 inescapable. Given that the base station is sharing a finite amount of transmit power, for example 20 watts in a macro- or large microsite, then this means that more power is available to serve other user 7 Churn is an industry term used to describe the migration of users from one service provider or network operator to another usually for reasons of poor service. If handset subsidies are available this can be a particularly expensive problem. Churn rates in some markets at some periods have been as high as 25% per year. Making Telecoms Work downlinks or put another way, the same amount of power is being used more efficiently across all users being serviced from the site. A similar argument applies for devices with increased receive selectivity operating in an interference-limited environment. On the uplink, user device TX efficiency will influence the user data duty cycle but TX linearity is equally important. The base station has to demodulate a signal modulated with noise- and phase-sensitive higher-order modulation. Much effort is expended in mitigating the impact of channel distortions on this complex signal but if the signal is distorted before it leaves the antenna of the user device there is not much that the base station can do with the received signal energy. This is the reason for the nearly 5x more strict EVMLTE specifications compared to WCDMA. As with RX sensitivity, error vector magnitude is a specified performance metric described precisely in the conformance standard and user devices would generally be designed and cost engineered to exceed this standard by an acceptable but not unnecessarily large margin. A lower EVM with additional margin over and above the conformance requirement would, however, translate into higher uplink data rates and more uplink capacity at the base station. Improving the RF performance in the front end of the user's device reduces baseband coding overheads, which reduces baseband DC power drain. Applications will also run faster, which further reduces power drain and ad