Increasing Broadband Internet Penetration
In the OIC Member Countries
31
Mobile wireless last mile distributionBeyond fixed wireless, mobile wireless technologies have the potential to offer faster, cheaper
and more widespread installation of broadband services. Using microwave frequencies for
backhauling traffic and an antenna that transmits a 360-degree signal, wireless carriers can
cover a diameter of 100 kilometers, depending on the radio frequency and the topology of the
terrain. Wireless network operators do not have to install ducts, conduits and wires to serve
each and every subscriber. Instead the omnidirectional signal from a single tower can deliver
voice and data traffic to any user within the transmission contour and also any user can
communicate with the tower using a smartphone.
Since the mid-1980s, wireless telecommunications has evolved in four distinct generations. In
the first generation, in the mid to late 1980s, cellular radio used analog transmission to
provide wireless telephony only. The second generation (launched in the early 1990s)
introduced digital transmission technologies and the first spectrum efficiency techniques. In
the third generation (adopted initially in early 2000s) cellular networks acquired the first
ability to handle data traffic. In this third generation, wireless operators retrofitted their
networks to handle data traffic commingled with voice calls. However, broadband speeds
under 3G networks are fairly slow: these networks can handle the real time “streaming” of
music and the distribution of web pages, but not the streaming of full motion video and other
bandwidth intensive applications, such as some forms of video gaming. 4G service offers
dedicated high speed data service at bit transmission speeds exceeding what terrestrial ADSL
offers and rivaling that of cable modem services, becoming an alternative to many fixed
wireline service. The proliferation of handsets, including tablets and lightweight computers,
coupled with ever increasing content and software options has stimulated increasing demand
for wireless spectrum. Recent evidence of deployment indicates that 4G Long Term Evolution
(“LTE”) has overtaken WiMax as the preferred option for extremely high-speed wireless
broadband service.
5G technology is generally defined as providing throughput that will be 10-100x faster than
4G, which could mean real-world speeds of about 4Gbps or more. Most of the speed increases
are due to how the carriers will be adding more wireless channels, using millimeter wave
technology (which means the signal has to travel shorter distances), installing small cells that
dramatically increase the coverage map, and increasing capacity in the wired backhaul
locations. The speed boosts, low latency, and backwards compatibility with existing networks
will provide a framework for new network architectures, like Cloud RAN (radio access
network) where localized nano-data centers will occur supporting server-based networking
functions like Industrial IoT gateways, video caching and transcoding at the edge for UltraHD
video, and newer mesh-like topologies supported with more distributed heterogeneous
networks (“HetNets”). In short, 5G will lead to a dramatic increase in cell sites (which due to
the higher frequency a lot of them will have significantly shorter range) and demand for
current location. The database has a list of all protected TV stations and frequencies across the country, so the devices can
avoid interference with TV broadcasts and wireless signals. This technology is truly dynamic – as different TV channels
become available, Super Wi-Fi devices can opportunistically switch from one group of channels to another.