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GarageBand

This page is about the music software. For other uses, see Garage band (disambiguation).

GarageBand

File:RE-ADD: GarageBand App.png BEFORE MOVING TO ARTICLE SPACE
File:RE-ADD: GarageBand 10.0.3.png BEFORE MOVING TO ARTICLE SPACE GarageBand 10.4.1 on macOS Big Sur
Developer(s)	Apple
Initial release	January 6, 2004 (2004-01-06)
Stable release	10.4.8 / March 7, 2023 (2023-03-07)
Operating system	macOS 12.3 or later
Available in	31 languages
List of languages English, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese
Type	Digital audio workstation
License	Proprietary
Website	www.apple.com/mac/garageband/

GarageBand is a software application by Apple for macOS, iPadOS, and iOS devices that allows users to create music or podcasts. GarageBand was originally released for macOS in 2004 and brought to iOS in 2011. The app's music and podcast creation system enables users to create multiple tracks with pre-made MIDI keyboards, pre-made loops, an array of various instrumental effects, and voice recordings.

Apple positions GarageBand for the consumer market, and used to sell the app as part of iLife, a bundle of consumer media apps. For the professional market, Apple offers another digital-audio product, Logic Pro.

History

GarageBand was developed by Apple under the direction of Dr. Gerhard Lengeling. Dr. Lengeling was formerly from the German company Emagic, makers of Logic Audio. Apple acquired Emagic in July 2002.

Steve Jobs announced the application in his keynote speech at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco on January 6, 2004. Musician John Mayer assisted with its demonstration. It is part of the iLife '04 package.

Apple announced GarageBand 2 at the 2005 Macworld Conference & Expo on January 11, 2005. It shipped, as announced, around January 22, 2005. Notable new features included the abilities to view and edit music in musical notation. It was also possible to record up to 8 tracks at once and to fix timing and pitch of recordings. Apple added automation of track pan position and the master pitch. Transposition of both audio and MIDI has been added by Apple along with the ability to import MIDI files. It is part of iLife '05.

GarageBand 3, announced at 2006's Macworld Conference & Expo, includes a 'podcast studio', including the ability to use more than 200 effects and jingles, and integration with iChat for remote interviews. It is part of iLife '06.

GarageBand 4, also known as GarageBand '08, is part of iLife '08. It incorporates the ability to record sections of a song separately, such as bridges, and chorus lines. Additionally, it provides support for the automation of tempos and instruments, the creation, and exportation of iPhone ringtones, and a "Magic GarageBand" feature which includes a virtual jam session with a complete 3D view of the Electric instruments.

GarageBand 5 is part of the iLife '09 package. It includes music instruction and allows the user to buy instructional videos by contemporary artists. It also contains new features for electric guitar players, including a dedicated 3D Electric Guitar Track containing a virtual stompbox pedalboard, and virtual amplifiers with spring reverb and tremolo. GarageBand 5 also includes a redesigned user interface as well as Project Templates.

GarageBand 6, also known as GarageBand '11, is part of the iLife '11 package, which Apple released on October 20, 2010. This version brings new features such as Flex Time, a tool to adjust the rhythm of a recording. It also includes the ability to match the tempo of one track with another instantly, additional guitar amps and stompboxes, 22 new lessons for guitar and piano, and "How Did I Play?", a tool to measure the accuracy and progress of a piano or guitar performance in a lesson.

Apple released GarageBand 10 along with OS X 10.9 Mavericks in October 2013. This version has lost Magic GarageBand and the podcast functionality.

Apple updated GarageBand 10 for Mac on March 20, 2014. Version 10.0.2 adds the ability to export tracks in MP3 format as well as a new drummer module, but removed support for podcasting; users with podcast files created in GarageBand 6 can continue to edit them using the older version.

GarageBand was updated to version 10.0.3 on October 16, 2014. This version adds a dedicated Bass Amp Designer, global track effects and dynamic track resizing.

Apple released GarageBand 10.2 on June 5, 2017.

Features

Audio recording

GarageBand is a digital audio workstation (DAW) and music sequencer that can record and play back multiple tracks of audio. Built-in audio filters that use the AU (audio unit) standard allow the user to enhance the audio track with various effects, including reverb, echo, and distortion amongst others. GarageBand also offers the ability to record at both 16-bit and 24-bit Audio Resolution, but at a fixed sample rate of 44.1 kHz. An included tuning system helps with pitch correction and can effectively imitate the Auto-Tune effect when tuned to the maximum level. It also has a large array of preset effects to choose from, with an option to create your own effects.

Virtual software instruments

GarageBand includes a large selection of realistic, sampled instruments and software modeled synthesizers. These can be used to create original compositions or play music live through the use of a USB MIDI keyboard connected to the computer. An on-screen virtual keyboard is also available as well as using a standard QWERTY keyboard with the "musical typing" feature. The synthesizers were broken into two groups: [virtual] analog and digital. Each synthesizer has a wide variety of adjustable parameters, including richness, glide, cut off, standard attack, decay, sustain, and release; these allow for a wide array of sound creation. The five synth thumbnails are the ARP 2600, the Minimoog, the Waldorf Wave, the Nord Lead 1 and the Yamaha DX7.

Guitar features

In addition to the standard tracks, Garageband allows for guitar-specific tracks that can use a variety of simulated amplifiers, stompboxes, and effects processors. These imitate popular hardware from companies including Marshall Amplification, Orange Music Electronic Company, and Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. Up to five simulated effects can be layered on top of the virtual amplifiers, which feature adjustable parameters including tone, reverb, and volume. Guitars can be connected to Macs using the built-in input (requires hardware that can produce a standard stereo signal using a 3.5mm output) or a USB interface.

MIDI editing

GarageBand can import MIDI files and offers piano roll or notation-style editing and playback. By complying with the MIDI Standard, a user can edit many different aspects of a recorded note, including pitch, velocity, and duration. Pitch was settable to 1/128 of a semitone, on a scale of 0–127 (sometimes described on a scale of 1–128 for clarity). Velocity, which determines amplitude (volume), can be set and adjusted on a scale of 0–127. Note duration can be adjusted manually via the piano roll or in the score view. Note rhythms can be played via the software instruments, or created in the piano roll environment; rhythm correction is also included to lock notes to any time signature subdivision. GarageBand also offers global editing capabilities to MIDI information with Enhanced Timing, also known as Quantizing. While offering comprehensive control over MIDI files, GarageBand does not include several features of professional-level DAWs, such as a sequencer for drum tracks separate from the normal piano roll. However, many of these shortcomings have been addressed with each successive release of GarageBand.

Also of note, MIDI sequences edited or created in GarageBand cannot be exported to other DAWs or programs without first being converted to audio. A MIDI file can be extracted from a loop file created from a region, but this is not a general MIDI export facility, using manual steps and an open-source program.

