Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of Netcom approved Unicom to expand LTE 450M pilot: blank industrial chain becomes the biggest problem
The morning news of March 20 (Yueming) The scarcity of low-frequency resources has always puzzled China Unicom, but now it seems to be improving gradually.
Recently, it was officially approved by the Ministry of Industry that China Unicom added 450MHz LTE FDD tests in the three pilot cities of Hulunbeier, Chifeng and Tongliao in Inner Mongolia, including Xing'an, Xilingore, Ulanqab, Bayan aoer and Alxa.
The author believes that 450MHz can be widely used in LTE commercial deployment, which is of great positive significance to China Unicom. It will help China Unicom create a low-cost 4G network covering a wide range of areas and give China Unicom competitiveness in the 4G market. At the same time, it should be pointed out that the 450MHz 3GPP has no defined frequency band, and its industry chain support is relatively weak. Especially at the terminal level, the industry attraction of Unicom is a test.
Low frequency: 450M is the only choice
The frequency resource is the basic network for operators to develop networks and businesses. It has 10MHz * 2 frequency bands with China Telecom in the 800MHz frequency band, 19MHz * 2 frequency bands with China Mobile in the 900MHz frequency band, and only 6M * 2 frequency bands with China Unicom in the 900MHz frequency band.
The lack of low-frequency resources not only challenges China Unicom in the 2G era, but also faces problems in the current 4G era. Although the Ministry of Industry has allowed Unicom to carry out full spectrum LTE spectrum reconstruction in the entire network, it is also considered that the GSM 900 carries voice services, which makes Unicom timid in deploying 900M LTE and difficult to play the advantages of LTE900.
On the other hand, although LTE900M LTE1800M/LTE2100M has stronger coverage, the deployment cost of LTE900 is still relatively high, while Unicom's capital expenditure in 2017 was only 45 billion yuan. How to use this limited investment is also a small challenge.
In addition to making good use of external forces and establishing sharing, China Unicom also aims to obtain more low-frequency resources. At present, China Unicom can consider potential low-frequency resources such as 450M/700M/800M/900M, but the latter three are almost impossible. In addition, 450M has stronger coverage and cost advantages. Although 450M is not a band defined by 3GPP, it has become the only choice for Unicom.
Pilot: obvious advantages in propagation characteristics
Unicom cares about 450M, not two days a day.
In 2015, China Unicom, as the only operator, approved the 450MHz LTE FDD network coverage technology test in Hulunbeier, Chifeng and Tongliao, Inner Mongolia.
The field coverage performance test results show that 450MHz transmission characteristics have obvious advantages. At 2 * 4.4Mz bandwidth, The LTE450 fixed-point test download rate is 27.1Mbps, the uplink rate is 9.12Mbps, the average download rate in the line scenario is 14.78Mbps, and the average uplink rate is 7.69Mbps. Meet business requirements (the rate is higher than 1Mbps) LTE 450 is 20km away; Only 3-4 BTSs are needed for 100 km coverage.
In addition to technical tests, China Unicom has been promoting the 450MHz band domestic IMT planning scheme. At the end of 2015, the "450-470MHz Frequency Band Planning Scheme Technical Report" was completed at the level of CCSA. The report will form a unified planning scheme proposal from the perspective of the competent department, railway, radio and television, three major operators and other parties.
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With this option, domestic operators can apply 2 * 5MHz spectrum (450-455MHz/460-465MHz). After the efforts of both parties, the management of the band initially agreed to use the program in the band's domestic planning at the beginning of 2017, and asked Unicom to complete the new band related to work standardization, including: completing the 450MHz new B1 program included in ITU-R M.1036; Complete the work of adding a new BAND in 3GPP.
Future: industrial chain is the biggest problem
The industry generally believes that the regulatory authorities will allocate part of the 450MHz spectrum to China Unicom's 4G low-frequency coverage test, which is a strong support for its policy level and will help China Unicom to achieve coverage competitive advantage in the vast rural areas such as Inner Mongolia in the future!
But for China Unicom, the biggest problem is not the approval of the regulatory authority, nor the network planning and deployment, but the cultivation of the 450MHz LTE FDD industrial chain. Without industrial chain support, all technologies and any band are castle in the air. Since 450M is not a mobile communication spectrum resource defined by 3GPP, there are almost no network equipment and terminal support. In China, only a few operators use 450M spectrum for network coverage in very few areas, but do not use LTE FDD technology; In foreign countries, only small countries such as Finland and Norway apply 450M in Northern Europe, and there is almost nothing available in the mainstream telecom market.
Mo is a blank industrial chain like 450MHz LTE FDD. For mature bands like 900MHz LTE FDD, operators need to be guided as early as possible. According to the current size of Unicom and the attractiveness of the terminal industry, this is not destined to be a stable way. In my opinion, using MiFi or CPE terminals may be a more reasonable choice for short-term development.
