Zhao said that handsets configured for China's homegrown TD-SCDMA standard are expected to account for 50 pct of 3G sales, while WCDMA handsets will hold 40 pct and CDMA2000 handsets will account for 10 pct.
Friday 25 May 2007
China getting serious with TD-SCDMA
Zhao said that handsets configured for China's homegrown TD-SCDMA standard are expected to account for 50 pct of 3G sales, while WCDMA handsets will hold 40 pct and CDMA2000 handsets will account for 10 pct.
UMTS/HSDPA MOST WIDELY DEPLOYED 3G TECHNOLOGY
UMTS/HSDPA MOST WIDELY DEPLOYED 3G TECHNOLOGY - 3G Americas Press Release
117 Million 3G Customers use UMTS/HSDPA
The GSM technology global coverage footprint has provided the foundation for UMTS/HSDPA to become the most widely deployed 3G technology and market leader, with 167 operators in 69 countries offering UMTS services, 115 of whom have enhanced service with HSDPA. 3G Americas reports today that according to Informa‘s World Cellular Information Service quarterly subscriber reports, UMTS/HSDPA, with 117 million subscribers, is commercially available through twice as many operators as other 3G technologies – 167 operators in 69 countries, compared to 71 operators in 44 countries with CDMA EV-DO. Of the 172 million true mobile broadband 3G subscribers worldwide as of 1Q 2007, 68% use UMTS/HSDPA.
The GSM family of technologies currently provides service to 2.4 billion users worldwide, and comprises 85% of the total global wireless mobile market. GSM is the most widely deployed technology in the Western Hemisphere and the only technology present in every country of the region, encompassing 58% of all mobile wireless customers in the Western Hemisphere. Worldwide, the greatest quarterly growth of UMTS/HSDPA took place in the US and Canada, where UMTS experienced an unprecedented 614% growth, rocketing from 350,000 subscribers to 2.5 million subscribers in three months ending March 2007.
Chris Pearson, President of 3G Americas stated, "UMTS/HSDPA technology in North America will continue its steady growth as subscribers become aware of the tremendous applications and devices that make full use of these high speed wireless data networks.” Pearson continued. “The anticipated launch of T-Mobile’s UMTS network in 2007 will continue the 3G momentum in the Americas.”
In the twelve months from March 2006 to March 2007, there were 538 million new GSM/UMTS subscriptions worldwide, compared to 49 million total net additions for CDMA. For the same time period, GSM grew its subscriber base in Latin America and the Caribbean by 80 million new customers for a total of over 231 million GSM users in the region. GSM's regional share of the Latin America market has continued its steady momentum, increasing from 59% in March 2006 to almost 71% in March 2007. The Latin American and Caribbean subscriber base for CDMA concurrently declined by 826,000 customers during the first quarter of 2007.
"2006 was the year we saw HSDPA become widely available across North America, and 2007 will be the year it starts to make its way across Latin America," commented Erasmo Rojas, Director of Latin America and the Caribbean. "Operators in Brazil have announced plans to deploy HSDPA in 850 MHz; Telefonica recently launched HSDPA in Mexico, and the technology has already been launched commercially by AT&T Puerto Rico, Entel Chile and Telecom Personal in Argentina. “
HSPA (HSDPA/HSUPA) is the set of technology enhancements for UMTS standardized by 3GPP that helps define the migration path for GSM operators worldwide to mobile broadband. There are more than 250 HSDPA devices in the market today including smartphones, PDA’s, PC cards USB drives, embedded notebooks and even desktop modems. Announcements have already begun for commercial HSDPA/HSUPA devices that provide peak theoretical throughput rates up to 7.2 Mbps on the downlink. It is expected that virtually all UMTS operators will upgrade to HSDPA, followed by HSUPA, providing them with a significant increase in capacity and data throughput and a reduced network cost for data services.
