FCC to review the relative value of low, high, and super-high spectrum licenses

According to the Wall Street Journal, the FCC is reviewing the rules it has for spectrum license ownership, particularly on how much spectrum any one company can hold.

The FCC is considering reworking them because they do not currently account for the properties of different frequencies of spectrum. There are three main classes of spectrum for cellular wireless networks: low band, high band, and super high band. Each of these classes of spectrum have different properties that make them desirable in certain circumstances.

Low band spectrum is on frequencies below 1GHz (1000MHz). Cellular 850 (850MHz) and Digital Dividend (700MHz) spectrum are examples of low band spectrum. This spectrum is considered highly valuable because cellular wireless networks (like LTE) that operate on those frequencies can penetrate buildings better and require fewer towers to offer the same breadth of coverage. However, the trade-off is that these frequencies offer less capacity than higher band frequencies too. This is a consequence of using fewer towers to deploy the same breadth of coverage. For rural areas, this spectrum is ideal due to the inherent cost savings in using fewer towers to cover the area. Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon Wireless have some spectrum of this kind.

High band spectrum is on frequencies above 1GHz but are typically below 3GHz (3000MHz). AWS (1.7GHz/2.1GHz), PCS (1.9GHz), and IMT (2.1GHz) are examples of high band spectrum. With this type of spectrum, networks have high amounts of network capacity in exchange for characteristically weaker indoor network performance. This type of spectrum is much better if the network is supposed to support larger numbers of subscribers at once with decent performance levels. However, it is more expensive to deploy because the shorter ranges of the towers mean that more towers are required to offer a wide breadth of coverage. The indoor performance issues can be mitigated somewhat with these frequencies, so it is considered the “sweet spot” for population densities of urban areas. T-Mobile, Clearwire, and many regional operators exclusively use high band spectrum for their networks.

Super high band spectrum is on frequencies above 3GHz. These frequencies are not commonly used for cellular wireless networks, as they offer the extreme version of the characteristics of high band spectrum. Notably, this spectrum is extremely poor at indoor network performance. Line of sight becomes quite a bit more important at this level, as well. In order to receive the signal more reliably, transmitters and receivers are often within the human visible distance due to the weak propagation of radio waves at that level.

Obstructions are often minimized in order to improve radio performance, as well. However, networks deployed on these frequencies can handle a lot more at once, so these are often used for wireless backhaul (backbone connections to the internet) for networks. There are cellular wireless networks coming into existence that use these frequencies due to the lack of low band and high band spectrum, though. This is happening in Europe and Asia for now, but could spread to the Americas as well. But, deployment of networks on these frequencies is ridiculously expensive because many more towers need to be built to offer the same breadth of coverage that high band spectrum can offer. Of course, these networks would have a lot more capacity, so it is particularly suitable for large metropolitan areas.

The cellular wireless service industry places a higher value on low and high band spectrum over super high band spectrum because of the economics of covering populations with cellular wireless. Most areas are not large metropolitan areas, so a mix of low band and high band spectrum in most areas can cover a country quite well. In the United States, T-Mobile USA is the only carrier of the four national carriers working solely with high band spectrum. As a result, it has to deploy more to offer the same breadth of coverage that AT&T and Verizon can offer. Clearwire is in a similar boat, though it is transitioning from WiMAX toLTE-Advanced TDD before expanding anymore.

Sprint and AT&T both welcome the FCC’s review and potential adjustment of these rules, as they believe that the FCC does not fairly judge spectrum allocations based on these market realities. The FCC currently uses an unweighted spectrum screen, in which a chunk of low band spectrum is counted the same as a chunk of high band spectrum. Given that low band spectrum is valued favorably against high band and super high band spectrum in the market, it makes sense for the FCC to adjust its rules in order to more accurately determine how much spectrum any one company needs.

Of course, this is happening after the FCC approved Verizon Wireless’ acquisition of SpectrumCo’s AWS spectrum. Any adjustment to the rules would not usually affect an already-closed transaction like this one. However, it may prevent Verizon Wireless (orAT&T) from acquiring any more spectrum without massive divestitures.

Read: How the wireless spectrum crunch is squeezing carriers and hurting consumers

Read more at WSJ (paywalled)

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What is LTE-Advanced?

Recently, several carriers around the world have begun talking about LTE-Advanced, or at least a few features of LTE-Advanced. Notably, Sprint and T-Mobile in the United States have been quick to mention that their systems for LTE being deployed offer an easy upgrade path to LTE-Advanced. But what exactly is it?

LTE-Advanced is essentially the next level of LTE. In particular, LTE-Advanced is LTE that fulfills the criteria to be considered 4G by the ITU. To be called 4G, it has to be able to fulfill the requirements set forth in the IMT-Advanced specification. To accomplish this, LTE-Advanced includes many advanced techniques, technologies, and capabilities that older wireless standards do not include.

The main goal of LTE-Advanced is to provide the IMT-Advanced functionality while retaining backward compatibility with current LTE user equipment that subscribers own. This is important because otherwise early adopters would be penalized when the carrier upgraded to LTE-Advanced on the infrastructure side. LTE-Advanced will provide 1Gbps downlink and about half that on the uplink for fixed wireless (that is, for services like Verizon Wireless’ HomeFusion), while mobile access will be about 100Mbps on the downlink and about 75Mbps on the uplink. Both forms of access will have latencies comparable to wireline (DSL, cable) broadband networks, making it an excellent substitute for wireline networks for many types of internet-based systems.

Assuming that you have already read our explanation of LTE, this will describe what LTE-Advanced adds to LTE.

