Transcript Slide 1

The Importance of Regulation for Investment
Certainty and Facilitation of Further LTE
Deployments
Dr. Imad Hoballah
Acting Chairman and CEO
Head of Telecommunications Technologies Unit
Telecommunications Regulatory Authority
Vice Chairman,
Arab Spectrum Management Group
(ASMG)
Outline
• Importance of Regulation to Facilitate Substantial Coverage
Improvements
• Lessons Learnt from LTE Spectrum and Deployment Strategies in
Europe
 LTE and Mobile Broadband Bands in the Arab Region
• What is the most effective way for regulators to work with
operators?
• Beyond Spectrum Availability: Effective regulation to balance
between Mobile spectrum and contrasting spectrum uses for Other
Sectors
Importance of Regulation to Facilitate
Substantial Coverage Improvements
301 Operators are Investing in LTE in 95 Countries & 57
Commercial Networks in 32 Countries
57 commercial LTE networks as of march 2012
71 LTE network planned
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Regulators impose coverage and speed obligations on LTE Deployments
to Facilitate Substantial Coverage Improvements
Germany
Spain
Italy
Operators have to cover 90 percent of rural area’s of less than 5,000 inhabitants using
800 MHz before starting deployment in attractive regions.
Licensed operators on 800 MHz must jointly cover 90 percent of villages of less than
5,000 inhabitants with a speed of at least 30 Mbps by the end of 2019
Licensed operators have to cover 30 percent of a list of towns of less than 3000
inhabitants three years later (by the end of 2015), 75 percent five years later (by the end
of 2017), and 100 percent 7 years later (by the end of 2019)
France
In March 2011, French cabinet has approved a plan produced by ARCEP to impose a
99.6% population coverage requirement for 800MHz licenses
Sweden
• Licensee shall cover households and working places that do not today have basic
possibilities for broadband
Underlying Theme
• 90% LTE coverage of areas having less than 5000 inhabitants
• Opportunity to cover remote and underserved areas
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Source: Arthur D Little “LTE Spectrum and Network Strategies” 2012
Lessons Learnt from LTE Spectrum and
Deployment Strategies in Europe
Regulator Strategies in LTE Bands: Allocations and auctions
timing are key factors to control the bands values
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LTE bands allocations and auctions timing are strategic keys
to control the bands values by regulators
Strategy A
Lesson learned when auctioning off both Higher
Band and lower Band (800MHz +2600MHz)
simultaneously:
1) Bidders will focus on the Lower bands
(800MHz)
2) Low Bid competition on Higher Band
3) Lower Bands Average Value per MHz
can reach 10th of times more than that of
the Higher Band (2600 MHz)
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LTE bands allocations and auctions timing are strategic keys
to control the bands values by regulators
Strategy B
Lesson learned when Higher Band allocation and
auctioning is scheduled before Lower band
(2600MHz before 800MHz):
1. High Bid competition on Higher Band.
2. Low Bid competition on Lower Bands
(800MHz), without loosing the real value
of the band where the Average Value
per MHz still can reach up to 3 times
more than that of the Higher Bands
(2600 MHz).
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Strategy A Vs Strategy B
• Lower Band Average Value per MHz in strategy
A can reach up to 2 times more than when
strategy B is applied
• Strategy B allows the Maximization of the High
Band Average Value per MHz where it can reach
up to 2-3 times more than when strategy A is
applied
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LTE bands allocations and auctions timing are strategic keys
to control the bands values by regulators
6x
1 Year
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3x
3 Years
LTE bands allocations and auctions timing are strategic keys
to control the bands values by regulators
• Auction Timing and market Status are essential
keys to ensure a high bid competition in both
Higher and lower Band
• Spectrum auctioning strategies are governed by
Spectrum availability, Migration plans and
Re-farming plans.
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Mobile Operators Follow Two LTE Deployment Strategies:
800 MHz + 2600 MHz OR 1800/2600 MHz
800 MHz Attractive features
• Enables the best indoor coverage, which is critical as people will mostly be using LTE-based
data connections indoors on their smartphones, notebooks or tablet PCs
• Requires less than a tenth of the number of sites required for the same coverage at 2.6 GHz
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Source: Arthur D Little “LTE Spectrum and Network Strategies” 2012
Mobile Operators Follow Two LTE Deployment Strategies:
800 MHz + 2600 MHz OR 1800/2600 MHz
1800 MHz Optimal Features
• Maximizes capacity and coverage, and optimize operator’s cost structure
• Likely to be an important enabler for international roaming
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Source: Arthur D Little “LTE Spectrum and Network Strategies” 2012
LTE and Mobile Broadband Bands in the
Arab Region
LTE Deployments in Arab Countries
Bahrain
UAE
Egypt
Jordan
KSA
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• Regulator planed to offer later this year or in early 2013 2.6 GHz FDD, additional bands to
be offered on 1800 MHz and 900 MHz and 15 MHz of 1.9 GHz unpaired. .
• Regulator planed to release 790 ‒ 862 MHz by end of 2012 and make 2.6 GHz available
for LTE services.
• Etisalat announced commercial launch of its 2.6 GHz LTE FDD network on Sep 2011.