Subscriber data is based upon information from Informa Telecoms & Media. For charts on GSM growth, visit the 3G Americas website at: http://www.3gamericas.org/.
Thursday 24 May 2007
Almost 300,000 LTE Base Transceiver Stations by 2014
LTE brings to the market 25 years of operating experience using TDM and CDMA technology. It aims to use that, combined with OFDM, and other techniques, to provide the best of both worlds, perhaps stealing WiMAX’s thunder. This also takes the industry from the current two-network approach of circuit switching for voice, and packet switching for data to a single IP network for both services.
“LTE faces competition from other broadband wireless technologies and it will need to demonstrate clear technical and economic advantages to convince network operators,” says ABI Research analyst Ian Cox. “The mobile variant of WiMAX will start to appear in 2007 as the WiMAX Forum Certification program ramps up. The industry is also working on HSPA+, which could offer the same performance in a 5 MHz bandwidth. Without additional spectrum, operators could face a difficult choice.”
Cox further comments that, “LTE is the NGN for the mobile industry and is being standardized by 3GPP with the full support of operators via the NGMN Group.”
Long Term Evolution (LTE) of 3G technologies is about to benefit from Release-8 of the 3GPP standard, planned for the third quarter of 2007. The potential rewards of LTE are simplicity of operation, a “flat” architecture offering low latency, and spectrum flexibility. Backwards compatibility and roaming with 2G and 3G networks are added bonuses, along with lower power consumption and improved performance, . LTE could also unite the W-CDMA and CDMA communities because of its spectral flexibility.
For vendors, LTE will allow development of a new market to replace declining 3G revenues.
For users, says Cox, LTE will enable broadband services, including VoIP, to be offered over SIP-enabled networks. Each service will be IP-based, offering high data rates and low latency, with on-line gaming becoming a reality along with mobile network data speeds comparable to those of fixed networks.
“UMTS Long Term Evolution”
(http://www.abiresearch.com/products/market_research/UMTS_Long_Term_Evolution) reviews the world market for LTE.
Wednesday 23 May 2007
Sony Ericsson T650
Sony Ericsson is also tossing out the T650, a cousin to that slim slider. A candybar, it packs a beefier 3.2-megapixel camera while remaining only 12.5-mm thick. It's also a 3G phone, making checking your email or RSS feeds a snappier affair than if you're using the S500. The 1.9-inch screen is covered with a layer of mineral glass, which will apparently make the colors pop, increase the viewing angle, and protect it from scratches when you put your phone in the same pocket as your keys.
We’re told the fresh-faced blower is the result of the designers love for materials and colours found in nature. Though the only earthy thing about it, so far as we can tell, is their lick of green paint.
The specs are not too interesting but there is a 3.2mp camera. Other features of note on the T650 include Bluetooth 2.0 stereo support, a 262k color QVGA display, and a Memory Stick Micro card slot for expansion. The T650 weighs around 95g (3.3oz) and is pretty thin in profile at 12.5mm thick. This phone can accommodate up to 1000 contacts in its phone book. Above all features, it also has a FM radio and has MP3/AAC music player.
The T650 will be lining shelves from the second half of 2007.
Dopod C730 (HTC Cavalier)
One of the first Dopod handhelds to run on the Windows Mobile 6 Standard edition, the C730 is powered by a 400MHz processor with 64MB RAM and 128MB ROM. The quadband (850/900/1,800/1,900MHz) phone comes with 3G, HSDPA, a 2-megapixel CMOS camera and an external memory card slot that supports microSD media up to 2GB.
The specs shows that it supports 3G, HSDPA, Bluetooth, USB, WLAN and it weighs just 120 grams. More detailed specs are also available here.
According to press release:
The C730 is also one of the first Smartphone in the market to deliver rich HTML E-Mail support. This is a key feature in Windows Mobile 6 and means that reading your E-Mails in HTML format on this device is just like reading them on your desktop PC - clear and uncut. The HTML E-Mail support works with any POP mail account and Exchange Server 2007 and really positions the C730 to be at the forefront of this advanced technology.
