MWC: LTE And Tablets Will Lead Agenda

Crucial developments in Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology will feature alongside a host of new shiny consumer devices at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week, accvording to the hosts, the GSMA.

Last year, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) anointed LTE And WiMax as ‘true’ 4G technologies, being capable of download speeds of at least 100Mbps and satisfying a number of other requirements. However, according to the GSMA, WiMax is on its way out.

“WiMax is not dead but it’s certainly on life support,” said Dan Warren, the GSMA’s senior director of technology, speaking to eWEEK Europe. “We don’t see WiMax as being a significant macro-network technology in the future. It’s not a natural evolutionary path from what people have today.”

New communications model

LTE offers faster data speeds, always-on IP connection and greater interactivity, as well as opening up new opportunities for advanced applications such as HD voice, operator-to-operator instant messaging and gaming. “It is leading to a new model for person-to-person communications,” said Warren.

There are currently 18 commercial LTE networks across the world, expected to grow to 55 by the end of 2011. GSMA said it was aware of 183 individual operators having made commitments to LTE at some point in the future.

“We think this year is the point when it really starts to take off and gain some scale and momentum,” said Warren. “There’s a fairly significant point towards the end of 2011, when LTE handsets become much more widely available, so from the end of this year onwards we expect real growth.”

However, LTE, being much more IP-oriented, does not support the current mechanism for transporting voice calls. Over the last year, GSMA has been working on providing a voice solution for the industry, and will carry out the first voice-over-LTE demonstration – with handsets from LG, a core network from Alcatel-Lucent and using Verizon wireless as an operator – at MWC.

“Looking down the line, you’re going to end up with LTE being a common technology implemented by operators, accounting for 97-98 percent of the mobile telecommunications market,” said Warren.

Tablets and embedded solutions

Also at MWC, GSMA expects to see tablets leading the news headlines ahead of smartphones. Devices are getting bigger, said Warren, partly because manufacturers “need more real estate to fit all of the radio equipment into”, but also because video is becoming a much more important service, and larger screens give better representation of video content.

Eighty-five tablet devices were launched at the Consumer Elecronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year, and GSMA is expecting several “significant announcements” in the space at MWC.

As devices expand, however, it seems that mobile infrastructure is shrinking, following the news earlier this week that Alcatel-Lucent plans to replace big power-hungry cellphone towers with tiny base stations a fraction of their size. Warren acknowledged a “fundamental shift” in the way people are implementing radio access networks, with not only the size but also the functionality of the equipment evolving.

Warren also referred to a green power programme run by GSMA, which enables base stations where there is no existing infrastructure to use solar and wind power. “In most cases, they find they generate more power than they need to run the base stations, so they’re providing power back into the local community,” he said.

Meanwhile, GSMA is pushing the idea of embedded mobile solutions with its ‘Embedded House’ at MWC, which will include examples of new vertical industries that mobile is being applied to – such as the automotive industry, consumer electronics, health and utilities.