The Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) band plan is a type of segmentation of the 612–806 MHz band (usually referred to as the 600 MHz & 700 MHz bands) formalized by the APT in 2022–2023 and 2008-2010 respectively and specially configured for the deployment of mobile broadband technologies (e.g. most notably Long Term Evolution, LTE). This segmentation exists in two variants, FDD and TDD, that have been standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and recommended by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as segmentations A5 and A6, respectively. The APT band plan has been designed to enable the most efficient use of available spectrum. Therefore, this plan divides the band into contiguous blocks of frequencies that are as large as possible taking account of the need to avoid interference with services in other frequency bands. As the result, the TDD option (segmentation A6) includes 100 MHz of continuous spectrum, while the FDD option (segmentation A5) comprises two large blocks, one of 45 MHz for uplink transmission (mobile to network) in the lower part of the band and the other also of 45 MHz for downlink transmission in the upper part. As defined in the standard, both FDD and TDD schemes for the 700 MHz band include guard bands of 5 MHz and 3 MHz at their lower and upper edges, respectively. The FDD version also includes a centre gap of 10 MHz. The guard bands serve the purpose of mitigating interference with adjacent bands while the FDD centre gap is required to avoid interference between uplink and downlink transmissions. The two arrangements are shown graphically in figures 1 and 2.
Existing 3GPP standards for the APT band plan are given below:
3GPP LTE band3GPP NR bandDuplexUplink FrequencyDownlink frequency 28 n28 FDD 703–748 MHz 758–803 MHz 44 - TDD 703–803 MHz 703–803 MHz - n105 FDD 663–703 MHz 612–652 MHz Table 1. 3GPP standard bands for the APT segmentation of the 600 and 700 MHz bands
Allocation of the 700 MHz band (that in many parts of the world is commonly referred to as the Digital Dividend) to mobile communications it is one of the key solutions for meeting the mobile data explosion challenge faced by the telecommunications industry and telecommunications regulators seeking additional spectrum for the deployment of new mobile broadband networks and capacity. As of today, the APT band plan is considered to be the most effective way to segment the 700 MHz band from the point of view of modern spectrum management. The superior spectral efficiency of this plan is explained further in this article. Currently, the FDD configuration is the one which has been studied most widely and is much more popular across the world. For this reason, the FDD APT band plan option is generally referred to as the APT band plan.
History
Milestones of the development of the 700 MHz band Market factsAugust 1997 – FCC, the U.S. telecom regulator, proposes a rulemaking in order to allocate frequencies in the upper 700 MHz for dedicated use by public safety agencies of the USA. The rest of the 700 MHz band is set to be attributed to International Mobile Telecommunications International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT). With this, FCC demonstrates its leadership and vision in spectrum management as early as a decade before the APT band plan is created and long before the appearance of mobile data growth phenomenon. However, as a result, the US band plan is shaped in a highly complex and fragmented way. 1997 – The international public telecommunications numbering plan is published in Recommendation E.164 by the ITU
1998 - Sprint Corporation announcesDing, Jianguo. Advances in Network Management. 2009, p.16 that it will offer an advanced packet-switching network to simultaneously send voice, data, and video down a single phone line, for the first time in history.September 2000, February 2001, April 2002, August 2002, May 2003, July 2005 – In USA, during Auctions 31, 33, 38, 44, 49, and 60, respectively, guardbands and a few spectrum blocks are auctioned in both upper and lower 700 MHz bands. The frequencies are arranged in a way that the 700 MHz band is broken into small spectrum blocks of 6 MHz wide each. 1999 – For the first time in the world, internet service on mobile phones is introduced by a Japanese company called NTT DoCoMo
2000 – ITU reports 400 mln internet users in the world
2001 – Wikipedia goes online and rapidly gains popularity
2001 – The first commercial 3G network using the WCDMA technology is launched in Japan by NTT DoCoMo
2002 – Research in Motion (RIM) releases its first Blackberry smartphone
2003 – EDGE technology (also referred to as 2.75G) is deployed for the first time in the US by Cingular (now – AT&T) permitting data transmission with a theoretical maximum bitrate of 384 kbit/s
2005 - Nokia announces the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, the first tablet to appear on the marketOctober 2007 – The decision to allocate the 700 MHz band to IMT is taken at the World Radio Conference in 2007 (WRC-07) by the ITU-R.2006 – First 4G WiMAX network is deployed commercially in South Korea by KT Corp.
