One rule of physics is that signals travel farther at lower frequencies. That makes the 450 MHz band ideal for applications that need to cover a large geographic area, such as a major city or an 80,000-square-mile oil field.
For decades, many utility companies owned and operated private CDMA and GRPS networks at 450 MHz to support applications such as automated meter reading (AMR). The low frequency also does a better job of penetrating buildings and underground utility vaults than cellular’s traditional bands that start a few hundred megahertz higher.
Over the past decade, some of those networks have been upgraded to LTE, while new 450 MHz networks have used LTE from day one. Why not 5G? One major reason is because LTE’s age gives it several advantages for the types of applications used at 450 MHz. LTE has had over 15 years to develop a broad, deep selection of modules, antennas, and base stations, and to mature as a technology in terms of standards evolution.
For example, 3GPP standards support LTE in Bands 31, 72, and 73, which often are referred to collectively as “the LTE 450 band.” 3GPP standards also allow LTE devices to use higher power at 450 MHz (26 dBm) than in other bands (23 dBm max). The extra power enables stronger link budgets and greater reliability, which is one reason why LTE 450 is ideal for mission-critical communications.
As standards such as LTE-M/NB-IoT were released, major module OEMs such as Telit and u-blox added 450 MHz versions to their product portfolios. And in 2024, the Global Certification Forum began certifying LTE, LTE-M, and LTE RedCap devices designed for use in the 450 MHz band.
The Long Life of Legacy Technologies
LTE also spent the past 15-plus years riding down the cost curve. That’s particularly important because many 450 MHz applications are highly cost sensitive, such as smart grids and smart cities.
The availability of low-cost LTE devices also complements the nature of the 450 MHz band, whose network capex and opex are lower because fewer base stations are required to cover a given area. For example, Ukko Mobile’s network uses only a few hundred sites to cover the entire county of Finland, which is nearly 118,000 square miles.
It’s also important to remember that even as they roll out 5G, mobile operators continue to support and invest in their LTE networks. They simply can’t afford to abandon enterprise customers with millions of LTE IoT devices that have no compelling business case to be replaced with 5G models. As a result, module and infrastructure vendors will continue to offer LTE products for years to come — including 450 MHz versions.
And as the longevity of CDMA 450 shows, the LTE 450 market itself is too large for vendors to abandon anytime soon. Although mobile operators such as Sprint and Verizon shut down their public CDMA networks in 2020, owners of private CDMA 450 networks continued to buy devices and infrastructure — sometimes in volumes that exceeded the smartphone market.
“Before 2020, the Dutch DSO Alliander will have deployed millions of meters connected with CDMA450,” says a 450 Alliance report. “In terms of connected devices, this will likely exceed the number of smart phones running in Alliander’s geographic area. Those volumes will represent a major opportunity for CDMA 450 hardware vendors over the years thereby ensuring long-term support of multiple vendors and further declining device cost to enhance economies of scale.”
Today, more than 30 LTE 450 networks are in service. That’s a significant long-term market for vendors — one that they’ll continue to support into the next decade.
Finally, another benefit of 450 MHz is spectrum availability, with allocations in over 70 countries. Mobile operators typically use 900 MHz and above for LTE, which means utilities, municipalities, and others aren’t competing with public networks for the 450 MHz licenses.
Choosing the Right Antenna
Taoglas offers 15 models of antennas that support 450 MHz, including:
- The Taoglas TGX.45 is a 2×2 MIMO dipole antenna designed to provide reliable service even in harsh outdoor installations. Featuring support for all sub-6 GHz 4G and 5G bands — including Band 31 — the cross-polarized antennas’ layout also enhances performance capabilities, thus improving signal quality and maximizing throughput.
- The Taoglas Apex IV TG.46.8113 is a wideband 5G/4G dipole antenna that covers all sub-6 GHz bands, including 450 MHz. Ideal for routers and terminals, it has the highest wideband efficiency of any terminal antenna on the market today and is optimized for the 5G NR C-bands between 3.3 GHz and 4.2 GHz.