Dopod has targeted ultimate connectivity to consumers, with putting BlackBerry Connect v4.0 on the C730 comes with . This enables you to access popular BlackBerry services with support for both BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Internet Service. These include push-based wireless E-Mail access, wireless E-Mail reconciliation and attachment viewing. The BlackBerry Connect v4.0 will be made available via web download in end June.
The Dopod C730 will be available from early June in Singapore at a suggested price of S$ 898/US$ 590/435 Euro.
Tuesday 22 May 2007
3G Wireless Data Usage Set To Jump Nearly 10x By 2011
The report also noted that by implementing an IMS platform, service providers can gain a common, secure service development framework and architecture that operates across multiple network domains.
LTE in few words
3G LTE, as proposed in 3GPP Release 8, aims to increase cell data capacity by at least five times over the current implementations of HSPA. It will support more users per cell, as well as higher speeds to individual users, and is intended to match DSL speeds currently available to the home. A simplified protocol structure and re-definition of the functional split between network elements and basestations is intended to raise efficiency while making all VoIP networks possible.
Some of the highlights of LTE are:
- OFDM-based air interface (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) ... WCDMA is out.
- Channel bandwidths from 1.25 to 20MHz are supported
- Increased spectrum efficiency and peak data rates at cell edge.
- Target peak rates of 100 Mbps/DL and 50 Mbps/UL. (Nokia-Siemens have already achieved 108Mbps though)
- Increased spectrum efficiency and peak data rates at cell edge.
- Reduced latency for both user and control plane: less than 10ms round trip delay for user plane between UE and the serving RAN node, less than 100ms transition time for control plane between inactive state and active state.
- Support for diversity and MIMO
The first LTE-based networks are expected to roll out in 2009/2010. In contrast to other cellular technologies, conformance tests for LTE are expected to be available more than two years ahead of any service introduction according to Agilent. This will ensure user devices are available in volume when the network services are finally launched.
Long Term Evolution gaining momentum
Monday 21 May 2007
MBMS Enhancements in Release 7
MBMS is being enhanced in Release 7 and IMS will be able to use MBMS transport. The advantage of this approach is:
- MBMS reception is possible over IP accesses (e.g. I-WLAN)
- Higher MBMS bit rate services possible (e.g. HDTV)
- Support for adaptation of MBMS to the QoS resources provided by the access network(s)
- MBMS services will be available regardless of access technologies and other services will be able to usse MBMS transport
This MBMS Enhancement is still under development and the following is being investigated:
- Radio Interface Physical Layer: Introduction of new transmission schemes and advanced multi-antenna technologies
- Layer 2 and 3: Signalling optimisations
- UTRAN Architecture: Identify the most optimum architecture and functional splits between RAN network nodes
3GPP website lists some of the aims and objectives of these MBMS enhancements but theey do not look correct. They are copied from the LTE requirements documents. I will be revisiting this topic when more information is available
Friday 18 May 2007
The rise of Mobile TV (18/05/07)
According to Infonetics research report titled, “Mobile Video Devices, Services and Subscribers” published in May 2007:
- The number of worldwide mobile subscribers has increased by 300% between 2005 and 2006.
- There will be 46 million Mobile Video subscribers by 2010
- Asia Pacific will be the regional stronghold of mobile video subscribers through at least 2010, with 57 per cent of the world total in 2006, followed by EMEA at 31 per cent
- The number of mobile video handsets sold worldwide nearly doubled from 2005 to 2006 (including video-capable handsets not necessarily tied to a specific mobile video service)
- Mobile video service ARPU (average revenue per user) in all regions increases significantly from 2006 to 2010, tripling in Asia Pacific (from a low base) and more than doubling in CALA
It remains to be seen how users will usse the mobile TV once the novelty wears off.