3GPP Release 10 – The first stage of LTE-Advanced

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) develops telecommunications standards in concert with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the GSM Association (GSMA), and the many telecommunications companies that are members to these organizations around the world. Newer versions of these standards are referred to as “releases” by the 3GPP. 3GPP Release 8 introduced the first final version of LTE. Release 9 adds basic voice over LTE through IMS capabilities and further enhancements to many other parts of the LTE standard.

Release 10, on the other hand, introduces all the basic features to qualify for IMT-Advanced. It also further refines other parts from Releases 8 and 9 and adds additional features. Because each specification release is quite large and broad, only the most visible or most dramatic features are being covered.

Table of contents:

1. Introduction (this page)
2. LTE-Advanced’s major new features
3. LTE-Advanced’s new device and base station configurations
   LTE Advanced’s shift towards a cleaned-up, unified wireless spectrum
   3GPP Release 11, and the future of LTE-Advanced

IMS Voice – Priority users and emergency service use

Priority users of multimedia on the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) stack was added in order to bring support for first priority voice call sessions for emergencies, like with disaster response and emergency medical teams in the event of a natural disaster. Calls by those groups musthave priority over everyone else. This functionality already exists in circuit voice networks built into the 3G voice standard, it is just now being introduced ahead of VoLTE being commonly used.

IMS – Inter-Device Transfer

In Release 9, a feature called “inter-device transfer” was added to the specification. This feature added support for users who own multiple devices under a single subscriber account to be able to transfer IMS sessions among them through a form of handover that the user can control directly.

Release 10 extends this feature by adding support for transferring IMS sessions between subscriptions as well. For example: if you were watching TV on your smartphone, but arrived home and wanted to watch it on your TV instead, you could transfer the session from your mobile TV service under your mobile phone service subscription to your IPTV subscription and immediately be able to continue watching from your TV. This feature would be an invaluable feature for those subscribed to both AT&T Wireless and AT&T U-verse, in particular.

M2M – Network overload control

With 2G networks shutting down, the M2M (machine-to-machine, used for communication between specialized devices and systems) market is looking toward 3G and 4G to replace 2G communication systems.

M2M has a few requirements of its own: it must be able to handle large amounts of small data sessions, large amounts of continuous data sessions, and absolutely must minimize the amount of changes to hardware over a very long period of time.

Normally, the M2M market would just move to 3G systems and be done with it for the decade or so. However, there are several countries where 2G and 3G are being shut down, so the future of 3G is not quite so stable. Not to mention, many of these countries are ones with CDMA2000 networks, which have no future path anyway.

That being said, it becomes extremely important to ensure that M2M over LTE will not cause problems, so Release 10 introduces quite a few network-side improvements to rigorously control network quality and stability with M2M and normal subscriber usage of the network.

Femtocells

With the evolution of small cell networks (cellular networks that are comprised of large amounts of small radio stations with a short range and dedicated backhaul per cell) and hybrid macro/micro cell networks, a need has arisen for selective offloading and better management of sessions between the large network and the small cell network. Release 10 adds numerous enhancements to fix this.

Notably, Release 10 adds selective IP offload to the “Home eNode B” (the term used to describe a local femtocell used at home or in a business) so that certain types of traffic will go through the femtocell while the other traffic will go through the macrocell network or vice versa. Additionally, features to improve prioritization of neighbor cells for handover are included as well.

Handover to WiFi for offloading IP traffic

As we’ve discussed before, spectrum is a huge limiting factor to network capacity. Due to increasingly scarce amounts of unused spectrum, carriers around the world are starting to push WiFi usage more and more. In particular, AT&T in the United States offers free access to its repository of hotspots for mobile subscribers with cellular data plans.

With the addition of WiFi offload support in Release 10, carriers can choose to use selective offloading with WiFi to have non-IMS traffic run through the WiFi network while IMS still runs over LTE. Of course, it could all be offloaded to WiFi, but most carriers don’t seem willing to do that.

Sponsored data connectivity and IP access policy support

This feature is something AT&T has been talking about for some time. In particular, this feature allows AT&T to offer the ability for app and service providers to “sponsor” subscriber data access in order to allow subscribers to use a particular app or service without using up part of their data allotments. For good or ill, this feature is now part of Release 10. Additionally, carriers can specify policies that augment QoS (quality-of-service) to manage network traffic.

SU-MIMO for downlink and uplink

LTE uses OFDMA with a 2×2 or 4×4 MIMO configuration for downlink and SC-FDMA with a 1×2 MIMO configuration for uplink. However, this system is unacceptable to meet the LTE-Advanced efficiency requirements. In order to fix this, higher level MIMO configurations are necessary.

Release 10 extends the downlink air interface to support SU-MIMO (single user, multiple in, multiple out) with up to eight-layer spatial multiplexing, and the uplink air interface to support SU-MIMO with up to four-layer spatial multiplexing. This extension is intended for more complex (and suitably large) devices where the spatialization of the antennae is feasible. Simpler devices (like M2M and feature phones) can continue to use simpler configurations that use MU-MIMO (multiple user, multiple in, multiple out) specified in Release 8.

By using these more complex MIMO configurations, the reliability of the connection improves considerably. Not to mention, the average efficiency of the connection increases drastically with higher order MIMO.

Relays for LTE

Release 10 adds a new LTE coverage expansion option: relays. Think of relays as a more complex form of a repeater or signal booster. The idea here is to offer a way for carriers to extend coverage further more cheaply by not requiring the deployment of a full base station/tower node system. But, because this is a wide area network, security is a concern. Not to mention that frequency usage matters as well because cellular networks operate in specifically licensed bandwidths for a given area.

