9. Given the additional capacity requirements and other initial investment barriers, do you expect LTE based consumer Mobile Broadband services to be more or less expensive than current generation HSPA products?

ERICSSON: The price of a service is dictated by what the user is willing to pay and it is independent from the cost of the underlying technology. The overall cost of infrastructure will be lower for LTE in Total Cost of Ownership. With the performance benefits of speed and responsiveness that LTE offers we think operators will initially launch it as a premium service.

10. Will we all need to buy new Mobile Broadband USB Modems to take advantage of LTE technology or can existing HSPA devices still use and or benefit from LTE?

ERICSSON: Yes you will need new modems, but think of the benefits! (Do you still use audio cassettes and floppy disks?).  We expect that as with 2G to 3G operators and their device vendors will offer a range of multi-band devices that allow for a seamless end user experience.

11. Do you think that, given the significant leap forward that LTE technology represents, future Mobile Broadband will now finally become a truly viable replacements for fixed land-line broadband services?

ERICSSON: LTE technology will provide even better capabilities than HSPA (latency and so on) especially for video services.  Mobile Broadband is a big phenomenon and it is really entering peoples’ lives, but I believe that there will always be a role for fixed broadband services as different access technologies have different characteristics and could provide complementary business opportunities to operators. 

For example, a dedicated fibre will always have greater capacity than shared radio, however the cost of installing the final fibre drop and network termination is high which makes a radio solution somewhat compelling.   The radio solution offers true fixed mobile convergence leading to a much wider range of revenue generating services mirroring contemporary lifestyle trends.

With 800 or 900MHz spectrum LTE is an extremely good solution for delivering broadband to rural communities, i.e. the final third as defined in the Digital Britain report.  A further point to note is the speed at which this solution could be deployed.  We envisage the potential for shared utility radio networks in rural areas that allow for market competition at the service layer.

12. For our final question we would like to ask about the UK deployment and timescale. It is a well known fact that the delays surrounding the redistribution of existing 900MHz (2G) spectrum for use by Mobile Broadband (3G and 4G / HSPA and LTE) services has been a significant stumbling block.

The use of 900Mhz would not only improve coverage but also make Mobile Broadband services cheaper to deliver. However delays in getting all operators to agree mean the situation might not be completely resolved until the end of 2010. How will this affect the UK launch of LTE (when can we expect it?) and which UK operators are looking to deploy the tech? 

ERICSSON: This question in the UK is very dependent on spectrum re-farming, the process to re-allocate frequencies to a different technology or service use. But it is important to understand the reason why. Any radio technology is strongly dependent on which frequency is deployed as higher frequencies mean more base station sites are required to provide national coverage and good indoor penetration. It is vital to have a wide range of frequencies in order to minimise costs. Whilst we appreciate that the process for allocating frequencies in the 800MHz, 900MHz and 2.6GHz bands is complex, we would encourage all the players to work together to support a speedy outcome for the benefit of consumers.

We would like to send our most sincere thanks to John Cunliffe for taking time out of his very busy schedule to talk with us and our readers; it is very much appreciated and acknowledged. In addition, shortly before completing this article, O2 announced its intention to begin trials of LTE technology within the next few months. Rival operators will soon follow.