Operators are increasingly looking to use LTE for fixed broadband services, mainly to fill rural gaps in wireline coverage, or where they have no fiber or copper assets. Verizon and AT&T, as well as many carriers in emerging economies, have such plans, and Australia’s Optus is the latest example. Like AT&T, it is considering LTE as an option to replace ADSL over time.
The operator is overhauling its wireless broadband division and as part of that effort, is about to start trials of fixed LTE for homes in major cities, initially confined to about 200 of its own staff in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide. The three-month test will see those employees using a 4G modem in place of their usual wireline broadband service.
The trial is being headed by Martin Mercer, now managing director of the fixed division, but previously with VividWireless, the broadband wireless start-up operator which Optus acquired in February 2012. This company had rolled out WiMAX networks in major cities but Optus has been closing down those systems and replacing them with TD-LTE.
VividWireless brought its new parent 98MHz of unpaired spectrum in the 2.3GHz band, which could be very valuable to complement Optus’s fixed broadband offerings as well as its FDD LTE roll-outs in refarmed 1.8GHz and, in future, in 700MHz and 2.6GHz. Canberra was the first city to see the 3x20MHz TD-LTE network activated and the carrier is pursuing a multiband strategy, somewhat like Sprint’s, which it dubs ‘4G Plus’. The next step will be carrier aggregation to maximize speed and capacity.
On the fixed wireless side, Mercer says Optus will be able to provide dedicated bandwidth for these services to ensure quality of service. He said in a statement: “This Optus Home Wireless Broadband trial is about putting our powerful 4G Plus network through its paces to understand the full potential of what we can delivery for our customers ‘ not just in mobile, but also home broadband. This is not just in terms of speed and experience, but also how we manage our 4G Plus network to actively prevent a customer’s connection changing, wavering or dropping off during busy times.’
If the trial is successful, Optus will be reviving VividWireless’s dreams of offering an alternative to copper and cable, one which could be differentiated by support for portable and even mobile services on the same devices and subscription. This would complement the operator’s existing ADSL2+ and cable lines, but might also enable it to replace some wires as they age.
Optus CEO Kevin Russell has spoken of plans to make a comeback in the wireline market next year and he told ZDnet this week that the company had suffered a fall in its overall customer numbers in its last quarter, largely because it was focusing on mobile LTE, before rolling out new wireless broadband plans in 2014.
Also planning fixed and mobile services based on TD-LTE is YooMee Africa, which has licences in several countries in west and central Africa.
The company is working with Alcatel-Lucent to bring TD-LTE initially to its home country of Cameroon, where it is an established ISP, and then to other sub-Saharan markets, often replacing legacy WiMAX systems or harnessing spectrum originally allocated for that technology.
Previously known as 4G Africa, YooMee says it will deploy TD-LTE in its new markets within the next six months and aims to build out 35 to 50 sites per capital city first before moving on to other cities, where it will provide residential and business services. ALU will provide end-to-end systems including base stations, wireless backhaul and packet core, based on its 7750 mobile gateway, plus professional services.
Dov Bar-Gera, CEO of YooMee Africa, said in a statement: ‘YooMee is committed to helping eliminate the digital divide in Africa and providing ultra-broadband accessibility as the means to accomplishing that goal. In addition to our efforts in Cameroon, we plan to deploy TDD LTE in other countries in which YooMee is holding the relevant licences in the coming years.’