4G LTE networks in Malaysia

Recently the Government announced the licensing 4G LTE networks to 9 providers.

Who are the 9 providers?





The providers are:

• 4 Mobile telcos – Celcom, DiGi, Maxis & U Mobile
• 4 WiMAX operators – AMAX, P1, REDtone & YTL
• a company believed to be linked to a Malay 'Tan Sri'

But first things first...

What is 4G LTE?

Wiki defines 4G LTE specifications as:

'The LTE specification provides downlink peak rates of at least 100 Mbit/s, an uplink of at least 50 Mbit/s and RAN round-trip times of less than 10 ms. LTE supports scalable carrier bandwidths, from 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz and supports both frequency division duplexing (FDD) and time division duplexing (TDD).'

4G LTE is an 'evolution' of 3G UMTS networks. Wiki further states:

'The standard includes:

• Peak download rates of 326.4 Mbit/s for 4x4 antennas, and 172.8 Mbit/s for 2x2 antennas (utilizing 20 MHz of spectrum).
• Peak upload rates of 86.4 Mbit/s for every 20 MHz of spectrum using a single antenna.
• Five different terminal classes have been defined from a voice centric class up to a high end terminal that supports the peak data rates. All terminals will be able to process 20 MHz bandwidth.
• At least 200 active users in every 5 MHz cell. (Specifically, 200 active data clients)
• Sub-5 ms latency for small IP packets'

Since the licensing is for the 20Mhz spectrum, let's see whether any of the 9 providers here can actually provide the peak download rates of 170+ Mbit/s over the cell infrastructure (read: wire less) or even the minimum standards of 100 Mbit/s download!

LTE, as a standard does not fully comply to the IMT-Advanced ITU-R specifications for a 4G network, not yet anyway.

By the way what will happen to the WiMAX operators? no more WiMAX?  P1 Wiggy to be replaced with an LTE modem??

P1 advertises itself as a '4G network broadband'
AMAX advertises itself as the WiMAX High Speed Wireless Broadband'
RedTone promotes itself as Broadband Expert for Offices and
YTL, still have not officially launched their WiMAX although planned for July 2010.

WiMAX standards is a totally different standards as compared to the LTE. Although WiMAX is another 'predecessor' to the 4G, the IEEE 802.16e/m standards are very different as compared to LTE's 3GPP standards. Perhaps the Govt is confused? I mean, literally the term 4G is still 4G, although standards are  different. I'm not too sure on the licensing terms for the 4 WiMAX providers. Do they need to move from the 802.16e/m to 3GPP? Changing RBS equipment costs a bomb!

To read more about 4G, click here

LG and Samsung have announced their LTE devices though.

4G on a mobile? think HD streaming on the device!

What's that? new iPhone on LTE? Android on LTE? Symbian? Meego?
heh heh.. technology (r)evolution... it never ends....

then we'll have to buy new mobile devices that supports LTE.. *sigh*

.rr