Arqiva Trials LTE Network For UK Not Spots

Arqiva is touting a possible solution to the vexing issue of rural broadband, which promises to solve the so called broadband ‘not spot’ problem in remote regions of this country.

The issue of connecting the last 10 percent of the UK to broadband is taxing political thinking and the industry to the limit, as the cost of rolling out fibre to these remote regions is prohibitively expensive.

And when one service provider (other than BT) does install their own equipment to provide broadband for these remote areas, the end-user is often locked into taking the service from that provider.

LTE Network Using 800MHz

However Arqiva, a communications infrastructure and media services company, and networking equipment giant Alcatel-Lucent are to trial LTE (Long Term Evolution) wireless technology in West Wales that uses 800MHz spectrum that was freed up by digital TV switchover.

Arqiva told eWEEK Europe that its solution would be open to communication providers to offer their own service using this LTE network, which can offer speeds of up to 50Mbps..

The trial demonstration is in the Preseli Mountains, West Wales. This region has roughly five village locations whose current broadband speed is less than 0.5MBit/s. Arqiva is hoping that the trial will demonstrate the economic and technical viability of a neutral-host wireless network as a route to extending broadband Internet services to areas with little or no broadband coverage.

“We launched a trial demo in Wales, to show wireless to deliver broadband for all areas that cannot get basic broadband,” explained Jonathan Freeman, Head of Strategic Business Development, at Arqiva. “At the moment, this is just a demonstration run purely by us, but over time it believe it could expand to a multisite trial.”

Open To Others

“It is similar to BT’s wholesale offering as it will be a shared infrastructure, but with wireless technology,” Freeman told eWEEK Europe UK. “The concept is that any service provider can plug into the network. We are not offering any retail solution to end users.”

Freeman said that they are using LTE in this case and not WiMax, because the area has already switched to digital TV and “LTE is the fore running technology is this spectrum band, although we are technology agnostic.”

And because it uses the 800MHz spectrum, the LTE network will be robust and less prone to atmospheric interference, as well as providing good in-building penetration.

So how will it work? Well according to Freeman, the base station (which could be deployed on cell towers) is connected to an antenna radiating a signal. The back haul is provided by fibre, but it could be a microwave link. The end user would likely have a communication point (i.e. appropriate router) installed in their premises, with possibility an external antenna on the side of the house (like a Sky dish) to increase performance.

With the trial in the Preseli Mountains, Arqiva has its base station installed in one of the regions major transmission sites for television and radio.

Speedy Offering

“What we are seeing are speeds between 20MBps and 50MBps at a distance (from the base station) of between 7 to 8 kilometres,” said Freeman. “We have also tested this at extreme coverage distances and have seen 2MBps at distances of 20 kilometres. We are also seeing fast uplink speeds as well, with a 15MBps uplink at 7 to 8 km range.”

“We are pleased with the technology, which has matched our planning work,” said Freeman. “What we want to do is work in partnership with service providers so we can hit the same price point as regular broadband, as shared networks get cheaper over time. We want to engage with industry to help us develop this solution, which could provide a substainial economic benefit to the UK by giving everyone broadband coverage.”

Arqiva will be at next year’s Mobile World Congress to promote the idea.