Number of UMTS900-HSPA Devices Increased Seven-fold in 6 Months

(Business News & Technology News, 2 Dec 2008)

The UMTS900 Global Status Information Paper published recently by the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) confirms 67 UMTS900 devices are launched in the market by 14 suppliers, compared to the nine UMTS900 devices identified in a similar survey by GSA in June 2008—reflecting a seven-fold increase.

UMTS900 devices support HSPA data speeds comparable with 2.1GHz devices. The research by GSA confirms that the 900/2,100MHz combination for WCDMA-HSPA is becoming much more commonplace.

This research, together with related activities by GSA, confirms the strong momentum for deploying UMTS900, which helps operators to extend voice, data and mobile broadband services coverage by leveraging the advantages of lower frequencies. While the majority of today's HSPA mobile broadband networks operate in the 2.1GHz band, the use of lower frequencies, such as 900MHz, provides a much larger coverage area. This translates to a significant reduction in the number of cell sites needed to cover rural and suburban areas. Another benefit is improved voice quality.

GSA recently published an operator case study on Elisa, Finland, which concluded that 3G coverage with UMTS900 can save 50 percent to 70 percent of mobile network costs when compared to deployments in the 2.1GHz band, including both CAPEX and OPEX. Similar cost and coverage benefits also apply to UMTS system deployments in other lower frequency bands, such as 850MHz.

GSA also confirms that six network operators have commercially launched mobile broadband services using UMTS900: Elisa (Finland), Elisa (Estonia), Optus (Australia), AIS (Thailand), Vodafone (New Zealand), and now DNA (Finland), with the majority being part of a dual-band HSPA (i.e. 900/2100MHz) system. Several more trials and network deployments of UMTS900 systems are on-going worldwide.

Click here for more information on the UMTS900 Global Status

Click here for more information on the UMTS900 Workshop (Cape Town) presentations

Click here for more information on the UMTS900 Operator Case Study of Elisa, Finland

Click here for more information on the GSA