An Ignoble Experiment

2. Qualcomm, MLB take a swing at improved connectivity

AT&T (NYSE:T) has updated much of its network to accommodate deployment of HSPA+ metrocells around the country, but the rollout of more advanced multi-standard metrocells is at least a year away, according to the senior executive heading up the program.

"We've got a significant portion of the country updated" to accommodate HSPA+ metrocells that will improve voice coverage and data service on AT&T's HSPA+ network, Gordon Mansfield, AVP of AT&T Small Cell Solutions, told Light Reading Mobile.

Mansfield, who is also chairman of the Small Cell Forum, said during this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, that AT&T has successfully tested and deployed indoor and outoor metrocells in three different environments: a neighborhood in St. Louis, Mo.; a high-rise in New York City; and an enterprise in Milwaukee, Wis. In all three deployments, AT&T was able to deliver nearly 100 percent usable coverage to customers that before had a less-than-desirable network experience.

The carrier is also working on what it calls Multi-Standard Metrocells (MSMs), or small cells that combine LTE, HSPA+ and Wi-Fi into a single unit, but these are apparently proving tricky as the carrier appears to be in no rush to hustle the MSM devices out of the lab and into real-world deployments.

"It would be foolish to think less than a year" for the MSM deployments, Mansfield told Light Reading Mobile, but he added the rollout effort probably will not take two years either.

Speaking at the Citi Global Internet, Media & Communications Conference held during January in Las Vegas, John Donovan, senior executive vice president of AT&T technology and network operations, emphasized the importance of multi-standard small cells in the operator's network plans. "Our objective for 2014 is that we won't do any small cell or in-building systems that don't include Wi-Fi," he said.

AT&T announced last November that it intends to deploy more than 40,000 small cells over the next two years as part of its expansive Project Velocity IP (or VIP). The project also will entail the rollout of 10,000 new macrocells and 1,000 distributed antenna systems (DAS) throughout its service footprint.

During AT&T's Innovation Showcase in New York last week, Mansfield indicated that the end-of-2015 target for 40,000 small cells still seems quite feasible. "At this point I see no reason to believe that we won't hit that number...and we could revise it next year," he said.

The operator exhibited version 2 of an Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU) 9364 outdoor metrocell, designed to extend WCDMA and HSPA capacity to public outdoor places. However, Mansfield said AT&T expects to solicit multiple vendors to supply its HSPA+ metrocells and MSMs.

For more:
- see this Light Reading Mobile article
- see this Engadget article

Read more about: HSPA+, AT&T
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By Tammy Parker

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3. Weightless 1.0 standard takes TV white space into M2M realm

In yet another example highlighting the growing importance of mobile broadband technology to the success of major sporting events, Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) and MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM)--the company handling interactive media and Internet company for Major League Baseball--signed a multi-year agreement aimed at solving connectivity challenges in certain ballparks. In addition, Qualcomm is now an official technology partner of MLBAM.

Engineers from the chipmaker's Qualcomm Technologies subsidiary will provide in-ballpark assessment and planning at select ballparks during the next two years, where they will conduct extensive tests to ensure Wi-Fi, 3G and LTE connectivity is optimized.

"Qualcomm has been preparing for an astounding 1000x increase in data demand, and we are leading the charge with MLBAM to provide passionate baseball fans with access to digital content, resulting in unparalleled in-ballpark experiences," said Anand Chandrasekher, Qualcomm senior vice president and CMO.

The league has been working this year to improve the baseball experience via improved communications for not only game attendees but team coaches and managers as well.

In January, T-Mobile USA announced a multi-year deal under which it became the MLB's official wireless sponsor and agreed to power a new on-field wireless communication system connecting managers in select MLB dugouts to coaches in bullpens. The new systems will make use of picocell technology installed into teams' dugouts.

T-Mobile also is expected to leverage its modernized HSPA+ and LTE networks to enhance and expand wireless coverage and connectivity at MLB games for attending fans.

Further, the operator and MLBAM are partnering to create digital media experiences optimized for smartphones and tablets, with an emphasis on customized content available exclusively for the carrier's subscribers.

