Just a year away
Jai feels that 2012 will be the tipping point for LTE. It is very efficient in supporting data and media and, for developing countries with large landmasses, offers the fastest and potentially most efficient, cost-effective way of rolling out wireless national broadband networks that are funded privately by operators and not from the national coffers.
The importance of broadband for both developing and developed economies is highlight in the often-reported figure that a 10-percentage-point increase in broadband penetration can lead to a GDP increase of about 1.2% in developed economies. This is a point not lost on most governments in Asia Pacific as internet accessibility becomes a national priority, and even obsession in some cases.
In many developing markets the move to LTE may well leapfrog 3G as economies of scale drive down the cost of network infrastructure and devices. The idea of having up to 100-Mbps broadband access and mobility would be good enough reason for many people to dump the fixed-line alternative. I would happily invest in a personal Wi-Fi router connected to an LTE network with backward compatibility to HSPA+. And LTE Advanced will boost that speed to 1 Gbps - matching the performance of FTTH.
This brings into question those countries that are investing billions of taxpayer dollars in FTTH rollouts when a more viable, more economical and more flexible wireless option is available. Watching the politics, cost escalations, delays and issues over the potential re-creation of past monopolies are surely reason enough to look at options like LTE.
Tony Poulos is the BSS evangelist for the TM Forum and a regulator contributor to Telecom Asia