Economical, Technical, Regulatory Implications of 2.5 - 2.6 GHz Spectrum for Mobile Broadband Networks

A good technical read into the 2.5-2.6 GHz band for Wimax!
Frequency schemes of FDD and TDD Wimax and the implementation feasibility.

2.6 GHz Spectrum : the Next Generation Mobile Broadband Networks: "


Below is an extract from Technowizz's blog :

Digging in about 2.6GHz band..

The 2.6 GHz band (2500-2690 MHz), sometimes also referred as the 2.5 GHz band, was allocated by the World Radio communication Conference (WRC) in 2000 for terrestrial mobile communications services. The 2.6GHz band is often referred to as the “IMT-2000 expansion band”(now !!) or the “3G expansion band”(earlier) and is 190MHz wide (substantial !!). This band has been allocated on primary basis to all the three ITU regions for terrestrial mobile communications compared to the smaller allocation of 3.5 GHz (3.4-4.2 GHz) Why ??

Note: ITU Regions: Region 1 comprises Europe, Africa, the Middle East west of the Persian Gulf including Iraq, the former Soviet Union and Mongolia; Region 2 covers the Americas, Greenland and some of the eastern Pacific Islands; Region 3 contains most of non-former-Soviet-Union Asia, east of and including Iran, and most of Oceania.

WRC imposed stringent power limits on satellite systems with limited geographic footprint operating in 2.6 GHz band shifting the importance of satellite systems more into 3.5 GHz bands. Also to add to this WRC-07 decided against the global identification for IMT, including WiMAX, in any part of the satellite C band (3.4-4.2 GHz) with an exception of the mobile service allocation in 3.4-3.5 GHz thus making this band less globally harmonized for IMT. Hence the 2.6GHz band is now in a unique position to be exploited as a common band for commercial terrestrial mobile broadband access services on a global basis.


The beauty of the 190MHz wide spectrum is how it is to be divided for allocation. Should it be paired or unpaired suiting to corresponding FDD and TDD modes of operations.


The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) presents three possible options:

Option I: A mix of FDD(paired) and TDD(unpaired) spectrum plan which avoids interference problems this two different modes of operations


Option II: No unpaired spectrum included in this plan and leaves the second member of each pair undetermined


Option III: A Flexible plan on the amount of spectrum allocation for either of the paired(FDD) or unpaired(TDD) modes of the operation


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Continue reading the rest of article analyzing the implications and feasibility of using 2.5/2.6 GHz for mobile broadband (WIMAX) here at Technowizz's blog