Qualcomm’s reference design for a dongle looks like the most exciting new entrant since Chromecast and is aimed at clipping Google’s wings. It is, at this stage, only a prototype, but this is not likely to join the long list of hopefuls that never make it to market. Manufacturers will be queuing up to adopt this design, which is likely to be driven by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 810 chip and therefore at the cutting edge for performance. The 810 has outperformed all comers on radio benchmarks and is the first to support Category 9 LTE, which aggregates more spectrum to increase maximum download speeds by 1.5 times to 410 Mbps, as well as accelerating application response times and improving robustness against signal variation.
As present the reference design is based on the current 800 model but Qualcomm has indicated that by the time actual products come out the 810 will be in there. Although announced a year ago the 810 was not ready in time for the reference design, with the first smartphones incorporating it due out in the next few months.
The impact on Chromecast will depend on price, since Qualcomm’s device is potential higher up the market, running a full Android operating system, which makes it effectively a smartphone without the screen or input capability. But the attractive aspect for operators is the flexibility this gives them to support a variety of different use cases.
It could be turned into a straightforward casting device over WiFi pitched more directly against Chromecast, obtaining its content from smartphones, tablets or other Internet connected devices. But it could also operate as the source of content itself by connecting directly to an LTE cellular network. With support for LTE Broadcast, it can also access popular multicast content when this becomes available over mobile networks. This aspect of the Qualcomm dongle will surely appeal to mobile operators seeking to get into pay TV themselves, and may get bundled in upcoming Verizon TV launches. They could then deploy LTE Broadcast to deliver popular channels that would otherwise soak up too much backhaul and RAN (Radio Access Network) bandwidth if sent unicast on a one-to-one basis.
There is the intriguing possibility for mobile operators of taking over the home network and ousting existing broadband providers. While WiFi 802.11ac may usually be the preferred medium for streaming content to the dongle, there is also the potential for using LTE-U (LTE Unlicensed), running in the 5 GHz band separately from the operator’s 4G network.
Qualcomm argues that WiFi and LTE-U can coexist in the 5 GHz band, with the latter gaining up to 500 MHz extra spectrum within it. Qualcomm insists there is the potential for integrating WiFi and LTE-U more tightly to increase coverage, performance and robustness. For operators it can converge with their small cell strategy and enable content to be cast to a dongle directly from a base station in their own external network, rather than via a customer’s smartphone or tablet.
Qualcomm claims that LTE Advanced in unlicensed spectrum offers better range than carrier WiFi, which means fewer access points required for a given area of coverage. Alternatively greater capacity can be provided from a given number of access points.
This may not a case of LTE biting back against WiFi, but of combining the best of the two within a heterogeneous network strategy. The exact balance will depend on the operator, with consumer homes and enterprises likely to go on favoring WiFi, while Telcos will continue to promote carrier WiFi. But mobile operators may, if they can deal with interference problems, have an alternative based on LTE and LTE-U capable of bypassing WiFi altogether. Their weakness is that LTE cannot match fixed broadband for capacity, especially when fiber gets close to the home. But LTE Broadcast can go a long way towards overcoming that limitation. Qualcomm with a dongle has given them a new weapon to compete within the home as a content player.