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Siemens expects rapid 3G rollout to overtake 2G-GSM technology

By EDU H. LOPEZ

http://www.mb.com.ph/INFO2004112723281.html

Local mobile phone operators may be looking at the third-generation (3G) mobile phone equipment in their future expansion and migration plans from the current second-generation (2G) GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) technology.


GSM is a digital mobile telephone system that is widely used in Europe and other parts of the world.

It uses a variation of time division multiple access (TDMA) and is the most widely used of the three digital wireless telephone technologies (TDMA, GSM, and CDMA). It operates at either the 900 MHz or 1800 MHz frequency band.

Is the local mobile market ready for the 3G phone? The two mobile operators ­Smart Communications and Globe Telecoms ­ are raking money from current GSM technology and may not jump immediately to the 3G technology.

Migrating to 3G phone would entail huge capital expenditure on the part the mobile phone providers that would include investments in putting the network and 3G handsets.

While the Philippines is a "GSM country," the rollout of 3G mobile phone equipment is growing rapidly in other Asian countries like Hong Kong, China, Korea and Japan.

At the recent 3G World Congress in Hong Kong, Lothar Pauly, chief executive officer (CEO) of Siemens Communications said the 3G W-CDMA is spreading faster than GSM. This new technology is being well received by consumers.

W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) is a third-generation (3G) mobile wireless technology that promises much higher data speeds to mobile and portable wireless devices than commonly offered in today’s market.

It can support mobile or portable voice, images, data, and video communications at up to 2 Mbps (local area access) or 384 Kbps (wide area access).

The input signals are digitized and transmitted in coded, spread-spectrum mode over a broad range of frequencies. A 5 MHz-wide carrier is used, compared with 200 kHz-wide carrier for narrowband CDMA.

Siemens has recently signed a W-CDMA contract with Maxis Malaysia.

Other Asian countries would soon be awarding their first or new 3G licenses such as Indonesia, Thailand, India, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Vietnam, said Pauly.

"Not only have we had local Siemens companies in these countries for decades, we are also a reliable partner as a GSM and wireline supplier. And we view Siemens as the ideal partner for supporting our customers as they move from 2G to 3G and on the mobile future beyond 3G."

There are more than 10 million W-CDMA users throughout the world. It was projected that the number would reach more150 million by 2006.

"Not only is 3G being rapidly adopted, it’s also widespread. The UMTS Forum estimates that more than 70 operators worldwide will have 3G W-CDMA-enabled networks by the end of 2004," said Pauly.

Pauly expects Asia to be the next big 3G W-CDMA market with 3G phone calls already becoming part of the daily life in Japan.

Hong Kong and Australia have launched 3G services, while contracts are going to be awarded to service providers in other Asian countries.

"Siemens intend to supply a major share of the 3G market and would assume a leading role. W-CDMA is also going to spread rapidly in Asia," said Pauly. By 2009, about 80 percent of all investments in mobile networks will be forW-CDMA.

Pauly noted that China is the biggest market for 3G W-CDMA in Asia. It was anticipated that 3G licenses would be awarded next year in China.

Between 2005 and 2007, China would account for about 40 percent of the Asian W-CDMA market in terms of operator expenditures, said Pauly.

"Siemens is well-positioned in China to support GSM operators in migrating to 3G with a joint venture with Huawei to jointly develop, manufacture and market TD-SCDMA."

TD-SCDMA (time division synchronous code division multiple access) is China’s local 3G standard that belongs to the UMTS family which gives Siemens a unique position and capable of supply both W-CDMA and TD-SCDMA.

TD-SCDMA is a mobile telephone standard for wireless network operators who want to move from a second generation (2G) wireless network to a third-generation (3G) one.

Supporting data transmission at speeds up to 2 Mbps, TD-SCDMA combines support for both circuit-switched data, such as speech or video, and also packet-switched data from the Internet. The standard combines time division multiple access (TDMA) with an adaptive, synchronous-mode code division multiple access (CDMA) component.

CONVERGENCE

With the availability of high-speed Internet through broadband, users are able to make phone calls, surf the Internet and transfer data while they are from their homes or offices.

"An in the future, this will bur the distinction between wireline and wireless. We have a myriad of technologies for wireless data transfer ­ 3G W-CDMA, WLAN and son WIMAX and Flash-OFDM," said Pauly.

"It will be a matter of putting all these technologies together in one network. And this is the Siemens’ vision. We have achieved the number one position in wireless broadband access as proven recently by the Research Group, Current Analysis."

Central to this development is Siemens’ IP-based multimedia subsystem (IMS), a network platform that can provision services over diverse technologies and in a wide range of scenarios.

Pauly explained that IMS uses an IP transport network and accommodates all access technologies such as GPRS (general packet radio service), W-CDMA and WLAN (wireless local area network) including fixed-line access technologies.

IMS helps mobile operators keep their operating expenses low, rapidly build and deploy new services by leveraging central user administration and standardized interfaces and enable peer-to-peer real-time services such as voice, data and video.

"Push and talk" is an example of a new service that runs on IMS. It allows a user to use the mobile phone like a walkie-talkie.

"We’re convinced that "push and talk" would establish itself as a new form of communication and generate greater revenues for the mobile phone operators.

Just like the SMS, the mobile world will be inconceivable without it," said Pauly.

As 3G technologies evolve and bandwidth capacities increase, it would be easy to manage both the voice and data networks.

The ARC Group predicts that wireless access to common front office applications would be generating between $15 and $20 billion in revenues worldwide by 2009.

Front office applications include e-mail, electronic calendars, personal contacts and shared corporate resources including Intranets and corporate directories.

Pauly expects Asia to surpass Europe in terms of the number of enterprise subscribers. In response to this growing demand, Siemens is offering a new standard e-mail push solution ­ Mobile Office Advantage.

This new solution enables enterprises to read and answer corporate e-mails in real time while on the move and offers them secure access to the Internet or Intranet.

It can be integrated into all existing networks and enterprises can easily incorporate it into their own IT environments and operated it themselves, said Pauly.