2007 – 3G networks worldwide reach 295 million subscribers (9% of the total worldwide subscriber base)
2007 – Apple Inc. announces the iPhone, a product that is designed to unleash the potential of mobile internetMarch 2008 – The FCC auctions off A, B, C, and E block licenses in the 700 MHz band raising around US$19 billion. As a result, the biggest share of the spectrum goes to Verizon Wireless and the next biggest to AT&T. These auctions and the spectrum ownership they granted represent one of the most important steps in the definition of the ecosystem of the US band plan. 2008 – Apple Inc. releases iPhone 3G that supports 3G networks and boosts mobile data consumption by usersSeptember 2009 – Shortly after the WRC-07, based on inputs from numerous stakeholders and having taken into account foreseen developments of telecommunications industry, the Spectrum Working Group of the APT elaborates the original version of the APT band plan in the 700 MHz band in their release of the Report 11 (“APT report on UHF band usage and considerations for realizing the UHF Digital Dividend”, No. APT/AWF/REP-11, Edition: September 2009, Adopted by the 7th APT Wireless Forum Meeting on 23 – 26 September 2009 in Phuket, Thailand). 2009 – First 4G LTE network is deployed commercially in Scandinavia by TeliaSoneraMarch 2010 - During the 8th meeting of the APT Wireless Forum (AWF-8), held in Tokyo, Japan from 29 March to 1 April 2010, the consensus is reached on the basic structure of harmonized segmentation of the 698-806 MHz band and the Spectrum Working Group of the APT initiates the study of the UHF Digital Dividend in order to develop frequency arrangements leading to a widely accepted harmonized band plan for the 700 MHz band. In September 2010, APT releases its final harmonized frequency arrangements for the 700 MHz band (“APT report on harmonized frequency arrangements for the band 698-806 MHz”, No. APT/AWF/REP-14, adopted by the 9th APT Wireless Forum Meeting on 13 – 16 September 2010 in Seoul, Republic of Korea). April 2010 – Apple Inc. releases iPad, a tablet computer that supports data transmission over 3G networks
June 2010 - Sprint Nextel releases the first WiMAX smartphone in the US, the HTC Evo 4G
November 2010 - Samsung Galaxy Craft offered by MetroPCS is the first commercially available LTE smartphoneSeptember 2011 - The Spectrum Working group releases the second report focusing on the APT band plan where a number of in-depth studies on mobile user equipment and out-of-band emission levels are presented (“APT Report on Implementation Issues Associated With Use of the Band 698-806 MHz by Mobile Services”, No. APT/AWG/REP-24, Edition: September 2011, Adopted by the 11th APT Wireless Group Meeting on 14 – 17 September 2011 in Chiang Mai, Thailand). In December 2011, the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL) adopts a new recommendation: PCC.II/REC.30 (XVIII-11) “Frequency arrangements in the 698-806 MHz band in the Americas for the mobile broadband services” which includes the FDD APT band plan as another option of segmentation of the 700 MHz band for Americas Region, besides the US band plan. (XVIII Meeting of Permanent Consultative Committee II: Radiocommunications including Broadcasting (PCC.II), November 28 to December 2, San Juan, Puerto Rico)2011 - With 5.9 billion mobile-cellular subscriptions, global mobile penetration reaches 87%.
2011 - Mobile-broadband subscriptions grow 45% annually (since 2007) and reach the figure of almost 1.2 billion. By the end of the year, there are twice as many mobile broadband as fixed broadband subscriptions
2011 - Worldwide 3G coverage reaches 45% of the populationJanuary 2012 – Before and during the World Radio Conference 2012, the APT band plan gains momentum resulting in a number of Latin American countries announcing publicly their preference of this segmentation of the 700 MHz band plan in the following months. In March 2012, the Radio Communications Bureau of the ITU (ITU-R) releases Recommendation ITU-R M.1036-4 (03/2012) “Frequency arrangements for implementation of the terrestrial component of International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) in the bands identified for IMT in the Radio Regulations (RR)” (Rec. ITU-R M.1036); which includes for 698-960 MHz band the frequency arrangement equivalent to FDD APT band plan identified as “A5”. In October 2012, during XX CITEL's PCC.II meeting in Mexico City, followed by the 2nd Latin American Spectrum Conference, organized by Mexican telecommunications regulator (COFETEL), a number of countries of Latin America highlight their strong preference towards the APT band plan, including Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru and Ecuador, among others.November 2012 – Apple Inc. releases the new iPad 4 that supports various LTE networks across the globe
July 2012 - approximately 10.5% of all Web traffic occurs through mobile devices (up from 4% in December 2010)
September 2012 – Apple releases iPhone 5 that supports LTE networks in the 700 MHz band (only according to the US band plan). Equipped with a frontal HD camera, iPhone again sets expectations for increasingly higher mobile data consumption. Table 2. Milestones of the development of the 700 MHz band
Worldwide regulation status for the APT band plan by country