Europe
: Motorola, Inc. released initial data from HSDPA (High Speed Downlink
Packet Access) trials with five major European operators.
Inset
is Raghu Rau, corporate vice president for marketing
for Motorola's networks quoted below.
Speeds
of 2.9Mbps have been recorded at the edge of an outdoor UMTS (Universal
Mobile Telecommunications System) cell using a single HSDPA device.
The trial system matches the capabilities of the commercial HSDPA
infrastructure set for launch in the second half of 2005. The trial
results are expected to give operators confidence when planning
for true high-speed services.
The
trials are designed to produce results to enhance the ability of
mobile operators and service providers to build optimal performance
HSDPA- enabled networks and successfully deploy services on those
networks. The results will also help the operators design networks
that offer highly reliable 3G connectivity, access and competent
service delivery considering a variety of traffic levels, service
demand, device and location.
Motorola
set up a menu of test options for the participating operators to
choose from to allow them to create independent test environments.
In this way the trials are tailored to mimic the individual operating
conditions of each network, with different access options to measure
performance, compatibility and interoperability.
With
HSDPA, operators will benefit from increased operating efficiency,
greater user capacity and improved customer satisfaction. During
the trials, services ranging from e-mail, video streaming, music
downloads and web browsing are being tested for speed, capacity
and data quality from normal to high-traffic conditions. Motorola
will be especially looking for areas where performance can be enhanced
further.
Raghu
Rau, corporate vice president for marketing for Motorola's networks
business explains, "Pivotal to the commercial success of HSDPA
is the expected performance compared to UMTS and ensuring that the
correct expectations are set. That is one of the aims of conducting
trials under real-life conditions. To this end Motorola is enabling
the operators to emulate loaded networks. At launch, with relatively
low numbers of subscribers, the performance may far exceed these
average data rates and this is why it is far more instructive to
consider performance of networks working at full capacity with high
traffic users since this more closely reflects the ultimate commercial
setting."
Rau
continues, "All new releases in 3G telephony standards have
a peak network speed. The first systems will support a peak of up
to 3.6Mbps on the downlink. These are ideal rates, but in reality,
with networks working at full capacity (e.g. each user downloading
2 music albums an hour), Motorola estimates that the average user
throughputs will be approximately between 500kbps and 1.5Mbps during
the download. Overall HSDPA will appear to the user between 3 and
10 times faster than UMTS. This differential will increase as the
cell size gets smaller."
HSDPA
data transmission speeds to the end user will be similar to today's
fixed broadband services and should enable operators to both realize
greater margins from existing offerings while launching new data
rich products at competitive prices. It also promises to smooth
the transition of services like video streaming and music downloads
from 'high potential' to commercially viable.
Editor's Notes
Business Risks:
Statements
about HSDPA trials, the rollout of HSDPA and the functionality of
the networks are forward-looking and involve risk and uncertainties.
Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from
those in the forward-looking statements include unforeseen events
related to the performance of the networks, the success of the trials,
the pace of the rollout and other factors found in Motorola's filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
About
HSDPA
High Speed Downlink Packet Access is a 3GPP Release 5 Standards
compliant modification to the UMTS air interface that provides significant
performance benefits and reduced costs to operators for service
provision. About Motorola Motorola is a Fortune 100 global communications
leader that provides seamless mobility products and solutions across
broadband, embedded systems and wireless networks. In your home,
auto, workplace, and all spaces in between, seamless mobility means
you can reach the people, things and information you need, anywhere,
anytime. Seamless mobility harnesses the power of technology convergence
and enables smarter, faster, cost-effective and flexible communication.
Motorola had sales of US$27.1 billion in 2003.