Interesting new report published on the UMTS Forum looking at the LTE ecosystem. To be partisan for a moment, obviously it would have been miles better if it have been put together by Analysys Mason. Nevertheless Ovum make a reasonable fist of it.
Find it here.
For the definitive view on LTE evolution, see our report Operator strategies for network evolution: the road to LTE.
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I find a rather relentlessly upbeat tone in this report, which I'm suspicious of. I get the impression they're taking it up. Consider this from p 49 (PDF page 51)
ReplyDelete'The applications and services developed for LTE will build on the strong base which has been established for HSPA/HSPA+ services. This, together with the expected ability of multimode LTE devices to connect through HSPA and 3G radio access networks when users are outside LTE coverage areas will amke LTE highly complementary to existing network deployments.'
So outside LTE areas, we fall back on 3G/HSPA. But 3G/HSPA coverage is not impressive. Once you get out of urban areas (in fact, in the very areas where you often want decent mobile broadband) often only GPRS is available, and what incentive is there for operators to expand 3G HSPA coverage?
Operators surely cannot afford to install extensive LTE infrastructure. They will have to install it selectively in places where they can reasonably expect to get a return, and expand gradually. That means it will take ages for the service to be at all widespread, if it ever does become widespread. Consumers who are led to believe LTE will provide high bandwidth connectivity all over the place will be disappointed - as they have been with 3G/HSDPA. In fact, having had their expectations disappointed with 3G/HSDPA, customers will probably be sceptical of LTE, and who can blame them?