RC readies standards, conditions for LTE licence

By Mohammad Ghazal

AMMAN – The country’s four major mobile operators may soon submit proposals to obtain the Long Term Evolution (LTE) licensing, according to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC).

At a press meeting on Sunday, TRC Chief Commissioner Fadi Kawar said the commission adopted a document last week specifying the standards and conditions for obtaining the licence for LTE, the latest broadband technology, which has an information carrying capacity of 150 megabits per second.

The document, which is expected to be presented soon to the country’s four mobile operators (Zain, Orange, Umniah and Express), includes prices of the required frequencies for the LTE services, the timeframes and other related requirements for obtaining the technology (or the 2.5 Gigahertz) licence, according to Kawar.

In order to be eligible to introduce the LTE services, a mobile operator needs a minimum of 20Megahertz spectrum, the TRC chief indicated.

Orange Jordan obtained the licensing for introducing the 3G services.

Kawar said there are new regulations and Zain, if interested, has to resubmit its offer based on the requirements in the condition.

In a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times Monday, Zain said it is still interested in introducing LTE services.

Zain added that all technical requirements asked to be submitted by the TRC have already been submitted.

At the meeting, Kawar said the TRC will exert efforts to obtain exemptions for operators willing to introduce the LTE service.

The TRC chief stressed that the introduction of LTE services does not violate Orange’s status as exclusive provider of 3G services, a distinction the firm will hold until March 2011.

The 3G spectrum is 2.1Gegahertz, he pointed out, while the LTE spectrum is 2.5Gegahartez.

The LTE allows for high-speed Internet browsing for multimedia applications such as videoconferencing, high definition broadcast, video blog for educational and entertainment programmes in addition to high-speed video upload to social websites.

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