[opendtv] Re: AT&T and Verizon Plans for the 700 MHz spectrum
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 07:07:43 -0400
At 7:00 PM -0400 4/6/08, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
That's certainly a possibility, although the AT&T article is ambiguous.
You seem to have missed the ambuguity.
Nothing ambiguous, just a quick segue from future plans to current
deployment info.
> AT&T plans fast 4G wireless rollout
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=GW53B4ZA
N3QNAQSNDLSCKHA?articleID=207001915
Read down to the bottom of the article. There, you will find:
"AT&T said it expects to deliver AT&T 3G services to nearly 350 major
U.S. markets by the end of the year."
Now, here are the possibilties:
1. That comment contains a typo.
2. That comment is completely irrelevant to the rest of the article.
3. They are indeed using the new spectrum to expand 3G service, but
doing 3G on an LTE infrastructure rather than wideband CDMA.
#2 comes closest to the truth. AT&T has been deploying 3G on GSM for
quite some time now. As I pointed out in my post, it is available
here in Gainesville. I believe that they offer 3G in 270 markets
today and will expand that network to 350 this year.
Just to confirm this I found another interesting article:
http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/ATT-Plans-2008-3G-Expansion-91637
This confirms what I just wrote, but also talks about the 4G
deployment using LTE as was discussed in the EETimes article. What
is interesting in the post above is that LTE also can use MIMO in a 4
X 4 antenna configuration.
If cell phones have this capability, receiving OTA broadcasts with a
2 X 2 MIMO configuration could be an interesting added benefit...
All of those are possibilities. There is nothing in principle to prevent
building a 3G system on LTE, and there's nothing in the article that
describes a 4G service from AT&T. Meaning, packet switched entirely, not
cuircuit-based.
The article specifically says:
AT&T's wireless operation will move from its current GSM-based
infrastructure to Long Term Evolution, or LTE, the high-speed
standard that's expected to be used eventually by all mobile phone
service providers
Sounds pretty clear to me.
Then again, it is equally likely that this was a typo or that the
journalist got confused.
More likely that an editor cut something out to make it fit.
In any event, it appears that this 700 MHz spectrum is in fact going to
be used to expand on cell phone services, rather than something
unrelated.
I think it would be more accurate to say that the 700 MHz spectrum
will be used for high speed packet switched networks for which voice
will play a relatively minor role, as it does today with VOIP via the
Internet. Clearly both AT&T and Verizon want to deliver broadband to
phones, before WiFi (or White Space) networks become so widely
available that consumers could live without the telcos.
Regards
Craig
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