Extra 3G Frequency Block for SMART
SMART, one the largest mobile phone carriers in the country, has been awarded a 3G frequency block like three (3) other players. However, SMART is a bit different as it got 15Mhz instead of the 10Mhz other carriers were assigned. What does this mean for the end user?
There have been numerous SMART vs Globe 3G discussions out there. The juices being the one is a blog posting by Migz Paraz. In the email (in the blog), it says that the additional frequency will only help SMART with respect to cell capacity. Well, I might want to add to points already raised. The relationship of Available Frequency, Capacity and Call Bandwidth can be crudely defined below:
Capacity (users/km^2) * Call Bandwidth (bps) = K (users/cell) * Available Frequency (khz) * Efficiency * Density (cell/km^2)
where K is a constant affecting the entry an exit of users in a give cell. Both bandwidth and number of subscribers are affected by the amount of available frequency. Based on this formula, SMART can choose to put BTSes closer together (increasing density and is current practice if the subscriber density of the area is high) to allow for the additional frequency to be used for more call bandwidth. So there is a way to actually give more call bandwidth to the subscriber. Alternatively, SMART can take home the saving by spacing out the BTSes further than usual.
Ok let me speculate now. If SMART, Globe, SUN and CURE deploy WCDMA in (Frequency Division Duplexing) FDD mode then they will need to have separate upstream and downstream frequency blocks. So the carriers with 10Mhz block would divide it into 5Mhz up and 5Mhz down. So technically SMART can use the extra 5Mhz block for additional downstream capacity? Hmm…
Ok this is assuming that their backhaul capacity is enough, they don’t take home the savings buy spacing out BTSes further away, and they actually use the extra frequency block for additional downstream traffic. Too many assumptions.
On the other hand with Intel going 3G as annouced in 3GSM, would this mean death to SMART’s WiFi/WiMAX strategy? Are they going to bet on 3G as their wireless broadband strategy?
