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LTE/4G, 4G+
LTE is the way forward for GSM/UMTS/HSPA, bringing with it important improvements in terms of speed, as well as capacity and reaction time for the customer and in cost terms for the operator
LTE, the 4G technology, delivers data throughputs up to 150 Mbps (in a 20 MHz channel)
LTE-Advanced, the 4G+ technology encompasses various enhancements that will come over time. The first enhancement, called 2 CA (2 carriers aggregation) improves user throughput (up to 225 Mbps with 20+10 MHz).2 CA is deployed in France and under deployment in other European countries. Following enhancements include 3CA (3 carrier aggregation) that delivers higher throughputs
The Group’s LTE strategy consists of achieving in each country a “first time right” launch, with sufficient terminal availability, good network quality, properly rolled out, and an operational process already in place
Orange has eleven 4G deployments across its operations, including two in Africa – France, Poland, Spain Belgium, United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Mauritius, and recently (February 2015) Botswana.
Roll-outs and on-going tests France - Orange has now over 4 million 4G customers in France. Orange France customers can also roam on 4G in the following twenty-four countries: Germany , Saudi Arabia , Belgium , Brazil , Canada, South Korea , Denmark , Spain, the United States , Greece , Hong Kong, Italy , Luxembourg , Moldova , Norway , the Netherlands , Poland , Portugal , Romania, the UK , Russia, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland Orange has accelerated the roll-out of its 4G network with 74% of the French population covered at end of 2014. Detailed information on the website http://quialameilleure4g.com Spain - Orange covers 70% of the Spanish population and had over 2.3 million 4G customers at the end of 2014. In 2015, the company will increase this coverage up to 85% of the Spanish population reaching to 1,300 cities, including all of over 10,000 inhabitants. The company has announced an investment of € 400 million in the next three years in its 4G network UK - EE launched its 4G network in October 2012. EE currently has 7.7 million 4G customers and covers 80% of the population (with a target of reaching 98% by the end of 2015) Poland - had 0.6 million customers and reached 61% of the population at the end of December 2014 Slovakia - launched 4G in 2014 and had covered more than 30% of the population in 25 cities at the end of 2014 Belgium – in Belgium we have 0.5 million customers with 4G at end of 2014, covering 61% of the population Luxembourg - Orange launched 4G offers in the capital city, Luxembourg, in November 2012.
Romania - 4G has been available in Bucharest since December 2012. At the end of 2014 Orange Romania had 0.4 million customers. At the of February 2015, just under 64% of the total population was covered, and 92% of the urban population was covered Moldova - the first 4G offers were launched in the capital, Chișinău, in November 2012, and in the second largest city in the country, Balti, in May 2013. Today, over 1.1 million people or 32% of the population has access to 4G services in Moldova. During 2014, 205 customers were added Botswana – Orange in Botswana launched 4G in February 2015. 4G is currently operating in four cities Gaborone, Francistown, Maun and Palapye Mauritius, 4G has been available in Port Louis and Bagatelle since June 2012. Roaming over LTE Orange has LTE roaming in 8 countries including France, Spain, Poland, Belgium, Romania, Luxembourg, Moldova and the UK Orange France customers can roam on 4G in the following twenty three countries: Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Italy, Luxembourg, Moldavia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA. Everything Everywhere launched LTE roaming services for travellers coming to the United-Kingdom from the US in December 2013. First agreement was with AT&T. EE opened a 4G roaming service to visitors coming to the United Kingdom, and in March 2014 launched 4G roaming for customers travelling to France and Spain. Orange Spain customers can roam with 31 countries: : Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Mexico, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK, USA Orange Romanian customers can roam with 20 countries: Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Moldavia, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Taiwan, UK, USA In Poland with 17 countries: Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, UK, USA Mobistar with 22 countries: Canada, China, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK Orange Luxembourg with 14 countries : Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Moldova, Poland, Romania, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, UK, USA Orange Moldova with 9 countries: Belgium, China, France, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, UK, USA 4G roaming will be deployed in AMEA region in some countries during 2015. “Supplemental downlink technology” tests
In a context of ever-increasing data exchange, supplemental downlink is a new technology that can be used to improve downlink performance and – consequently – customer experience. The technology is based on 3GPP standards that make it possible to aggregate frequencies in several bands already used for HSPA+ and LTE networks. It can already be used in L-band frequencies, and could also be considered in other frequency bands
On 21 February 2013, Orange, Qualcomm and Ericsson have successfully completed the world’s first live demonstration of supplemental downlink technology on L-band frequencies. The test gave Orange the opportunity to concretely assess the technology, as well as the technical performance of using additional frequencies to boost capacity of 3G/UMTS and 4G/LTE networks.
