfurt, Germany on 8 May, 2013.
Key milestone
Meanwhile, a key milestone for the world’s telecommunications industry was the announcement by the ITU-R World Radiocommunication Conference on October/November 2007, of globally harmonised spectrum for use by International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT-2000 and IMT-Advanced), including additional spectrum allocations in new bands. These include :-
– 20 MHz in the band 450−470 MHz (globally)
– 72 MHz in the band 790−862 MHz for Region 1 (Europe) and 3 (Asia)
– 164 MHz in the band 698−862 MHz for Region 2 (Americas)
– 100 MHz in the band 2.3−2.4 GHz (globally)
– 200 MHz in the band 3.4−3.6 GHz (no global allocation, but accepted by many countries)
The ITU-R formally announced IMT-Advanced in March 2008. IMT-Advanced is a set of specifications for 4G mobile communications, which specify peak download speeds of up to 100Mbps while fast-moving such as in trains and cars and 1Gbps when slow moving such as while walking or while stationary.
Not quite 4G yet
It must be noted that IMT-Advanced technologies include LTE-Advanced and other technologies such as Mobile WiMAX Release 2, also known as WirelessMAN Advanced or IEEE802.16m. Current Mobile WiMAX and LTE technologies do not achieve 1Gbps peak download speeds, so for a while it was hotly debated as to whether they could accurately be described as 4G, even though many operators did for marketing purposes. (PULL QUOTE)
On 6 December, 2010, the ITU-R allowed Mobile WiMAX, first-generation LTE and other beyond-3G technologies to be considered as “4G,” provided they represent forerunners of fully IMT-Advanced compliant technologies or are substantial improvements over existing 3G technologies.
These spectrum would not be available immediately, but opened to the market following transition periods of several years. However, they formed part of a new Radio Regulation treaty in all relevant regions and countries and are crucial for the success of next generation mobile networks.
Treaty organisation
It should however be noted that the ITU which is the United Nations’ specialised agency for telecommunications, is not a global regulatory body but rather a global telecommunications standards body and treaty organisation, whose members include 193 countries and over 700 private-sector entities and academic institutions in relation to terrestrial and satellite communications.
Its members from Malaysia include the Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture, the MCMC, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Cybersecurity Malaysia, operators such as Altel Communications, the Axiata Group, Celcom Axiata, Green Packet, Maxis Mobile, MEASAT Satellite Systems, and Telekom Malaysia. They also include regional and international organisations located in Malaysia, such as the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development and the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyberthreats (IMPACT).
Members also include Malaysia’s permanent mission in Geneva and Malaysia’s permanent mission to the United Nations in New York.
The authority steps in
Malaysia’s LTE journey can be said to have begun on 21 October, 2010, when it was learned that the MCMC had earmarked 20MHz blocks in the 2.5GHz and 2.6GHz bands for nine candidates – namely the four cellular operators Celcom, DiGi, Maxis and U Mobile, WiMAX operators Asiaspace, REDtone, Packet One Networks (P1) and YTL, plus a new ‘operator’ Puncak Semangat.
This announcement was received with much controversy, even among operators earmarked to receive the spectrum blocks. Among them, Celcom’s parent the Axiata Group preferred that the spectrum was allocated based upon contest, with clear criteria on elements such as service roll-out, past performance, management track record, commitment to consumers, and financial ability.
U Mobile would have preferred a market-based approach whereby the spectrum was awarded to serious bidders, after proper consultation with the industry so that its competitive impact and benefits to consumers could be realised.
Another operator felt that spectrum allocation based upon dividing 180 MHz into nine 20MHz blocks per player was a rather “arithmetic” way of going about it and that the MCMC should have approved candidates’ business proposals first before it allocated the spectrum.
However, REDtone felt it deserved the award, since it had not received 2.3MHz spectrum for Peninsular Malaysia but in Sabah and Sarawak, where it had invested millions of ringgit over the past two years to deploy its WiMAX network there.
Anyway, the MCMC stuck to its guns and would formally allocate these spectrum blocks to these operators on 1 January, 2013, subject to them submitting by 14 January, 2011, a detailed business plan to achieve 50% LTE coverage within five years or the reservation would be withdrawn. (PULL QUOTE)
Also, once approved, the assignments would be made only after the recipients had posted an irrevocable bank guarantee of RM10mil to guarantee compliance with their business plan.
20MHz not enough?
It was also felt that 20MHz was insufficient for reasonably good coverage and quality-of-service. For instance, an Axiata Group spokesperson felt that in accordance with international best practices, the allocations should have been in 40MHz. The Axiata spokesperson says that 20MHz is “quite inadequate’’ as “in accordance to world best practices, typical allocations to date have been in 40MHz blocks or two blocks of 20MHz per operator.
