The next generation; third generation

European Business Review

ISSN: 0955-534X

Article publication date: 1 August 2001

241

Citation

Gohel, S. (2001), "The next generation; third generation", European Business Review, Vol. 13 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr.2001.05413dag.001

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited


The next generation; third generation

The next generation; third generation

Wireless communications and the possible demise or success of the next generation of mobile phones has figured prominently in the popular and trade press in recent months. The continuous talk and imminent arrival of third generation mobile services (3G) promises to bind together two of the fastest growing industry sectors of recent years – Internet access and mobile communications.

Interest in this area is huge. Telecommunications, media and technology companies, such as BT, AOL Time Warner and Microsoft, are all competing for a share of this potentially vast new market.

The recent 3G auctions, in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, led many telecommunications companies to commit considerable financial resources to the development of 3G. Talk of 3G brings fear and opportunity in almost equal measures. Fear arises from doubts about whether telecommunications companies will be able to recoup the investment they paid for licences. The UK Government, the first to sell licences via an auction process, raised £22.5 billion from five telecommunications companies. The successful bidders were BT, Vodafone, One2One, Orange and TIW.

This editorial provides a brief overview of the potential applications and operating standards for 3G that these businesses will have to exploit if they are to successfully develop the market.

3G is simply a radio communications technology that will provide mobile access to Internet services. Currently mobile technology is mainly used for voice calls. However in the near future voice calls might only constitute a small proportion of communications completed using mobile devices. Mobility will no longer be an add-on to help with everyday life. Instead many believe it will be become a fundamental tool within many applications and services. Both individuals and businesses will be able to use the benefits of high-speed Internet contact with access to information, entertainment and electronic commerce (e-commerce) services wherever they are. These services should no longer be restricted to desktop computers, television sets or home PCs.

In addition, modern day business can add a mobile dimension to their operations. Such services include Internet and intranet access, video conferencing, and interactive application sharing. Mobile technology will support new flexible working practices that will enable employees to access a wide range of information and services wherever they are.

ZDNet.co.uk note that the main system capabilities of 3G include:

  1. 1.

    Capability to determine geographic position of mobiles and report it to both the network and the mobile terminal.

  2. 2.

    Interoperability and roaming.

  3. 3.

    Capability to support circuit and packet data at high bit rates:

  4. 4.
    • 144 kilobits/second or higher in high mobility (vehicular) traffic;

    • 384 kilobits/second for pedestrian traffic;

    • 2 megabits/second or higher for indoor traffic.

  5. 5.

    Common billing/user profiles:

  6. 6.
    • sharing of usage/rate information between service providers;

    • standardised call detail recording;

    • standardised user profiles.

  7. 7.

    Support of multimedia services/capabilities:

  8. 8.
    • fixed and variable rate bit traffic bandwidth on demand;

    • asymmetric data rates in the forward and reverse links;

    • multimedia mail store and forwarding;

    • broadband access up to 2 megabits/second.

3G could also change the way individuals live and socialise on a day-to-day basis. Useful applications through the utilisation of 3G will be shopping, banking, video streaming, access to music files, local information (such as shops and services available locally wherever you are located) and playing interactive computer games over the Net.

As well as all of these opportunities 3G will create a terrifying number of new acronyms and competing standards, which will confuse users of the different platforms.

Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is the 3G standard that has been agreed for Europe, Japan, China and the rest of Asia. The current mobile standard, Global System for Mobile (GSM), should be replaced by the new UMTS standard over the coming years. An intermediate stage – 2.5G – is envisaged before full 3G capabilities are available.

The main advantage of GSM has been its ability to unite much of Europe under one mobile communication umbrella. This advantage has been extended to 3G standards and gives Europe a considerable head start over the USA in mobile developments.

In addition to 3G, other standards that have been and will be created include:

  • 2.5G – a necessary stepping-stone before 3G can be achieved.

  • General Packet Radio System (GPRS) – a European 2.5G standard that will bridge the gap between current voice oriented phones and the data-rich mobiles of 3G.

  • High Speed Circuit Switched Data (HSCSD) – the 2.5G standard supported by Orange Communications Network.

  • Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution (EDGE) – a 2.5G standard, that is considered to be a successor to GSM and a partner for UMTS.

  • Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) – the 3G mobile phone network that will be launched from 2002/2003. This will offer high-speed data as standard and will ultimately be the successor to the current second generation GSM mobile phone network.

Table I displays the various different platforms that are expected to be released over the next couple of years.

Developments in wireless communications appear to offer many significant opportunities and benefits for both businesses and consumers in the next few years. It is widely expected UMTS will become the yardstick for mobile platforms. It will be 200 times faster than the current GSM network and offers significant improvements in services for users. Only time will tell if these improvements, and the prices telecommunications companies will demand for access to them, enable the 3G revolution to achieve its full potential.

Web sites

Listed below is a selective review of Web sites that provide further details about 3G. Dynamic links to these pages can be found at the International Electronic Commerce Research Centre Web site http://www.iecrc.org

Guide to Wireless technology, 3G and various mobile technology platformshttp://www.zdnet.co.uk

News on 3G and GSM mobile network http://uk.gsmbox.com/

News about wireless technologyhttp://www.allnetdevices.com/wireless/

Technical information about UMTShttp://www.cellular.co.za/umts.htm

International Telecommunication Union and information about telecommunications publicationshttp://www.itu.int

Sagar GohelE-Commerce developer for British Telecommunications PLC, working with IECRC on the development of eStatMap.E-mail: sagar.gohel@bt.com

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