Relays for LTE will offer many of the same external features of regular towers, but will not have its own backhaul. Instead, it will pull in from a neighbor cell and then push out a new signal like that one. That will allow it to extend the range of a cell much further, and extend coverage. This is more useful in rural areas, where not as much backhaul is required to support a given area.

Lots of new TDD and FDD spectrum blocks approved

Clearwire’s 2.6GHz spectrum is now officially approved for usage with TD-LTE. It is defined as LTE band class 41. This is obviously required for Clearwire to migrate from WiMAX to LTE TDD.

Dish Network’s 2GHz S-band spectrum for North America is now approved for FD-LTE usage. It is defined as LTE band class 23. This is required for Dish Network to begin the process to procure equipment to deploy LTE, should it desire to do so.

LightSquared’s 1.6GHz L-band spectrum for North America is approved for FD-LTE usage. It is defined as LTE band class 24. While this is required for LightSquared to begin the process to procure equipment to deploy LTE, it will probably never happen because of interference issues.

Europe recently released 3.4GHz-3.6GHz and 3.6GHz-3.8GHz bands for wireless broadband usage. The 3GPP has approved TDD usage on both bands as LTE band classes 42 and 43, respectively.

Sprint’s LTE deployment required a new band class to be approved, so the 3GPP approved band class 25, which includes the existing PCS spectrum (previously approved as LTE band class 2) and adds the G-block PCS spectrum. While this is approved for Release 10, Sprint is using this with Release 8 and Release 9 level specification features. This does not mean Sprint is out of compliance or anything like that, though. Sprint just has to add support for the finished features in 3GPP Release 10 to upgrade to Release 10. This band essentially supersedes the previously defined band class for PCS (band class 2).

3GPP Release 11 – Coming soon to a carrier near you

3GPP Release 10 was completed at the end of 2011, giving plenty of time for telecommunications equipment vendors to make infrastructure equipment that is Release 10 compatible, and thus be able to advertise some degree of LTE-Advanced compatibility for equipment purchased in 2012. Release 11, on the other hand, is not scheduled to be finished until the very end of 2012. That being said, there are some features of the specification worth noting.

Extending FDD Upper 850MHz

The Cellular 850 band is unusual in that it is a American band that is used outside of the Americas as well. While PCS 1.9GHz has seen limited deployments in Asia due to CDMA One/CDMA2000 deployments there, the vast majority of CDMA One/CDMA2000 deployments were on Cellular 850. Currently, several separate band classes exist for portions of the 800MHz-900MHz range: band class 5 (Cellular 850 used in the Americas, Oceania, and South Korea), band class 6 (subset of Cellular 850 used in Japan), band class 18 (ESMR 800 used by Sprint in the US, Telus in Canada, and KDDI in Japan), and band class 19 (expanded version of band class 6 for Japan). Accordingly, the 3GPP merged band classes 5, 18, and 19 into a new global 850MHz band in order to improve economies of scale on that band. This works well with the FCC now allowing Sprint to deploy LTE on ESMR 800. This new band is LTE band class 26, and essentially supersedes all previously defined 850MHz frequency bands. No one has made equipment for the band yet.

Carrier aggregation

In order for LTE-Advanced to support larger amounts of data throughput, LTE-Advanced needs to support wider frequency bandwidths (notably 40MHz or more). In order to pull this off without losing backward compatibility, carrier aggregation was introduced in Release 10 to allow combining multiple pipelines together to create a larger single pipeline. It is essentially the same thing as channel bonding for wireline broadband networks.

While Release 10 did introduce the core specifications for this feature, Release 11 develops this feature further by defining potential band combinations and bandwidth sizes supported through aggregation. Consequently, carrier aggregation is the big target for Release 11.

AT&T, in particular, has pushed for approval of the following band combinations to be approved: Band 4 (AWS) with Band 17 (Lower 700 minus A block), Band 2 (PCS) with Band 17, Band 4 with Band 5 (Cellular 850), and Band 5 with Band 17. European network operators have pushed for Band 3 with Band 7 and Band 7 with Band 20. Verizon Wireless has pushed for Band 4 with Band 13 (Upper 700 C block) so that it can use carrier aggregation with its newly acquired AWS spectrum and its current LTE spectrum. American regional carriers are pushing for Band 4 with Band 12 (Lower 700) and Band 5 with Band 12.

AT&T is also working on getting the supplemental downlink channel in 700MHz it purchased from Qualcomm approved along with potential combinations. The current combinations suggested are with band 2, band 4, and band 5.

On the TDD side, intra-band carrier aggregation is being supported in order to allow more efficient utilization of the larger chunks of spectrum allocated in TDD bands. Europe and China have band class 38, Asia has band class 40, and Clearwire has band class 41. It is expected that 2x20MHz aggregations for LTE-Advanced will be common on TDD deployments.

Lower 850MHz band for Americas except the US

Carriers across the Americas (except the US) have spectrum on the SMR (specialized mobile radio) band and want to migrate from iDEN technology to LTE. Currently, the 3GPP is working on developing the band specification and will approve it as LTE band class 27. To be clear, this has nothing to do with the Cellular 850 spectrum, as these frequencies are below it. These were reserved quite some time ago for SMR usage, and have never been used for anything else.

Asia-Pacific Digital Dividend (700MHz)

Asia has finalized the spectrum to be freed up from the switchover to digital TV, and while the spectrum lies on the frequency range that the American bands do, it isn’t likely to be configured the same way because the 700MHz band plan for the USA is absolutely insane. No one wants to use that configuration if it can be helped. The 3GPP is working on figuring out the band plan with the various regulatory authorities in Asia.

