UQ Communications started carrier aggregation (CA) of WiMAX2 + in Moka City, Tochigi Prefecture from February 20th. At the cost of achieving a maximum downlink speed of 220 Mbps, the bandwidth of the conventional WiMAX service will be reduced to 1/3, and the speed will be reduced. In addition, a new plan, "Giga Unlimited", has started, and from April, a limit of "3GB for 3 days" will be introduced for the WiMAX service, which was previously "unlimited", and a monthly communication limit of 7GB will be introduced. A plan will also be added. What is the impact on users who have been free to use WiMAX so far?
| ↑ With WiMAX2 + CA, we achieved a downlink throughput of 195Mbps (model is Ms. Murofushi, a beautiful watch). |
UQ's WiMAX 2+ is a service with a maximum downlink speed of 110 Mbps, and on February 19, 20,000 base stations were set up nationwide. The service area is equivalent to WiMAX. Next, UQ will introduce two high-speed services, CA and 4x4 MIMO. CA bundles two radio waves and regards them as one radio wave to increase the speed. 4x4 MIMO uses four antennas for each base station and terminal to send and receive to increase speed.
Both have achieved a maximum downlink speed of 220 Mbps, and CA has gradually expanded nationwide, starting with Moka City. 4x4 MIMO will start nationwide at the same time as the terminal release in March. 4x4 MIMO is already supported by base stations nationwide, and we are just waiting for the release of terminals. Since CA uses two 20MHz widths of the 50MHz width frequency band to which UQ is assigned, it is necessary to wind up the existing 30MHz width for WiMAX and reduce it to 10MHz width.
Moka City is a land selected for its characteristics such as low traffic and little influence of WiMAX, and CA support was implemented on February 12. Since then, until now, there have been no complaints from users due to the slowdown of WiMAX, and there are no problems with the network. In the future, with reference to the data in Moka City, we plan to proceed with CA support from similar areas scattered throughout the country.
The problem is in urban areas such as Higashi-Meihan, where there are many WiMAX users, and sudden slowdowns have a large impact. Therefore, we will promote an early transition by implementing a "free replacement campaign" and providing WiMAX2 + compatible routers. The company's president, Akio Nosaka, wants to support CA nationwide in less than a year.
| ↑ President Akio Nosaka of UQ Communications. |
| ↑ Toshikazu Kagami, General Manager of Engineering Department and General Manager of Network Engineering Department. |
There are several possibilities that user migration will not progress. First, the rate plan will change. As in the past, the unlimited use plan with no monthly data traffic limit will be "Giga unlimited", and the "UQ Flat Two Plus Giga unlimited" plan will be 4380 yen per month. Until now, the monthly fee for the "UQ Flat Annual Passport", which is premised on continuous use for one year, was 3696 yen, so the price will increase in that respect.
If the plan is the same as 3696 yen per month, it will be "UQ Flat Two Plus", which will be limited to 7GB of monthly communication. Therefore, UQ asked them to confirm whether they actually needed 7GB or more by discounting the monthly fee to 3696 yen for up to 3 months after the "Giga Unlimited" contract.
In addition, since the plan can be changed freely on a monthly basis, it is possible to temporarily select "Giga unlimited" when "a large capacity is required next month".
Another limitation is that "when the traffic for 3 days reaches 3GB, the speed will be limited over the next day." Other mobile operators have similar restrictions, and President Nosaka has stated that he will limit when he reaches 3GB, and unlike other companies, there is no comment such as "depending on the network situation", and in a sense "equality". The idea of imposing restrictions.
However, the speed limit is loose, and it is said that "the level at which YouTube standard definition video can be seen" will be secured. This speed limit seems to fluctuate depending on the usage of the network, and it seems that even if the speed limit is applied, it may not be noticed.
Whether this limited speed is tolerable or unnoticed by users will lead to future UQ evaluations. President Nosaka is proud of "I don't think it really matters," and shows confidence in "gentle restrictions."
However, as Toshikazu Kagami, General Manager of Technology Department and General Manager of Network Technology Department of the company admits, there is a possibility that the number of users who easily reach the limit will increase by speeding up with the introduction of CA and 4x4 MIMO. UQ was originally appealing as a wireless broadband alternative to fixed lines, and restrictions may affect the spread of 4K video distribution in the future.
Mr. Kaname shows his intention to carry out various studies while watching the trends of CA that started in Moka City. We are trying to increase the speed while increasing the network efficiency by CA and 4x4 MIMO, but we think that "radio waves will become more difficult in the future" due to the increase in users, so we will continue to conduct further technical studies. It is supposed to be.
4x4 MIMO will start nationwide in March, but WiMAX winding will be required for the nationwide expansion of CA starting from Moka City. Since the speed will decrease, it will have a large impact on users, but what is the level in Moka City that actually supports CA?
In the UQ test, the throughput is about 8Mbps at 7:00 pm. Even if it is 10MHz wide, if there are few users who use it at the same time, this level of speed will come out, so Mr. Kaname says that this is one standard.
| ↑ WiMAX throughput in Moka City. |
| ↑ This is the speed at the time of the interview on February 20th. |
When users move to WiMAX2 + by winding, the number of WiMAX users will inevitably decrease. Since there is room in urban areas that are currently crowded, we are planning to reduce WiMAX and make it CA when the number of users has decreased to the extent that this speed can be achieved.
To achieve this at an early stage, UQ will actively promote WiMAX winding. President Nosaka stated that the deadline was "within one year." Mr. Kaname said, "It is said that it is the responsibility of the technology (department)," and technically wants to achieve this. To that end, there is an urgent need to migrate users, and President Nosaka seems to be hurting the sales department to actively encourage corporate users to migrate. For individual users, we will appeal the speedup of 110 Mbps compared to the maximum downlink of 40 Mbps, and encourage the transition while using campaigns such as free replacement.
President Nosaka emphasized that he would not suddenly reduce WiMAX radio waves, but "I would like to have a lively atmosphere such as reducing WiMAX at this time." He wants to set the prospect of becoming CA at an early stage and finally proceed with the transition at once. In other words, it is the default route for WiMAX users to switch to WiMAX2 + in the future. Users who use WiMAX instead of a fixed line at home are likely to be forced to take some action.
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