UMTS900 Growing in Popularity
GSA, the Global mobile Suppliers Association, has published an update to the UMTS900 Global Status Information Paper, reporting on network deployments, launches, trials, regulatory developments, and devices availability.
The paper confirms the strong momentum for introducing UMTS900 to help 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 2100 MHz band, the use of lower frequencies, such as 900 MHz, 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.
GSA recently published an operator case study on Elisa, Finland which concluded that 3G coverage with UMTS900 can save 50 to 70% of mobile network costs when compared to deployments in the 2100 MHz band, including both CAPEX and OPEX.
These cost and coverage benefits also apply to the deployment of UMTS in other lower frequency bands such as 850 MHz.
Alan Hadden, President, GSA said, "The availability of UMTS900-compatible devices is improving. This update confirms that 37 devices have now been launched, supporting data speeds comparable with 2100 MHz devices, and the 900/2100MHz combination for WCDMA-HSPA is expected to become much more commonplace."
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