"UNIVERSAL MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEMS (UMTS), CHANCES & RISKS IN THE FUTURE FOR MOBILE NETWORK OPERATORS"
By : Susi Andriani 2001
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Arthur C. Clarke: The lost world of 2001
List of Contents :
1. Why do we need UMTS ?
2. What is UMTS ?
3. When UMTS ?
4. How UMTS
5. What UMTS offers
6. The key steps for UMTS
7. UMTS in the long term
8. Conclusions
INTRODUCTION
We are moving into a new era of communications and information technology. Personal competitiveness in business relies more and more on increased personal productivity and responsiveness. The mobile networks now in place globally can deliver a part of this promise. However they cannot transmit video pictures and high speed data, which is a necessary condition for many of the foreseen services. The next five years of innovation in the telecommunication industry will play an important part to enable a change in lifestyle and business which has many personal and economic benefits. Convergence of communications, information and entertainment content, consumer electronics and computing, as a result of advances in technology in areas such as multimedia computing, digital and interactive TV and the Internet, will lay the foundation for the development of an Information Society, in Europe as well as elsewhere. UMTS networks will provide enhanced easy access for everyone to public service databases and to other people, thus facilitating the trend towards flexible working practices, which could make a significant contribution to employment globally.
1. Why do we need UMTS?
As the Information Society burgeons in the early years of the new millennium, users of data and multimedia telecommunications services will expect and demand that these same services will continue to be available to them when they move away from their desks, offices or homes. Multimedia services allow the delivery of a rich variety of audio, visual and text-based information in addition to “basic voice”.
Current wireless or mobile systems, despite their evolution, are still constrained in terms of the data rate they can offer and their flexibility to manipulate complex, yet user friendly multimedia services. This need presents the opportunity to the mobile radio, Information Technology and consumer electronics communities to offer to users something new – a mobile system capable of managing and delivering a much wider range of information services to the mass market.
Elements of this opportunity include: ·an industry-wide and government commitment across the world ·a co-ordinated programme encompassing spectrum, standards, and technology ·initial terrestrial and satellite services available in 2002 in major markets, with wide scale roll-out and adoption by 2005 ·large amounts of spectrum already designated ·synergy of communications, IT and media working to bring about global opportunities for businesses and consumers, while creating new ways of doing business, entertaining and informing ·a substantial mass market, potentially worth ECU 45 bn in Europe alone by 2005 [source: A Regulatory Framework for UMTS – UMTS Forum Report 1]
2. What is UMTS?
UMTS is one of the major new Third Generation mobile systems being developed within the framework which has been defined by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and known as IMT-2000. It has been the subject of intense world-wide efforts on research and development throughout the past decade. UMTS has the support of many major telecommunications operators and manufacturers because it represents a unique opportunity to create a mass market for highly personalised and user friendly mobile access to the Information Society.
According to umts-forum, ”what is UMTS” defined by is :
·UMTS stands for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
·UMTS is a part of the International Telecommunications Union’s ’IMT-2000’ vision of a global family of ’third-generation’ (3G) mobile communications systems
·UMTS will play a key role in creating the future mass market for high-quality wireless multimedia communications that will approach 2 billion users worldwide by the year 2010
3. When UMTS ?
·UMTS services will launch commercially from 2001
·UMTS licenses have already been awarded in several European countries
·UMTS experimental systems are now in field trial with leading vendors worldwide
Figure 1 : What is UMTS?
4. HOW UMTS ?
· UMTS builds on today’s significant investments in second generation mobile systems
· UMTS has the support of several hundred network operators, manufacturers and equipment vendors worldwide
5. What UMTS Offers
·Services that are easy to use, and customisable in order to address individual users’ needs and preferences.
·Terminals and other ”customer facing” equipment which allows easy access to these services.
· The user's costs for his or her UMTS service which are low enough to ensure a mass market - prices which are competitive.
·Similarly, a wide range of available terminals, with prices low enough to be affordable to the mass market, while supporting the advanced capabilities of UMTS. UMTS has been designed from the outset as a global system, comprising both terrestrial and global satellite components. In the future, there are likely to be even more networks using these and other standards: the goal is to achieve truly personal communications, with terminals able to roam between these different networks. This means that a subscriber will be able to roam from a private network, into a picocellular/microcellular public network, then into a wide area macrocellular network (which may actually be a second generation network) and then to a satellite mobile network with minimal break in communication.
Figure 2 : UMTS coverage is universal
6. The Key Steps for UMTS
In order for UMTS to be a commercial as well as technical success, and to meet its 2002 launch deadline, a number of key steps are being undertaken by manufacturers, standards bodies, operators and regulators in key markets across Europe and around the world. These steps include: Creating an adequate regulatory framework, Ensuring timely availability of licenses Allocating adequate spectrum to operators Producing UMTS standards in a timely fashion Encouraging simultaneous uptake of UMTS in a number of countries
7.UMTS in the Long Term In order to ensure that UMTS flourishes in the long term, its capabilities will be progressively increased by the addition of new technologies. The paragraphs below detail some of these technologies. Reconfigurable Terminals Application and Service Download Smart Antennas Broadband Satellite Systems
8. Conclusions
· UMTS is going to happen – the multimedia market exists and is growing while technologies are being put in place to bring it into the mobile community
·Global availability of UMTS services will be ensured by providing for roaming between members of the IMT-2000 family, and handover between GSM and UMTS
·UMTS is a significant opportunity for manufacturers, operators, regulators and content providers, both as a communications system in itself and as part of the greater Information Society
·The vision of UMTS is as a customer-focused system, where customers include both network operators and end users
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