Music lessons

A new feature included with GarageBand '09 and later is the ability to download pre-recorded music lessons from GarageBand's Lesson Store for guitar and piano. There are two types of lessons available in the Lesson Store: Basic Lessons, which are a free download, and Artist Lessons, which a user must purchase. The first Basic Lessons for both guitar and piano are included with GarageBand. In GarageBand 10, many sounds (aka patches, which Apple refers to as 'audio units') that are listed within the sound library are dimmed and unusable until the user pays an additional fee that allows the utilization of those sounds, bundled with the guitar and piano lessons. Attempting to click on and select the dimmed audio units to apply to the track causes promotional prompts to appear, requiring the user to log on with their Apple ID and furnish credit card information before knowing the price of the bundle.

In both types of lessons, a music teacher presents the lesson, which is in a special format offering high-quality video and audio instructions. The lessons include a virtual guitar or piano, which demonstrates finger position and a musical notation area to show the correct musical notations. The music examples used in these lessons feature popular music.

In an Artist Lesson the music teacher is the actual musician/songwriter who composed the song being taught in the lesson. As of November 2009 the artists featured are:

• Sting (The Police) — "Roxanne", "Message in a Bottle", "Fragile"
• Sarah McLachlan — "Angel"
• Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy — "I Don't Care", "Sugar, We're Goin' Down"
• Norah Jones — "Thinking About You"
• Colbie Caillat — "Bubbly"
• Sara Bareilles — "Love Song"
• John Fogerty (Creedence Clearwater Revival) — "Proud Mary", "Fortunate Son", "Centerfield"
• Ryan Tedder (OneRepublic) — "Apologize"
• Ben Folds — "Brick", "Zak and Sara"
• John Legend — "Ordinary People"
• Alex Lifeson (Rush) — "Tom Sawyer", "Limelight", "Working Man", "The Spirit of Radio".

No new Artist Lessons were released in 2010, and Apple has not announced plans to release additional entries.

In June 2018, the GarageBand 10.3 update made Artist Lessons free.

Additional audio loops

Garageband includes an extensive array of pre-made audio loops to choose from with an option to import custom sound loops and an additional loop pack that is purchasable via the App Store. All loops have an edit and effects option.

The Additional Audio Loops are as follows

Jam Packs

Jam Packs are Apple's official add-ons for GarageBand. Each Jam Pack contains loops and software instruments grouped into certain genres and styles.

The Jam Packs are as follows:

• GarageBand Jam Pack: Remix Tools
• GarageBand Jam Pack: Rhythm Section
• GarageBand Jam Pack: Symphony Orchestra
• GarageBand Jam Pack: World Music
• GarageBand Jam Pack: Voices

There was also another GarageBand Jam Pack, initially known just as GarageBand Jam Pack, later GarageBand Jam Pack 1, which Apple discontinued in January 2006. Beginning with the release of the Remix Tools and Rhythm Section Jam Packs, each Jam Pack has been designated with a number. The release of GarageBand Jam Pack: World Music also saw a redesign in packaging.

MainStage 2

MainStage 2 by Apple also includes 40 built-in instruments – including synths, vintage keyboards, and a drum machine – to use in GarageBand. It also features an interface for live performances and includes a large collection of plug-ins and sounds.

Third-party instrument and Apple Loop packages

In addition to Apple, many other companies today offer commercial or shareware virtual software instruments designed especially for GarageBand, and collections of Apple Loops intended for GarageBand users.

GarageBand can also use any third-party software synthesizer that adheres to the Core Audio (Audio Units) standard. However, there are limitations, including that Audio Unit instruments which can respond to multiple MIDI channels or ports can be triggered only on the first channel of the first port. This means that multi-timbral instruments that contain multiple channels and respond to many MIDI channels, such as Native Instruments Kontakt and MOTU MachFive, are not ideally suited for use in GarageBand.

Third-party vendors also offer extra loops for use in GarageBand. Users can also record custom loops through a microphone, via a software instrument, or by using an audio interface to connect physically a guitar or other hardware instruments to a Mac or iOS device.

Sample multitrack source files

In 2005, Trent Reznor from the band Nine Inch Nails released the source multitrack GarageBand files for the song "The Hand That Feeds" to allow the public to experiment with his music, and permitted prospective GarageBand users to remix the song. He also gave permission for anyone to share their personalized remix with the world. Since then, Nine Inch Nails has released several more GarageBand source files, and several other artists have also released their GarageBand files that the public could use to experiment.

New Zealand band Evermore also released the source multi-track files for GarageBand for their song "Never Let You Go".

Ben Folds released Stems & Seeds, a special version of his 2008 album Way to Normal. Stems and Seeds contained a remastered version of Way to Normal, and a separate disc containing GarageBand files for each track from the album to allow fans to remix the songs.

Limitations

A lack of MIDI-out capability limits the use of external MIDI instruments. There is also only limited support for messages sent from knobs on MIDI keyboards, as only real-time pitch bend, modulation, sustain, and foot control are recognizable. However, since GarageBand '08, other parameters affected by MIDI knobs can be automated later, per-track. GarageBand has no functions for changing time signature mid-song though the software does now allow a tempo track to automate tempo changes.

Other than pitch bend, GarageBand is limited to the pitches and intervals of standard 12-tone equal temperament, so it does not natively support xenharmonic music. Logic Pro supports many different tunings. GarageBand does not support different tunings however, audio units which support micro tuning (using .scl or .tun files, or some other method) can be employed in GarageBand to produce alternative pitches.

Before GarageBand 10, there was no export option, and the only option was to save files as .band or export to iTunes. There is no built-in MIDI export feature, although regions can be manually exported as loops and converted to MIDI files.

GarageBand for iOS

GarageBand for iOS

File:RE-ADD: WHEN MOVING TO ARTICLE SPACE
File:RE-ADD: File:GarageBand iOS screenshot.jpg WHEN MOVING TO ARTICLE SPACE GarageBand for iOS
Developer(s)	Apple
Stable release	2.3.15 / September 19, 2023 (2023-09-19)
Operating system	iOS 17 or later, iPadOS
Type	Digital audio workstation
License	Proprietary
Website	www.apple.com/ios/garageband/

On March 2, 2011, Apple announced a version of GarageBand for the iPad. It has many features similar to the macOS version. Music can be created using the on-screen instruments, which include keyboards, drums, a sampler, and various "smart instruments". It also acts as a multitrack recording studio with Stompbox effects and guitar amps. Songs can be emailed or sent to an iTunes Library. Additionally, projects can be imported to GarageBand for macOS, where they are further editable. This feature also allows instruments from the iOS platform to be savable to software instrument library on the Mac. However projects created in the macOS version cannot be opened in the iOS version. The app is compatible with iPhone 3GS or higher, the third generation iPod Touch or higher, and all versions of the iPad, including the iPad Mini. The app, with all instruments included, was available for $6.99 from the Apple App Store. In 2017, it was made free.

