| Telstra's wireless plans questioned |
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| by Stuart Corner | |
| Tuesday, 15 November 2005 | |
  
The announcement comes only weeks after the launch of Telstra's Mobile Broadband on its CDMA EV-DO network, accompanied by a splurge of expensive advertising, and it sounds the death knell for that technology in Australia (Telstra is promising free replacement of customer equipment). However, according to rival broadband wireless access provider, Unwired, the decision indicates fundamental problems with the EV-DO technology and is of questionable merit. Unwired says "EV-DO has not delivered for Telstra and the carrier has clearly come to this conclusion...Telstra continues to pin its hopes on a mobile network 'voice' solution, rather than a dedicated wireless data network offering. With the expected exponential increase in demand for capacity and speed this is a short-sighted decision by the company." According to Unwired, "HSDPA/3G is an underpowered technology which will not meet the needs of people looking for a broadband equivalent wireless service. HSDPA/3G has a smaller cell size, less coverage and capacity capability so the cost for the network will be substantially higher than for other networks such as WiMAX networks." Unwired claims that the limitations of the technology will be greater in rural areas where Telstra has less spectrum. "HSDPA carriers are 5MHz wide and need 5MHz downlink and another 5MHz in the uplink direction. Given this, carriers need to 'find' 15MHz paired spectrum (30MHz total) to support a network that limits interference levels. Since Telstra seems to have access to only between 5-15 MHz paired in the 800-900GHz band, we believe they don't have enough spectrum in regional areas to provide a broadband equivalent service." According to Unwired, "WiMAX will overtake 3G as the primary means for fast Internet connectivity as consumers increasingly opt for a laptop-based portable solutions. The mobile screen format is just not a compelling content experience and 3G will continue to have capacity and speed limitations." Unwired claims "HSDPA can only match WiMAX in microcell environments – in macrocells where the effective radius is more than 2km HSDPA cannot match Unwired technology capabilities. HSDPA is at least one generation retarded compared to WiMAX on the road towards a 4G environment." However Telstra is already talking about 4G and it could well be that it has no intention of using the 3G network for broadband data on a large scale but of using a different radio access technology that makes as much use as possible of the underlying infrastructure of the 3G network: towers, cell sites, backhaul etc. Once it achieves its vision of an all IP network addition of an alternative access technology for the 'last mile' will, in general become easier and cheaper. |
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