4G Wireless

As the auction for German airwave frequencies continues in Mainz, the rights to 800 megahertz frequencies are likely to be hotly contested lots, experts say.

Those frequencies are suitable for a new generation of wireless data transfer expected to bring multimedia content to mobile devices at rates up to 100 times faster than conventional DSL Internet connections.

They are part of the so-called "digital dividend," which became available as German television signals were switched to a digital format in recent years.

After the gold rush

The last similar auction hosted in 2000 by Germany's Federal Network Agency was marked by a kind of gold-rush mentality, as mobile providers competed for rights to available UMTS frequencies. But the building of those networks took much longer than expected, and the hoped-for technological edge never quite materialized.

But a new technological standard called Long Term Evolution (LTE) is available this time, and experts say it will revolutionize the mobile Internet as it becomes established.

Erich Zielinski, head of Alcatel-Lucent's LTE program in Germany, said the technology will greatly enhance end-user applications such as mobile gaming or video downloads. The company has a live test network in Stuttgart.

"Video streaming from the Web is an attractive application, and it will come not in the way we're familiar with from our mobile phones today, but it will come in high definition. The Internet experience we are used to from our home PCs will become mobile in the near future and will provide the same, positive experiences," he told Deutsche Welle.

Zielinski also said LTE networks will have applications beyond consumer electronics. For instance, a car repair shop could remotely monitor electronic motor management systems and send software updates wirelessly.

Designed specifically for data

Unlike UMTS technology, which supports both voice and data transfer, LTE is designed specifically for data transfer, which speeds it up drastically. It also boasts a much quicker reaction time, and LTE phone conversations are transferred in the form of digital data packets.

Another advantage of LTE technology is that it supports "self-organizing networks," meaning when a new base station is set up, it automatically links into the network and begins to function. That makes it easier and less expensive for wireless providers to expand their networks.

Manfred Breul of industry trade confederation Bitkom said the new technology is needed to supply a growing demand for mobile data.

"We are experiencing a radical change in the field of mobile Internet access. Up until a few years ago it was something on the fringes, and it has since developed rapidly," he told Deutsche Welle. "The number of users is increasing very, very quickly."

The 800 megahertz frequencies of the "digital dividend" are particularly desirable to the four companies participating in the auction – T-Mobile, Vodafone, E-Plus and O2 Telefonica – because they can cover a radius of twenty to thirty kilometers (12 to 18 miles) around each base station.

But companies are also bidding on 1.8 GHz, 2 GHz and 2.6 GHz frequencies, which have smaller coverage radii and tend to be used in urban areas. While the companies may get approval to use LTE technology on those frequencies, they may also use them to expand their UMTS networks.

"The advantage of UMTS in the 2 GHz range is that each and every device available on the market today supports it. If a company expands its network using that technology, its customers can immediately begin to get the benefits," Breul said.

According to Zielinski, however, consumers won't have to wait long for LTE-compatible devices to become commercially available.

"What ultimately is critical is that the development of the network infrastructure and end-user devices need to go hand-in-hand. We've set up our internal LTE development program in a way so that we are ready after the auction in Germany to begin the network roll-out together with our customers," wireless providers, he said.

Effects on media consumption

In Duesseldorf, partners including Vodafone and North Rhine-Westphalian public broadcaster WDR collaborated in an LTE project to test signal strength in areas disrupted by heavy wireless traffic.

Ruediger Malfeld, technical and production manager of WDR, said he believes LTE represents technical progress necessary to keep up with drastically changing patterns of media consumption.

"It's certain that many of the apparent uses for smartphones – watching daily news in 100 seconds or videos on YouTube – will become more intensely used forms of media distribution," he told Deutsche Welle. "We're also hoping to be able to connect camera teams to studios using LTE so they can transfer video quickly."

Other end-user areas expected to benefit from LTE are online gaming, because of the technology's quick reaction time, and wireless advertising, because of its fast transfer rate.

Author: Gerhard Schneibel
Editor: Jennifer Abramsohn