Archive for the ‘3G’ Category

Ofcom studies options for improving in-building mobile coverage

Thursday, January 16th, 2014

A study commissioned by UK telecom regulator Ofcom examines tradeoffs among many mobile indoor-coverage technologies, and suggests the agency help consumers learn more about them.

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Experimental Radio Applications at the FCC

Thursday, January 3rd, 2013

This summarizes a selection of applications for the Experimental Radio Service received by the FCC during September-December 2012. These are related to LF and HF propagation, cognitive radio, satellite telemetry, ultra-wideband (UWB), ground-penetrating and synthetic-aperture radar, mobile broadband, aerial communications (balloons), LTE, managed access, military communications, Wi-Fi, GPS, sensor networks, and MVDDS. The descriptions are sorted by the lowest frequency in the application.

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Why I doubt FaceTime will crash mobile networks

Monday, August 27th, 2012

IntoMobile suggests mobile networks could “crash” or “crumple” under the pressure of FaceTime demand. I think they’ll be OK, mainly for cultural reasons.

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4G Americas Scenario Shows Mobile Data Growth Tapering Off

Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

4G Americas, a wireless industry trade association representing the 3GPP family of technologies, has released a report looking at broadband devices and applications, and their impact on HSPA and LTE networks. There’s quite a bit of interesting information; here I highlight the discussion on mobile broadband offload and mobile data growth.

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Experimental Radio Applications at the FCC

Monday, April 2nd, 2012

This summarizes a selection of applications for the Experimental Radio Service received by the FCC during January, February, and March 2012. These are related to radar, Amateur Radio, spread spectrum, white space, spacecraft telemetry, propagation testing, satellites, smart grid, femtocells, machine-to-machine communications, ad hoc networks, 4G backhaul, electronic warfare, and robotics.  The descriptions are listed in order of the lowest frequency found in the application.

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Are Fewer Mobile Broadband Competitors Better for Consumers?

Monday, March 26th, 2012

That’s what a D.C. think tank says. I take a look at this contrary view in a piece I did for GigaOM.

Three Invalid Assumptions that Make the FCC’s Spectrum Requirements Model Skew High

Saturday, November 19th, 2011

“To generalize, it is often true that studies will be promoted that tend to support the policy inclinations of the Chairman, under whose direction, after all, every draft decision is made.”

“[S]tatistics can lie. But cast as ‘studies’ by commentors, they take on the weight that a decision maker chooses to make of them.”

Daniel Brenner

As a follow-on to its National Broadband Plan, the FCC last year released a Technical Paper intended to validate the Plan’s prediction of a 300 MHz mobile-broadband spectrum deficit by 2014. The Paper describes a spectrum requirements model that totals current spectrum assigned to mobile broadband and applies a multiplier based on expected demand, taking into account expected increased tower density and improvements in air-interface spectrum efficiency. The model’s result is a predicted deficit of 275 MHz in 2014, which rounds to 300 MHz. On the way toward that result, however, the analysis uses just a few of the available data forecasts, ignores offloading of macrocell data to Wi-Fi and femtocells, and assumes the continuation of flat-rate plans for consumers. Some of these oddities I noted in a post at the time. I had hoped the FCC would make the Paper a subject of public comment. That hasn’t happened. So, I’ve looked at the Paper in more detail. I find that when looking at the above factors in a more realistic manner, predicted spectrum requirements go down significantly.

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Experimental Radio Applications at the FCC

Sunday, November 6th, 2011

This summarizes a selection from 173 applications for the Experimental Radio Service received by the FCC during August and September 2011. These are related to long-range low-frequency radar, amateur radio, shortwave data, wireless microphones, single-sideband, mine detection, millimeter-wave communications, signal intelligence, automotive radar, satellite feeder links, meteor-burst communications, aircraft telemetry, white space systems, border security radar, 3G and 4G applications, RFID, wind turbine testing, unmanned aerial vehicles, spacecraft telemetry and control, aircraft passenger broadband, and autonomous aircraft landing systems. The descriptions are sorted by the lowest frequency found in the application.

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