LTE in 100 countries

GSA Press Release, February 5, 2014

The GSA has issued an Interim version of the  “Evolution to LTE” report, to herald the 100th Country with commercial services, as Cambodia beat off competition from Ghana, Peru and Zambia to be the 100th and latest Nation State with 4G/LTE.

The GSA “Evolution to LTE” report is packed with facts and analysis about the growth of the system, measuring a host of indicators, including National and network operator announcements.

 

Security Standards White Paper

"Security is legally essential for businesses which generate and handle user or customer data"

Charles Brookson, Chairman, ETSI OCG Security

ETSI White Paper, January 15, 2014

3GPP Partner - ETSI - has published a new edition of the ICT security related standards white paper, which covers the range of work, including mobile communications.

Today's press release, from ETSI, points out that standardized security features "are essential to ensure interoperability among systems and networks, demonstrate compliance with regulation and offer adequate levels of security in current and new areas such as cybersecurity, cloud or machine to machine communications..." 

TCCA Joins 3GPP for critical work

Fukuoka, October 31, 2013

The TCCA has today signed the 3GPP Partnership Agreement, the formal document that means that the Association is now a Partner in 3GPP. Phil Kidner, the TCCA Chief Executive, described the role of the TETRA and Critical Communications Association in representing TETRA, the technology that - along with P25 in North America – dominates the critical communications market worldwide.

Phil Kidner introduced Tony Gray, Chairman of the TCCA Critical Communications Broadband Group (CCBG). The group is working to guide the critical communications community towards a "commitment to a common mobile broadband technology solution – based on LTE". Mr. Gray also emphasised the importance of a parallel effort in discussions with regulators and National Authorities to ensure the availability of appropriate and harmonized spectrum for deployment of Critical Communications LTE networks.

The CCBG will be the point-of-contact for 3GPP, and Mr. Gray gave an outline of how the group is focused on the identification of fundamental features for group working, direct mode, reliance and security and on guaranteeing critical speech services over all-IP systems. The CCBG has recently initiated a new Standards Coordination Umbrella Group, to facilitate coordination and collaboration between stakeholder groups globally in the preparation of use cases and requirements so that they can be presented to 3GPP in a coordinated way.

Advanced Antenna Systems

4G Americas Press Release, July 15 2013

A white paper on MIMO and Smart Antennas for Mobile Broadband Systems has been published by the 3GPP Partner, 4G Americas.

With wireless traffic expected to grow over 10x in the next five years, the paper looks at "increasingly capable smart antenna solutions" as a vital companion to the call for more spectrum for LTE.

Rate of LTE deployment increasing

GSA Press Release, July 18, 2013

The Global mobile Suppliers Association, a Partner in 3GPP, has issued a forecast predicting that there will be 260 commercially launched LTE networks in 93 countries by the end of the year.

The Evolution to LTE report (July 16, 2013) states that:

"the majority of operators have deployed the FDD mode of the LTE standard. The most widely used band continues to be 1800 MHz (band 3) which is used in over 43% of commercially launched LTE networks. The next most popular contiguous bands are 2.6 GHz (band 7) used in 34% of networks, followed by 800 MHz band 20 (11%), and AWS band 4 (almost 9%)."

LTE TDD only networks number 18 out of 194 commercially launched systems. However, half of that total are combined LTE FDD and TDD networks, which is a growing trend, according to the GSA.

The report is an update of a regular set of figures from the GSA, providing a reliable assessment of the state of the market for LTE and LTE-Advanced equipment.

Read the Full GSA Press release; "Live LTE networks approach 200 confirms GSA in latest Evolution to LTE report", on-line at www.gascom.com

ABOUT GSA

GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association) represents GSM/EDGE, WCDMA-HSPA and LTE suppliers, providing reports, facts, analysis and information explaining market developments and trends. GSA-organized seminars facilitate enhanced dialog between operators, members and developer communities. Through its website GSA supports a global community which includes over 58,000 registered users.

Website: www.gsacom.com