EDGE, HSPA and LTE Broadband Innovation

A new white paper from Rysavy Research and 3G Americas is available at http://3gamericas.org/PDFs/EDGE_HSPA_and_LTE_Broadband_Innovation_Rysavy_Sept_2008.pdf and an accompanying presentation slide at http://3gamericas.org/PDFs/EDGE_HSPA_and_LTE_Broadband_Innovation_Powerpoint_Sept08.pdf.

According to the 3G Americas press release, some key observations and conclusions highlighted in the EDGE, HSPA and LTE Broadband Innovation white paper include:

* GSM/UMTS has an overwhelming global position in terms of subscribers, deployment, and services. Its success will marginalize other wide-area wireless technologies.
* In current deployments, HSPA users regularly experience throughput rates well in excess of 1 megabit per second (Mbps), under favorable conditions, on both downlinks and uplinks. Planned enhancements will increase these peak user-achievable throughput rates, with 4 Mbps on commercial networks being commonly measured.
* HSPA Evolution (HSPA+) provides a strategic performance roadmap advantage for incumbent GSM/UMTS operators. HSPA+ with 2x2 MIMO, successive interference cancellation, and 64 QAM is more spectrally efficient than competing technologies including WiMAX Wave 2 with 2x2 MIMO and EV-DO Rev B.
* The LTE RAN technical specification was approved in January 2008 and is being incorporated into 3GPP Release 8, which is close to completion. Initial deployments are likely to occur around 2010. The 3GPP OFDMA approach used in LTE matches or exceeds the capabilities of any other OFDMA system.
* LTE has become the technology platform of choice as GSM/UMTS and CDMA/EV-DO operators are making strategic long-term decisions on their next-generation platforms. In June of 2008, after extensive evaluation, LTE was the first and only technology recognized by the NGMN alliance to meet its broad requirements.
* GSM/HSPA will comprise the overwhelming majority of subscribers over the next five to ten years, even as new wireless technologies are adopted. The deployment of LTE and its coexistence with UMTS/HSPA will be analogous to the deployment of UMTS/HSPA and its coexistence with GSM.
* 3GPP is now studying how to enhance LTE to meet the requirements of IMT-Advanced in a project called LTE Advanced.
* UMTS/HSPA/LTE have significant economic advantages over other wireless technologies.
* WiMAX has developed an ecosystem supported by many companies, but it will still only represent a very small percentage of wireless subscribers over the next five to ten years.