In the next four to six years, long-term evolution (LTE) in the mobile arena could become a reality, allowing users to reach speeds up to 50Mbps.
The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), which is a collaboration agreement established in December 1998, has started studying the protocol.
Global Mobile Suppliers Association president Alan Haddan expects this evolution to become a reality by 2012. The technology is at drawing board stage. After standards have been agreed, manufacturers can start work, he says.
Ericsson`s Web site says 3G LTE will allow for an increase in system capacity and reduced cost per gigabyte, and can also make use of existing 2G and 3G spectra. The 3GPP standard is expected to be ready in mid-2007 with commercial products expected in the 2009 timeframe, it says.
Faster
However, before then, consumers will see high-speed uplink packet access (HSUPA), which will allow for faster conferencing calls. This is expected to be available next year. In parallel, says Haddan, core networks are undergoing an evolution process.
3G`s big brother, HSDPA, is becoming the new baseline for 3G operators, he adds.
By 12 July, there were 104 operators that were committed to deploying HSDPA in 51 countries. Forty-two of these operators are commercially live in 32 countries. By year-end, he expects 63 networks to be live and more than the current 39 devices to be available, says Haddan.
Growing EDGE
He says the organisation`s research shows EDGE is in various stages of deployment on 204 networks in 113 countries - 151 networks in 88 countries already offer EDGE. There are 112 WCDMA operators in 49 countries, including operators in Africa such as Vodacom and MTN.
Some 67 operators have deployed a combined WCDMA and EDGE network, which is becoming the standard way of rolling out 3G, Haddan says. As of the end of May, there were 65 million WCDMA subscribers worldwide.
WCDMA is "growing quicker than GSM did at the same stage," he says. This growth is aided by the availability of devices. To date, 355 WCDMA devices have been released.
Globally, subscribers are being added to the service at a rate of 3.5 million a month. In Western Europe, half of the phones being sold are 3G-enabled.
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