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To: foundation who wrote (5699)	12/22/2000 6:28:16 PM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 196951

Friday, December 22, 2000 TELECOMS ITU draws 3G road map BIEN PEREZ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A special study group under the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has adopted a road map for the future development of third-generation (3G) wireless communications network standards. At its first meeting since being formed this October, the ITU's Special Study Group on International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT-2000) said that it agreed last week on "an appropriate structure that reflects the market dynamics [in 3G network deployment], the scale of wireless penetration and the need to prepare and deliver timely results". The meeting also agreed on a work structure and work plan, setting out clear objectives and target dates. "It is essential that global IMT-2000 network standards be available in time and in a form that meets industry needs," said Nortel Networks' John Visser, who is chairman of the group that met in Geneva from December 11 to 15. The meeting of the special study group followed the ITU's World Radiocommunication Conference meeting in Istanbul in May, when additional spectrum requirements for IMT-2000 were approved. The agreement effectively gave a green light to mobile communications industries worldwide to confidently deploying IMT-2000 networks and services. "The entire mobile industry was looking forward to clear signals from this conference to overcome the last hurdle for global wireless systems", said ITU secretary-general Yoshio Utsumi. He said that the landmark agreement provided a stable basis for investors to back up the industry and gave "a clear go-ahead to manufacturers to start building equipment for IMT-2000 for their customers", which include network operators and consumers in general. The IMT-2000 is an initiative of the ITU that seeks to integrate the various satellite, terrestrial, fixed and mobile systems deployed and developed under a single standard or family of standards to promote global service capabilities and interoperability after the year 2000. These services are known as 3G services. According to the ITU, IMT-2000 would bring high-quality mobile multimedia telecommunications to a worldwide mass market based on a set of interfaces specified in the recently agreed ITU standard. The Istanbul decision provided for a number of bands, available on a global basis for countries wishing to implement IMT-2000. That agreement also provided for a high degree of flexibility to allow operators to migrate towards IMT-2000 according to market and other national considerations. At the same time, it does not preclude the use of these bands for other types of mobile applications or by other services to which these bands are allocated. Under the ITU's IMT-2000 initiative, 3G wireless communications networks must be capable of the following wireless data rates: 144 kilobits per second at so-called mobile speeds, 384 Kbps at pedestrian speeds and 2 megabits per second in fixed locations. Based in Geneva, the ITU is a United Nations agency that aims to foster co-operative standards for telecommunications equipment and systems. It is an organisation within which governments and private sector co-ordinate the establishment and operation of telecommunication networks and services around the world. The ITU's Special Study Group on IMT-2000 said that one of its goals is the definition of a converged set of requirements for the medium to long term "which will stimulate harmonization and convergence of the various technologies and solutions presently being deployed as part of 3G projects. With several members of its management team representing developing regions of the world, the Special Study Group on IMT-2000 is supposed to ensure the relevance of its work to their needs and to assist them in developing their mobile telecommunications infrastructure. "We are serious both about the work we are proposing to do and about filling an important role which will provide on-going value", Mr Visser said. He said the participants in the Special Study Group on IMT-2000 "swiftly crafted an aggressive strategy aimed at delivering results in the shortest possible timeframe". Group participants agreed on principles that will guide their work in the next four years. The group's work plan is supposed to provide for the adoption of standards on service capability requirements including the so-called "Virtual Home Environment" by mid-2002. Completion of most of the ITU's work on network capabilities, mobility management and interoperability for global roaming between various IMT-2000 networks is expected for completion by the end of 2002. Other critical standardisation aspects such as interworking with fixed voice networks, packet data networks and requirements for convergence between fixed and IMT-2000 are also set for end-2002. Mr Visser said the network architecture and interface requirements geared towards facilitating the evolution of existing fixed networks towards a converged IMT-2000 compliant core network will first be carved out in early 2003, while the full architectural and network interface requirements that will facilitate service transparency to users across different access arrangements will be addressed over the following two years. Guidelines to assist countries in the deployment of existing and evolving IMT-2000 systems are also being prepared for the end of 2002. "While much of the attention has so far focused on the radio aspects of IMT-2000, the core network infrastructure is equally important to interconnect mobile users", said Houlin Zhao, director of ITU's telecommunication standardisation bureau. "In order to deploy full 3G networks that will deliver on the promises of global roaming and virtual home environment, a great deal of work remains to be done. A roaming user will want to see as little difference as possible between the service experience provided in the home network and in a visited network, and this implies a very high degree of harmonisation of network and services capabilities worldwide together with a convergence of approaches. I am confident that ITU can play a very successful role in this area." The Special Study Group on IMT-2000 is one of the 14 Study Groups of the ITU telecommunication standardisation sector. "ITU's vision of IMT-2000 is undoubtedly the largest telecommunications project the world has ever seen", said Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Forum chairman Bernd Eylert. UMTS is a part of the ITU's IMT-2000 vision of a global family of 3G mobile communications systems. Established in 1996, the UMTS Forum is a non-profit global initiative that currently has over 200 member-organisations drawn from the Global System for Mobile standard-based network operator, supplier, regulatory, consultant, IT and media/content communities. Originally conceived in an era when mobile telecommunications provided only voice and circuit-switched low-speed data, the IMT-2000 concept has adapted to the changing telecommunication environment as its development progressed. In particular, the advent of Internet, intranet, e-mail, e-commerce and video services has significantly raised user expectations of the responsiveness of the network and the terminals, and, hence, the bandwidth of the mobile channel. This demand for higher bandwidth services, coupled with the phenomenal increases in mobile penetration throughout the world's population, has given rise to a requirement for extra spectrum for IMT-2000 to be needed by 2010, estimated by ITU to amount to 160 megahertz, which is above and beyond that of the bands identified in 1992. The additional bands identified for the terrestrial component of IMT-2000 are 806-960 MHz, 1710-1885 MHz and 2500-2690 MHz. The bands that had initially been identified in 1992 and on the basis of which licensing had already been made or was under way in many parts of the world, remained unchanged. Around 100 licences are expected to be awarded worldwide by 2002. These bands are 1885-2025 MHz and 2110-2200 MHz. All bands globally identified for IMT-2000 have equal status. Some industry reports have predicted that 3G networks will carry traffic from one billion of the world's cellular subscribers by 2010, accounting for US$548 billion or 66 per cent of the total cellular service revenue. Analysts also expect that declining equipment costs and dropping airtime prices will make 3G services the prime driver in wireless subscriber growth. technology.scmp.com Ö¿Ö