LTE-Advanced is continuously evolving

Just like LTE, LTE-Advanced is continuously evolving to meet the needs of everyone who uses wireless broadband services. As the replacement for 2G and 3G networks that intends to unify the world under a single standard, it needs to be able to serve every possible use case. The 3GPP has a tough challenge ahead of itself. It needs to consider literally every market in the development of the standard, but it seems to be doing a good job right now.

There is more to LTE-Advanced, and more is always coming to the table. Expect far more improvements and features to come to LTE-Advanced. As an open standard with nearly infinite capabilities due to its all-IP system, anything is possible. As LTE-Advanced networks come online, we will see some truly innovative technologies develop that take advantage of these networks.

Back to the table of contents

Read: What is LTE?

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Verizon Wireless & SpectrumCo spectrum deal approved — with strict conditions

The FCC and the Department of Justice have decided to approve the acquisition of SpectrumCo’s AWS spectrum by Verizon Wireless along with the cross-marketing and joint venture agreements between it and the cable companies.

Even though the two agencies have approved it, Verizon Wireless and the cable companies are not exactly cheering for the success. The Department of Justice has imposed strict conditions on the cross-marketing and joint venture agreements.

The Department of Justice’s conditions for the cross-marketing and joint venture agreements are:

• Cross-marketing will not be allowed in Verizon FiOS markets
• Verizon Wireless will not be allowed to resell cable services in Verizon DSL markets until December 2016 at the very least (the DoJ can choose to renew this at its discretion)
• The agreements will be set to automatically expire after ten years, along with the mandate (unless the DoJ wants to extend the duration of the mandate)
• After five years, the cable companies will be allowed to resell other companies’ wireless services instead of Verizon Wireless’ services
• Instead of having to wait a period of time before reselling Verizon Wireless service under the cable companies’ own brands, it can be done at any time
• When the joint venture dissolves, all members get a non-exclusive license to all technology developed and can choose to sublicense to other companies
• Of course, collusion and any form of price fixing is expressly forbidden
• Additionally, the exchange of “competitively sensitive” information is severely restricted

The Department of Justice also took the opportunity to impose additional conditions on Verizon, namely that it must provide periodic reports of the sales and usage of wireless, DSL, FiOS, and resold cable services to the FCC and the DoJ.

Both the FCC and the Department of Justice agree that the proposed transaction tospectrum transfer and swap between Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA drastically improved the situation for the spectrum purchase agreement. In the case of the FCC, it agreed principally because of the spectrum swap.

In the end, the problems with the deal are only somewhat mitigated. T-Mobile’s vocal opposition ended with the spectrum swap agreement, since both can deploy LTE more efficiently on AWS spectrum after the swap is completed (Verizon Wireless in 2014 and T-Mobile in 2013). Verizon Communications and the cable companies still have plenty of wiggle room to make everything much worse for American broadband subscribers. Most importantly, it still concentrates a very scarce resource in the hands of a precious few.

Read more at the FCC and the Department of Justice

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Sprint 4G LTE launches… with 3G speeds

Yesterday, Sprint formally switched on 4G LTE in 12 cities. With the launch of LTE in these 12 cities, Sprint LTE devices will finally be worth the money used to purchase them… Or will they?

Unlike a normal launch, Sprint chose to make a video to announce the launch of 4G LTE. In the video (embedded below), Sprint’s “Wireless Network News” announces that 4G LTE is available in five of the six original launch markets (with Baltimore, MD notably missing from the list) and quite a few cities in Texas. However, the fine print of the video states that Sprint is only promising 6-8Mbps on downlink and 2-3Mbps for uplink. This is equivalent to HSPA networks from almost three years ago.

So why is Sprint essentially offering 3G speeds on its 4G LTE network? Well, part of the problem is spectrum. Nationwide, Sprint is using 2x5MHz (5MHz on downlink and 5MHz on uplink, also noted as 10MHz total) for LTE. This does induce a throughput cap, as well as a capacity cap. However, it can be partially defeated by building a more dense infrastructure. Distributing the load of a market more evenly through a denser cell site layout would help a lot.

However, Sprint is also likely using relatively poor backhaul compared to AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless. As we’ve discussed previously, deploying LTE without improving the backhaul will result in speeds that most people commonly associate with 3G. Indeed, it compares only slightly favorably to AT&T’s HSPA service. However, performance will get worse as more Sprint LTE users use the network if the backhaul situation doesn’t improve quickly.

Unless it does something soon to improve the quality of service of its LTE network, its path to domination will halt right here with Sprint’s failure to properly upgrade its network. The allure of unlimited data can only go so far with such a weak network.

Verizon LTE devices are going global, bringing US carrier interoperability with them

One of the particularly annoying pain points for travelers who want to use Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE service is that none of the handsets offered by the carrier include global GSM and WCDMA (UMTS HSPA+) support. Even devices that manufacturers had tested with GSM and WCDMA support by the FCC (who must authorize radio equipment to be sold in the United States) wound up on the shelves without the ability to use the built-in support.

Needless to say, this made people who wanted LTE world phones rather upset. However, Verizon Wireless likely did it for a single reason: carrier lock-in. It all ties into the rules that the FCC placed on the 700MHz C block spectrum that Verizon Wireless bought to run its network on. According to the regulations, Verizon Wireless is prohibited from disabling features on devices it provides to its customers. This is explicitly extended to include enabling features and crippling them.

