Latest LTE deployments
* Alcatel-Lucent is supplying the Saudi Telecom Company (STC) with an LTE network, taking its total of LTE contracts beyond 20, plus over 70 trials. STC will be the first in the kingdom to launch major commercial LTE services to cover 11 key cities in the first phase. Through its ngConnect Program, the vendor will also help its customer to build an ecosystem of partners for content, applications and services.
* Hungary has gained its first LTE services, initially in capital Budapest, rolled out by the venture of T-Mobile Hungary and Magyar Telekom. The service was launched across 10 districts of the city after the operator carried out a three-month network testing phase.
* At least half a million base stations will be installed or upgraded for TD-LTE by the end of 2016, according to predictions by ABI Research. “It was only two years ago that nearly every Wimax operator, including operators with unpaired TDD frequency spectrum, was planning to deploy Wimax 2,” commented practice director Aditya Kaul. “Today, almost all of them have switched plans and are deploying TD-LTE” (except in fixed wireless or 3.5GHz scenarios). TD-LTE commercial services have been launched so far in Brazil, Japan, Poland, Saudi Arabia and other countries and roll-outs are underway in Australia and Scandinavia, and planned in China, the US and India. China Mobile announced plans last month to install an additional 10,000 to 20,000 TD-LTE base stations in 2012 as part of its huge testing program, and perhaps another 60,000 in 2013.
* After various false starts, Russian operator Yota has gone live with the country‘s first LTE network, the first step in a planned wholesale system to support 4G services for the main operators. Yota (the brand name of Scartel), has switched on its LTE system in Russia‘s third largest city, Novosibirsk in Siberia. The first phase of Russia‘s progress towards LTE revolves around a plan, announced earlier this year, for the three main cellcos (VimpelCom, MTS and Megafon) plus fixed line giant Rostelecom, to use Yota‘s network on a wholesale basis. But various complications have arisen and while Megafon and Rostelecom were recently reported to have finalized their deals with Yota, the other two cellcos seem to be hesitating, possibly because they will be forced to give up valuable, and active, frequencies in Moscow and St Petersburg in return for their stake in the Yota venture. Both MTS and VimpelCom also plan to expand their activities around Novosibirsk.
* Hong Kong‘s regulator OFTA has issued a consultation paper on its proposals for releasing a total of 50MHz of paired spectrum in the 2500-MHz to 2690-MHz band, including 15MHz left over from its 2009 LTE auction. It aims to auction five slots, each with a bandwidth of 2×5MHz, on a technology neutral basis, with no spectrum cap, under 15-year licences.
* Armenian mobile operator VivaCell-MTS has launched the country‘s first commercial LTE network, initially in the center of Yerevan. Further expansion to Gyumri and Vanadzor and other regional cities is planned. The operator has 40MHz of spectrum in Yerevan (2.5GHz) and the regions (2.6GHz).
*Two mobile operators in Bahrain have progressed their LTE plans. STC unit Viva Bahrain has launched a small scale network with coverage of the “Bahrain City Center” retail and leisure complex in central Manama. Meanwhile, Batelco has completed an LTE trial at its Hamala headquarters, working with Ericsson. Viva completed a nationwide roll-out of DC-HSPA+ in November 2011. The country‘s earliest LTE triallist, Zain Bahrain, is yet to announce a commercial launch date, though it has completed tests with Nokia Siemens.
* Viva's Bahrain LTE launch follows its sister cellco in Kuwait launching a commercial network based on the 4G technology in the final week of December 2011.