It seems that AT&T has only 6x6 MHz at 700 MHz in a number of markets, whereas in others they have two adjacent 6x6's. Does anyone have any idea whether they'll be using 5 MHz or 10 MHz LTE channels? Perhaps both?
Generally speaking, LTE is scaleable in bandwidths of 1.4, 3, 5, 10 and 20 MHz. So LTE operators can "mix-n-match" badwidths wherever they have spectrum available. With 3G (WCDMA) you have to use a fixed 5MHz bandwidth, and GSM has fixed 200Khz channels. CDMA uses 1.4MHz, I beleive. LTE is the first cellular technology where you can have more flexability in terms of bandwidth.
I am aware of what the technology can do. What I'm asking about is what AT&T actually plans to do. CDMA/EVDO uses 1.25 MHz channels and WiMAX offered scalable bandwidths before LTE.
So it does. That's odd, because I know LTE was spec'ed to use 1.4MHz channels so CDMA operators could easily swap out CDMA towers for LTE ones. I guess guard-bands are included in the 1.4MHz LTE channels and not the CDMA ones? WiMAX had a strange history. It started out as a fixed-wireless system on TDD. Mobility (ie: handovers) didn't happen later until the 802 .16m version, which only was approved recently (last couple of years?). And then FDD came even later still. So without FDD and mobility, I have trouble calling it a "cellular technology", altho you may be right, it may have had scalable bandwidth before LTE... but it was missing alot of other things. Guess it will vary by how much spectrum they have in each market, and there's the big question of the T-Mobile merger too, so that makes their spectrum plans even more unpredictable right now.
