GSM 400 bites the dust

As GSM gains ever more momentum, the collapse of the GSM 400

Not too long ago, one of the hot topics in cellular was the prospect of GSM networks operating at 400MHz, particularly as the NMT analogue systems were being wound down and that area of spectrum was becoming available.

Major equipment vendors were coming up with some fairly convincing arguments for extending the reach of GSM to the 400MHz band but more recently the whole idea has been ditched. So what went wrong?

With the support of both Nokia and Ericsson, GSM 400 was pushed very hard on the grounds that it offered a much wider coverage by virtue of its lower operating frequency and the ease with which it could be used to augment and enhance existing networks. Perhaps the most convincing argument for investing in the development of the technology, however, was that it would allow an easy migration to 3G. Indeed, several successful trials were conducted in Hungary, Romania and Russia and the first voice call over a 400MHz network, made late in 1999, was heralded as a major milestone.

Nokia's Markku Toiviainen said: "Creating 3G networks and offering 3G services is a costly process, not least in establishing the core network.

Many European 3G operators will already be operators of GSM 900 or GSM 1800 and have an established network. However, it seems likely that there will be 3G operators which do not have a GSM 900 or GSM 1800 legacy. For them, building complete coverage with WCDMA would require very heavy initial investments, and national roaming may not be cost-effective. GSM 400 would be an optimal addition to their 3G licences, providing an economical way of building the core network, enabling them to provide nationwide services though a joint GSM 400/WCDMA network."

Alan Hadden, president GSA said in April of last year that operators of NMT450 analogue mobile services could take a major step towards the early migration to digital services using GSM 400, by agreeing on a joint activity programme. He also offered the Association's support for development saying, "GSA would be happy to play any role it can to facilitate such a process for the successful and early introduction of GSM 400."

All this hope and optimism was dashed, however, when at the beginning of last year, Nokia announced that it was pulling out of GSM 400 altogether and instead concentrating its efforts on developing IP-based, EDGE mobile data networks at the same frequency. The final death-knell for the idea came with the news later in the year that Ericsson, the other major backer of GSM 400, was also pulling out. While the Swedish company had never intended to make handsets, it had signed an agreement with Nokia for the supply of tri-band handsets operating at 400MHz, 900MHz and 1800MHz. Benefon too was standing by to manufacture handsets as soon as orders for the infrastructure started coming in.

It seems, however, that orders never materialised, or at least not quickly enough. And despite the backing of ETSI in the form of the GSM Technical Committee SMG agreement to adopt GSM 400 as part of its work and specifications for inclusion in GSM Release 99, all development work was dropped. Ironically, Ericsson cited a lack of EU regulation as being among the reasons for it's pull-out, while Nokia said it had to drop the idea because operators were uninterested in it.

Just as happened with WAP in the past and is currently happening with GPRS-enabled terminals, manufacturers are unwilling, or in some cases unable, to supply handsets in commercial volumes until there is a perceived demand for them and this could have tipped the balance against the successful implementation of GSM 400.

The other platform which threatened to move in to the 450MHz band was CDMA450. However, this too has some powerful arguments working against it, not least of which is the cost of deploying the technology from scratch, particularly with the prospect of investment in GPRS and 3G on the horizon.

Given the ever-mounting costs involved in rolling out 2G+ and 3G networks and services, no-one wants to spend any more money than they have to.

Despite firm backing from Lucent and Qualcomm and trials in Budapest, there seems to be no guarantee that CDMA 450 will succeed either, probably for the same reasons that GSM 400 went under. It is at present unthinkable that either company would pull out of CDMA 450 development and testing, but then, 18 months ago, Nokia and Ericsson would have said the same about GSM 400.