LTE-Advanced FDD trial in the 3.4 - 3.6 GHz band in Bordeaux
Orange and Ericsson have successfully used the 3.4-3.6 GHz (3.5 GHz) frequencies for testing data speeds, coverage and FDD carrier aggregation. This live LTE-Advanced FDD trial, which was authorized by the French regulator ARCEP, was carried out in October-November 2014 on Orange's network in Bordeaux using Ericsson’s pre-commercial equipment
The trial confirms that 3.5 GHz is suitable for the deployment of macro-cells in FDD mode in cities. This live FDD trial demonstrated that the 3.5 GHz band can be successfully used in urban and suburban environments in stand-alone mode or in aggregation with another band to provide advanced mobile broadband services using a FDD access scheme for high peak data rate applications to enhance user experience
On Orange’s side, the project has provided an opportunity to gather essential experience on the ways future multi-frequency networks could be optimised from cost and performance perspectives. One of the most rewarding results of the trial is the confirmation that the existing network grid can be reused for a 3.5 GHz macro grid; in Bordeaux, the trials used the same grid as for the 1800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands
France - In order to always offer the best mobile experience to its customers, Orange is accelerating deployment of 4G + in France. Opened in summer 2014, the 4G + 1 is now available in 17 major cities of France: Aix-en-Provence , Avignon , Bordeaux, Douai , Grenoble, Lens, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes , Nice, Paris, Rouen Saint -Etienne, Strasbourg, Toulon and Toulouse
Spain - 4G+ is available in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. In these cities, customers who have a 4G+ device can already connect to this technology in coverage areas. Throughout 2015, Orange will extend that coverage to Seville, Saragossa, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Murcia, Las Palmas and Bilbao, covering the main 10 Spanish cities.
3G/3G+ (HSDPA/HSUPA/HSPA+)
In France, Orange offers the widest spread coverage in metropolitan centers, with more than 98.5% of the population receiving 3G+ coverage at the end of 2012 and 70% of the population receiving H+ coverage
The latest evolution of 3G, HSPA+42, is already deployed in all Orange European countries. With speeds up to 42 Mbit/s, HSPA+ triples the speed of the Orange 3G+ network
The ultimate version of H+ should be HSPA+84 (delivering up to 84 Mbps). Possible trial and deployment of this version is under study.
Outside of Europe Orange has also committed itself to roll out 3G in all Orange countries from Africa and the Middle East and to offer mobile coverage to 80% of the population by 2015. At the end of 2014, 3G/3G+ was available in 16 countries of this geography. In a great number of AMEA countries, 3G/3G+ networks were rolled out or are being rolled out, focusing on major cities and on fixed and mobile services for the moment. In other countries, the rollouts will be completed once 3G licences are granted. At the end of 2014, 3G/3G+ is rolled out in 16 AMEA countries:
Mauritius (2005) Egypt (September 2008) Morocco (2009) Botswana (2009) Jordan (February 2010) Madagascar (2010) Tunisia (Mai 2010) Mali (July 2010) Senegal (February 2011) Niger (April 2011) Kenya (September 2011) Guinea (December 2011) Côte d’Ivoire (June 2012) Democratic Republic of the Congo (December 2012) Vanuatu (January 2013) Central African Republic (February 2013)
5G, the next generation of mobile networks
We are currently focusing on deploying LTE and its evolutions. LTE has the capacity to evolve in order to increase throughput and capacity, and to deliver new services
From our point of view, 5G deployment is supposed to start from 2020 at the earliest, possibly 2022
Nevertheless, we need to get ready for challenges in 2020 and beyond and are deeply involved in 5G research activities, in particular through the PPP 5G
We welcome 5G as an opportunity to continuously enhance quality of customer experience: o to offer our customers a seamless and consistent connectivity at any time, any location o in mobility, including in public transports (e.g. high speed train or airplane) or for the connected cars o in crowded areas (allowing e.g. 30 000 devices in a stadium to upstream simultaneously videos of the current football game towards social networks) o to deliver new services uniquely enabled by 5G technology such as enhanced IoT (e.g. sensors with 15 years battery lifetime), Business Critical Applications requiring ultra-reliable networks (including public safety) quasi-real time or low latency applications (such as assisted driving) o the 5G infrastructure should also be flexible to embed all future yet unknown usages and services
5G should lower considerably the energy consumption of networks
In addition to the above, 5G will provide significant advantages to operators in terms of reduction and ease of networks deployment and operation
5G will be based on a future-proof architecture closely integrating fixed and mobile networks, in which flexibility, cost and energy efficiency will be key elements.
