Tero,
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Perhaps you have seen the article below. If not it is worth a read. It discusses the challenges that lie ahead as 2.5G implementation begins to become a reality while 2G is still on a growth curve.
The focus of the article is on global roaming which is where both the GSM Association and the UWCC are placing considerable emphasis.
I think it also emphasizes the difficulty for an infrastructure and handset manufacturer to be all things to all technologies. It is hard to criticize a manufacturer who focuses its development efforts where they will get the biggest bang for the buck on both the near, medium, and long term.
By contrast to the GSM/GPRS/TDMA/iDEN/ contingents, who all have phones available (or will have in the case of TDMA) capable of truly global roaming, the cdma contingent has only just recently rushed a SIM/R-UIM specification through TIA. Obviously, the specification becomes a starting point for development, but the technology side is only part of the story. International roaming agreements with the implementation of proper network safeguards take considerable time to develop.
From a user perspective, the emphasis on global roaming is, IMO, a very positive development in mobile wireless telephony, and it is refreshing to see the United States with its indigenous technologies, on the bandwagon finally.
Article as follows:
>> NOT QUITE READY TO ROAM
Major Wireless Players Join Forces To Assess Use Of GPRS Across Network Boundaries
teledotcom.com
by Jonathan Collins (senior editor wireless)
tele.com
April 17, 2000, Issue: 508
Wireless subscribers in Europe and much of Asia are accustomed to using their phones as they roam between networks. These roaming partnerships and services, built on the global system for mobile communication (GSM) network standard, have taken years to develop. Things move much faster today, however, and operators adding data capabilities mustsupport roaming from the start. "Just as customers wanted to use their phones when they were abroad, so the same will be true for data services," says Philip Marnick, BT's head of mobile multimedia.
Last month, BT and AT&T teamed up with SmarTone Mobile Communications Ltd. (Hong Kong) and FarEasTone Telecommunications Co. Ltd. (Taiwan) to start the world's first international roaming trials for high-speed Internet phones. The tests will focus on general packet radio service (GPRS) capabilities set to be rolled out commercially toward the end of 2000 in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Taiwan. GPRS is an overlay for existing GSM networks that promises data services on a new generation of mobile phones with throughputs of 115 kbit/s or higher. For GSM operators, the technology is the first step toward a packet-switched connection for wireless phones based on the Internet protocol (IP). In addition to traditional circuit-based voice services, it provides an "always-on" data capability that enables real-time e-mail, messaging and other services to be offered.
The roaming trials, set to start in the second half of the year, aim to assess network stability, integration and connectivity across the three markets. Although BT, SmarTone and FarEasTone use GSM and the 900-MHz spectrum, data roaming promises to be challenging. "Data over mobile networks is new, and we are only just starting to understand it," Marnick says. "There were problems with international voice roaming, and there will be a new set of problems with data."
GPRS routes traffic voice and data over different networks, with the split occurring at a base station controller. The always-on nature of the data connection between the user handset and the network--the heart of GPRS' data capabilities--requires a new approach to shunting calls between international partners. Incoming roaming voice calls have always been routed to the home operator's network and then to the network of the international partner where the subscriber is. This is fine for voice, but it presents problems for data. "With GSM roaming, incoming calls are routed through the subscriber's home network and then out to the roaming network; whereas with GPRS we need to know where the subscriber is all the time to deliver traffic," Marnick says. The trials will establish how data traffic should be routed and how the network will remain constantly aware of subscribers' whereabouts for always-on services. "The home network will still control the routing, but it will have to know the optimal route for the packetized data," says Marnick.
The trials will also gauge tolerable levels of latency for data roaming and security features. BT is preparing to announce who it will use for its international traffic. Given that BT and AT&T already partner in Concert, there is little doubt where that contract will go. The partners in the GPRS trials will not collaborate on services, which are not expected to include e-mail and stock quotes. AT&T's participation suggests that it is hatching ways for Americans either at home or visiting Europe to use GPRS. This is not the case, however, as AT&T will merely test it at its labs in New Jersey, California and Washington. The company says it will skip GPRS in favor of a later rollout of Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution (Edge), a wireless data-capable technology that aims to work with both GSM and time-division multiple access (TDMA) networks such as AT&T's. "There will be roaming capabilities in the U.K. and Asia, but in the U.S. it will just be a test bed for our engineers," says spokesman Ken Woo. "We are looking to the trial to give our engineers some sort of understanding of GPRS as we move into Edge."
AT&T says Edge will enable its U.S. subscribers to use their phones when they roam abroad. However, some analysts have their doubts. "AT&T's wireless business has been an island, and while Edge could be a solution, it is most likely to remain an island after it has deployed Edge as well," says Craig Ellingsworth, a senior wireless industry analyst at The Yankee Group (Boston). The reason, Ellingsworth says, is that GSM players that have rolled out GPRS are unlikely to deploy Edge as well. Instead, they will instead move straight to the next network generation, dubbed Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) technology. BT, for example, is already looking to deploy its first UMTS test market in the United Kingdom, although the network will not become commercially available across the country until around 2002.
Back in the United States, GSM player VoiceStream Wireless Corp. (Bellevue, Wash.) has set out its own plans to launch GPRS services by the end of the year, but that will not bring international data roaming for U.S. customers either. VoiceStream's GSM network operates on a different spectrum band than other GSM networks around the world. According to BT, handset manufacturers are already struggling to ship GPRS handsets by the fourth quarter, and tri-band GPRS handsets capable of working on BT's and VoiceStream's networks are still in the future. <<
- Eric - |