In the past, Verizon Wireless offered special “world phones” with GSM, WCDMA, and CDMA2000 support. However, the radio firmware always had a built-in block for the United States’ mobile country code. This ensured that the GSM and WCDMA radios would not permit the device to work on US carriers (other than Verizon). It did not have to worry about the CDMA2000 radio, since that is always custom programmed for the carrier network it is intended for, and is not likely to work well on other networks. This is absolutely not allowed for any device Verizon Wireless wishes to offer that supports its 4G LTE network.

The regulations also seem to forbid SIM subsidy locks (also known as network locks). With that in mind, Verizon Wireless would be extremely hesitant to offer global GSM and WCDMA support on its 4G LTE phones. The main reason no one takes his/her 4G LTE device to another carrier is because no other carrier has a 4G LTE network that is compatible with the device. That impediment doesn’t even require a SIM subsidy lock, but with an unlocked device that has GSM and WCDMA support, consumers would be free to purchase Verizon Wireless 4G LTE global devices and actually pick which carrier to use them on. That is a bit too much power in the hands of the consumer, which Verizon does not want. US carriers thrive on the ability to impede consumers from getting the device they want and using it on a carrier of their choosing.

Something must have happened at Verizon Wireless, because it has changed its tune about global GSM and WCDMA support on 4G LTE devices. In February, Verizon Wireless enabled full global roaming capabilities in the Motorola Xyboard 8.2 and 10.1 tablets. In a statementVerizon Wireless announced that the following devices will get full global roaming capabilities this summer:

• Motorola Droid Razr
• Motorola Droid Razr Maxx
• Motorola Droid 4
• HTC Rezound

Aside from the HTC Rezound (which only has quad band GSM and dual band WCDMA for European 3G networks), all of these devices support quad band GSM and WCDMA for global roaming all over the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

Additionally, these devices will not have the mobile country code block. That means that they will operate on AT&T’s HSPA network. And of course, T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network will support them too after it refarms its spectrum to launch PCS HSPA+ and AWS LTE. The phones will work on both carriers’ GSM networks, too.

There is one more device in Verizon’s current lineup that is also due for an update that brings full global roaming support. Back at CES, Verizon Wireless announced that the LG Spectrum would also get its GSM and WCDMA radios enabled in a future update. The timing for that update has not yet been announced. The LG Spectrum has a quad band GSM radio and a tri band WCDMA radio for full roaming in Europe and limited roaming in the Americas and Asia. This device will partially work on AT&T’s HSPA network in certain areas, but it will work with T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network after refarming. And it will work on both carriers’ GSM networks, too.

When any of these devices are used on T-Mobile’s network, they will be able to use the carrier’s new nationwide IPv6 network.

It is quite likely that someone may have investigated and reported to the FCC that Verizon Wireless violated the terms of the network spectrum license when these devices rolled out without full global roaming. This would have forced Verizon’s hand and made it enable those radios for everyone. Otherwise, we would probably have not seen 4G LTE world phones for quite some time (probably only after Europe rolls out LTE).

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Network Vision: Sprint’s path to domination

Over the last year, Sprint has constantly touted its Network Vision upgrade as the way forward for the company to compete effectively against the likes of AT&T and Verizon Wireless, as well as T-Mobile USA and other smaller carriers. But what is Network Vision? How does it affect Sprint subscribers? Is it the silver bullet that Sprint portrays it to be?

History

Before we dive into answering those questions, a little history on Network Vision is in order. The history will help put into perspective why Sprint is even doing this, and why it believes it will save them. The concept of Network Vision begins with Sprint-Nextel Corporation, at the beginning of 2010. It had just had yet another successful year selling its 4G WiMAX phones, but it had trouble keeping up with all the networks it runs.

Over the last two years, Sprint has suffered considerably over the maintenance of its iDEN, CDMA2000, and WiMAX networks. Network performance on the CDMA side has been consistently falling over the last two years. Analysts and various stakeholders in Sprint-Nextel have been pressuring the company to eliminate the Nextel iDEN platform and migrate subscribers to the Sprint CDMA platform after badly managing the integration of the Nextel platform following the merger in 2005. Finally, nearly everyone has ragged on Sprint for its choice in using Clearwire’s WiMAX for its 4G platform after Verizon Wireless and AT&T announced that they would use LTE back in 2008. Never mind that if Clearwire and Sprint had not deployed WiMAX, then Clearwire would have lost the licenses to the TDD 2.5GHz spectrum that WiMAX resides on due to the build-out requirements described in the licenses.

Since 2008, Sprint has consistently made known its desire to simplify its network architecture and offer a unified platform that is cheaper to maintain and offers the same quality of service that Sprint has always offered. In December 2010, Sprint announced that it had begun a radical new project to rebuild its entire network, called Network Vision. The announcement of Network Vision came shortly after Verizon Wireless launched its 4G LTE network in October 2010.

Initially, Sprint announced that Network Vision would just be a replacement of the separate infrastructures for the 2G (iDEN), 3G (CDMA2000), and 4G (WiMAX) networks. The idea was to use new multi-mode network infrastructure that could handle all three different network technologies. While iDEN would remain separate, CDMA2000 and WiMAX would live on the same infrastructure. iDEN would then be phased out after Network Vision build-out completed in favor of a push-to-talk solution over CDMA2000.

When queried about the lack of LTE in the original Network Vision infrastructure design, Sprint noted that it could easily run any network technology it wanted with the new Network Vision equipment. Sprint also mentioned that it can easily migrate to LTE from WiMAX because they are both very similar at the tower level, so it can reuse most of the equipment at the tower for LTE.

