Telecom to upgrade to UMTS
13 June 2007 — James PoleJuha Saarinen reports that Telecom has decided to upgrade to a UMTS-based network, using the same technology Vodafone is currently using.
The most interesting bit from Telecom’s press release is the following:-
Coverage will be provided utilising a blend of WCDMA/HSPA at 2100 MHz and GSM/EDGE at 850 MHz technologies.
In particular, 850 MHz spectrum will be utilised to ensure strong rural coverage is achieved, with 2100 MHz employed largely in cities and large metropolitan areas.
Note that Telecom plans to use the 850 MHz band — Telstra in Australia is using the same band for their NextG network which is replacing their CDMA network. However Telecom is using that band for EDGE while Telstra is using UMTS — EDGE is slower than UMTS, but I suppose it is cheaper to implement. The 850 MHz spectrum is currently used by the CDMA 027 network — however the new UMTS network will probably occupy the spectrum now left vacant by the closure of the AMPS Analogue network so the networks will be able to co-exist alongside each other in the same spectrum band.
Currently Vodafone is only using 2100 MHz — in line with their partners in Europe. However eventually I expect that the European networks (along with Vodafone NZ) will roll out UMTS on 900 MHz (complementing the GSM system already in operation) in rural areas, as soon as UMTS 900/2100 phones are introduced. The reason for this is that 900 MHz frequencies provide better rural coverage than 2100 MHz.
In my opinion Telecom is in an awkward position of having American 800 MHz and European 2100 MHz frequencies on the same network. They can not use 900MHz as they were forced to give up their 900 MHz licence in the early 1990’s — with that license being sold to Vodafone. They do have some 1800 MHz spectrum but that will not be of much use. The combination of 800/2100 makes Telecom’s network partly incompatible with Vodafone’s 900/2100 network. So in other words, despite both companies using the same technology to run their network, you might not be able to use the same phone on both networks.
From here there are two possibilities — either the handset manufactures will produce all-band phones for all markets (i.e. 800/900/1800/1900/2100 to suit both the European and American markets — and thus both Telecom and Vodafone’s networks) so that there will be no worry about what frequency your phone is using; or the status quo will continue where 900/1800/2100 is developed for European market (and Vodafone’s network) and 800/1900 developed for the American market (and Telecom’s network) separately.
I’m glad that Telecom has finally decided to migrate over to UMTS and GSM/EDGE, but I suspect that their choice to continue using 850 MHz will cause quite a few problems for them. If I was in their shoes I would seek to buy some 900 MHz spectrum off Vodafone (as they already hold all three 900MHz licenses) and using that to build out GSM EDGE at 900 MHz first in rural areas then later migrating over to UMTS at 900 MHz as soon as UMTS 900/2100 phones are available; with a long-term view of releasing the 800MHz spectrum back to the Government for other purposes. This would increase choice for consumers.
The future for Mobile Communications is bound to be very interesting here in New Zealand!
