Lucent Unveils UMTS Network at World Congress
nikkeibp.asiabiztech.com
In February, Cannes, France, was the scene of the Global System for
Mobile Communications (GSM) World Congress. "When the history
of the GSM World Congress is written, 2000 will be remembered as
the year when IP (Internet protocol) became cemented in the brains
of the delegates," said Ericsson's Gunnar Liljegren, who chaired the
Congress, GSM to Universal Mobile Telephone Service (UMTS)
evolution session. A number of operators and suppliers are now
pushing the third-generation (3G) IP initiative, which hopes to have
an IP architecture for 3G by December 2000.
Lucent Technologies demonstrated one of the most exciting
developments when they set up a live 3G UMTS network. The
company demonstrated a number of applications using a variety of
mobile terminals throughout the show: in a car, on a boat in the
marina and in the technology pavilion. The company was running a
variety of applications over the interface including Webcams, vehicle
tracking, video streaming, mobile banking, share trading, multiplayer
racing game and music streaming.
According to Mark Hodgson, senior marketing manager, Next
Generation Services and Network Solutions at Lucent, the product
they were demonstrating was very close to their final product
offering. "The demonstration was one megabit over the air interface.
That's 30 times faster than what you get with your modem that you
connect via your PC to the Internet at the moment," he said. Adding,
"From a development perspective we are now going into the
manufacturing cycle."
The company is due to start shipping to its first customer, NTT
DoCoMo in Japan, who have a service launch date of spring 2001.
That system will be using wideband code division multiple access
(W-CDMA), but the company plans to move to UMTS with the next
software upgrade. Lucent is working very closely with NTT DoCoMo
and are even working with them in their labs.
UMTS to Dominate
Lucent has been leveraging its experience in it IP asynchronous
transfer mode (ATM) equipment in an attempt to get an early
foothold in the lucrative UMTS equipment market. "We're building
on our experience with packet-based networks and CDMA to then
give us a jump start in 3G," said Hodgson.
Lucent is putting large resources into its UMTS technology, which is
set to become the dominant next-generation mobile network. "UMTS
will probably deliver 60-70% of all mobile phone capability around
the world, with CDMA 2000 being the second dominant with about a
20-30%," Hodgson said.
He also said that Lucent is also in detailed technical discussions with
UK mobile operator Vodafone, and has been doing a lot of work with
on video technology, for 3G services such as Webcams and video
streaming. Vodafone has recently strengthened its position as the
dominant mobile operator with the finalizing of its takeover bid of
German operator Mannesman.
Limited Licenses
The 3G license race is heating up the UK at the moment with 13
companies entering the race for the five new licenses. These include
all the incumbent operators along with nine new companies bidding
for the fifth licence. All of the entrants into the UK government's 3G
license auction have to pay a deposit of 50 million British Pound,
which gives some idea of how high the stakes are. The licences
themselves are expected to go for around 500 million each and
building the network is expected to swallow up some 1.5 billion
British Pound.
Currently 40% of the population of the UK are mobile phone users,
the fifth 3G licence, is therefore, an excellent opportunity to get a
foothold in the UK market.
But the going is expected to be tough for the winner of the fifth
licence, because by the time 3G networks and service are expected in
2002, the four current operators will have already cornered most of
the market. This will not deter any of the applicants, however,
because the rewards for the successful bidder, if predictions of the
UMTS market are to be believed, could run into billions.
Until UMTS services hit Europe, mobile phone users will have to
make do with the interim general packet service (GPRS) mobile
services due this year which will boost current GSM network speeds
considerably and will also suit data services such as web application
protocol (WAP) because it is a packet-based system.
by Anthony Plewes
(April 2000 Issue, Nikkei Electronics Asia) |