cost
Fibre access
In anticipation of evolving usages that will require higher bandwidth needs, especially with data uploading, the Group has decided to deploy a new access network in France, using fibre optics, which will, over time, replace the current copper network
Between 2010-2015, Orange will invest 2 billion euros to bring fibre optics, by 2015, to customers in 220 urban areas, which include the whole of major and mid-sized cities. This represents almost 60% of
the French homes in 2020. For the remaining 40%, Orange is open to partnerships with local authorities to bring solutions various technologies
In Spain, the Group announced in June 2012 that it will invest 300 million euros over the next four years in its fibre network to reach around 1.5 million homes located in the main cities. Additionally, in March 2013, Orange Spain and Vodafone Spain signed an agreement to jointly invest one billion euros to roll out FTTH in the country. The objective is to connect 3 million homes, commercial premises and offices by 2015, increasing to 6 million by 2017, in over 50 cities in the Iberian Peninsula. The agreement is open to other operators. In September 2014, Orange Spain launched a friendly voluntary cash tender offer for the acquisition of Jazztel. Through this transaction, Orange intends to create the second biggest fixed-line broadband operator in Spain
Alongside FTTH, a partial reuse of the terminal copper infrastructure could allow the launch of intermediary very high speed broadband services, notably via VDSL2 technology. In Poland, Orange already launched commercial services at speeds of up to 80 Mbit/s. In France, Orange proposes VDSL2 to its eligible customers since 10 October 2013. This opening of VDSL2 is part of Orange’s strategy to support changing usages by using complementarity of all his networks while continuing to intensively deploy FTTH and 4G.
Orange fibre strategy There is no single choice for a solution, as each country has its own specific characteristics (regulation, competition, access to infrastructure, density and typology of homes, investment capacity). The Group is responding to these with a range of adapted solutions. Anticipating a breakthrough in customer needs due to usages that require simultaneous access and quality, Orange France has chosen a FTTH (Fibre To The Home) architecture, like other major operators in the US (Verizon) and Japan. PON (Passive Optical Network) technology has been chosen to create the infrastructure of the fibre network. The generation of PON equipment selected by the Group is GPON (Gigabit PON). In addition, since 10 October 2013, Orange France proposes the VDSL2 technology to its eligible customers who are ineligible to fibre. VDSL2 is a part of Orange's strategy of using a full palette of technologies to support changing usages, including Fibre, VDSL2, very high speed mobile with 4G, and satellite for isolated residential customers. Orange Slovakia has also chosen FTTH and the GPON technology, as well as Orange Spain and Orange Poland. Additionally in France, as the regulatory framework for FTTH deployments outside very dense areas has been established since the beginning of 2011, Orange published on 19 July 2011 its wholesale offer. In line with the principles laid out by ARCEP, this offering enables the pooling of networks outside very dense areas, allowing end users to choose their service provider. It is open to all operators. Free (the Iliad Group), SFR and Bouygues Telecom have already chosen this offering. In less dense areas where the Group is not planning to deploy its own FTTH network in the medium term for profitability reasons, Orange is hoping to develop a cooperative approach with local authorities including agreements with France’s Auvergne and Brittany regions. It is also open to collaboration with public-led projects, such as those in Laval (Mayenne) and Palaiseau. In addition, it was involved in the government's programme of very high speed broadband trials (Saint Lô in La Manche, Issoire in Puy-deDôme, Chevry Cossigny in Seine-et-Marne, and Mareuil-sur-Lay-Dissais in Vendée). In April 2013, the State, the Paris region, Orange and SFR signed a common declaration to the two operators on fibre roll out on capital equity to make the Paris region the first region with fibre in Europe by 2020. Roll-outs and on-going tests
France - Since 31 December 2014, 3.6 million homes were able to subscribe to the fibre offer from Orange. 563,000 customers have already subscribed. Orange is present today in 350 cities, which account for nearly 1/3 of the population. We invested 257 million euros in 2012 (a 106 million euros increase compared to 2011). Moreover, Orange proposes VDSL2 to its eligible customers since 10 October 2013
Slovakia - At the end of 2014, Orange Slovakia had 0.3 million homes connect and 62,000 fibre customers in 18 cities across Slovakia.
Poland had 160,000 very high speed broadband, users (VDSL+FTTH) customers
Spain - Orange continues to deploy fibre thanks to public and private partnerships. The agreement signed with Vodafone in April 2013 will help accelerate those roll-outs. Orange Spain has 830,000 homes covered in 12 Spanish and 53,000 fibre customers at the end of 2014.
Future planning (from G-PON to new generation PON) Orange actively contributed to FSAN/ITU for the production of new recommendations (G.987) to define PON equipment that will follow G-PON (G.984). This recommendation is already available in 2 options: XG-PON1 (the X means 10 in Roman numbers) with a 10 Gbit/s download bandwidth and 2.5 Gbit/s upload bandwidth. This option is preferred by the FSAN operators. XG-PON2 with a symmetrical 10 Gbit/s bandwidth. The cost of basic programmes necessary for its making is still high and the market’s interest for symmetrical bandwidth is not proved yet. As such, the option is not considered yet in the industry sector. The first XG-PON1 commercial equipments are now on the market and the first roll-outs will probably be made in Asia for applications of mobile backhaul and to improve FTTB customer bandwidth. The industry is also preparing the next generation of PON with NGPON2 through standardisation. Orange has not decided yet on a position regarding the next generation of fibre technology. FTTD Orange continues to follow the development of fibre, including the development of technologies such as FTTD (fibre to the door) that could permit the maximum value and use that can be extracted from existing copper networks.