Instruments

GarageBand comes with a wide range of different instruments for the user to use. All non-drum instruments (with the exception of the koto) come with the functionality to limit the note selection to different musical scales.

Keyboard

The keyboard is set up like a standard keyboard, and features several keyboard instruments, including grand piano, electric piano, various organs, clavinet, synth leads, synth pads, and bass synths. It also has many different non-keyboard instrument sounds including versions of many of the other instruments, for example users can use the keyboard to play guitar, bass and string sounds. In version 2.2, the Alchemy Synth synth engine from Logic Pro was also added to the keyboard. The keyboard has several additional features including a pitch bend, arpeggiator and "autoplay" function (which will play one of 4 rhythms for each instrument). Many of the instruments have adjustable parameters such as Attack, Cutoff and Resonance. Prior to version 2.2 there was also a separate "Smart Keyboard" instrument which was arranged like the other smart instruments, allowing the user to play chords on a limited selection of keyboard instruments (piano, electric piano, organ, clavinet, and four adjustable synthesizers). This functionality has since been integrated into the main keyboard instrument in version 2.2 with the new "Chord Strips" that allow the user to access the layout from the Smart Keyboard using any keyboard instrument.

Drums

There are three different kinds of drum instruments in GarageBand. The touch drums instrument includes by default 7 acoustic drum kits with a realistic drum kit layout, and 12 electronic drum kits (including Hip Hop drums, House drums, and drum kits with Roland TR-808 and 909 samples). The electronic kits are set up like drum machines with customizable sounds that can be saved as separate drum kits. The Chinese Kit was later added in version which included genuine Chinese sounds like the gong. The "Smart Drums" instrument allows the arranging of drum sounds on a grid by complexity and volume. It contains a selection of six drums (Classic Studio Kit, Live Rock Kit, Vintage Kit, Classic Drum Machine, Hip Hop Drum Machine, and House Drum Machine). The "Beat Sequencer" involves the placement of steps to form a beat pattern. There are many pre-sets patterns to choose from and users can customize aspects of the pattern such as note velocity and probability.

Smart Guitar

GarageBand includes 5 guitars: an acoustic guitar, three electric guitars, and a distortion guitar. Each guitar (except for the acoustic one) has two optional sound boxes. The instrument is set up with two different modes. The first is set up like the Chord Strips, where multiple chords are playable. Each note in a chord can also be played separately, or muted by holding the left side of the string. This mode includes an autoplay feature which will play one of 4 different rhythms depending on which guitar is chosen.

Smart Bass

The bass instrument is set up like the guitar, where four strings can play various notes. However, the bass cannot play chords. Included are three electric basses, an acoustic orchestral bass, and four customizable synth basses. Like the smart keyboard and smart guitars, there is an "autoplay" feature.

Smart Strings

Smart Strings were added in version 1.2 and consist of a string section made of 1st and 2nd violins, violas, cellos, and bass. They are capable of playing notes legato, staccato, and pizzicato depending on if the user swipes up and down, flicks or taps their screen respectively. The orchestra is customizable, including four different string styles (all with a different "autoplay" feature) and the option to choose which instruments to play. For example, one can play a chord made up of all the available instruments, or simply play a violin note.

World

World instruments were added in version 2.3 which allow the user to play traditional Chinese and Japanese instruments. The instruments available are the pipa, erhu, koto and guzheng.

Drummer

The Drummer was added in version 2.1 and is a virtual player who will create realistic drum grooves. There are numerous drummers to choose from in various genres. Each drummer has a unique kit, which can be an acoustic, electronic or percussion drum kit. Users can also customise the playing style of each drummer, including choosing from various preset rhythms. They can also adjust which parts of the drum kit the drummer will play, the amount of swing and if the drummer should follow the rhythm of another track.

Sampler

In the sampler, the user can import or record their own sound and then play it on the keyboard (it has the same interface as the keyboard instrument). After the sound has been recorded or imported, it can be modified with a various amount of tools within the sampler in order to trim or reverse the sample, loop a section of it or adjust the tuning and volume envelope of the sample. The app comes with numerous sound effects such as a dog bark, party horn and cheering already available to use in the sampler.

Audio recorder

The audio recorded is a standard recorder for recording and editing audio. Audio can be recorded through the device's internal microphone, a headphone microphone or external microphone connected to the device via an audio interface. After the sound has been recorded, many audio effects can be applied. The recorder comes with various presets designed for recording different sounds like Guitar, Piano or Lead vocals, all with adjustable parameters.

Amp

The amp is designed to be played by plugging a guitar or bass into the device and recording, but can also work with sounds from the audio recorder, included Apple Loops, and imported music files. Within it are several customizable amplifiers and stompboxes, allowing for a broad range of different sounds.

External apps

Third-party music apps can be used inside GarageBand in one of two ways. The Audio Unit Extensions feature allows third-party instruments and effect plug-ins to be played and used directly inside GarageBand as if they were native to the app. The Inter-App Audio functionality lets you record audio from another app into GarageBand.

Sound Library

The Sound Library was added in November 2017 with the 2.3.1 update and lets the user download additional free instruments, drummers and loops released as Sound Packs that are added to the app over time.

Updates

On November 1, 2011, Apple introduced GarageBand for iOS 1.1, adding support for the iPhone and iPod Touch, among other features. These included the ability to create custom 3/4 and 6/8 time signatures, and exporting in AAC or AIFF format.

On March 7, 2012, Apple updated GarageBand to 1.2, adding support for the third-generation iPad. It introduced the new Smart Strings instrument, a string orchestra of 1st and 2nd violins, violas, celli, and bass, capable of playing notes legato, staccato, and pizzicato. Additionally, it added synthesizers to the Smart Keyboard and Smart Bass instruments. It also added a note editor that allows users to fine-tune note placement and length and the ability to upload songs to Facebook, YouTube and SoundCloud, as well as the ability to upload projects to iCloud. It also included Jam Session, a feature that enables up to 4 iPhones, iPod Touches, and/or iPads with GarageBand installed to play simultaneously.

On May 1, 2012, GarageBand was updated to 1.2.1, providing minor bug fixes and stability improvements.

Alongside the new iOS 6, Apple updated GarageBand to 1.3 on September 19, 2012. The update added the ability to import music from one's music library, ringtone creation, the ability to use the app in the background, and minor bug fixes.

GarageBand was updated to 1.4 on March 20, 2013. The update added support for Audiobus, the ability to remove grid snapping, and minor bug fixes.

