[opendtv] Re: NAB: FCC's Wheeler Piles on Praise for Broadcasting | Broadcasting & Cable

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2015 09:00:48 -0400

On Apr 27, 2015, at 8:57 PM, Manfredi, Albert E
<albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

The different cellcos have control over the phones they sell. If they don't
want your phones to tune to any hypothetical TV broadcaster frequencies
directly, they will prevent that from happening.


I do not agree. Obviously there are differences, both in the U.S. And around
the world, in the spectrum used by various carriers. These differences can be
accommodated in a number of ways:
1. By phones that only support the frequencies used by the carrier selling the
phone.
2. By phones that are designed to work across multiple carriers.

We are emerging from an era where there were significant differences between
carriers, including different RF standards. This typically required chips that
were specific to a particular standard. As we move to a common standard, LTE,
the chips have been improving with each generation, typically offering support
for a wider range of RF frequencies. The device manufacturers have typically
avoided the extra expense of adding chips to support a wider range of
frequencies just to keep from having versions designed for each carrier. But
each generation of chips typically adds support for all of the RF bands in use.

Here is a description of the standards and RF bands supported by the iPhone 6.
There are just two models of each handset for all global markets.

Apple’s iPhone 6 (Models A1549 and A1586) and iPhone 6 Plus (Models A1522 and
A1524) both support four-band GSM, five-band CDMA2000, five-band UMTS (with
HSPA+42 support), and sixteen LTE FDD bands (with support for up to 150Mbps
of download speeds). The quad-band GSM and pent-band UMTS provide complete
global coverage for GSM and UMTS/HSPA+ networks all over the world. The five
CDMA2000 bands enable coverage on all CDMA carriers in the US (who use ESMR,
Cellular 850MHz, AWS 1.7+2.1 GHz, and PCS 1.9GHz for CDMA), as well as KDDI
in Japan (who use Cellular 850MHz and IMT 2.1GHz for CDMA) and China Telecom
in China (who use Cellular 850MHz for CDMA). These bands are the same as the
American Sprint model for the iPhone 5S and 5C.

For LTE FDD, the iPhones support a full mix of bands for every region. LTE
bands 1 (IMT 2.1GHz), 3 (DCS 1.8GHz), 5 (Cellular 850MHz), 7 (IMT-E 2.6GHz
FDD), 8 (Cellular 900MHz), 20 (EU 800MHz), and 28 (APT 700MHz) are supported
to provide the full range of access to LTE FDD networks throughout Europe,
Asia, and Brazil. LTE bands 2 (PCS A-F blocks 1.9GHz), 4 (AWS-1 1.7+2.1GHz),
5 (Cellular 850MHz), 7 (IMT-E 2.6GHz FDD), 13 (US Upper 700MHz C block), 17
(US Lower 700MHz B+C blocks), 25 (PCS A-G blocks 1.9GHz), 26 (ESMR+Cellular
850MHz), 28 (APT 700MHz), and 29 (US Lower 700MHz Supplemental Downlink)
offer nearly full access to LTE FDD networks throughout the Americas.
Japanese LTE bands 18 (ESMR+Cellular 850MHz subset) and 19 (Cellular 850MHz
subset) are intended to enable KDDI and NTT DoCoMo’s low-band networks, while
band 28 sits in the wings for future 700MHz LTE network rollouts by KDDI,
DoCoMo, and SoftBank.


It is worth noting that the iPhone 5 did not have this ability to support
virtually all of the LTE bands in use, so there were more carrier specific
models of those handsets.

Adding support for The bands that broadcasters would use for LTE broadcast is
just another rev of the radio chips. It is not like adding another chip to
support a completely different RF standard. If there is a service there that
the handset makers believe will be used, they will add that support - the
carriers can no longer have the ability to stop this as there is sufficient
competition between carriers to put the hardware decisions in the hands of the
handset vendors, not the carriers.

Your mantra has been that all the broadcasters have to do is to use LTE.
That's wrong.

1. The cellcos won't support frequencies that don't make them revenues.

They handset manufacturers already do. For example all smartphones support
WiFi, and many handset vendors are beginning to support new standards that
allow the handoff of voice service between WiFi and the telco networks. And in
many international markets the handset owner can change service providers
either with a new SIM card or via software. It is also worth noting that about
69% of the sales of iPhones last quarter were outside the U.S.

The control the telcos once had over handsets is for the most part just history.

2. The broadcasters would have to deploy a considerably dense mesh of their
own transmitters, even if they could find room on existing sticks, to cover
the same market areas they are covering today.

Yup. This is a given, but not a huge barrier. If broadcasters really care about
reaching hundreds of millions of mobile devices they will make this investment.
If they only care about getting their signals to the MVPDs so they can get
retransmission consent payments, they can reduce power and save on the electric
bill.

3. To support the same number of channels as ATSC provides, in the same or
less frequency spectrum, for mobile broadcast service, exacerbates #2 quite a
bit. So I doubt that's the best approach.

ATSC provides support for far more channels than are needed today. The
newspaper analogy is highly relevant. If there is a continuing need for
television broadcasts, it is likely that the market will be able to support
only a limited number of channels in each geographic market. Once you get past
the commercial networks and PBS, the audience is quite limited, although
Spanish language networks are quite popular in areas where there are large
Spanish speaking immigrant audiences, like LA.

As things are in US cell service, #1 is not likely to happen anytime soon,
and #2 and #3 are quite an expensive proposition, for FOTA TV. Read that
report you have and do the arithmetic. Paying attention to the premises made
on receivers, in that report.

We disagree. Let's see how many broadcasters sell their spectrum next year.
Those who hang on may have the incentive to make the investment to stay
relevant.


Regards
Craig

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