In October 2011, Sprint made a new announcement about Network Vision. It had revised its plans after securing a deal to offer the iPhone to its subscribers. The new Network Vision project is far more ambitious than the original one. WiMAX was dropped from the architecture of Network Vision. Instead, Sprint would deploy LTE on its exclusive nationwide PCS G-block spectrum. It would also shut down iDEN while deploying Network Vision, with iDEN spectrum eventually being used for a second LTE channel to bond with the G-block PCS LTE network.

Enough about history, what exactly is Network Vision?

Network Vision, as a whole, is Sprint’s last ditch effort to bring its network up to handle the demands of its subscribers in terms of data usage. CDMA2000 and LTE would be hosted in the same cell using new multi-banded multi-mode radios. Using these radios, CDMA2000 would be re-deployed on PCS and deployed on former iDEN spectrum as CDMA2000 1X Advanced with EV-DO Rev. A. With CDMA2000 1X Advanced, Sprint will be enabling HD Voice so that capable devices on the network can offer higher quality voice calls. VoLTE will also be supported with the LTE Release 10 upgrade to the network in 2013. Additionally, equipment for activating LTE at a cell would be installed with the rest of the Network Vision equipment. Each cell would be capable of offering CDMA2000 and LTE initially. Since the same radio will be handling both CDMA2000 and LTE, coverage breadth in areas upgraded to Network Vision will be exactly equal for both CDMA2000 and LTE.

However, the Network Vision architecture has some additional flexibility. By design, Network Vision cells are technology independent. That means that Sprint can simply plug in new radio network technologies through certain specified interfaces and essentially be able to add another network to Network Vision. For example, if a network operator decides to contract Sprint to host an HSPA+ network over Sprint’s PCS band, then Sprint can easily configure the network to offer HSPA+ alongside CDMA2000. That is what Sprint calls network hosting.

Additionally, Network Vision supports all major FDD and TDD frequency bands certified for use in the United States. If a potential network operator wishes to lease its frequencies to Sprint in order to use Sprint’s infrastructure to host its own network, Sprint and the operator can work out an agreement to lease the spectrum to Sprint and have it operate as a component of the network managed by the operator. This is what Sprint calls spectrum hosting.

While network and spectrum hosting are separate concepts, they are not mutually exclusive. It would make far more sense for spectrum hosting to be a component of network hosting. Sprint hopes to use the inherent flexibility of the Network Vision infrastructure to create new business models that would help Sprint generate much more revenue than the traditional mobile network operator and internet backbone provider businesses provide it. While it can offer network hosting with technologies other than CDMA2000 and LTE, it is quite likely that Sprint will not offer such services since it is far more expensive to deploy. Though if it did decide to offer network hosting of HSPA+ and other wireless communication technologies, Sprint could feasibly request that the costs of deployment be shared by the company requesting the deployment of the technology.

The Network Vision architecture is much more compact than the traditional network equipment that is used by Sprint. As a result, Network Vision cells take up a small fraction of the space of the older equipment and are extremely energy efficient. This will allow Sprint to eliminate large external air conditioning facilities required for the old equipment and cut back on the costs to power the equipment. This alone eliminates massive costs to Sprint’s current operating expenditures, and Sprint is expected to benefit from this almost immediately after deployment is complete.

The new multi-band multi-mode antenna equipment attached to the base stations for Network Vision cells will be able to push out stronger signals with less energy due to newer, more efficient radio designs. This means that Network Vision cells will have much higher ranges, which means more complete coverage in a given area. At the base station level, the cell will be able to support far more backhaul (connections to the internet) than it was previously capable of supporting. With more backhaul, Sprint subscribers will be able to get higher throughout and lower latencies over CDMA2000. It also means that subscribers will likely be able to experience the same kind of high speed LTE service that AT&T and Verizon Wireless offers to its subscribers.

Network Vision sounds amazing, but will it save Sprint?

The Network Vision platform that Sprint has developed is truly amazing. By developing a modular, yet minimal architecture for its network infrastructure, Sprint has pushed the boundaries of efficiency with cellular radio technology. Being able to integrate disparate network technologies onto a single system allows Sprint to manage all of it much more effectively than if it was several independent networks.

By rebuilding its network from the bottom up with Network Vision, Sprint will drastically reduce its costs over time. This will hopefully allow it to continue to afford the massive payouts required to keep offering the iPhone on its network and keep Clearwire afloat so that it candeploy TDD LTE to augment Sprint’s own FDD LTE network.

However, Network Vision alone is not going to be the silver bullet that Sprint often portrays it as. Having a totally new infrastructure for its network will require a lot of training and management changes. Sprint will also have to continue to pay Ericsson to manage the network (built out by Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, and Samsung), since Sprint does not manage the network itself. Sprint subscribers will need new devices to take full advantage of Network Vision, but some of the benefits can be felt with Sprint’s tri-band CDMA2000 devices. Dual-band CDMA2000 devices (which can only use Sprint’s PCS CDMA2000 network and Verizon’s 850MHz CDMA2000 network) will not get much of a boost in terms of coverage.

The quality of service will also depend heavily on the quality of backhaul that Sprint uses. Historically, Sprint does not have a lot of backhaul attached to its base stations. Going forward, Sprint will hopefully improve the situation. But if nothing changes in terms of backhaul, Sprint subscribers will only get a marginal performance increase over the CDMA2000 network, and the LTE network will only be somewhat faster than AT&T’s HSPA service.

