Vi migrates 3G spectrum to 4G spectrum in Gujarat to ramp up GIGAnet 4G capacity

[OnlyTech]

Vi (formerly Vodafone Idea) yesterday announced the successful refarming of 3G spectrum to 4G across 11 cities in Gujarat in a bid to enhance to GIGAnet 4G capacity in these cities. The refarming has come after the...

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This thread is for the general discussion of the article. Please add to the discussion here.

 

[Esmail]

Very important since vi can't afford to buy any new spectrum in March auction, best to reuse what they have for augmenting the capacity. They are losing 6.2 MHz in 1800 band in Gujarat which they are using for 2G, if they are to give some existing spectrum from the 10 MHz liberalised from 1800 to 2G then the block size for 4G will reduce from 10 to 5 MHz so the loss in 4G network capacity will be balanced by converting 5 MHz of 3G spectrum in 2100 band to 4G.

 

[rijuvv]

Very important since vi can't afford to buy any new spectrum in March auction, best to reuse what they have for augmenting the capacity. They are losing 6.2 MHz in 1800 band in Gujarat which they are using for 2G, if they are to give some existing spectrum from the 10 MHz liberalised from 1800 to 2G then the block size for 4G will reduce from 10 to 5 MHz so the loss in 4G network capacity will be balanced by converting 5 MHz of 3G spectrum in 2100 band to 4G.

I have a doubt, What is the minimum bandwidth required for 2g service?. Any operator in India using less than 5MHz block for 4g service?

 

[Esmail]

I have a doubt, What is the minimum bandwidth required for 2g service?. Any operator in India using less than 5MHz block for 4g service?

4.4 MHz was the start up spectrum that was given to all operators for starting 2G services between 1994 to 2007 so yes u can comfortably get through with that.

 

[rijuvv]

4.4 MHz was the start up spectrum that was given to all operators for starting 2G services between 1994 to 2007 so yes u can comfortably get through with that.

What about the second question, Any operator in India using less than 5MHz block for 4g service?
Vodafone Idea have 12.4MHz B8 spectrum in Kerala. Is it technically possible for them to allocate only 2.4MHz for 2g service and allocate 10MHz for 4g?

 

[TheCapedCrusader]

What about the second question, Any operator in India using less than 5MHz block for 4g service?
Vodafone Idea have 12.4MHz B8 spectrum in Kerala. Is it technically possible for them to allocate only 2.4MHz for 2g service and allocate 10MHz for 4g?

I think possible, here in Chennai VIL 2G is running on 1800Mhz, they have 12.4Mhz B3 spectrum out of which 4G is running on 10Mhz B3 already, so 2G is running on either 2.4 or 1.4Mhz here.

 

[Esmail]

What about the second question, Any operator in India using less than 5MHz block for 4g service?

Technically narrow band LTE is possible with 1.4 MHz and 3 MHz blocks but currently no operator is doing that, they are using 5 MHz as the minimum block size for true LTE. When Videocon and Uninor had just 5 MHz of spectrum they were planning on using 3 MHz for LTE and 2 MHz for 2G but in that case both 2G and 4G networks would be of inferior quality.