[3GScottishUser]

From The Inquirer (19/11/2006):

AN OF-THE-CUFF remark made recently by O2's group CTO, Dave Williams, hinted at a hidden extra cost for handset vendors. O2 will be requiring its suppliers to build in support for UMTS 900 from now onwards.
In Europe – unlike the USA – the spectrum allocated for 3G was around 2100 MHz. By comparison 900 MHz was utilised for standard GSM (2G).

However, the industry has discovered that it might be more cost-effective to deploy 3G and HSDPA (Superfast 3G) technology in 900 MHz spectrum. Especially since they already own it.

Apparently, the lower frequency provides a significant increase in the coverage area of a base station and, potentially, enables better signal penetration for in-building coverage.

Hence, back in July [2006], O2 participated in UMTS 900 trials with Lucent Technologies and Qualcomm (surprise, surprise) using its existing HSDPA enabled network – Manx Telecom.

"UMTS 900 may help solve the 3G coverage issues in Europe, since providing full coverage at 2100 MHz is very expensive," Dave Williams said earlier.

It's not clear presently how much extra would be added to the bill of materials for a typical 3G handset if it has to support UMTS 900 immediately. Especially if only Qualcomm is ready with product.


http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35825

[3g-g]

I completely agree with what O2 say, 900Mhz spectrum allocation for UMTS delivery would be fantastic, however, they don't own that bit of the spectrum for ever, there's a limited lease on it and I'm not sure how Ofcom would deal with it. Come the end of their lease what are they going to do? If O2 start using the frequency for UMTS, Vodafone will do the same, so where does that leave T-Mobile, Orange and Three? I'd of thought they'd have grounds for complaint due to the lesser amount of money the other two operators would need to spend to ensure geographic coverage. Also, if the government see that O2 are using the current frequency to their advantage, when it comes to the end of the lease if O2 want it back I'd expect there to be a hefty fee involved! And look where that got us when the current UMTS frequencies were for sale!

It's a good idea, however, one littered with regulatory pot holes I imagine!

[Ben]

I've got to say I also look forward to the day UMTS is used at 900MHz if it means we can get the sort of coverage and quality that we get right now on GSM. 2100MHz doesn't exactly seem to be performing well for 3G!

[miffed]

Hmmmm
G .... if one "just happened" to have linear amplifiers , Preamps , antennas etc knocking around from 934mhz CB days - would one be able to construct a "superphone" that was always in HSDPA coverage ? :D

[3GScottishUser]

Interesting......

I know 02 and vodafone lease the 900MHz spectrum but I'm not sure if they are restricted to what they can use it for in terms of mobile technology.

Did'nt they both used to use some of that allocation for the old analogue services 1n the 1980's and early 90's?

[3g-g]

Interesting......

I know 02 and vodafone lease the 900MHz spectrum but I'm not sure if they are restricted to what they can use it for in terms of mobile technology.

Did'nt they both used to use some of that allocation for the old analogue services 1n the 1980's and early 90's?

As far as I know, and TACS was before my time TBH, the old analogue was on the same frequencies (or thereabouts) as O2 and Voda use for their current GSM offering. I've had a look through Ofcom and can't find anything that specifies that you couldn't use 900Mhz for UMTS, however, there's nothing that says you can either. The only thing I could see that may be a stumbling block is that the 2G licence specifications all relate to the 900 and 1800 ranges, and the 3G specs mention the 1900 - 2100 range. So, I imagine if they were allowed they'd need to have these rewritten.

[Hands0n]

TACS and GSM did indeed use the same frequencies at one time, before the former was phased out completely and GSM took up the slack. There was a time when you could listen in on TACS using a regular hand-held scanner. Not that I ever did such an illegal thing!