Evolutionary trends in mobile communications - introducing 3G technology (page 1 of 4)

Voice services currently account for more than 90 percent of income, but by the year 2005 it has been forecasted that data and other non-voice services will generate 50 percent of operator
income.

Meanwhile, the mobile telecommunications revolution continues and the coming boom is driving significant advances in the race to third-generation service capabilities.

The 'wireless literate generation' of today (aged 12 - 35) provides a snapshot of tomorrow's society and its drivers. The new generation is creating new usage patterns in favour of messaging and visual content. For them, messaging - e.g SMS text messaging is the most natural way of personal communication. Instant communication is about being able to create and consume content (greetings, notes, snapshots/ postcards, moving pictures, instant voicemail) on the fly, and about filling transit moments with meaningful experiences. The mobile phone has become a personal trusted device that is capable of life management and enrichment, thanks to higher data rates and evolutionary user interfaces that have increased the simplicity and usability of terminals. Traditionally the major service has been voice but there has been an evolutionary step in 3G from Short Messaging Service (SMS) to 3GPP - defined Multimedia Messaging, incorporating digital images and video clips with text or voice annotations.

The International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) 3G recommendations confirm the growing importance of mobile multimedia services. The ITU has approved five distinct air interfaces for IMT-2000, and of those five WCDMA, EDGE and to some extent cdma2000 have gained measurable backing from equipment vendors and wireless operators. Global 3G consortiums and partnerships are now being formed to leverage the 3G licenses already granted and the hundreds more now under review.

Industry analysts estimate that vendors are currently allocating from $200 billion in research and development resources to specify, design and manufacture infrastructure for evolving 3G networks. Of the 3G licenses currently awarded, more than 90 percent of those operators have specified WCDMA as their core 3G technology. Observers point out that, given this expected dominance of WCDMA as the 3G standard, this technology will undoubtedly receive the majority of R&D funding and will yield the earliest, most extensive and most reliable product availability.

Informed industry observers recognize that third-generation wireless communications will be driven by subscriber-oriented services and not by provider-driven technologies. In the mobile telecom landscape of tomorrow, subscribers will expect and demand seamless anytime/anywhere access to voice, data, Internet and a growing universe of exciting new multimedia services.

Current applications will evolve to 3G, and the success of those new applications will depend heavily on a network to deliver capacity, bit rates and services. This growing reliance on data for revenue will drive the migration of current infrastructures to the faster, high-capacity packet-switched networks of the future. To meet those requirements, operators are searching for the clearest possible pathways to the third-generation.

A new pathway
Now wireless operators have a promising new pathway to the 3G future - a solution employing GSM and GPRS with evolution to EDGE and WCDMA that allows operators to maximize both market share and 3G margins.