GarageBand received an overhaul of design coinciding with the reveal of the iPad Air on October 22, 2013. GarageBand 2.0 features a new design to match iOS 7, an extended number of tracks per song, and new functions in the Sampler instrument.

In January 2016, version 2.1 was released in which GarageBand received a new Live Loops layout that lets users create and perform music by triggering loops and adding effects in real-time. Other features in the update included the ability to add a virtual Drummer, increased maximum number of tracks up to 32, the ability to edit volume automation curves and the addition of basic EQ and compressor plug-ins. Amplifiers for bass guitars were also added. Third-party instrument apps could now be used inside GarageBand via Audio Unit Extensions.

In January 2017, version 2.2 was released with a number of new features including the Alchemy Synth previously only available in Logic Pro. Audio Unit Extension compatibility was updated to also allow third-party effects apps to be used.

A new Sound Library was added in November 2017 which allows users to download additional free instruments and loops released as part of Sound Packs that are added to the app over time. A new Beat Sequencer for creating drum beats was also added in this update.

MIDI support was added in update 2.3.6 in September 2018.

In July 2021, GarageBand released multiple new Sound Packs with loops and instruments from many producers such as Boys Noize, as well as two Remix Sessions from Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga that allow users to remix their songs.

In August 2022, GarageBand released 2 Remix Sessions from Seventeen and Katy Perry.

In December 2022, GarageBand released a Remix Session from Zedd.

Differences from MacOS version

• No Music Lessons.
• Only three time signatures (4/4, 3/4, and 6/8).
• No master track.
• Automation is only available for volume.
• Live Loops layout.
• Audio Unit Extensions (via App Store).
• A Sound Library providing free, downloadable content such as additional keyboards, drum sets, and more.
• Limited exporting functions (As of 2.3.3, the option to export recorded projects as songs to YouTube has been removed).

Availability

Prior to the launch of Apple's Mac App Store, GarageBand was only available as a part of iLife, a suite of applications (also including iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, and iWeb) intended to simplify the creation and organization of digital content, or available on a new Mac. On January 6, 2011, GarageBand was made available independently on the Mac App Store in addition to iPhoto and iMovie. Since then GarageBand's user base has increased drastically.

Notable users

GarageBand has been embraced by many musicians of varying levels of fame in order to record and produce music. Steve Lacy used the GarageBand app on his cracked 2012 iPhone to produce music for his solo projects, the Internet, and J. Cole. That phone is currently on display in the Smithsonian. Nine Inch Nails made their song "The Hand That Feeds" in the software, and released a link to the multitrack GarageBand file on the band's website, allowing other GarageBand users to remix the song. Musicians that have collaborated with Apple to promote GarageBand include Katy Perry, John Mayer, Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish, and Lady Gaga. Charlotte Day Wilson, Doja Cat, Ellie Rowsell (of Wolf Alice), Sloan Struble (of Dayglow), Meghan Trainor, Ethel Cain, and Awkwafina all began learning to produce and create music using GarageBand. GarageBand was also used by artists such as T-Pain; Grimes for her album Visions; Anne Clark of St. Vincent for multiple projects; Danielle Haim for Haim songs, with the song "Summer Girl" starting out as a GarageBand demo; and Jesse Rutherford for his sophomore solo album, GARAGEB&, named after the application, as he produced most of the tracks in GarageBand. In addition, Rihanna's hit "Umbrella" was born from a stock GarageBand drum track. As well, the music for the viral internet video Charlie the Unicorn was recorded in GarageBand.

Supported music file formats

This app supports many music formats, including AIFF, WAV, and MIDI. The app can export songs to AAC, MP3, MP4 or AIFF format.

Support for 8-bit audio files was dropped in version 10.

See also

• List of MIDI editors and sequencers
• List of music software

External links

• Official website
• Garageband Alternatives

REMOVE Colon (punctuation) CATAGROIES BEFORE MOVING TO ARTICLE SPACE Category:MacOS audio editors Category:Apple Inc. software Category:IOS-based software made by Apple Inc. Category:IOS software Category:Music software Category:Audio recording software

Asia-Pacific Telecommunity band plan

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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.

Figure 1. Harmonized FDD Arrangement of the APT band plan of the 700 MHz band

Figure 2. Harmonized TDD Arrangement of the APT band plan of the 700 MHz band

Existing 3GPP standards for the APT band plan are given below:

3GPP LTE band	3GPP NR band	Duplex	Uplink Frequency	Downlink 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 facts
August 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 announces 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 market
October 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 internet
March 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 users
September 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 TeliaSonera
March 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 smartphone
September 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 population
January 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