MLBAM manages the official league site, www.MLB.com, and each of the 30 individual Club sites. MLBAM claims to power more live events on the Internet than any other website in the world.

For more:
- see this Qualcomm release

Read more about: baseball, Qualcomm
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By Tammy Parker

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4. SoCs for metrocells vs. femtocells on diverging paths

The use of TV white-space (TVWS) spectrum for machine-to-machine communications received a significant boost with the ratification of the version 1.0 core specification of Weightless standard, which vendors can now use as a basis for producing interoperable products.

Two years of work resulted in passage of a set of specs encompassing 600-plus pages at the plenary conference of the Weightless Special Interest Group (SIG), which touted Weightless' "ground breaking cost savings" that are said to be comparable to personal-area networking technologies such as Bluetooth. The Cambridge, UK-based group previously said a common M2M standard for TVWS would drive down the cost of TVWS chipsets to less than $2.

The standard is also supposed to enable low-power consumption that "allows operation of battery-powered terminals utilizing single primary cells for periods of more than 10 years," according to the group.

The benefits of using TVWS for M2M--or any mobile broadband service actually--is that the low-frequency spectrum enables a large range of coverage, supposedly up to 10 kilometers, and excellent in-building penetration. Depending upon world region, the preferred spectrum generally falls somewhere in the 450-800 MHz range. In the United States, TV bands consist of 6 MHz channels primarily in the 470-698 MHz UHF band.

Weightless is a global, open, FRAND-Z standard, meaning fair, reasonable, non-discriminatory and zero cost. The SIG has said the first end products using Weightless technology are expected to roll out his year.

In March, the Weightless SIG said its roster had surpassed 600 members. Promoter group members of the Weightless standard include: ARM, Cable & Wireless, CSR and Neul. Neul announced in February that it had initiated testing of its first Weightless chipset called Iceni.

The Weightless standard is meant as a complement to the IEEE 802.22 standard for TVWS-based wireless regional area networks (WRANs), which are designed to deliver 22-29 Mbps over a radius of 10-30 kilometers. While 802.22 is designed to support high-bandwidth, high-power terminals and a relatively small number of users per base station, Weightless is aimed squarely at M2M services that require low bandwidth and low-power terminals and can serve many thousands of devices per base station.

The WhiteSpace Alliance has adopted IEEE 802.22-2011 into its Wi-FAR specification.

For more:
- see this Weightless release

Read more about: White Space, WhiteSpace Alliance
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By Tammy Parker

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5. CDW taking Wi-Fi, multimedia on the road

The small cell market is bifurcating between public access and metrocell equipment vs. consumer-grade femtocells, resulting in two distinct roadmaps for sales of baseband processors for small cells, according to ABI Research.

Baseband system-on-a-chip (SOC) platforms for public access or metrocell equipment, which is targeted at higher price and feature points, will sell in smaller volumes than less costly baseband SoCs for femtocells installed in homes and businesses, said ABI.

"The difference in price points is explained by the fact that enterprise and consumer femtocells are, as the name implies, consumer grade, and with performance levels much less than their metrocell cousins, less costly components can be used. Conversely, public access metrocells are ruggedized, often for outdoor use, and come with advanced features which allow them to handle many simultaneous subscribers often in simultaneous multimode 3G/LTE, and increasingly Wi-Fi, at much higher RF power levels than a femtocell," said ABI.

The firm ranks Mindspeed as the leader in small cell baseband market share, followed by Texas Instruments and Broadcom. Mindspeed dominates 3G small cells closely followed by Broadcom. However, Freescale has more than 50 percent market share in LTE small cells, followed by Texas Instruments in second place.

Examing public access metrocells as a standalone category, ABI found that vendor proprietary ASIC solutions attracted the top market share, followed by Freescale and Texas Instruments. "This is because vendors such as Huawei, Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and Samsung and to some extent, Nokia Siemens Networks, all are using ASICs in their designs, particularly in their picocell and microcell products," said Nick Marshall, ABI principal analyst.

For more:
- see this ABI release

Read more about: Texas Instruments, ASICs
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By Tammy Parker

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