LTE TDD growth
The latest Status of the Global LTE TDD Market Report published by GSA, the Global mobile Suppliers Association, has confirmed a rising number of operator commitments to LTE TDD (TD-LTE) network deployments globally.
There is also strong growth in new commercial LTE TDD services, the rapid expansion in the choice of user devices – especially smartphones – and accelerating subscriber growth.
GSA believes that more than 100 operators are currently investing in LTE TDD. 39 operators, which is around 1 in 8 LTE operators, have commercially launched LTE TDD (TD-LTE) systems in 26 countries.
Another 48 operators are currently deploying or planning networks. Added to this are a number of operators who are undertaking technology trials and studies.
GSA has calculated that almost 120 operators globally are investing resources in LTE TDD.
LTE is an open standard developed by 3GPP and incorporates flexibility to operate in either paired (FDD Frequency Division Duplexing mode) or unpaired (TDD Time Division Duplexing mode) spectrum, using various channel bandwidths.
The vast majority of the LTE standard is identical for both modes, and ensures maximum commonality of design and production economies of scale.
The TDD mode of LTE is the most efficient and highest performing radio access network technology for operators with unpaired spectrum.
Within the current total of 39 commercially launched LTE TDD networks, 13 operators have launched converged systems: using both TDD and FDD mode in the networks. GSA confirmed this is a growing industry trend.
For example, some operators in India are deploying converged networks using LTE FDD 1800 MHz (band 3) and TDD 2.3 GHz (band 40) spectrum, which is a combination supported by 152 user terminals.
The devices ecosystem for the TDD mode is mature and has expanded rapidly. Within the total of 1,889 LTE user devices that have been introduced to the market, 530 products can operate in the LTE TDD mode (TD-LTE). GSA said 85 device manufacturers have launched LTE TDD products.
“TDD operators are focusing more on personal mobility and the smartphone is the key segment. Recent progress has been excellent and 184 TDD smartphone products have now been announced, which is 87% more than the total in March 2014,” said Alan Hadden, President of GSA.
A year ago, 52% of LTE TDD devices were routers (including personal hotspots), while smartphones had only 10% share. Now routers make up 38% of TDD products, and the smartphone category has grown its share to 35%.
Bands 40 (2.3 GHz) and 38 (2.6 GHz) have the largest choice of TDD (TD-LTE) terminals, and each band being supported by 68% of all LTE TDD devices. Terminal support for band 39 is 38%, band 41 is 34%, and band 42 is 4.5%
96% of TDD smartphones are multimode, supporting one or more 3G system technologies, as well as LTE TDD.
Band 40 (2.3 GHz) is used in most commercially launched LTE networks currently. The breakdown of commercially launched LTE TDD networks by spectrum used in service is as follows:
- Band 40 (2.3 GHz) is used in 19 networks
- Band 38 (2.6 GHz) is used in 9 networks
- Band 41 (2.6 GHz) is used in 8 networks
- Band 42 or 43 (3.5 GHz) is used in 6 networks
- Band 39 (1.9 GHz) is used in 1 network
GSA forecasts that the global TDD share of LTE subscriptions, fuelled by its popularity in China with 14 million LTE TDD subscribers by end June 2014, will surge from around 5% in Q1 2014 to over 15% by the end of 2014.
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