Country	Current state
Australia	Australia auctioned off part of the 700 MHz spectrum according to the APT band plan together with the 2.5 GHz band.
Argentina	Argentina's position was publicly announced at the XVIII CITEL's PCC.II meeting in November 2011. Through its proposal, the country added the APT segmentation option for the band 698-806 MHz in accordance with ITU-R M.1036-4 (03/2012).
Brazil	On February 6, 2013, Brazil published the guidelines for accelerate access to the Digital Television and the expansion of spectrum availability for meeting the objectives of the Brazilian National Broadband Program in the Official Gazette. One of the proposals is to consider regional and international harmonization in order to adopt a frequency arrangement that favors coexistence in border regions and the exploitation of economies of scale, the APT bandplan.
Chile	In May 2016, SUBTEL, Chile's telecoms regulator, announced nationwide deployment using the 700 MHz band for LTE and authorized telecoms to start offering the service.
China	China plans to adopt the TDD version of the APT bandplan. However, digital switchoff is set for 2015 and no official decision has been taken yet.
Colombia	In May 2012, Colombia announced its adoption of the APT band plan. Colombia is expected to carry out the first tests in Latin America for a LTE network on the 700 MHz band with APT channeling supported by Huawei, ZTE and Ericsson. The first tests were to take place during 1Q 2013.
Costa Rica	In March 2012, SUTEL, Costa Rican regulator became the first regulator in Latin America to issue a recommendation in favor of the APT band plan on 29 March where it mentioned the efforts aimed to reach regional harmonization in the 700 MHz band: ”…Among the efforts to concretize this harmonization of spectrum, is the initiative of the Federal Telecommunications Commission (COFETEL), the entity that, through a series of dialogues with governments of Latin America, has discovered that there exists a great geographic consensus on the way to utilize the spectrum in the 698-806 MHz band that permits to maximize the social impact of networks in this band.”
Ecuador	In October 2012, Ecuador announced the adoption of the APT band plan at the week of the XX CITEL's PCC.II meeting in Mexico City.
Japan	In June 2012, Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs Communications awarded rights to the use of 700-MHz spectrum to NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, SoftBank and e-Mobile in accordance with APT FDD band plan.
India	In April 2012, the country has introduced the National Frequency Allocation plan where it sets the 700 MHz band to be used for IMT. TRAI, the country's telecom regulator, has proposed to adopt the APT bandplan and to auction the frequencies already in 2013. March 2013 – TRAI announced the adoption of APT700 FDD band plan and clearly stated that the reason for preferring it over the US band plan was more efficient use of spectrum. In 2022, India auctioned the APT 600 MHz band being the first country in the world to do so.
Hong Kong	In November 2021, Office of the Communications Authority auctioned off part of the 700 MHz spectrum (703-738MHz Paired with 758-793 MHz) after PAL analogue TV ceased broadcasting on 30 November 2020
Mexico	In September 2012, The Federal Commission of Telecommunications in Mexico (COFETEL) announced the adoption of the APT band plan for the 700 MHz band. This decision became one of the few decisions in the area of telecommunications where Mexico adopts a competing model with the USA. It was taken despite the necessity for additional coordination along the common US-Mexico border of around 3000 km.
New Zealand	New Zealand adopted the full FDD APT band plan and auctioned the spectrum in October 2013. Vodafone deployed the first 4G services on 700 MHz in New Zealand in July 2014
Panama	In October 2012, Panama adopted APT band plan one week before the XX CITEL's PCC.II meeting in Mexico City.
Papua New Guinea	Papua New Guinea adopted the APT FDD 2 x 45 MHz band plan.
Philippines	The Philippine government with a small part and the duopoly, SMART Communications and Globe Telecom, acquired the coveted 700 MHz spectrum when San Miguel Corporation sold its telecom business.
South Korea	South Korea allocated 2 x 20 MHz in accordance with the APT FDD band plan; usage of remaining spectrum officially has not yet been decided. Analog switch off is set to be completed by the end of 2012.
Taiwan	In October 2012, the National Communications Commission in Taiwan announced that they adopted the Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT) band plan for the 700 MHz band for mobile services. Auctions dates are set for August 2013 and the spectrum will be auctioned off in 4 blocks - three blocks of 10x2 MHz and one block of 15x2 MHz.
Tonga	Tonga adopted the APT FDD 2 x 45 MHz band plan.
Trinidad and Tobago	In November 2017, the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT) adopted the APT FDD 700 MHz band plan (i.e. LTE Band 28). 2 x 10 MHz of spectrum was allocated to PPDR, 2 x 30 MHz (2 x 10 MHz each) was allocated for the provision of public mobile telecommunication services (for 3 mobile operators) and 2 x 5 MHz was allocated for future use. In October 2020, Digicel and bmobile both received their licenses in the 700 MHz band.
United Arab Emirates	United Arab Emirates adopted the APT band plan in May 2013. UAE is adopting the 2 x 30 MHz channel plan for the 700 MHz band as a baseline, consisting of 703–733 MHz (uplink) paired with 758 – 788 MHz (downlink). The regulator has committed to vacate this band by end of 2013 for IMT utilization.

Table 3. Worldwide regulation status for the APT band plan by country

Advantages

General

The APT band plan has been developed over a 2.5 year period and was based on considerable technical studies by industry and governments. For the overall success of the creation of the harmonized band plan, high degree of cooperation among industry stakeholders (governments, vendors, operators, associations, and other) was key. As a result, the APT band plan is very well-thought from the technical point of view and is able to meet modern and future requirements by networks, user equipment and growing demand of connectivity.

Economic

Potential for economies of scale

Because many countries across the globe have adopted the APT band plan, substantial economies of scale are bound to be created. That will lead to personal devices' and network elements' price erosion and thus, also to increasingly higher penetration of mobile devices and mobile internet.

Room for more competition

The APT band plan allows that up to 4 operators could receive wide spectrum blocks (2x 10 MHz in this case), or 3 operators getting 2x 15 MHz each, or other mixed configurations. On the other hand, in the US, there are only three commercial operators using the band, with two operators (AT&T and Verizon Wireless), each having 2x 10 MHz of spectrum and T-Mobile having 2x 5 Mhz of spectrum.

Potentially, the most harmonized band in the world

The APT band plan has already become a multi-regionally harmonized spectrum band that will provide a coherent ecosystem for LTE devices. Most Asian countries have already opted for the APT band; there is a strong evidence of a rising regional consensus among the vast majority of Latin American countries. Europe's "second" digital dividend matches the second duplexer of the APT band plan which implies that the user equipment, as well as network elements will be compatible with those of the APT band plan. Additionally, some Middle East and African countries have already shown their preference of the APT band plan. Countries in the Caribbean such as Cuba, Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago have also adopted the APT band plan.

Spectrum planning flexibility

The APT band plan allows greater national spectrum planning flexibility for governments all over the world, giving the possibility to adjust channel sizes to necessities of particular market and country by allocating blocks ranging from 2x 5 MHz up to 2x 20 MHz.

Technical

Full interoperability

With the inclusion of two-duplexer system in the devices and network equipment, full interoperability is guaranteed across the entire band of the APT band plan. In a nutshell, it means that any user will be able to use his/her mobile device in any network in the 700 MHz band where the APT band plan is used, regardless of the mobile operator and the country. On the contrary, in the US band plan, there are two or three different device ecosystems which translate to non-interoperability within the country, and severe limitations (most probably, practically unavailability) of international roaming.

Wide channel size

The APT band plan represents two blocks of 45 MHz of contiguous spectrum. This enables operators to enjoy much wider channels comparing to the blocks available within the US band plan. That translates to much greater efficiency of networks, higher data throughput levels, lower latency and less investments needed for network deployment, all other factors being equal. Wider channel sizes are crucially important for the networks of the nearest future because of the growth of mobile data and projected capacity demand.

Strong protective measures against interference

The APT band plan assures appropriate protective measures for other services in adjacent bands which allow avoiding harmful interference from TV services in lower bands as well as from cellular networks in upper bands. In the same manner, the center gap of 10 MHz protects the band from self-interference.

Adaptiveness to future technological demands

In the near future, the phenomenon of asymmetric traffic (when downlink experiences more traffic than uplink) can be mitigated by applying signal processing techniques that are currently under consideration in the standards development process for the APT band plan. Examples of such techniques are: skewing the number of MIMO antennas to the side where higher traffic is needed, Multi-user MIMO, and other methods.

Challenges

“Competition” with the US band plan

US band plan was developed significantly earlier than the APT band plan. As of today, there are successful deployments of LTE networks in the USA. Due to this fact, the ecosystem of this band plan is relatively well-developed with two large networks already operating commercially and with a number of user devices existing on the market. The APT band plan does not yet enjoy a ready ecosystem and, therefore, has to “compete” with the US band plan in order to become the preferred way for countries to segment the band.

