The Next Generation Of Wireless Telephony

Europe has witnessed in recent years a massive growth in mobile communications, ranging from the more traditional analogue based systems to the current generation of digital systems such as GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), DCS-1800 (Digital Communication System at 1800 MHz), ERMES (European Radio Messaging System), and to a lesser extent DECT (Digital European Cordless Telephone), and TETRA (Trans European Truncked Radio). The GSM family of products (GSM + DCS-1800), which represents the first large scale deployment of commercial digital cellular system ever, enjoys world wide success, having already been adopted by over 190 operators in more than 80 countries. In a very short period of time, the percentage of European cellular subscribers using GSM or DCS-1800 has already exceeded 50%. In addition, the figure portrays the penetration rates of the combined analogue and digital cellular systems for the same time frame. It is worth noticing that the biggest markets of Europe in terms of subscribers (i.e., UK, Italy and Germany) are not the markets with the largest penetration rates. In this respect, the largest penetration rates are found in the Nordic countries, close to or even exceeding 25% of the population.

Third Generation systems and technologies are being actively researched world wide. In Europe, such systems are commonly referred under the name UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems) while internationally, and particularly in the ITU context, they are referred to as FPLMTS (Future Public Land Mobile Telecommunications Systems) or more recently IMT-2000 (International Mobile Telecommunications for the year 2000).

In this context, but also in a world wide perspective, with many competing mobile and personal communication technologies and standards being proposed to fulfill the users needs, the essential questions, to which no immediate, conclusive, firm answers can be given, are: To what extent, and how fast, will the users' requirements evolve beyond the need for voice and low data rate communications?, and which will be the technologies that will meet the requirements for mobile and personal communications services and applications beyond the year 2000?.

The rapid advance of component technology; the pressure to integrate fixed and mobile networks; the developments in the domains of service engineering, network management and intelligent networks; the desire to have multi-application hand-held terminals; and above all the increasing scope and sophistication of the multimedia services expected by the customer; all demand performance advances beyond the capability of second generation technology. The very success of second generation systems in becoming more cost effective and increasingly cost attractive raises the prospect that it will reach an early capacity and service saturation in Europe's major conurbations. These pressures will lead to the emergence of third generation systems representing a major opportunity for expansion of the global mobile marketplace rather than a threat to current systems and products.

The ground work for UMTS started in 1990, and some early answers can already be provided regarding its requirements, characteristics and capabilities, with the initial standards development process already under way at ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute). The basic premise upon which work is being carried out, is that by the turn of the century, the requirements of the mobile users will have evolved and be commensurate with those services and applications that will be available over conventional fixed or wireline networks. The citizen in the third millennium will wish to avail himself of the full range of broadband multimedia services provided by the global information highway, whether wired or wireless connected.

Various international forums have raised the issue of technology migration from Second to Third Generation via the use of spectrum in the FPLMTS/UMTS bands. This may result in the spectrum being allocated, in some parts of the world, in an inefficient piecemeal fashion to evolved Second Generation technologies and potentially many new narrow-application systems, thereby impeding the development of broadband mobile multimedia services.

Terminal, system and network technology as researched within the EU-funded ACTS projects, may alleviate to a large extent the complexity of the sharing of the spectrum between the Second and Third Generation systems. Finding the solution to the problem of evolution and migration path from Second (GSM, DCS-1800, DECT) to Third Generation systems (FPLMTS/UMTS), particularly from a service provision point of view, is also the subject of intense research carried out in the context of ACTS projects. Some of the key questions that are addressed include a detail consideration of the feasibility, as well as the cost effectiveness and attractiveness of the candidate enhancements. In this context, the ACTS projects will develop a set of guidelines aiming at reducing the uncertainties and associated investment risks regarding the new wireless technologies, by providing the sector actors and the investment community with clear perspectives on the technological evolution and on the path to the timely availability to the user of advanced services and applications.

In response to the imperatives of the internal European market, specific measures were taken, as early as 1987, to promote the Union-wide introduction of GSM, DECT, and ERMES. European Council Directives were adopted to set out common frequency bands to be allocated in each Member State to ensure pan-European operation, together with European Council Recommendations promoting the co-ordinated introduction of services based on these systems.

In 1994, the European Commission adopted a Green Paper on Mobile and Personal Communications with the aim of establishing the framework of the future policy in the field of mobile and personal communications. The Green Paper proposed to adapt, where necessary, the telecommunications policy of the European Union to foster a European-wide framework for the provision of mobile infrastructure, and to facilitate the emergence of trans-European mobile networks, services, and markets for mobile terminals and equipment.

Based on the Green Paper, the European Commission set out general positions on the future development of the mobile and personal sector, and defined an action plan which included actions to pursue the full application of competition rules; the development of a Code of Conduct for service providers; and the agreement on procedures for licensing of satellite-based personal communications. The action plan also advocated the possibility of allowing service offerings as a combination of fixed and mobile networks in order to facilitate the full-scale development of personal communications; the lifting of constraints on alternative telecommunications infrastructures and constraints on direct interconnection with other operators; the adoption and implementation of Decisions of the ERC (European Radio-communications Committee) on frequency bands supporting DCS-1800 and TETRA; the opening up of an Europe-wide Numbering Space for pan-European services including personal communications services; and continuing support of work towards UMTS. 

The combination of these regulatory changes will contribute to a substantial acceleration of the EU's mobile communications market and speed the progress towards Third Generation mobile/personal communications. It will however be necessary to encourage potential operators and manufacturers to invest in the required technology, by setting out a clear calendar for the adoption of the required new standards and the re-farming of the necessary spectrum. The applicable licensing regimes and rules for flexible sharing of the available spectrum need also to be adopted at an early stage so as to permit the identification of novel market opportunities commensurate with the broadband multimedia requirements of the Third Generation mobile telecommunications systems.

In light of the above, and in accordance with the political mandate given by the European Parliament and the European Council, the major actors in the mobile and personal communications sector have been brought together as a task force which has lead to the setting up of the UMTS Forum. The main objective of the Forum are to contribute to the elaboration of an European policy for mobile and personal communications based on an industry wide consensus view, and pave the way for ensuring that mobile communications will play a pivotal role in the Global Information Society.

The continued evolution of Second Generation systems has been recognized as an issue of great societal and economic importance for Europe and the European industry. To facilitate and crystallize such an ambition, and in accordance with the political mandate given by the European Parliament and the European Council, an ad-hoc group called the UMTS Task Force was convened by the European Commission and was charged with the task of identifying Europe's mobile communications strategy towards UMTS. The report of the UMTS Task Force and its recommendations have been largely endorsed by the European mobile industry, and as a result the UMTS Forum has now been created with the mandate to provide an on-going high level strategic steer to the further development of European mobile and personal communications technologies. High on the priorities of the UMTS Forum are the issues of technology, spectrum, marketing and regulatory regimes. Drawing participation beyond the European industry, the UMTS Forum is expected to play an important role in bringing into commercial reality the UMTS vision.