An industry expert felt that at least 30MHz was required for adequate frequency re-use, especially since at 2.6GHz, LTE’s range would be shorter than with lower frequencies, so operators would have to deploy more base stations to cover the same area, which would result in a higher risk of interference between neighbouring base stations.
In cellular communications, the operator subdivides its assigned spectrum block into seven sub-blocks, each of which is used in a base station arranged honeycomb-style in a cluster of seven cells, so that cells using the same sub-bloc of frequencies are distant enough from each other to avoid interference with each other.
Meanwhile, the MCMC began to re-allocate frequencies currently used for applications of lower economic or social value to higher-value applications, including spectrum in the 700MHz and 800MHz band, which can also be used for LTE. The 1,800MHz band formerly used in many countries for GSM service, has been re-allocated for LTE. LTE can operate in about 43 different bands, ranging from 700MHz to as high as the 3.8GHz.
Technically speaking, 2.6GHz and 2.3GHz have sufficient bandwidth for coverage of urban areas where there is a high-density of users within a small area. On the other hand, while lower frequencies are unable to provide as large a number of users with LTE-type speeds, they have a longer range, which makes them more suitably used in sub-urban or rural areas where user-density is much lower. LTE over these lower frequencies is also more economical for operators to deploy, since they require fewer base stations to cover the same area, and also especially where there are fewer users, hence lower revenue potential.
Spectrum and AAs
Once an operator gets spectrum, it will also have to apply for what the MCMC calls an “apparatus assignment” (AA), to get access to a block of airwaves between two points.
Whilst some believe the difference between “spectrum” and “AA” is purely academic and that they actually mean the same thing, others believe that the issuance of AAs enables the MCMC to withdraw the right to use that spectrum from operators which sit on valuable spectrum instead of using it.
The final analysis
Finally, all but Asiaspace were allocated spectrum in December 2012. One of the four 2.3GHz WiMAX licensees, Asiaspace shut down its Amax WiMAX service in May 2010 and did not bring it up again.
Both Packet One and YTL Communications will operate TD-LTE service in the TD-LTE part of the 2.6GHz band, while the rest will operate FD-LTE service.
Of the eight, seven got 20MHz (2 x 10MHz) and Puncak Semangat 40MHz (2 x 20MHz). Explaining its decision to allocate twice the bandwidth to Puncak Semangat than allocated to the others, MCMC chairman Dato’ Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi explained last December that it was the minimum Puncak Semangat needed to get started, while the others, especially tier-1 operators such as Celcom, DiGi and Maxis already altogether have over 100MHz of spectrum each, including from earlier assignments for other services.
U Mobile altogether has 55MHz, REDtone, Packet One and YTL altogether have 50MHz each and only Asiaspace has 30MHz from its earlier allocation for WiMAX.
Tarmizi also emphasised that Vodafone is able to serve 20 million subscribers in the UK with a total of 86MHz spectrum, while Celcom, DiGi and Maxis, each with more spectrum than Vodafone UK, respectively serve 12, 11 and 14 million subscribers and say they need more spectrum.
Meanwhile, Celcom, DiGi and Maxis got the OK to also operate LTE service in the 2 x 25MHz blocks they currently have in the 1,800MHz band, and as of April, 2013, Maxis had already offered iPhone 5 4G-LTE service in the 1,800MHz rather than the 2.6GHz band.
That should at least put to rest much of the sensationalism about Puncak Semangat and its billionaire corporate figure Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, by what veteran journalist, the late Auberon Alexander Waugh derisively called “the chattering classes.” The term is often used to refer to pundits, political commentators, the liberal elite and even journalists in a derogatory manner.
For example, an information technology blogger made issue with Maxis’ iPhone 5 over LTE launch, claiming that the iPhone did not operate at 2.6GHz but later retracted his statement when he realised that it was LTE at 1,800MHz which the iPhone supported.
Also, Tony Pua, Democratic Action Party member of parliament for Petaling Jaya North wrote in his blog, “However, what took the industry by surprise was the award of the largest share of the bandwidth of 40MHz to a little known entity Puncak Semangat Sdn Bhd, owned by tycoon Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary.”
However if Pua had done the sums, he would have realised that Puncak Semangat actually got among the least spectrum overall. Well, it got that 20MHz earmarked for but not assigned to Asiaspace which had shut down its WiMAX service over two years earlier.
(This article has appeared in the Q2 issue of Enterprise IT News magazine).