The ecosystem of devices and network elements is yet to be developed

Another existing challenge is the advancement of its own ecosystem, which in turn depends on equipment vendors: terminal devices manufacturers (HTC, Apple, Samsung, Nokia, etc.), producers of parts of terminals (such as Qualcomm) and vendors that manufacture network elements (Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, etc.). The development of the ecosystem depends heavily on the demand that exists on the market and is a function of the created economies of scale.

China’s intention to use the TDD configuration of the APT band plan

Most likely, China will follow the TDD configuration of the APT band plan, thus most probably becoming one of a handful of markets in the world that support such configuration, but still an important and large one. Even Taiwan, one of China's closest neighbors, adopted the FDD version of the APT band plan. Furthermore, TDD configuration is technologically in many ways inferior to the FDD one. (It should be said, however, that in a number cases the TDD configuration proves to have certain advantages, such as larger capacity to bear with downlink disproportionately exceeding the uplink data transmission). In the same time, the TDD configuration of the 700 MHz, as it is seen today, is not expected to form part of the same ecosystem as the FDD mode either of the APT band plan, or of the US band plan. Therefore, it will not add up to economies of scale of neither of the two and a completely separate ecosystem might likely be developed.

Two duplexers issue

In the APT 700 FDD configuration, two overlapping duplexers are required to cover the entire band due to the limitations by current filter technologies. The existence of two duplexers in the APT band plan and the fact that European, Japanese (and perhaps some other future networks) will only work with one duplexer set, raise a question of whether user and network equipment manufacturers will incorporate both duplexers in their equipment or will create two parallel configurations – one with only one duplexer and another one with both of them. Presence of both configurations would lead to less significant economies of scale for each type of the equipment and to distortions in the economic valuation of different parts of the spectrum in the 700 MHz band. Although the dynamics of the market such as the ever-increasing complexity of chipsets, multi-band support by chip manufacturers demonstrate that the most likely outcome is the inclusion of both duplexers in all devices. Additionally, whereas channel bandwidths up to 15 MHz can be supported anywhere within the band, channel bandwidths of 20 MHz are limited to the upper and lower parts of the band and may not be employed in the mid-portion of the band where the filters overlap.

As of 2014, most equipment vendors have released two versions of their radio units: one dedicated to the lower band and another one dedicated to the upper band. A notable alternative is provided by Alcatel-Lucent - their RRH2x40-07APT-4R radio unit covers the entire band 28 (45 MHz) within a single radio unit thus negating the need of sourcing two different radio unit variants.

Ecosystem

Incompatibility with the US band plan

Frequency arrangements of the US band plan and the APT band plan substantially overlap thus making them largely incompatible. The 3GPP has designated five operating bands for the US band plan (Bands 12, 13, 14, 17, 29) and two bands for the APT band plan (Band 28 for FDD version and Band 44 for TDD version). There are distinct differences among the operating bands such as different channel bandwidths and channel locations within the 700 MHz band. More specifically, duplex spacing and guardband peculiarities of the APT band plan is what differentiates it most. US band plan, in its turn, is characterized by a number of inconsistencies: i) non-existence of in-band interoperability (i.e. devices working in band 13 are not compatible with devices working with in either of the bands 12, 14, 17); ii) harmful interference from TV channels; iii) absence of user equipment in Band 12 (it is also not likely to appear in the future)[EDIT 12/1/2014: Band 12 equipment is already available]; iv) no current use of the D and E blocks in the lower part of the 700 MHz band (there is a 12 MHz TDD frequency block); and some other issues. As a result of these peculiarities of segmentation, block A of the lower 700 MHz band is practically not used due to interference from TV Channel 51. Out of the total of 23x2 MHz of spectrum owned and used by AT&T and Verizon, 3x2 MHz cannot be used due to limitations by LTE technology standards - only blocks of 5, 10 MHz can be used according to 3GPP industry standards.

Figure 3. Incompatibility of the US band plan and the APT band plan in the 700 MHz band

Compatibility of the APT band plan with the foreseen usage of the 700 MHz band in different regions of the world

European countries, which still continue have a high occupancy of broadcasting services in the 700 MHz band that have been granted a period until 2015 to convert to digital. It appears that since the APT segmentation is based on two overlapping duplexers of 30+30 MHz, it fits perfectly in the European scheme, as shown on the graph below. This compatibility opens the way for the harmonization of the 700 MHz band with the European region. Japan, one of largest and most advanced Asian markets and the global technology leader is using the upper duplexer part of the APT band plan and thus will enjoy being the part of the ecosystem of the APT band plan too. This basically means that the terminals designed to work in the APT band plan will perfectly function in Europe and Japan, thus adding up to the size of the market that is being created by the APT band plan. All facts mentioned above and the recent announcements from various governments indicate that the 700 MHz band in the FDD mode of the APT band plan is becoming one of the most harmonized band that exists in the world. This extent of harmonization will lead to economies of scale which will in turn drag down the prices of terminals, speed up adoption of smart devices and finally convert to socio-economic benefits.

Figure 4. Scheme of possible harmonization of sub 1 GHz bands

User equipment

At the given moment, the user equipment (UE) for this segmentation scheme has not yet been released commercially. In the same time, the development of 3GPP and ITU standards (bands 28 and 44) and evident signals that has been sent to the market by many countries in Asia, Latin America and elsewhere, indicate that technological developments of the required ecosystem (first of all, in terms of user equipment and network equipment) are currently underway. Some of the strongest signals for the future demand have been sent by large markets, such as Japan, India, Indonesia, and above all, Mexico. This country was the first large market in Americas to adopt the APT band plan despite historical path dependency and despite having a 3,000 km border with the USA which uses a different segmentation of the 700 MHz band. Another point that is worth to mention is that the standardization work that has been carried out by the 3GPP was strongly supported by many key companies from the industry. That also proves that the equipment manufacturers are in the process of the commercialization of UE and network elements driven by the creation of significant market by the APT band plan. All that seems to indicate that first prototypes of APT devices will appear in the Q2 of 2013 and market releases are to be expected in the second half of 2013. In Latin America, for example, the National Spectrum Agency (ANE) of Colombia has announced that Huawei, ZTE and Ericsson will conduct tests in the band under the standard APT pipeline in the first quarter of 2013, using equipment developed by the leading manufacturers with the goal to auction off the spectrum in August 2013. Due to economies of scale that are being created by the APT band plan, the price of smart devices could then lower down significantly.