• Du Commercial launch of LTE FDD on1800 MHz is expected in 2012
Vodafone Egypt is trialing LTE technology on the 2.6GHz FDD and has achieved 100 Mbps
D/L and 47 Mbps U/L speeds. Mobinil and Etisalat Misr are both also trialling LTE
• TRC planed to make 2.6 GHz FDD available for LTE licenses.
• Zain Jordan is expected to commercially launch LTE service in 2012.
• STC and Etisalat (Mobily) commercially launched LTE TDD on Sep 2011 in band 40 (2.3
GHz)
• Zain commercially launched LTE1800 (FDD) service on Sep 2011
Source: GSA “Evolution to LTE report” April 2012
Lessons Learned From LTE Deployments in Arab Countries
High priority should be given for Re-farming of 2600
and 1800 MHz bands, ensuring at least a regional
Harmonization potential
 Since 2600 MHz Spectrum Lead Middle Eastern LTE
Deployments at this Time
 1800 MHz Spectrum to Lead Middle Eastern LTE
Deployments by 2015
Digital Migration should be accelerated:
 Congestion of sub–1 GHz Spectrum
 Increasing Demand and interest in the digital
dividend bands (700 and 800 MHz)
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Status of Prime Mobile Spectrum Bands in Lebanon
 1800 MHz band could serve as a primary band for LTE deployment for mobile broadband operators
 3G spectrum is available for additional players as 10 MHz FDD per operator is considered sufficient
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Source: TRA Lebanon April 2012
LTE Prime Bands and Other Mobile Broadband Bands in
Lebanon
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Source: TRA Lebanon April 2012
What is the most effective way for
regulators to work with operators?
Regulator’s relation with operators should be driven by the
golden triple Key : 1- flexibility, 2-Transparancy and 3-clarity
Public consultations, Forum organization, workshops.
Regular Public publishing and communications of spectrum
allocation plans and policies.
Encouragement of Telco sector stakeholders to participate in ITU
and WRC’s meetings.
Maintaining Investment Certainty Via flexibility, transparency and
clarity in regulations, spectrum allocations and policies. And
considering regional harmonization and potential for international
roaming.
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Regulators should demonstrate and communicates their
commitment to ensure Investment Certainty
 Decision on coverage obligations whether to be applied on specific spectrum bands or licensed
mobile operators irrespective of the operating band
 Re-farm spectrum bands thus making room for LTE (and other technologies) while insuring a
minimum level of harmonization.
 Decision on technology neutrality: Regulator to license the bands and letting the operator
decide on the technology to use
 Adopting new technologies and measures to increase efficient utilization of spectrum and to
resolve interference issues such as:
• Cognitive radios that enable the use of noncontiguous chunks of spectrum bands
• Spectrum-sensing technologies that allow bands to be shared by multiple users
• Technologies allowing spectrum bands to support more efficient modulation
 Assessment of the impact of migration on consumers, operators, and cost to economy versus
long term benefits of refarming or liberalizing certain bands of the spectrum
 Setting rules and procedures to adopt infrastructure sharing, particularly involving active sharing
(e.g., Single RAN and Spectrum Sharing) and passive sharing of towers and ducts
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Beyond Spectrum Availability: Effective regulation to
balance between Mobile spectrum and contrasting
spectrum uses for Other Sectors
International Experience to Address the Balance Between Mobile
Spectrum and Contrasting Spectrum Use for Other Sectors
France
A Digital Coordination Council grouping the audiovisual communications and
telecommunications regulatory parties will be set up to allocate the new digital dividend
frequencies in an efficient manner.
The transition from analogue to digital TV in the UK is managed by Digital UK, an
independent organization that has been created to lead this process.
UK
Winners of the 800 MHz could have to shoulder the £100m cost of ensuring that signals do
not interfere with digital terrestrial TV.
USA
Incentive Auctions to Free-Up Additional Mobile Broadband Spectrum.
The FCC would auction the spectrum that licensees voluntarily return for wireless broadband
services, with licensees retaining a portion of the auction proceeds.
The FCC allocated a good chunk of spectrum in the recently re-farmed Digital Dividend to
national Public Safety including both Narrowband and Broadband applications
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Conclusion
 Regulators utilize LTE deployments to facilitate substantial coverage improvements by
imposing obligations such as 90% LTE coverage of areas with < 5000 inhabitants
 In Europe, auction results show that LTE bands allocations and auctions timing strategies
are key factors in controlling the bands values
 Best practice indicate that mobile operators follow two LTE Band pairings deployment
strategies: 800 MHz + 2600 MHz OR 1800/2600 MHz
 Regulator’s relation with operators should be driven by the golden triple Key
 flexibility
 Transparency
 clarity
 Maintaining investment certainty dictates that regulators should address several challenges:
 Adopting active and passive infrastructure sharing
 Refarming spectrum bands to make room for LTE deployment
 Deciding whether coverage obligations should be per spectrum bands or on licensee basis
 Government/ Regulators must address the balance between mobile spectrum and
contrasting spectrum Use for other sectors (Broadcast, Public Safety, etc.)
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Thank You