Tikona To Launch 4G – LTE Wireless Broadband Services Soon

Fourth generation (4G) Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum winner Tikona Digital Networks (TDN) geared up to launch Long Term Evolution (LTE -TDD) based High Speed 4G Wirelss Broadband service in Gujarat, Himachal Praesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh East and UP West beginning October 2012.

This follows Airtel’s launch of 4G Broadband services – the first of its kind in India which was launched in Kolkata as we shared on TelecomTalk.

According to Mr. Prakash Bjpai, CEO,Tikona Digital Networks (TDN) “There is lot of potential in teir 2 and tier 3 cities/towns and these markets are untaped. We will rolls out commercial 4G Wireless Broadband services initially from October 2012.”

In 2010 Tikona won BWA spectrum in 5 five key circles – Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh east and west covering 31% population of India for over Rs. 1,058 crore.

Reliance Infotel (RIL Group) in the only pan India spectrum winner for 4G / BWA service. Other winners are Bharti Airtel (4 circles) whcih has already launched India’s first 4G services in Kolkata, Aircel (8 circles), Tikona Wireless (5 circles), and Qualcomm (4 Circles) and MTNL (2 circles).

With all thease announcements, all eyes are on Pan India 4G – BWA spectrum winner, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Infotel’s broadband roll out plan. Now what do you think about 4G LTE roll out in India ? Will it be a gala success or future of 4G LTE will be just like 3G with limited access ?

4G in India – Success Depends on Operators’ Strategy

So it is official that Airtel will roll out TD-LTE (Time Division Long Term Evolution) based 4th generation mobile broadband services in Kolkata in this month. We also suggested that tariffs of Airtel 4G would be affordable as in that way they can bring mobile revolution. Though our readers are not keeping hopes with Airtel as the largest operator in India believes in premium pricing.

Recently GSMA predicts that within 2016 India will be the second largest wireless broadband market. It is not unnatural, as fixed broadband penetration is not good enough in India due to several factors like poor coverage by private players, monopoly of BSNL in fixed broadband market and pricing. So to offer broadband for all it is the better way to use wireless route to reach everyone.

India was late to enter 3G era, 3G is still not a good business case for operators as well as for consumers mostly due to high tariff and moderate coverage. Also operators are not pushing 3G, as they do have only 5 MHz spectrum more 3G users may lead to network choked. Handset pricing is another issue for 3G adoption. But with 4G there is not much delay as LTE started its journey by Teliasonera in Sweden & Norway in Decemeber 2009. India operators chose LTE over WiMAX. Currently most operators worldwide are commited to LTE deployment as the natural upgrade path from GSM/UMTS and CDMA.

In India BWA spectrum (20MHz x2) auctioned was in 2300MHz band, which is suitable for LTE-TDD. LTE-TDD is not a Chinese technology, rather inception of LTE-TDD was by 3GPP partners but the technology is hugely backed & matured by China Mobile. In the beginning of 2011 China Mobile had done their field trial but yet to offer commercial services. TD-LTE works via asymmetric use of unpaired spectrum – one band of spectrum for downlink and uplink.

Another version of LTE is FDD-LTE (Frequency Division Duplex) which uses dual band of spectrum – different band for downlink and uplink. Currently all commercial deployments of LTE are done using FDD-LTE. As a result the ecosystem behind FDD-LTE is more developed. As far as nearly 300 devices are available for FDD-LTE, as reported by GSA.

Indian operators especially RIL Infotel is taking LTE as fixed broadband alternative. Even Airtel has the plans to do same. If we check global scenario we can see Vodafone Germany is also on the way to dump DSL to propel LTE. But only problem in India is the spectrum band. In Germany two band of spectrum was auctioned at the same time – 800MHz and 2600MHz.

LTE on 800MHz means it will provide more coverage. So in Germany LTE-2600 is taken for urban broadband while rural broadband is on LTE on 800MHz. But here BWA players got spectrum on 2300MHz band which will not provide good coverage and indoor penetration.

And at this initial stage LTE coverage in India will be limited, may be in pockets and small cells will be deployed for better indoor coverage. If LTE tariff is not high and made affordable for dongle users, LTE can hit 3G and EVDO based dongle users in India at very first.

If we look into South Korea, there all the 3 operators (LG U+, SK Telecom and KT) are now on LTE and that’s too on 800MHz. Thus operators in Korea are pushing for LTE adoption, 3G is backdated there. But it does not mean India should auction 700MHz spectrum for BWA in a hurry. 2G scam made the whole telecom system in India unstable, foreign investors are not so keen to invest in Indian telecom market. So 2G auction should be done first and then question about 700 MHz BWA auction arises!

Rather we should wait for 2-3 years to mature TD-LTE on 2300MHz in India and then to push for rural wireless broadband via 700MHz LTE. Also note that LTE on 700MHz spectrum will be FDD type.OEMs who will supply devices for Indian LTE roll out, must be highly negotiated by operators to make the device price at a low level. Because Indian market is highly price sensitive. So tariff and device price should be made affordable.

