4G/LTE Developments in US China and Russia and Japan
1. US - LTE is being launched by both AT&T and Verizon – biggest carriers in US. Only Sprint Nextel is on WIMAX and is rumoured to be shifting to LTE in near future
a. Wimax Devices available as of now – 10
b. LTE devices available as of now – 9
2. China Mobile is also rolling out TD LTE network in 2300/2500 Mhz spectrum – similar to Indian market .
3. DOCOMO (Japan) and Vodafone (Europe) will also roll out FDD LTE in 800 Mhz band
4. YOTA- Russian carrier which is the biggest WIMAX deployed network in the world – is also planning to shift to LTE. Interestingly, YOTA’s biz model is being a third party 4G provider to all existing operators in Russia, so MTS user in Russia when he wants to use 4G automatically shifts to YOTA network on his 4G enabled handset
Hence TD LTE Devices will be global & will evolve much like GSM Quadband devices
Technology coexistence with existing standards (GSM/CDMA)
5. For both LTE and WIMAX - Co-existence with legacy standards (users can transparently start a call or transfer of data in an area using an LTE standard, and, should coverage be unavailable, continue the operation without any action on their part using GSM/GPRS or UMTS or CDMA
6. However, LTE in US is deployed at 700 Mhz in FDD LTE while in India the available spectrum band is 2300. Hence much like GSM evolution earlier, we will probably see launch of quad band handsets within LTE WIMAX currently operates on 2300 Mhz spectrum primarily both in US and Russia
The FDD LTE and TD-LTE versions of the 3GPP standard are very similar. As a result, devices can support both the FDD and TDD interfaces through a single chipset--i.e., without any additional cost. This is a hugely important new development: TD-LTE will benefit from the wide availability of FDD LTE devices that will be able to support TD-LTE as well. Unlike WiMAX, TD-LTE does not need to prove to have a substantial market share to convince vendors to develop devices. Vendors do not need to develop new devices, they simply need to add TD-LTE support to the existing ones.
Hence I believe Reliance Infotel will
1. Adopt LTE TDD
2. Source devices from China and US markets etc
3. Might become bulk data seller to other GSM, CDMA operators
4. Acquire strategic stake in Reliance Infratel (since ADA has unsucessfully tried to list the company) company
5. Acquiring spectrum from Etisalat, Videocon is also possible as both will be in the market after 2011 NTP
Already Aircel – other BWA winner has tested LTE and might go that route