UMTS900 brings 3G to rural areas with less cost — MobileMonday Global: Industry News

^{Whitepaper provides case studies} UMTS900 brings 3G to rural areas with less cost

20 Oct 2009 at 07:51 GMT Timo Poropudas

There is a very strong business case and momentum for deploying UMTS900 (WCDMA-HSPA) systems in the 900 MHz band, says GSM Suppliers Association GSA in its recent white paper. 900 MHz band helps operators efficiently extend voice, data and mobile broadband services coverage by leveraging the advantages of lower frequencies.

This GSA paper highlights the benefits and opportunities when deploying UMTS900, typically as a complement to 2100 MHz 3G/UMTS systems, and reports on global network deployments, launches, trials, regulation, and the UMTS900 eco-system i.e. availability of user devices.

The paper provides a list of firsts in the UMTS900 development:

♦ Elisa Finland launched the world’s first UMTS900 system on 8 November 2007; now upgrading to HSPA+ ♦ Elisa Estonia launched UMTS900, January 2008 ♦ AIS, Thailand launched Asia’s 1st UMTS900 system May 08 ♦ Optus, Australia launched UMTS900, May 2008 ♦ Mobistar, Belgium launched UMTS900, May 2008 ♦ Vodafone NZ launched UMTS900, July 2008 ♦ Proximus, Belgium launched UMTS900, July 2008 ♦ DNA, Finland launched UMTS900, October 2008 ♦ Siminn, Iceland launched UMTS900, October 2008 ♦ Digitel, Venezuela launched Latin America’s 1st UMTS900 system, on 2 March 2009 ♦ TeliaSonera launched UMTS900 in Finland in June 2009

UMTS900 Benefits

Providing full coverage using 2100 MHz would be too expensive, impractical and take too long for many mobile network operators, the GSA paper says.

It further points out that radio propagation path-loss at 900 MHz is much lower. For the same service offering and coverage, the number of cell sites required using 900 MHz is significantly lower compared to that needed for 2100 MHz, with reduced rollout time.

Indoor coverage is also improved with 900 MHz. UMTS900 can complement 2100 MHz deployments to improve coverage, reduce CAPEX and OPEX, improve Quality of Service and enhance the user experience.

UMTS900 network operators can provide HSPA mobile broadband services in a very cost-efficient way. GSM operators can re-use existing network assets including antennas and network management systems. UMTS900 delivers the same data rates as UMTS2100, with fewer than half the number of cell sites. Operators report increases in traffic (especially data) and revenue growth where 3G is offered.

All 3G applications can be provided and used cost efficiently over much larger area. 190 UMTS900-HSPA devices have been launched in the market by 34 suppliers (GSA HSPA Devices survey, October 4, 2009). UMTS900 is rapidly becoming mandatory in devices destined for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific markets. The 900/2100MHz combination for WCDMA-HSPA is increasingly commonplace.

Similar benefits and efficiencies are obtained using available today in the Americas, Australia, New Zealand in parts of Asia, and elsewhere, the paper says. A robust ecosystem for UMTS850-HSPA is established, including 599 HSPA850 user devices which are launched in the market.

Elisa case study recounts how Elisa Finland launched the world’s first UMTS900 system, and confirmed that 3G coverage with UMTS900 can save 50 - 70% of mobile network costs vs UMTS2100, for CAPEX and OPEX.