What is the relationship between the application of FDD licence and the interests of 1.3 billion mobile phone users?

Wen/Ding West

As mobile Chairman Xi a High-profile announcement that he is applying for a FDD licence, there has been no pause in the debate over whether to apply for a FDD licence. Last week, there was an article on the internet called "FDD game: Moving out, 1.3 billion damage to mobile users." This article argues that the mobile can not apply to the FDD license plate, for China's 1.3 billion cell phone users are a huge loss. In order to 1.3 billion Chinese handset user's benefit, should give the FDD licence to move.

Since this article is open to discussion, one by one points out that there are those deficiencies.

A, LTE really inferior fdd-lte Mody?

At the beginning of the article, the author mentions this view:

FDD license is not issued to China Mobile, but only to China Telecom and China Unicom, in addition to the entanglements of Chinese independence standards, this approach is one of the reasons for the use of licensing differences, to resolve or ease a single large China mobile market pattern. Is it in the public interest to have such a regulatory measure with asymmetrical regulatory nature? Even if China Mobile is "big and guilty", 800 million of Chinese mobile users should not be penalized.

It is not difficult to find that the author's view is a serious problem. Since LTE and Fdd-lte belong to the LTE standard, the patents for more than 90% of the two technologies are the same, and there is not much difference in technology. Although prior to this LTE maturity relatively behind the fdd-lte, but because our country in the period of up to 14 months only issued LTE license, the entire LTE industry chain has been rapid development. Today, the whole LTE industry chain and Fdd-lte compared to not much difference, the domestic support LTE mobile phone even far more than fdd-lte mobile phones.

Judging from the network index, although the theoretical peak rate of LTE 100Mbps and the theoretical peak rate of fdd-lte 150Mbps are very different, but due to the characteristics of TDD duplex mode, LTE can make full use of the discrete spectrum resources, the spectrum utilization ratio is much higher than FDD. So to speak, LTE and Fdd-lte are just two different duplex modes that are unified under the LTE standard, and the scenarios that apply vary. One-sided emphasis on the superiority of fdd-lte, belittle the value of LTE, and then only do LTE as a mobile 800 million users of the "punishment", which in itself is unreasonable.

Second, why most of the world's operators choose Fdd-lte?

The author then puts forward a second point:

Because of some inherent defects in TDD technology, coupled with LTE's continued significant lag behind LTE FDD in terms of industrial maturity, the 4G networks of most mobile operators around the world have adopted LTE FDD technology when the law allows them to choose their own network standards. While some carriers use LTE technology, they are often used as a supplement to FDD networks, or for unusual purposes. In addition to China, countries in the Spectrum Division of mobile Communications, in order to circumvent TDD technical defects, and so on, almost all in the "care" FDD technology, the vast majority of spectral block matching to adopt FDD technology.

But is this really the case? Just because TDD technology is called "inborn" flaw, the world does not promote TDD technology development? To answer this question, we must first look at why the world is pushing Fdd-lte.

We know that none of the communication technologies appear out of thin air. Even the most advanced 3G, 4G technology, but also in the 1G, 2G based on the development. 1G, 2G is mainly to meet the needs of voice calls and the birth of the communication technology, because the two sides need to meet the "listen" and "say" two processes, in order to reduce the complexity of communication systems, smart scientists use two different frequencies of the modulation respectively. A party to the communication (A) loads the "Talking" information on a section of the spectrum and sends it to B, while the Voice of the other (b) is sent to a through another spectrum, which eventually makes a "heard". Using different spectrum to realize the process of "collecting" and "sending", the whole communication system is not only simple in structure but also cheaper in cost. Because of this, whether 1G or 2G are FDD frequency Division Duplex mode (send and receive signals occupy different frequencies). In order to save the original investment of the operators and make full use of the original 2G network resources, 3G and 4G chose the FDD mode as the main development direction from the beginning of the design. For historical reasons, FDD has always been the mainstream of communication standards, and the so-called "TDD has inherent defects" is irrelevant.

Three, move not on FDD to 1.3 billion mobile phone users have influence?

The author writes in the article:

The number of mobile users in China is much more than China Telecom and Chinese Unicom, while China Mobile's so-called high-end user ratio is far from the latter, in addition, the Chinese mobile in the visibility, consumer brands, economic strength and so much more than China Telecom and Unicom. FDD license is not issued to China Mobile, but only to China Telecom and Unicom, such a regulatory measure with asymmetric regulation is in line with the public interest? Even if China Mobile is "big and guilty", 800 million of Chinese mobile users should not be penalized. In the case that China's portability system is "equal to No", Chinese mobile users cannot enjoy the superiority of mainstream technology in network performance and the diversity of mobile terminals in the same way as GSM 2G. Although technically more advanced and more mature, however, due to financial problems, China Telecom and the FDD LTE network performance, may over a long period of time compared to China Mobile's LTE network, both of the user benefits will also be damaged.

Although the author believes that the mobile fdd-lte to China, including telecommunications unicom users of the 1.3 billion users have a very serious impact. However, according to the previous analysis, the whole LTE industry chain and Fdd-lte industrial chain is not much different, the number of LTE terminals in China even far more than the Fdd-lte terminal. In the case of LTE and Fdd-lte maturity, no matter what type of network you choose, the consumer experience will not be much different. In comparison, consumers are more concerned about the level of service they can enjoy. On one side is more than 700,000 LTE base station, the other side is hundreds of LTE terminals, China Mobile 4G network experience will not lose to Fdd-lte.

And for Unicom Telecom, although the FDD license plate belatedly, but with the establishment of the tower, telecommunications and unicom can make full use of mobile site resources to improve the 4G network coverage. Although telecommunications and Unicom financial resources than mobile, but through the help of the tower, the construction of a national key area of the 4G network is no problem. Simply because of the limited financial resources of Telecom Unicom, which leads to the conclusion that Unicom's users ' welfare will be limited, it is obvious that it is FDD to call for mobile access.

Summary：

It is not difficult to see, the author said several views, although there is a certain truth, but not rigorous. In the vast majority of operators all over the world choose Fdd-lte Background, mobile application for FDD license to LTE internationalization and no help. And for China's 1.3 billion mobile phone users, although LTE in the network rate and fdd-lte have a certain gap, but this gap is far from the 3G era WCDMA and TD-SCDMA gap between the big. Not only that, China Mobile has already achieved better network coverage through years of construction, and the actual experience is not lost to Fdd-lte. One-sided emphasis on the superiority of FDD, even at the expense of LTE performance, this behavior itself is the LTE of self-confidence. While calling for continued support for LTE, it is paradoxical to apply for a FDD licence on the grounds that "the interests of 1.3 billion of mobile phone users are impaired".