LTE TDD to be Common Practice by 2016, Says Ovum Report

The concept of LTE TDD--or Long Term Evolution Time Division Duplex--may be a Chinese invention, but its use is catching with networks all over the world, and according to a report set to be released by Ovum, the rate at which its catching on should pass 25 percent by 2016.

Ovum, an independent analysis firm dealing specifically in telecommunications issues, details in the report that the practice of LTE TDD has matured to being much more than a "Chinese specific" technology, and instead is finding support among operators in the Middle East, Europe, and perhaps most surprisingly, Japan. Ovum Network Infrastructure analyst, Daryl Schoolar describes the practice as, essentially, a way for mobile providers to put more capacity into their network, under a set of specific principles. He elaborates, stating, "Combining multiple standards such as GSM and WCDMA / HSPA and LTE FDD and / or TDD will grow the overall network capacity and increase quality of service." Further, Schoolar points out that networks using LTE TDD can offer lower costs to their subscriber base thanks to the ability to use lower-priced unpaired spectrum as part of the LTE TDD concept.

Better still, most of the device makers out there, including infrastructure and chipset makers, support LTE TDD, so using it should be comparatively easy to put into play, especially given estimates that suggest that over 60 total commercially-available devices can be found that support multi-mode and multi-band operation. Additionally, multi-standard base stations will also look to make the release of an LTE TDD strategy a much simpler proposition.

Considering recent reports that AT&T's CEO, Randall Stephenson, believes that mobile providers may well bring out all-data plans at some point in the next few years, not to mention all the reports emerging about bandwidth crunches at the mobile level, it makes sense for mobile providers to augment their bandwidth offerings. People want access to mobile data. That much is absolutely true. There will be steadily more offerings involved for people to use mobile data access in concert with, from streaming video to video chatting to mobile gaming, and as such, users won't be taking the "bandwidth cap" concept lightly. Mobile providers need more bandwidth to power the next generations of mobile data access and related products, and an approach like LTE TDD looks to be, potentially, a good quality solution. 

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