Current state and recent developments

A significant number of countries have already adopted the APT segmentation scheme: Australia, India, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, and Tonga in Asia; and Brazil, Costa-Rica, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, Panama and Argentina in Latin America. In countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru and a few others it is scheduled to be adopted in the nearest future. In Europe, allocation of the 700 MHz band to mobile services implies challenges, acknowledged by the ITU-R in its decision that new allocations should not come into force until 2015 due to many countries in Europe having digital terrestrial television (DTT) services in 700 MHz band. That decision also takes into account the need for European countries to better study issues regarding the channel plan and to carry out compatibility studies regarding other services in the Region and on other topics, before taking final position on the best suitable allocation and associated regulation. However, once these issues are resolved, the APT band plan will become compatible with the usage of the 700 MHz band in Europe, whereas the US band plan will not.

Spectrum harmonization and potential economies of scale

Generally speaking, it is very important that the spectrum is used in the same way across as many markets as possible to create economies of scale. That, in turn, leads to lower prices for the equipment thus increasing the adoption of the technology and having a direct and indirect impact on the economic growth. This growth consists of enhancement of productivity, job creation, entrepreneurship, infrastructure investment, taxation; all leading to GDP growth. According to the joint study of the GSMA and the Boston Consulting Group, the biggest socio-economic benefits are likely to arise by allocating the 700 MHz band to mobile services.

For example, by 2020, the allocation of 700 MHz band in Asia to mobile could generate a GDP increase of more than US$1 trillion (NPV of $960 billion) and tax revenue growth of US$215 billion, along with the creation of an additional 1.4 million new businesses (including new departments or business units within existing firms) and 2.7 million new jobs. Comparing allocation to mobile services and broadcasting services, which is another possible option of utilization of the 700 MHz band, the first option would lead to significant incremental economic benefits over the broadcasting services – in particular, an extra US$959 billion in GDP, by 2020, as well as additional tax revenues of US$171 billion, 1.4 million more business activities, and 2.6 million additional jobs, according to the study.

Creation of economies of scale is vital for mass production of equipment and its further adoption in target markets. Overall, the greater economies of scale are, the lesser end user prices will be established and the vaster will be the adoption of the technology that translates to socio-economic benefits. Speaking about the ecosystem availability timeframes, many stakeholders expect the APT band plan ecosystem to develop rapidly as countries identify and auction spectrum with this frequency arrangement.

Although there exists a rather small spectral overlap that theoretically provides some opportunities for manufacturing equipment that would be operable across both plans, there are important technical considerations that are certain to constrain practical radio-frequency (RF) designs to separate markets for two band plans of the 700 MHz band.

With the ongoing adoption of the LTE technology, future numerous deployments in the 700 MHz band and the advancements in the microelectronics, the user devices of the future might support multiple LTE bands and potentially could even include RF designs (antennas, band chips, duplexers, filters, oscillators and other circuitry) supporting both the US band plan and the APT band plan. However, at least in the short- and medium-term, there will be separate markets for UE in these two existing band plan configurations.

As is it forecasted as of today, the US band plan will solely be used in the US, Canada, Nicaragua and a handful of Caribbean islands. That, by itself, represents a significant market of an order of 410 million people.

However, the recent developments around the propagation of the APT band plan across Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, and thanks to the compatibility of the European frequency arrangements, as well as the situation in Africa and Middle East, project confidence that a far bigger market is being created worldwide. Summed up, the prospective overall market for the APT band plan translates to a figure of at the very least 3 billion people across the globe. With ongoing studies of the digital dividend in the world, that number is might increase and include nearly all the rest of the world. First and foremost, vast number of Asian-Pacific countries have already adopted the APT band plan. For the moment, combined markets of Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore and South Korea add up to around 2 billion 100 million people. In the Middle East and Africa region, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and United Arab Emirates are likely to follow Europe in using partially the frequency arrangement of the APT band plan which makes them fall into the same category of ecosystems. The number of such countries of the region is bound to rise. These countries alone represent a market equal to the one of the US band plan – around 330 million people. In Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Costa-Rica, Panama, Peru, Venezuela have all officially adopted the APT band plan while in the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago is the only country to have officially adopted the APT band plan. The logical outcome of the ongoing regional harmonization process in Americas will be the resulting market of an order of 400 million consumers. Given the size of the potential market that is on the verge of being created, the socio-economic benefits caused by booming access and adoption of the mobile internet by all social layers of population and driven by rocketing penetration of smart devices will be overwhelming and transformational.

Technical characteristics and considerations

Existing standards for the APT band plan

The FDD mode of the APT 700 MHz band plan has been standardized by the 3GPP as the Band 28/n28 (FDD 703-748 / 758 - 803 MHz) and the TDD mode - as the Band 44 (TDD 703 – 803 MHz). The work for the LTE bands was completed at RAN4 #63 meeting in Czech Republic on May 21–25, 2012. The FDD mode of the APT 600 MHz band plan has been standardized by the 3GPP as the Band n105 (FDD 663-703 / 612 - 652 MHz)

3GPP LTE band	1.4 MHz	3 MHz	5 MHz	10 MHz	15 MHz	20 MHz
28	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
44	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Table 4. Supported LTE channel bandwidths for APT segmentation of the 700 MHz band

3GPP NR band	5 MHz	10 MHz	15 MHz	20 MHz	25 MHz	30 MHz	35 MHz
n28	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
n105	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Table 5. Supported NR channel bandwidths for APT segmentation of the 700 MHz and 600 MHz bands

The following table outlines the main technical aspects of the standard that have been set at the 3GPP RAN4 Plenary in Slovenia on 13-15 of June 2012 in the R4-123624 for the FDD mode and in the R4-123696 for the TDD mode.

Item	Value	Purpose
Out-of-band emission level across 694-698 MHz	- 26.2 dBm/6 MHz	To ensure no interference from television services in adjacent bands
Self-band protection	-32 dBm/MHz	To ensure intra-band protection of receiver and transmitter

Table 6. Technical aspects of the standard of APT segmentation of the 700 MHz band

3GPP members who supported and contributed to this work include: Alcatel-Lucent, CATT, China Mobile, Ericsson, ETRI, HiSilicon, Huawei, KDDI, KT Corporation, LG Electronics Inc., LG-Ericsson Co. Ltd., Motorola Mobility, NII Holdings, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, NTT DOCOMO, Qualcomm Inc., Samsung, ST-Ericsson, Telefónica S.A., Vodafone, ZTE. The segmentation scheme called "A5" for the band 698-806 MHz, corresponding to the FDD mode of the APT band plan, is defined by the Recommendation of ITU-R M.1036-4 (3/2012) "Frequency Arrangements for Implementation of the terrestrial component of International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) in the bands Identifies for IMT in the Radio Regulations (RR) "(ITU-R M.1036). The TDD version of the APT band plan is standardized as the “A6” segmentation scheme in accordance with the same Recommendation of ITU-R M.1036-4 (3/2012). Current specifications can be found in 3GPP TS 36.101 v11.1.0 for the UE and 3GPP TS 36.104 v11.1.0 for the Base Stations. They correspond to the frequency arrangement of the Rec. ITU-R M.1036-4 (3-2012).

