Mobile Operator Grabs 4G Lead In UK — But Will Anything Work On It?

pbahra writes "Finally, the U.K. is going to get a 4G mobile-Internet service. For a country that was once at the cutting edge of mobile telephony, its lack of high-speed mobile broadband was becoming a severe embarrassment. Everything Everywhere, Britain's largest mobile network operator, has been granted permission by U.K. regulator Ofcom to provide next-generation LTE services as early as Sept. 11. Although Ofcom's ruling is a significant step for the U.K.'s telecoms future, the choice of frequency — 1,800 MHz — means that devices that can take advantage of the much faster data speeds that LTE offers — theoretically up to 100 megabits a second — are limited. Currently the only significant market using the frequency is South Korea. While 1,800 MHz is in use in a small number of European countries, and in Australia, numbers of users are small in comparison to the U.S. This means devices may be harder to get and cost more. So, anyone who thinks their new iPad is going to zip along at 4G speeds is going to be disappointed; the new iPad only supports U.S. LTE frequencies. For the same reason, those hanging on for the new iPhone, expected to be announced on Sept. 12, in the hope that it will be LTE-compliant are unlikely to have good news. Even if there is a new iPhone, and even if it is LTE-enabled, will it operate on Everything Everywhere's frequency?"

Comments

Worrisome

[FeelGood314]

I'm currently working on Smart Energy products for consumers homes (ZigBee). We have devices working and interoperating in the US and else where at 2.4 GHz. The UK wants to use 900MHz because at the physical layer it has better range. I was kind of hoping the UK would give up on doing things their own way. This doesn't give me much faith.

Re:Worrisome

[shitzu]

In mobile communications, it's the US that uses a "different" frequency band than the rest of the world, not UK.
And what has zigbee's use of *unlicensed* frequency band for short range communications have to do with anything?

Re:The LTE frequency conundrum is a big headache

[arkhan_jg]

Incidentally, further to my above answer, 4G rollout is in its infancy in the EU because 3.5G (HSPA+) rollout has been so large. HSPA+ is fairly comparable to LTE in speed in real world usage (though LTE can go faster with enough bandwidth and antennas, 300Mb/s vs 168Mb/s); so with 3.5G so widely available, there hasn't been the driving need to push out 4G LTE very urgently.

I understand some mobile carriers are actually calling HSPA+ 4G in the US; which is a bit cheeky, really. On that basis, the EU has had 4G widely deployed for quite a while now...