GSM has been a tremendously successful technology serving over 3 billion subscribers worldwide, with an unsurpassed installed base infrastructure. Leveraging the GSM subscriber base, spectrum, coverage, and network infrastructure already in place will ensure continued profitability for GSM operators.
LTE radio is expected to substantially improve end-user throughputs, spectral efficiency, and sector capacity, and the flat IP architecture will further reduce user plane latency.
Figure 2: LTE Spectral Efficiency
LTE can be deployed in a wide selection of spectrum bands including the existing GSM bands and because of LTE spectrum bandwidth flexibility (ranging from 1.4MHz to 20MHz), it offers GSM operators a practical solution for progressively re-farming their existing spectrum. In comparison, UMTS/HSPA with its fixed 5MHz bandwidth allocation is more challenging.
In the emerging markets, the GSM operators that have not deployed 3G services may now choose to leapfrog 3G and deploy LTE directly.
Motorola will provide a migration path based on the Motorola GSM Horizon II BTS to support both GSM and LTE access functionality in a single base station. The Horizon II operating in the 900/1800 band supports a smooth migration to LTE. Motorola’s integrated GSM and LTE network will deliver a significantly improved data user experience via LTE, and will seamlessly connect with ultra low cost voice services via GSM at the same time.
For operators with additional spectrum, Motorola can also provide a complete LTE overlay network to work in conjunction with the installed GSM base.