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Spectrum Fragmentation Means Pricier Mobile Networking
alphadogg writes "The plethora of spectrum bands used for LTE will result in more expensive devices, and also make the ability to roam globally using the technology less likely, according to industry organization GSM Association's research arm. Wireless Intelligence predicts there will be 38 different spectrum frequency combinations used in LTE deployments by 2015, thanks to ongoing spectrum auctions, license renewals and reallocation initiatives across a wide range of frequency bands. The number of combinations means economies of scale won't be as good and prices won't come down as much as they could if fewer spectrum bands were used as volumes increase, Joss Gillet, a senior analyst for Wireless Intelligence."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software-defined_radio
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
You guys in the U.S. don't know how lucky you have it. In Canada we get ass-reamed. Even Virgin Mobile Canada charges $35/month just for 500 megabytes of data.. my understanding is that in the U.S. that would get you heaps of data and a few hundred minutes. You might have it bad, but here in Canada we have it far, far worse!
Radio Spectrum starts out as public property - selling it, a limited resource, with unknown but extensive economic effects in the future, is a bad idea. I strongly believe we should nationalize radio spectrum and lease it out, for limited periods (a dozen years? two dozen, tops.) to companies to use as part of their product.. Given how fast technology moves, and how useful (in unknowable ways) Radio Spectrum will be in the future, we are selling away our birthright..
I was just wondering this the other day...it seems to me that for a handset manufacturer it would make sense to put all of CDMA/TDMA/GSM/LTE/HSPA+ etc onto one chip, and define the frequencies and protocol by some BIOS settings. That way the same phone could be sold to every mobile carrier. I would think it should also be possible to include many antennae or fractal antennae.
Is this already going on? Or are handset manufacturers really putting different chips in the same handset destined for different carriers?
1^2=1; (-1)^2=1; 1^2=(-1)^2; 1=-1; 1=0.
It's not particularly hard to do on a chipset, using DDS technology. What is necessary, are external filters for the specific frequencies/bands, but stuffing different filters/antennas on essentially the same board doesn't really hurt economies of scale, when each band may represent millions of handsets. There's not much economy of scale gained between building 1 million of something, and building 2 million of the same thing, at least when you're talking about $50+ things (i.e. at that scale, you're saving pennies, not dollars).
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Because this article is a thinly-veiled plea to give all the spectrum to Verizon.
Can the handset makers put their foot down? Can they simply say: we only support this list of 5 major frequencies that are used worldwide? Phones would be smaller if they didn't have to be 5-band (or more).
Seriously, all these frequencies is stupid. People need phones that work world wide.
If I was Samsung and Verizon wants a phone for their LTE network, I would tell them. 1) you must promise now to buy x ( 1 million? ) at an inflated price. 2) You must pay Y million ( 50 million? ) today to cover our development costs to build a phone that works on only your stupid network. 3) We have the right to make it a one band phone. If your network coverage is bad, it will not be able to switch over to another network.