COAI PROPOSAL FOR THE 700 MHZ BAND

BACKGROUND

The World Radio Conference-2007 (WRC- 07), identified parts of UHF band for use by administrations wishing to deploy IMT Systems attracting significant interest from both the Member States and mobile industry understanding the potential benefit that this frequency band would give to customer and society as a whole, when being used by mobile communications. From an industry point of view, this band is of particular interest for mobile broadband services with respect to radio wave propagation characteristics that will allow cost-effective wide area network coverage as well as favorable deep in-building coverage.

For Region - 3, the band 790-806 MHz was identified in all countries of Region-3 for IMT and in addition hereto the band 698 – 790 MHz was identified for eight countries, namely, Bangladesh, China, Korea (Repub. of), India, Japan, New Zealand, Papua, New Guinea, Philippines and Singapore.

The APT Wireless Forum (AWF) has invited in its Working Document AWF-6 / TMP-01, input contributions in relation to UHF band usage, including proposed frequency arrangements. The final proposals would subsequently be submitted by AWF to ITU-R WP-5D, responsible for the development of frequency arrangements for IMT bands and updating of ITU-R Recommendations M 1036.3.

The availability of additional spectrum suitable to provide cost efficient mobile broadband is of utmost importance. This creates a demand for spectrum in lower frequency bands, such as UHF 698 – 806 MHz band, and possible provision of large enough contiguous blocks.

INTRODUCTION

The Indian telecom sector has performed exceptionally well in the last few years and is now the second largest wireless network in the world and it is also the fastest growing network globally. It is pertinent to note thatdespite the global economic slowdown the Indian telecom sector has been able to maintain its growth trajectory.

As of today, there are nearly 430 million wireless subscribers in the country. India is the global No. 1 in terms of growth in the telecom sector. Every month new records of subscriber additions are being set and at present the additions are on an average @ 12 million subscribers per month. Such growth has not been witnessed by any other country in the world.

This trend is expected to continue, and even as per the recent DoT Spectrum Committee report projections, the subscriber would reach around 1.1 bn mark by 2015. This means that more spectrum would be required to cater to this exponential growth. Therefore, India needs to consider new frequency bands for the future growth of mobile/ mobile broadband services.

Whilst the major metropolitan cities may be seeing high penetration levels, the smaller cities and towns in the service areas are more than making up for the slower growth in the larger cities. As the industry plans to move to the rural areas, it is very important that broadband services are provided to them to help improve productivity in rural areas, help overcome the constraints of an inadequate transport infrastructure and overall improve the quality of life in rural areas. It is therefore pertinent to find out the band which has good propagation characteristics and can be used in rural areas.

Access to harmonized spectrum in UHF is a key to deliver mobile broadband services specially to the masses. The possibility to use 698-806 MHz band for mobile communications provides a rare opportunity for providing cost effective wireless solutions broadband services. This spectrum has excellent propagation characteristics and hence should be used very effectively to roll out mobile broadband services in rural areas, as less infrastructure would be required to provide larger coverage.

Allocating the band to mobile broadband services, would have several economic and social benefits. Economically, it would lead to employment generation, increased innovation, productivity and competitiveness. Several reports also suggest that 10% increase in broadband penetration would lead to upto 1.4% increase in GDP. Mobile broadband would also play a critical role in improving health, education, tele-medicine, and social mobility, thereby bringing rural communities online.

The GSM/3G/HSPA system with its established roadmap and proven capabilities forms an appealing ecosystem and is well positioned to succeed in mobile broadband markets. There are several technologies competing to deliver commercial mobile broadband services. By far the most successful is HSPA, which has been commercially deployed by over 250 operators in more than 100 countries. The number of subscribers for HSPA is set to reach 180 million by end of 2009. Moreover, LTE is also on track, attracting global industry support, with the specifications for LTE almost complete for commercial implementation. First LTE network will be rolled out in 2009 and other network operators have already committed to deploy 3GPP LTE systems.

PROPOSAL

It is important to develop an arrangement that is capable of providing a spectrum efficient solution, with large contiguous blocks, facilitating a true mobile broadband experience. The focus should also be to try to minimize spectrum fragmentation.

It is our considered opinion that the 700 MHz band should be reserved for FDD in the 700 MHz band.The reasons for supporting FDD allocation is to allow maximum flexibility for any future channelisation plan for this band, improve overall spectral efficiency and allow deployment of LTE by multiple operators across the band

The most efficient solution in the band 698-806 MHz is a 2 X 50 MHz arrangement (with 8 MHz gap), as shown below:

This plan has several advantages, as listed below:

  • 2 x 50 MHz arrangement will minimize the risk of unfavorable fragmentation of the UHF-band for mobile broadband usages, thereby reducing the complexity of the terminals.
  • It utilizes the largest amount of the available spectrum in the 698-806 MHz band, i.,e., 100 MHz (2 x 50 ) out of the available 108 MHz and is hence most spectrally efficient.
  • Provides reversed duplex transmission arrangement, i.e., higher frequency band for uplink for better co-existence with adjacent radio communication (broadcast) services.

Advantages of Using FDD

Mixing of FDD and TDD multiplexing modes in this band is not favored as it may involve harmful interference issues implying significant wastage of spectrum in guard bands etc and thereby adversely affect the efficient utilization of the available spectrum in the band. FDD mode should be used because of the following:

  • It allows maximum flexibility in managing the interference between mobiles and base stations.
  • Better link budget performance
  • The capacity of a cell is reduced because of the need to accommodate time guard bands between mobile and base Tx bursts, when mixing TDD and FDD modes in the band. This equates to a loss in peak capacity, or loss in processing gain.
  • Issues of protection of base stations from interference by TV emissions are more challenging for coordination in TDD channeling arrangement.

SUMMARY

India is one of the few markets in the world that would drive economies of scale by developing their own band plan. To provide affordable mobile broadband services and to help develop a knowledge based economy, the above band plan should be adopted.

In India, the requirement of spectrum for terrestrial mobile broadcasting services and DTT can be met within the frequency band 585 – 698 MHz as sufficient spectrum is available for broadcasters in this band. Thus, 100 MHz (698-806 MHz) should be available for mobile industry for providing affordable mobile broadband services to the citizens of the country. Hence, need of both, the mobile industry & broadcasters would be fulfilled.

The Joint Task Group (JTG)/ Government should adopt this band plan, as it would allow India to take a leadership role in ITU and wider international community in mobile spectrum developments.

******