reality BYTES
By Adrian Weckler
When will 4G arrive in Ireland? The question is important because, without it, mobile broadband speeds – and rural broadband speeds – will be stuck at a ceiling of about 15 megabits per second (Mbs) for the foreseeable future.
Last week, Germany concluded its 4G licence auctions, raising €4.4 billion for the German government. Two weeks ago, 3 began its rollout of 4Gservices across Denmark. In Ireland, however, 4G seems to be at least a year away.
While many companies cheekily lay claim to the term ‘4G’, there is an industry consensus that long-term evolution (LTE) is the most likely technology to fulfil most of the relevant criteria. LTE is being pursued by most of Europe’s mobile operators, including the four networks in the Irish market.
On completion, the first roll-out of LTE should see broadband speeds of between 40Mbs and 50Mbs delivered. After that, it is likely to see speedbumps leading up to, and exceeding, 100Mbs.
But to get the systems in place, operators need spectrum. This is the invisible bandwidth that all wireless communication needs to work, from television signals to radio broadcasts to mobile phone calls. It is divided into different ‘bands’.
These bands are capable of holding a finite amount of traffic. Currently, the mobile operators all have a band in which to operate. But that band cannot handle more than a certain amount of voice and data traffic. Thus, broadband speeds are limited.
But with new bandwidth, they could deliver much faster broadband. So where is this bandwidth and how can they get access to it? At present, there are three bands that mobile operators have their eye on.
1. 900mhz: this band will start to become available once the GSM licences of Vodafone, O2 and Meteor start expiring next year. However, it will take some time for all the licences to expire.
2. 2.6ghz: this is the band that 3 has begun using in Denmark to roll out LTE there. However, it is currently licensed to UPC in Ireland for its MMDS operations.
3. Digital dividend spectrum: when (or if) Ireland switches from analogue to digital television, there will be enough spectrum ‘left over’ to use for LTE. However, the switch to DTT remains plagued with delays.
What seems clear is that it is going to be some time before any of this bandwidth becomes available for 4G. In the meantime, 3 will start trialling a 42Mbs service in autumn, according to the company’s chief technical officer, Dave Hennessy.
He said that the entire network would be upgraded to 14.4Mbs by the end of the year. He also said that 3’s network was now ‘‘LTE-ready’’, and was just waiting for the availability of new spectrum to activate it.