Technology

The most favoured, popular mobile broadband technology internationally for the digital spectrum appears to be the FDD-LTE technology. LTE is known to offer operators and end users high data throughput and low latency which are the two main characteristics of a technology that is aimed to be used for data transmission. Peak speeds utilizing multiple antennas (MIMO) in optimal conditions are in excess of 300 Mbit/s. While actual speeds experienced by users will be dependent on equipment and the number of users connected to any cell, it is clear that LTE offers speeds which could result in a step-change in mobile broadband connectivity. The move to LTE is seen as the key next step for mobile network operators aiming to respond to the increasing demand for mobile data access. LTE offers greater spectral efficiency, allowing the provision of higher data speeds and greater data allowance, at lower cost. This will be particularly important for MNOs as average revenue per user from voice and text services falls. FDD-LTE offers a natural upgrade path from GSM and WCDMA technologies which are already widely implemented in New Zealand. It will be able to provide both mobile and fixed wireless broadband services. There is also growing interest from some manufacturers in using TDD-LTE in the 700 MHz band. This move is led mainly by equipment manufacturers and mobile network operators in China. At the current moment in time, though, the technology is largely untested.

Comparison of FDD and TDD modes of the APT band plan

According to the estimates of Qualcomm, “in a coverage-limited system comparison using the same frequency band, the TDD system required 31% more base stations than FDD when using a 1:1 TDD system and 65% more base stations when using a 2:1 TDD system. Higher frequency bands required even more base stations.” Due to the fact that the major part of both capital and operational expenditures of operators have to do with base stations of the network, making their incurred costs directly proportional to the number of base stations, FDD deployments imply lower deployment and operating costs.

Duplexers

The duplexer is a filter that provides isolation of the transmitter leakage to its own receiver. In a mobile connected device, the transmitter and receiver are linked to the same antenna by means of a duplexer. Duplexer isolation of > 45 dB is considered feasible by the industry. If the duplexer isolation is not sufficient then the handset may experience self-desensitization. Multi-mode, multi-band handsets often have mode- and band-specific duplexers. Duplexer technology affects choice of duplex separation and centre band gap which have been designed for the APT band plan with these considerations in mind.

Duplex Spacing

Figure 5. Duplexers in the FDD mode of the APT band plan

Duplex spacing is the separation between the uplink channel and the corresponding downlink channel. A larger separation implies less likelihood of self-interference between a handset transmitter and its own receiver. Because a power amplifier out of band response is related to the bandwidth, the duplex separation requirement is also dependent on the carrier bandwidth in order to protect the receiver from self-interference. A duplex spacing of 30 MHz is sufficient to support carrier bandwidths of up to 10 MHz. This result is derived using 3GPP specification 3GPP 36.101.

Centre Gap

Centre gap is a key characteristic of FDD-based frequency arrangement represented by the gap between frequency blocks assigned for downlink and uplink respectively in the FDD-based arrangement as illustrated in Figure 5. It is common understanding that the duplex spacing and centre gap influence the duplexer performance so that larger separation brings the better isolation performance between downlink and uplink. Technically, this size of spacing affects the duplexer performance in the following two technical aspects:

• Self-desensitization for FDD Mobile Stations (MS) and FDD Base Stations (BS)
• MS to MS interference and BS to BS interference

Figure 6. Interference from other MS transmitter in adjacent channel

To prevent self-desensitization, a duplexer must attenuate Tx emissions at the own Rx frequency band below the Rx noise floor. This leads typically to at least a 45 dB attenuation requirement at the own Rx frequency band. Implementing this attenuation requirement is a simple matter with the suggested 2x50 MHz arrangement by the use of a dual duplexer because the own UL and DL bands are separated by much wider separation distance the 8 MHz that would have been the case if a single duplexer is applied. The centre gap will also determine whether competitive networks can share base station sites with minimum interference and protective site filtering complexity.

Figure 7. Interference from other network in adjacent channel

Guard bands

• a lower guard-band of 5 MHz is allocated between 698 and 703 MHz to ensure protection from the interference from TV channels that are situated in the lower bands in certain countries. This guard-band is used for cellular services in countries that elect to use the APT 600 MHz band.
• an upper guard-band of 3 MHz is allocated between 803 and 806 MHz to ensure protection from the interference from existing upper cellular bands.

Dual Duplexer

The maximum bandwidth of an RF filter or duplexer for a terminal at this frequency range is today around 30-35 MHz. Any arrangement that efficiently uses the 108 MHz bandwidth in the frequency range 698-806 MHz must thus have more than one duplexer. “Dual duplexer” means that the handset has 2 duplexers, one per sub band as illustrated in figure 8.

Figure 8. Illustration of the use of dual duplexers

With the use of a dual duplexer arrangement the individual duplex spacing will be increased, providing at the same time more usable spectrum for FDD. With current technology it would not be possible to implement a passband of 50 MHz with a single duplex solution. The dual duplexer arrangement may lead to a 2x50 MHz FDD band plan. Dual duplexers are being specified today and would add to the number of band specific duplexers to be accommodated in handsets where physical space is at a premium.

As of 2014, most equipment vendors have released two versions of their radio units: one dedicated to the lower band and another one dedicated to the upper band. A notable alternative is provided by Alcatel-Lucent - their RRH2x40-07APT-4R radio unit covers the entire band 28 (45 MHz) within a single radio unit thus negating the need of sourcing two different radio unit variants.

Coexistence of different band plans

Radio waves, due to its nature and physics, can cause harmful interference to networks and equipment operating in a different band plan, (i.e. in neighboring countries). That is why coherent policies and technical frameworks are routinely developed by countries to mitigate such interference. The 700 MHz band is no exception and is currently regulated by mutual agreements between countries.

As a common practice to approach such issues, there are two possible scenarios to consider:

• Both countries implement the same band plan. Adoption of similar band plans by neighboring countries will ensure alignment of uplink and downlink spectrum blocks and co channel or adjacent channel interference scenarios can be managed by existing 3GPP specifications and existing bilateral treaties between the countries.
• Both countries implement different band plans. The US and APT FDD band plans are incompatible in terms of the uplink and downlink patterns so there exists a need for coordination of spectrum along border areas. An example of this occurrence occurs at the U.S.-Mexico border. In some of such cases, the existing treaties and specification will still serve their purpose and can remain. Then, some additional engineering adjustments will be required for network deployments. The solution to this issue includes adjustments in transmitting antennas’ tilt, height, directivity, output power, or combination of those. With these protective measures, the harmful interference can be eradicated so that the radio electronic emissions at the border are kept within their mutually agreed norms.

References

Category:Bandplans Category:Telecommunications in Asia