As coverage of LTE in India is expected to be poor at this stage, smartphones will not do good. Even if only 3G & 4G compatiable phones are offered it will not do good as no operators has pan India 3G spectrum and 3G coverage is still poor. Also TD-LTE requires more power than FDD-LTE. So tablets and dongles are the safe bet right now. Dongles must be multimode (2G/CDMA/3G/LTE) supported.

As Infotel entered in several partnerships, it is expected that Value Added Services like e-Edu, Entertainment, Mobile TV etc will have attractive bouquets for 4G customers.

Now what do you think about LTE roll out in India? Will it be a gala success or future of LTE will be just like 3G?

Voice over LTE or VoLTE – How Indian Operators Are Managing?

As we can see LTE is the most awaiting technological breakthrough for Indian masses as LTE wins over WiMAX as most preferred 4the generation wireless broadband technology.

Apart from the role of LTE as boon for exponential data consumption worldwide, there is no clear –cut standard for the voice over LTE. Voice over LTE is important as people like to use voice services while access data over LTE on the move.

Worldwide state of LTE is similar to CDMA in India – LTE is used mostly for data using dongle while voice services on LTE are still not in mature shape.

In United States CDMA players – Verizon and MetroPCS and GSM players – AT&T and Rogers are offering voice on LTE smartphones. They are using Circuit Switched Fallback (CSFB) as the phones have multiple radio support but only one radio band active at a time, so while the user makes a call the device is forced off the LTE network and goes to 2G/3G network to make phone calls.

Also LTE spectrum is available in more than 40 bands over the world and thus to make a LTE chip supporting all bands for worldwide roaming is a problem. Also high speed data & LTE/3G(EVDO & HSPA)/2G(GSM/GPRS/EDGE & 1X) switching makes the battery backup unstable compared to HSPA/EVDO phones.

But as LTE coverage is scarce over the globe, operators have to use this CSFB technique to offer roaming to remote parts which has only GSM/1X coverage.

Over the past two years, the industry has identified four main tracks to offer voice over LTE:

a) Circuit Switched Fallback (CSFB) to 2G/3G CS.

b) IMS-based, such as 3GPP IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Multimedia Telephony (MMTel) over LTE.

c) Over-the-top (OTT) – for example, Skype.

d) Circuit Switched over Packet Switched (CS over PS) – for eg, voice over LTE via Generic Access (VoLGA).

Among this four options only first one is taken as intrim solution for voice over LTE and used by major LTE operators as said before. TeliaSonera, world’s first LTE operators is gearing up to roll out voice services on LTE using CSFB. According to them both CSFB & VoLTE is to be there as CSFB will help users to roam outside 4G coverage.

There is also another optimization technique called network-controlled packet-switched handover, which will work in parallel with CS fallback, that will reduce the data session setup times down to a few hundred milliseconds, it will come in 2012.

To bring the voice over LTE, The GSM Association (GSMA) had partnered with U.S. operator Verizon and conducting trials on the network equipped Alcatel-Lucent using LG Revolution smartphone. In the demonstration voice calls over LTE, which is completely IP-based and uses SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) to set up the call, was made over HD voice codec as the smartphone has the feature. But the test fails basically while the user moves from one cell to another and call drops or call quality goes down. So true VoLTE has to go long way.

In India BWA operators like Airtel and Aircel are already in voice business, and they will adopt CSFB to offer voice over LTE devices. While smaller ones like Tikona, Augere & Qualcomm may be focused on data services only targeting individuals and enterprise segments.

There are reports that Qualcomm will tie up existing CDMA-EVDO players to offer pan India data roaming. But largest BWA player Reliance Infotel may buy a 2G player after M&A policy comes with new telecom policy or simply tie up with RCom to offer voice on LTE using CSFB.

BSNL WiMax 4G Plans at Kochi(Kerala)

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited Kerala circle brings the best broadband wireless access technology available anywhere in the world to your homes and offices through WiMAX.

This technology is a few generations ahead of the present ones like EDGE, EVDO etc. BSNL has launched it’s Broadband wireless services on WiMAX platform for internet access in Ernakulam , Thiruvananthapuram , Calicut , Kannur , Kasergod, Malappuram, Trichur, Kollam, Alapuzha, Palghat, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam and Wayanad Districts . Presently this service is available in the important cities/towns  of all districts in Kerala Circle.

BSNL WiMax 4G Plan Tariff details In Kerala are given below.

bsnl wimax plans

Note: The above rates are exclusive of Service Tax, which will be charged as per prevailing rates.

For More details regarding BSNL Wimax 4G with new connection and to suscribe for BSNL 4G WiMax plans contact at BSNL Toll-Free Numbers 1502 or 1503

Customers from Ernakulam and Idukki may send SMS “WiMax” to 9447419447