Cellular frequencies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Cellular frequencies
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cellular frequencies are the frequencies utilized by cellular networks to provide service to their subscribers. Due to historical reasons, radio frequencies used for cellular networks differ in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The first commercial standard for mobile connection in the United States was AMPS, which was in the 800 MHz frequency band. In Europe, the first wide-spread automatic mobile network was based on the NMT-450 standard, which was in the 450 MHz band. As mobile phones became more popular and affordable, mobile providers encountered the problem when they could not provide service to more and more customers. They had to develop their existing networks and eventually to introduce new standards, often based on other frequencies. The GSM standard, which appeared in Europe to replace NMT-450 and other standards, initially used the 900 MHz band. As demand grew, carriers acquired licenses in the 1800 MHz band. (Generally speaking, lower frequencies allow carriers to provide coverage for a larger area, while higher frequencies allow carriers to provide service to more customers in a given area.) In the U.S., the analog AMPS standard that used the Cellular band (800 MHz) was replaced by a number of digital systems. Initially, systems based upon the AMPS mobile phone model were popular, including IS-95 (often known as "CDMA", the air interface technology it uses) and IS-136 (often known as D-AMPS, Digital AMPS, or "TDMA", the air interface technology it uses.) Eventually, IS-136 on these frequencies was replaced by most operators with GSM. GSM had already been running for some time on US PCS (1900 MHz) frequencies.

Mobile phone and data standards 0G

PTT MTS IMTS AMTS OLT MTD Autotel/PALM ARP

1G

NMT AMPS/TACS/ETACS Hicap CDPD Mobitex DataTAC

2G

GSM iDEN D-AMPS IS-95/cdmaOne PDC CSD PHS GPRS HSCSD WiDEN CDMA2000 1xRTT/IS-2000

3G

And, some NMT-450 analog networks have been replaced with digital networks utilizing the same frequency. In Russia and some other countries, local carriers received licenses for 450 MHz frequency to provide CDMA mobile coverage. Many GSM phones support three bands (900/1800/1900 MHz or 850/1800/1900 MHz) or four bands (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), and are usually referred to as tri band and quad band phones, or world phones; with such a phone one can travel internationally and use the same handset. This portability is not as extensive with IS95 phones, however, as IS-95 networks do not exist in most of Europe.

EDGE (EGPRS) W-CDMA UMTS (3GSM) FOMA TD-CDMA/UMTS-TDD 1xEV-DO/IS-856 TD-SCDMA GAN (UMA) HSPA HSDPA HSUPA HSPA+ HSOPA

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Mobile networks based on different standards may use the same frequency range; for example, AMPS, D-AMPS, N-AMPS and IS95 all use the 800 MHz frequency band. Moreover, one can find both AMPS and IS-95 networks in use on the same frequency in the same area that do not interfere with each other. This is achieved by the use of different channels to carry data. The actual frequency used by a particular phone can vary from place to place, depending on the settings of the carrier's base station.

4G UMB UMTS Revision 8 (LTE) WiMAX WiBro Frequency bands

Contents

SMR Cellular PCS

1 Frequency bands recommended by ITU 2 Frequency bands used in USA 3 Frequency bands used by GSM 4 Other Regions 5 See also 6 External links

Frequency bands recommended by ITU

ITU-R approved in June 2003 the following bands to the terrestrial Mobile telecommunication IMT2000: 806-960 MHz, 1710-2025 MHz, 2110-2200 MHz and 2500-2690 MHz.

Frequency bands used in USA

System SMR iDEN GSM, IS-95 (CDMA), IS-136 (D-AMPS) 3G 3G 3G 3G 3G Band 800 PCS AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS Frequency (MHz) 806-824 and 851-869 1850-1910 and 1930-1990 700 range 1432-1435 1710-1755 2110-2170 2500-2690

AMPS, IS-95 (CDMA), IS-136 (D-AMPS), GSM Cellular 824-849, 869-894, 896-901, 935-940

The usage of frequencies in USA is regulated by Federal Communications Commission (FCC). USA is then divided geographically into a number of Trading Areas. A mobile operator (or other interested parties) must bid on each trading area individually. A bidder can use the frequency spectrum for whatever purpose he wants. Go to Wireless Advisor for a listing of the network operators for a given ZIP-code. The Cellular band (from 839 MHz to 880 MHz) is divided into 2 frequency blocks (A and B). There are 306 Metropolitan Service Areas and 428 rural service areas. Each trading area consists of one or more

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counties. The PCS band (from 1850 to 1990 MHz) is divided into six frequency blocks (A through F). Each block is between 10 MHz and 30 MHz bandwidth. License (A or B) is granted for a Major Trading Areas (MTAs). License (C to F) is granted for a Basic Trading Areas (BTAs). There are 51 MTAs and 493 BTAs in the United States. The AWS bands, auctioned in the summer of 2006, were for 1710-1755 MHz, and 2110-2155 MHz. The spectrum was divided into blocks: A blocks were for Cellular Market Areas, based on existing cellular (1G) licenses, and were 2x10MHz. B and C blocks (2x10MHz and 2x5MHz respectively) were for Basic Economic Areas, larger than CMAs, usually comprising of large portions of single states. D, E, and F blocks covered huge areas of the country, typically several states at a time, and covered 2x5MHz for D and E blocks, 2x10MHz for F.[1] More bands are under consideration. These are currently used by DoD, NASA, TV broadcasters and others. FCC has announced that it plans to begin auctioning more 3G spectrum for mobile communications in the near future. One block remaining to be auctioned is 1432-1435 MHz. Auction of the 700MHz band is also eagerly awaited. Cellular and PCS bands are also used in other countries in the Americas.

Frequency bands used by GSM

System GSM 400 GSM 400 GSM 850 Band 450 480 850 Uplink 450.4 - 457.6 478.8 - 486.0 824.0 - 849.0 890.0 - 915.0 880.0 - 915.0 876.0 - 880.0 Downlink 460.4 - 467.6 488.8 - 496.0 869.0 - 894.0 935.0 - 960.0 921.0 - 925.0 Channel Number 259 - 293 306 - 340 128 - 251 1 - 124 955 - 973 512 - 885 512 - 810

GSM 900 (P-GSM) 900 GSM 900 (E-GSM) 900 GSM-R (R-GSM) DCS 1800 PCS 1900 900

925.0 - 960.0 0 - 124, 975 - 1023

1800 1710.0 - 1785.0 1805.0 - 1880.0 1900 1850.0 - 1910.0 1930.0 - 1990.0

GSM Frequency band usage is defined in ETS 05.05.

Other Regions
System Country CDMA CDMA China Japan Uplink 2300-2400 887-924 832-869 Downlink

CDMA S. Korea 1740-1770 1840-1870

See also

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3GPP Dual band GSM frequency bands Quad band Roaming Tri band UMTS frequency bands

External links

Wireless Advisor FCC New bands considered by FCC

Mobile Phones
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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_frequencies" Categories: Mobile phones | Wireless communications | Radio resource management

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