Monthly Archives: February 2013

UK 4G Spectrum Auction Concludes – A Brief Analysis

The long-awaited 800 MHz and 2600 MHz UK auction concluded today with a total of £2.34 billion, or $3.63 billion (Ofcom set reserve price at £1.3 billion). The winners of 60 MHz of digital dividend spectrum in 800 MHz band include EE, 3G, O2 and Vodafone. In the 2.6 GHz band, Vodafone, EE and BT divided 185 MHz… Read More »

The Hype and Reality of Small Cells Performance

Heterogeneous networks (HetNets) consist of large (macro) cells with high transmit power (typically 5 W – 40 W) and small cells with low transmit power (typically 100 mW – 2 W). The small cells are distributed beneath the large cells and can run on the same frequency as the large cell (co-channel), or on a different frequency. As… Read More »

More and More Small Cells, But Where’s the Gain?

Small cells are meant as a solution to address the explosive growth in mobile data services, right? Well, the answer is: it depends! They can be a solution under certain conditions, but not always. Yes, there could be situations where small cells add little if any gain. In fact, more than one operator mentioned to me little or… Read More »