China Telecom's LTE Test Network Expands Again

The latest news shows that China Telecom’s 4G trial network equipment will start bidding in August. China Telecom requires the 4G trial network to cut access to the network at the end of November. Before the end of the year, key cities will meet the requirements for trial commercial use. To this end, China Telecom will completely stop the expansion of CDMA networks and non-urgent projects, and concentrate all efforts on ensuring the smooth development of the LTE trial network. This progress and scale exceeds the market's expectation that Telecom will launch a large-scale LTE construction after the release of 4G licenses.

4G network to complete the cutover at the end of November

The construction of China Telecom’s 4G trial network exceeds the industry’s predictions in scale and speed. Earlier in the Tianyi Mobile Trade Fair held in mid-June, the chairman of China Telecom Wang Xiaochu released the positive signal of LTE network construction, pointing out that hybrid networking is an inevitable choice. At that time, many people believed that China Telecom would conduct small-scale tests, and there would be no “action” if the license was not issued. However, soon after, China Telecom’s plan for rapid network construction has been confirmed by more and more sources.

At the end of June this year, relevant persons of China Telecom disclosed the latest development of China Telecom 4G. The pilot of the telecommunication LTE network changed from 4 provinces to 31 provinces, and key cities gradually launched the TDD+FDD hybrid network.

“Actually, some suppliers have already delivered products to the scene and started assembly and construction.” According to a person close to the Chinese telecommunications sources, on the eve of the opening of the 4G equipment tender for China Telecom, local operators and equipment vendors have already been busy, and even some places have been built. Multiple base stations. Compared with China Mobile, China Telecom’s task is even more urgent. China Telecom requires the core network to complete the tender by the end of August this year. All equipment will arrive at the end of September and will be cut into the access network at the end of November. The wireless network also requires the completion of the cut access network by the end of November.

According to the recent exposure of the China Telecom LTE network construction plan, in addition to the construction progress, China Telecom has made clear plans for network coverage, service bearing, equipment selection, investment, networking, network interoperability and frequency strategy.

In terms of network coverage, TD-LTE mainly covers hotspots with dense traffic in the selected local network cities, and suburban areas where there is business demand but the area is not matured. In the process of urbanization, TD-LTE does not currently have fiber to the home. Rich rural areas. The LTE FDD will be used as the main urban area of ​​the local network city, as well as the urban areas of some developed counties and important scenic areas of Grade 4A and above.

In terms of voice, China Telecom stated that it will initially select the SVLTE solution. The terminal supports voice and data concurrently. In the future, it will consider adopting VoLTE in time to undertake voice services. In frequency band selection, China Telecom hopes to win 1.8GHz as the preferred frequency for deploying LTE FDD, and 2.1GHz as an auxiliary band. For TD-LTE, China Telecom pilot project will use 2.6GHz as the main frequency. In addition, China Telecom also hopes to work with China Unicom to fight for 1.9GHz as TD-LTE frequency.

CDMA-LTE evolution direction

The smooth evolution of CDMA to LTE faces multiple challenges such as multi-frequency multi-mode and multi-layer networks, rapid construction, and multi-network operation and maintenance. Nevertheless, industry insiders believe that the coexistence of CDMA and LTE is a necessary stage for the development of CDMA networks, and CDMA-LTE is the evolution direction of CDMA. "Whether the smooth evolution solution can guarantee the operator's investment in CDMA existing networks while building the foundation for future network evolution is the key to the future development of operators."

"The road from CDMA to LTE will be evolution, not revolution." The relevant personage of China Telecom expresses, see from the user viscosity, the assurance of network coverage and the immaturity of LTE speech solution and many other factors. "That is to say, LTE will supplement CDMA, not overturn CDMA."

In the context of coexistence, China Telecom plans to use LTE and CDMA for unified PCC policy control. Among them, the network voice and short message service are still carried by CDMA 1X in the initial stage and are implemented using SVLTE terminals. For data services, TD-LTE firstly provides fixed and mobile broadband wireless data access services. Terminals use single-mode TD-LTE CPEs and data cards as their primary and consider sharing roaming with other operators' TD-LTE networks. TDD is used to develop data card users. LTE FDD, as the carrier of high-speed mobile Internet, provides comprehensive mobile Internet services. LTE FDD takes over CDMA services and implements handovers with CDMA. It will be used to develop smart phone users.

Recently, the cross-LTE and CDMA ad hoc network standards led by China Telecom have been approved by 3GPP, which is of great significance for promoting the smooth evolution of China Telecom's CDMA and 3G networks to LTE convergence.

On the other hand, rapid LTE network construction requires substantial financial support. China Telecom has chosen to “tighten the belt” and reduce CDMA investment. It is reported that China Telecom will stop the expansion of the CDMA network originally planned for this year, and strengthen the optimization of existing networks to meet the current and next-generation 3G market development needs for the first half of next year; at the same time, China Telecom will also stop plans for this year. Some non-urgent investment in construction projects, including network expansion projects.

Previously, Huawei, ZTE and Shanghai Bell have been the main suppliers of CDMA-related equipment for China Telecom, and this year will inevitably be affected by the CDMA network investment by telecommunications. "Considering the future coexistence, it is expected that China Telecom will restart its investment in CDMA network construction in the first half of next year or the second half of the year, and the industry does not need to worry about it." A person close to China Telecom introduced.

In addition, as the traditional supplier, the above three major manufacturers will occupy the first-mover advantage in this tender of China Telecom LTE wireless equipment. According to the plan of China Telecom, the collective procurement is organized by the group, but since the major companies are the provincial companies, they will fully hear the opinions of the provincial companies. In the core network EPC, taking into account the future of network optimization is difficult, each province can recommend three vendors, will use a single vendor to build a set; in the wireless access network side, each province can recommend up to 6 manufacturers, in principle Select three suppliers and choose two for each local network.