Sprint will also need encourage device makers to start seeding the market with LTE devices that support its unique frequencies. Since its low band frequencies for LTE are a superset of the traditional Cellular 850MHz band and its high band frequencies for LTE are a superset of the traditional PCS 1.9GHz band, Sprint should not have too much trouble getting device makers to offer devices that support its bands along with the international Cellular 850 and PCS bands. Without a breadth of devices to offer, all the effort put into Network Vision would become a total waste.

If Sprint works to improve all aspects of its service, then it will be rewarded with a much higher quality of service to offer subscribers. Subscribers will be very pleased with the improvements and will likely continue to stay with Sprint. But it does not stop there. Sprint must be vigilant and continue to aggressively improve its service in accordance to what its subscribers and potential subscribers want. As a first step, though, Sprint is definitely on the right track.

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What is a bootloader, and why does Verizon want them locked?

Last year, users started filing complaints with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) against Verizon Wireless claiming the carrier was violating its spectrum licensing terms by locking Android phone bootloaders. Verizon agreed to openness provisions when it bought licenses to the Block C bands that currently pump out 4G LTE. Many groups claim Big Red wants to have its cake and eat it too. After taking a few months to ruminate on the issue, Verizon Wireless has responded and, unsurprisingly, it doesn’t see a problem.

According to the carrier, locking bootloaders is good for consumers, and good for the carrier. As such, it has no plans to stop the practice. This is an issue rife with industry lingo and shorthand, and it can be hard to follow. So let’s talk about what a bootloader is, and why Verizon wants to lock yours down.

What is a bootloader?

The bootloader is the first thing that starts up when a phone is turned on. At its most basic level, a bootloader is the low-level software on your phone that keeps you from breaking it. It is used to check and verify the software running on your phone before it loads. Think of it like a security guard scanning all the code to make sure everything is in order. If you were to try to load software onto the phone that was not properly signed by the device vendor, the bootloader would detect that and refuse to install it on the device.

When we speak about locked bootloaders, the context is often used to give meaning to the term “locked.” Almost all phones ship from the factory with locked bootloaders, but some are encrypted as well. It is this encryption that most reports are referring to when using the term “locked.” If a bootloader is encrypted, users can’t unlock it to load custom software of any sort. The device will be restricted to running software ROMs provided by the manufacturer.

Motorola, HTC, and Sony lock and encrypt the bootloaders on nearly all their phones, and Verizon is actually supportive of that policy. The carrier says it will be better this way, and its arguments are likely to fly.

Why Verizon wants your bootloader locked

The original Block C license states that anyone using that swath of the airwaves is required to allow customers to use any software or devices they want. At first blush, it seems like Verizon is in the wrong. However, Verizon has a powerful argument that will probably carry weight with the FCC.

The carrier expresses concern over the potential impact of untested software on its network. Whether or not this is a valid concern, it is something that the FCC stipulated in the original Block C license. A carrier is only required to comply with the openness provision insofar as it does not interfere with “the management or protection of the licensee’s network.” The takeaway is that Verizon Wireless can block users from using software or devices that it has reasonable suspicions would be detrimental.

On the consumer side of things, Big Red says your customer service experience will be better if it locks bootloaders. While seemingly disconnected from reality, the letter goes on to offer a compelling explanation. When a bootloader is not encrypted, and users can unlock it, they are more likely to alter the system software and damage the phone.

Verizon claims it is unable to provide support to users that do this, but that doesn’t stop them from calling. Verizon support has no way of knowing what the capabilities of a particular ROM might be, and certainly don’t have documentation in front of them. The person using the phone might not even be aware that the device has been modified, leading to frustration on both ends.

The reasons and methods for unlocking bootloaders

If you don’t care for a carrier’s handholding, you might be able to unlock your device to have some fun. Unlocking the bootloader on a phone can offer you tangible benefits likeplentiful custom ROMs that can take a sad, outdated device and make it usable again. A device with an unlocked bootloader never need be held hostage by poorly designed software filled with crapware.

The Google Nexus phones are some of the most modder-friendly devices on the market. These phones, like the current Galaxy Nexus, ship with a locked bootloader, but no encryption. With a fastboot file and theAndroid SDK, users can simply use the “fastboot oem unlock” command, and the phone is ready for modding. Nexus phones support bootloader unlocking in a secure way — it will do a factory restore when unlocked in order to protect user data. The phone can also be re-locked if you need warranty service.

HTC phones are encrypted, but as long as you don’t mind obliterating your warranty, HTC’s developer tools can be used to unlock the bootloaders on all its encrypted devices. This is a fairly easy process, but don’t expect the carrier to help you if anything goes wrong, whether or not it’s your fault. When an HTC phone is unlocked, it stays that way.

Sony devices use a similar system to the one HTC owners get. You use the Sony website to get a bootloader unlock code based on your device’s IMEI serial number, then use the Android SDK to push a fastboot command to the phone and enter the code. This process is also irreversible.

Motorola took a lot of heat from the Android community after it became clear that it was implementing encrypted and locked bootloaders. This practice goes all the way back to the Canadian Motorola Milestone (the original Droid in the US) in 2010. After saying in early 2011 that an unlock solution was coming for developers, we’re still waiting. With the locked bootloaders on Motorola phones, users are severely limited in what can be modified on the phone.

Most users probably won’t ever think to unlock their phone bootloaders or install a custom ROM, and that’s fine. Modding isn’t for everyone, and there should be some safeguards to keep novice users from getting in too deep, too fast. Samsung’s Galaxy S II phones don’t actually implement bootloader locking at all, which might be problematic in some situations. Meanwhile, Motorola doesn’t even have an unlock solution for its encrypted bootloaders. The best course of action is probably the middle ground system at work in the Nexus phones; a safe and secure method for accessing the bootloader.

