3GPP Mobile Broadband September 2014

www.4gamericas.org

3GPP technologies - HSPA, HSPA+, LTE and now LTE-Advanced - are the foundation of

the mobile broadband world, providing customers with seamless and fast connections

worldwide.

HSPA and LTE build on the 3GPP ecosystem of more than 800 service providers, in more than

200 countries worldwide, with over 6.5 billion subscriptions, delivering tremendous economies of

scope and scale

HSPA will continue to be the leading mobile broadband technology through the end of the decade

providing a global footprint, international roaming and robust mobile broadband speeds

HSPA+, a simple upgrade to the HSPA networks today, protects and enhances an operator’s

infrastructure investment; more than half of all 556 HSPA operators have upgraded to HSPA+

3GPP GLOBAL FOOTPRINT & INTERNATIONAL ROAMING1

Commercial

Networks Countries

Anticipated

Launches

June 2014

Subscriptions

Forecast

YE2014

Subscriptions

HSPA 556 203 100 1.6 Billion 1.7 Billion

HSPA+ 365 157

LTE 323 111 200+ 281 Million 386 Million

LTE-Advanced 20 15 N/A

3GPP Mobile Broadband HSPA and LTE 1.9 Billion 2.1 Billion

By the end of 2019, the global mobile broadband market is expected to include more than 6.7

billion subscribers, with 6.4 billion using 3GPP technologies, representing 95% market share2

1 Data as of 2 September 2014.

2 Source: Ovum, WCIS, June 2014 Subscriber Forecast.

www.4gamericas.org

2

LTE has exploded into existence as one of the most powerful wireless technologies ever

developed.

More than 500 operators, including leading GSM-HSPA and CDMA EV-DO operators and newly

licensed operators, are making strategic, long-term commitments to LTE networks; WiMAX

operators have a smooth path to LTE-TDD—all roads lead to LTE

More than 280 million LTE connections forecast to reach 2.3 billion in 2019, not including M2M

More than 1,189 LTE devices from over 168 manufacturers have been launched with 99% of LTE

devices operating on either HSPA, HSPA+ or DC-HSPA+ networks3

LTE (Rel-8) will offer typical user downlink speeds of 5 Mbps to 12 Mbps (in 2X10 MHz) and

typical uplink speeds of 2 Mbps to 5 Mbps

Wider channels of spectrum result in faster throughput. LTE’s peak theoretical downlink

throughput rates are 300 Mbps in 20 MHz bandwidth channels with 4X4 MIMO and 71 Mbps

uplink in 20 MHz

LTE, an all-IP-based technology, has the highest spectral efficiency of any mobile broadband

standard and delivers a seamless broadband experience for the consumer in both the fixed and

mobile world. LTE is designed to support voice in the packet domain with VoLTE. Other features:

o Scalability to operate in bandwidths from 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz

o Operability in both TDD and FDD modes

o Reduced latency to 10 milliseconds round-trip time between user equipment and the

base station, and to less than 100 milliseconds transition time from inactive to active

LTE has significant economic advantages over other wireless technologies: it builds upon the

economies of scale and scope of the entire 3GPP family of technologies; LTE’s flat IP

architecture leads to a lower deployment cost-per-megabyte, better spectrum management and

efficient scalability

EVOLUTION OF 3GPP TECHNOLOGIES4

3 GSA, July 2014.

4 Beyond LTE: Enabling the Mobile Broadband Expansion: Rysavy Research for 4G Americas, August 2014.

www.4gamericas.org

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LTE offers a continuing evolution of technology that will lead to LTE-Advanced

LTE-Advanced, in 3GPP Release 10, will bring new technology enhancements to increase

network performance, speed and utilization of spectral resources. LTE-Advanced includes a

variety of techniques that may be deployed individually or in partnership with each other

depending on an operator’s strategy and network

o Faster throughput is largely achieved by combining carriers (frequencies) through Carrier

Aggregation (CA). In Release 10, Carrier Aggregation can support up to five carriers with

a total of 100 MHz; the more carriers that are combined, the higher the theoretical peak

speeds and typical user speeds

o Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) Smart Antennas are taken to new extremes in

LTE-Advanced, supporting a maximum of 8X8 MIMO on the downlink and 4X4 MIMO on

the uplink, thereby directly improving performance

o More intelligent Self-Organizing Networks (SON) and Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) will

provide additional improvements

LTE-Advanced will have theoretical peak rates that exceed 1 Gbps

LTE-Advanced was commercialized in 2013 with rollouts on a wide-scale basis expected by year

end 2015

o Operator launches will typically include a subset of LTE-Advanced features and technical

capabilities including MIMO antenna systems, SON, Carrier Aggregation and CoMP

o There are twenty commercial LTE-Advanced networks in fifteen countries (August 2014)

with fifty additional networks in trial or deployment

o In North America, the four major carriers—AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint—are in

various stages of deployment of LTE-Advanced based on 3GPP Release 10 standards.

AT&T and Sprint both launched commercial LTE-Advanced service in March 2014

o Global LTE-Advanced subscriptions are forecast to reach 927 million by the end of 2018,

representing 45% of the overall 2 billion LTE-related subscriptions5

o LTE-Advanced in 3GPP Release 12 is currently being developed for a significant

upgrade as it allows for reduced base station activity of ‘always on’ signaling as well as

easier integration and management of M2M devices

5 iDATE, August 2014.

www.4gamericas.org

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LTE vs. LTE-ADVANCED KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Today’s spectrum crunch is likely to become tomorrow’s spectrum crisis

U.S. DEMAND VERSUS SPECTRUM6

The U.S. and the rest of the Americas region requires more spectrum to meet societies’ growing

appetite for mobile broadband services

New spectrum auctions in the U.S. for AWS-3 1755-1780/2155-2180 MHz in 2014 and the TV

Broadcast 600 MHz spectrum in 2015 will make a positive impact for the wireless industry

o AWS-3 will provide 50 MHz of internationally harmonized spectrum

6 Rysavy Research, 2011.

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5

o 600 MHz TV Broadcast spectrum will provide much needed low band spectrum to the

marketplace

o Eighty percent of the most useful spectrum in the U.S. is currently in the hands of the

federal government7

o The 3550-3700 MHz spectrum in the U.S. is well suited for small cells

Licensed Shared Access could be utilized in these spectrum bands by mobile

network operators to maximize the amount of spectrum available to their cellular

customers

Latin America’s overall spectrum allocations have a significant shortfall from the ITU

recommendations for 2015, reaching only 20% of the anticipated spectrum requirements based

on current allocations for 20158

Today’s smartphones use 35 times more spectrum than traditional cell phones, and tablets use

121 times as much spectrum9

Global mobile data traffic is expected to grow 11-fold between 2013 and 201810

7 A voracious mobile world needs 'spectrum, spectrum, spectrum', CNET, 9 January 2014.

8 Analysis of ITU Spectrum Recommendation in the Latin America Region, Signals Telecom Consulting, August 2013.

9 FCC Initiates Incentive Auction Process, September 2012.

10 Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, February 2014.