2 edits | reply to patcat88
Re: Sprint switches to LTE said by patcat88:The question is, what handsets will be available? If no phone manufacturer in asia wants to make a 1 carrier phone, the carrier will pay dearly for those custom handsets, and the customers won't come if the competitor has a cheaper handset/aircard. What if nobody makes an LTE chipset for that band? Will the carrier really pay Qualcomm or Infineon to make a custom chipset? Exotic wireless bands usually wind up being used for P2P backhaul or sold off or graveyarded (thanks FCC). Hard to say, but its not stopping KDDI from deploying LTE on oddball 1.5GHz spectrum in Japan.
No PCS phones come with G band today. PCS G is as exotic as SMR. SMR band is really walkie talkies/taxi dispatch bands that were duct taped together to form a cell network by Nextel in the late 1980s/early 1990s in a very inventive way. The whole rebanding thing stems from that.
no phones today come with support for LTE. Does that mean it will never happen? No, of course not. Hardware is manufactured as it is needed. When there is a need for G band support, then it will be built. Moreover, there's nothing "exotic" about PCS G band or SMR spectrum.
ca.news.finance.yahoo.com/s/30102008/30/link-f-cnw-new-wireless-entrant-bmv-holdings-names-former-bell.html
Qualcomm Inc., the industry-leading chipset maker for handheld phones, has incorporated support for the PCS G Band spectrum in its standard chipsets for leading U.S. carriers. This technology can be readily applied to handsets in the Canadian market. "Qualcomm's comprehensive product portfolio includes innovative products that support nearly every frequency band in the world allocated for cellular data services," said Steve Brown, Senior Director of Product Management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. "G Band spectrum represents exciting new opportunities for consumer wireless services. Qualcomm is happy to support BMV's efforts to help commercialize devices operating in these frequencies."
 something tells me it won't be a problem.... As far as the SMR spectrum, after rebanding, they will have 14MHz of contiguous spectrum that is in the middle of or adjacent to the frequencies that Europe will be using for 4G. Spectrum-wise, I just don't think they're in as precarious a position as you seem to be trying to make it appear. |
