-- The GSM family of technologies has an overwhelming global position in terms of subscribers, deployment, and services. Its success will marginalize other wide-area wireless technologies. -- EDGE technology has proven extremely successful and is widely deployed on GSM networks globally. Advanced capabilities with Evolved EDGE more than quadruple current EDGE throughput rates. -- Continual HSPA enhancements are planned. Beginning with enhanced uplink performance, advanced receivers in the mobile and in the base station, and then MIMO, these improvements will extend HSPA capability even further. -- HSPA Evolution provides a strategic performance roadmap advantage for incumbent GSM/UMTS operators. HSPA+ (in 5+5 MHz radio allocations) with 2x2 MIMO, successive interference cancellation, and 64 QAM is more spectrally efficient than WiMAX Wave 2 with 2x2 MIMO and EV-DO Revision B. -- Compared to UMTS/HSPA/LTE, competing technologies have no known significant deployment cost advantages. -- Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) with HSPA will eventually add to voice capacity and reduce infrastructure costs. In the meantime, UMTS enjoys high circuit-switched voice spectral efficiency, and it can combine voice and data on the same radio channel. -- The high spectral efficiency of HSPA provides operators an efficient high-capacity network for all services. In the longer term, UMTS/HSPA provides for a clean migration to packet-switched voice. -- LTE technical specifications are being completed, and the 3GPP OFDMA approach matches or exceeds the capabilities of any other OFDMA system. -- Nearly all UMTS handsets are also GSM handsets, so UMTS users can access the wide base of GSM networks and services. -- WiMAX is maturing and gaining credibility, but it will still only represent a very small percentage of wireless subscribers over the next five to ten years. Meanwhile, GSM/UMTS operators are much more likely to migrate to LTE.As part of the standards work on improvements in radio-access technology, 3GPP has also spearheaded the development of major core-network architecture enhancements such as the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and the Evolved Packet System (EPS) as well as developments in Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC). These developments will facilitate new types of services, the integration of legacy and new networks, the convergence between fixed and wireless systems, and the transition from circuit-switched approaches for voice traffic to a fully packet-switched model. Peter Rysavy stated, "The GSM evolution to 3G and beyond will result in a balanced portfolio of complementary technologies that covers both radio-access and core networks, and which provides operators with a cost-effective means to serve their customers any time, over any device." This white paper EDGE, HSPA, LTE: The Mobile Broadband Advantage, as well its accompanying slide presentation, was created collaboratively with Rysavy Research by the member organizations of 3G Americas and is available for free download at the 3G Americas' website: www.3gamericas.org. About 3G Americas: Unifying the Americas through Wireless Technology The mission of 3G Americas is to promote and facilitate the seamless deployment throughout the Americas of GSM and its evolution to 3G and beyond. The organization fully supports the Third Generation technology migration strategy to EDGE and UMTS/HSPA adopted by many operators in the Americas that accounts for up to 85% of next-generation customers worldwide. 3G Americas is headquartered in Bellevue, WA with an office for Latin America and the Caribbean in Dallas, TX. For more information, visit our website at www.3gamericas.org. Glossary of Terms
3GPP - Third Generation Partnership Project EDGE - Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution Evolved EDGE or EDGE Evolution or EDGE + -- further evolution of EDGE EV-DO - Evolved Data Optimized HSDPA - High Speed Downlink Packet Access HSUPA - High Speed Uplink Packet Access HSPA - High Speed Packet Access (both HSDPA and HSUPA) HSPA Evolution, HSPA+ or HSPA plus -- further evolution of HSPA LTE - Long Term Evolution MIMO - Multiple Input Multiple Output OFDMA - Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access UMTS/WCDMA - Universal Mobile Telephone Service/Wideband Code Division Multiple Access QAM - Quadrature Amplitude Modulation VoIP - Voice Over Internet Protocol WiMAX - Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
Contact Information: Contact: Vicki Livingston +1 262 242 3458