Read more at DroidLife

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T-Mobile accuses Verizon Wireless of hoarding spectrum

Earlier this week, T-Mobile filed a petition to encourage the FCC to deny Verizon Wireless the ability to purchase the AWS spectrum owned by SpectrumCo (owned by Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks) and Cox.

In its petition, T-Mobile USA accuses Verizon Wireless of acquiring AWS spectrum “to foreclose the possibility that this spectrum could be acquired by smaller competitors – such as T-Mobile – who would use it more quickly, more intensively, and more efficiently than Verizon Wireless.” T-Mobile USA further explains that spectrum is a scarce resource that is essential for wireless services and that the deal is a large threat to competition in the wireless communications market.

T-Mobile correctly points out that Verizon Wireless has a huge swath of AWS spectrum already, which it bought in the 2006 auction for AWS-1. Since it acquired those licenses, it has not used any of them for anything. T-Mobile also points out that Verizon Wireless does not intend on using AWS until 2014 at the earliest, which is when Verizon will have completed deployment of LTE on its 700MHz holdings.

T-Mobile further argues that since Verizon Wireless has large amounts of 850MHz and 1900MHz spectrum to cover the entire nation in CDMA, it can refarm that spectrum for LTE when it needs to. Instead, T-Mobile believes that smaller carriers (like itself, MetroPCS, Leap Wireless, and others) are far more deserving of that AWS spectrum, since they will immediately use it for fourth-generation wireless network deployment.

T-Mobile also brings up the fact that Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, and Cox have all entered into agreements regarding the resale of each others’ services to their subscribers. These agreements precluded the termination of DirecTV, DSL, and wireless triple play offerings from Verizon, and the end of Verizon’s FiOS network expansion. Put all together, T-Mobile believes that the combination of spectrum transfer and resell agreements does not serve the public interest and will damage competition in the wireline and wireless communications businesses significantly.

Of course, T-Mobile has every reason to push for the deal to be blocked. Yesterday, T-Mobile announced that it would launch LTE in 2013. If T-Mobile could acquire the licenses from SpectrumCo instead of Verizon Wireless, it could speed up the timetable for LTE deployment considerably, since less spectrum refarming would be required to make room for LTE.

That being said, T-Mobile is likely in the right here. Since the FCC opened the docket to file comments on the deal, T-Mobile USA, MetroPCS, Public Knowledge, the Rural Cellular Association, and others have filed petitions to block the deal, largely using the same arguments. Personally, I agree with T-Mobile USA. Verizon Wireless has more than enough spectrum to support LTE for a decade, which is long enough for the next new wireless technology to come along.

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Tips and tricks for your new Galaxy Nexus

After a longer wait than anyone anticipated, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus has landed on US shores under the auspices of Verizon Wireless. This is a totally different kind of Android phone running completely new software. Despite Google’s attempt to make Android more user-friendly, some of the most interesting features are still not exposed to the average user. With that in mind, let’s go over the three things that you should do as soon as you unbox your brand new Galaxy Nexus.

Set up Data Usage

One of the new features in Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) is a very robust Data Usage meter. For users that have capped mobile data plans, this can be a real money saver. The data monitor is available in the main settings page under Data Usage. This interface has a toggle for disabling mobile data at the top, and a large graph below it.

Tap on the graph and drag up or down to move the orange Warning line to just short of your monthly data cap. When the phone has reached this volume of data, a notification will appear in the status bar. This is nice, but if a user doesn’t see the notification, the data cap could still be blown. Luckily, Android 4.0 is smart enough to actually shut you down if things get out of hand.

Tap the check box next to “Set mobile data limit” to set a hard stop for your data guzzling ways. This option produces a second red line on the graph. Just drag this one to someplace above the orange one. To avoid overages completely, leave it just below the data cap. Alternatively, set it at a level over the cap that you would still be comfortable paying.

Down below the graph, Android also aggregates data usage by app so you can figure out what is hogging all the data. Tapping on any of these will bring up a detailed report of its activity.

Turn on GPU acceleration

Ice Cream Sandwich supports hardware accelerated drawing of 2D surfaces just like Honeycomb did, but now that power is at the user’s control. Developers are being encouraged by Google to enable this feature in apps, but we need not wait for them. Hardware acceleration can be forced on with minimal risk.

In the main settings screen, scroll down the the bottom and find “Developer options.” About two-thirds of the way down is the listing we need and it’s called “Force GPU rendering.” Enabling this will speed up the interface drawing of all the apps on the phone. Activities like scrolling and swiping will be more responsive and just plain nicer-looking.

Be aware that some apps might tolerate this better than others. The user interface could be broken in small, or more significant ways in these apps. If something seems broken, try toggling GPU rendering off.

Get used to real folders

As part of the home screen redesign, Google has added a new way of making folders. Android has always had folders, but in the past they were clunky and unattractive. ICS folders are so easy that there’s no reason not to base your experience around them.

To make a folder, drag any app icon on top of another, and let go. The result is a folder with both the apps in it. Anyone that’s used an iPhone recently will recognize this as almost the same system Apple uses. When opened, the apps in a folder can still be dragged around for better organization within the folder. Dragging an icon out of the folder returns it to the home screen.

Folders in ICS work on any home screen panel, and even in the dock area next to the app drawer icon. By making folders usable, Google has probably changed the way people will use the Android home screen.

There is, of course, much more to do with Android 4.0 on the Galaxy Nexus, but these are three easy steps that will get any user off on the right foot. ICS will reveal all its secrets in time, but hopefully not too long.

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