'Broadband is 3G now and ‘3G+LTE’ in future'

BANGALORE, INDIA: Qualcomm brought in a ripple when it announced that it will be a part of India's BWA (Broadband Wireless Access) spectrum bid for Long Term Evolution Time Division Duplex or TD-LTE.

Kanwalinder Singh, president, Qualcomm India and South Asia and senior vice president Qualcomm Inc., talks to CIOL about why the company made such a move and what does it think about WiMAX.

CIOL: Qualcomm has been promoting FDD-LTE in the rest of its markets. So what made it go for TDD-LTE in India?

Kanwalinder Singh: Qualcomm supports LTE standard, which defines both FDD and TDD modes. In fact, both the variants levearage the same global ecosystem. It is factually incorrect to say that Qualcomm has been promoting only FDD-LTE in other markets.

Also Read: NSN Alcatel and now Cisco: Is WiMAX losing grounds?

Qualcomm’s MDM9x00 chipset family supports both TDD and FDD modes of LTE, and is interoperable with 3G HSPA and EV-DO.

Qualcomm has already triggered mobile broadband in India with CDMA2000 EV-DO, and will accelerate it further with 3G and LTE. In India’s BWA band (2.3 GHz TDD), LTE is the technology best suited to address the growing demand for high bandwidth mobile broadband services.

Unlike WiMAX, LTE is compatible with both 3G HSPA and EV-DO, and will thus offer a seamless mobile broadband experience to consumers within the country and while roaming globally with multimode devices.

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TDD-LTE offers unique opportunity for operators with TDD spectrum to integrate with 3G/LTE ecosystem. TD-LTE in BWA spectrum enables a ‘3G and BWA’ experience rather than ‘3G or BWA’ experience.

CIOL: WiMAX Forum has stated that TDD-LTE is an unaccepted, untested and immature technology. What is your take on that?

KS: There is strong industry support for LTE worldwide, in both FDD and TDD modes, from operators such as Verizon and China Mobile respectively.

Leading equipment vendors like Ericsson, Nokia Siemens, and Motorola support LTE in general, and TDD-LTE in particular. There are trials and inter-operability demonstrations underway globally.

Qualcomm’s MDM9x00 chipset family that supports both FDD and TDD versions was sampled in 2009. This chipset also supports 3G HSPA and EV-DO, and will thus enable multimode devices through which consumers will enjoy seamless mobile broadband experience.

Both TDD-LTE and FDD-LTE are 3GPP standards. LTE is designed to seamlessly interoperate with 3G and leverages 3G’s scale and ecosystem (vendors, operators and application developers).

Multimode devices and core-network integration will ensure seamless interoperability for operators with both technologies.

In comparison, WiMAX offers a weak value proposition and poor consumer experience due to its lack of interoperability with existing wireless technologies, and has been losing momentum globally.

Both from a near-term and long-term perspective, 3G now and ‘3G plus LTE’ in future are going to be the dominant ways of addressing mobile broadband globally and in India.

CIOL: Also there are claims that LTE will take another couple of years more to come in India. What would you say about that?

KS: From a global perspective, 64 LTE network commitments have been made in 31 countries, and 22 LTE networks are expected to be commercially launched by the end of 2010.

LTE modems already exist in the market and LTE enabled handsets are expected next year. We expect India to gain from the increasing global momentum on LTE. Qualcomm will work with its ecosystem to accelerate the adoption of LTE.