Others will undoubtedly follow. This certainly explains the interest in TD-LTE by major Wimax vendors, such as Motorola, which can leverage its R&D, while generating new sales revenues from migrating Wimax customers to TD-LTE.
Finally, mobile broadband demands mean that operators could offer parallel services on FDD and TDD spectrum to optimize spectral efficiency. In this way, operators anywhere in the world could leverage all available spectrum, depending on the type, volume, and pricing of spectrum available at allocation. Alternatively, operators could simply acquire sub-scale Wimax players – those with disproportionate TDD spectrum allocations relative to their current and prospective customer bases.
Still plenty to do to realize that potential
However, Shanghai’s exclusive coverage highlights the immaturity of the technology. The technical specifications of the Expo network further underscore how much work still needs to be done.
Current downlink speeds are hardly astronomical at 25Mbps and the network can only handle 1,000 users or fewer.
Subsequently, the success of TD-LTE depends on technical development continuing at its current rate. The Chinese authorities’ attitude to China Mobile’s deployment will be crucial too. A delay in China, as with TD-SCDMA, could be fatal to global prospects – in particular the harmonization with FDD.
Furthermore, the trial, although highlighting multiple vendors, is understandably heavily biased towards local Chinese players, particularly in terms of the devices. The two trial dongles seen in Shanghai were double the size of today’s HSPA modems, with poor power consumption, and are still not ready for commercial use.
The need for further development was conceded, but the device ecosystem will need to broaden considerably to bolster technical advances, lower costs, and broaden the product portfolio.
Yet, these are issues that any nascent technology must overcome. If China Mobile can kick-start its domestic deployment in a timely manner, the Shanghai Expo really could be offering a glimpse into the future.