An emerging technology being trialed by Qualcomm and carrier partners could ultimately undercut the need for new cell towers by enabling smartphones to directly communicate with other smartphones.

The issue was front and center last month at the Founders Forum Smart Nation Singapore conference.

Steve Papa, founder of Parallel Wireless told CNBC that smartphones could eventually replace cell towers.

“There’s no reason why your cellphone isn’t the cell tower of the future,” he said. “We’re just on the cusp of chips coming out where a $300 chip can power an entire cell tower.”

In February, chipmaker Qualcomm put out a whitepaper based on its trials of LTE Direct, also called D2D, conducted with carrier Deutsche Telekom and Huawei.

From the whitepaper: “LTE Direct is a new and innovative device-to-device technology that enables discovering thousands of devices and their services in the proximity of [approximately]500 m, in a privacy-sensitive and battery-efficient way.”

If fully realized, the tech would autonomously discover other devices. “This horizontal discovery opens up a much broader network to app developers and users who do not need specific applications to receive value.”

LTE Direct uses licensed spectrum, which, in turn, would allow operators to use LTE Direct as a new way to provide apps and services to users.

The whitepaper authors wrote that LTE Direct “relies on the LTE physical layer to provide a scalable and universal framework for discovery and for connecting proximate peers.”

The technology was trialed by the two carriers and Qualcomm in Bonn, Germany, in September.

The Wireless Networking and Communications Group at The University of Texas-Austin is also conducting research into LTE Direct.

From research led by Professor Jeff Andrews, the group examined the promise of D2D.

“In principle, exploiting direct communication between nearby mobile devices will improve spectrum utilization, overall throughput and energy efficiency, while enabling new peer-to-peer and location-based applications and services. D2D-enabled LTE devices have the potential to become competitive for fallback public safety networks that must function when cellular networks are not available or fail.”

In the CNBC interview, Papa speculated as to the utility from smartphones equipped with LTE Direct.

“When you get that far, it’s not that much further to a scenario where when you’re finished with your cellphone, you can hang it on the wall and it adds to the cellular network.”

He also discussed the regulatory machinations associated with deployment of new spectrum.

“Who’s going to be in charge is more of a political than a technology or industry structure question. The reality is that technology will make spectrum less scarce. When spectrum is less scarce, there’s less of a need for a natural monopoly.”

By: DocMemory
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