US
: Finland joins the growing global community of governments and carriers
who are harmonizing their broadband wireless spectrum allocations
with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the European
Union, and the 3GPP international standard organizations.
Highlighting the benefits
of global standards and common spectrum usage in advancing and enhancing
wireless services, the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communication
allocated the 2010 – 2025 MHz band for UMTS TDD wireless broadband.
While the ITU designates the 2010 – 2025 MHz band for UMTS TDD
use, the 3GPP defines the UMTS TDD standard, which falls under the
umbrella of the GSM body of standards but has characteristics specifically
optimized for packet data.
Most recently, the Finnish
Ministry of Transport and Communication awarded a nationwide license
to operate a wireless broadband network in 2020 – 2025 MHz band
to SkyWeb. The SkyWeb team, who has been offering GPRS wireless data
service since 2003, will deploy a UMTS TDD system to offer mobile
wireless broadband to businesses and consumers. "We compared
speed, mobility, activation, security and maturity of available technologies,
and found UMTS TDD to be the best option for mobile broadband,”
said Juuso Huttunen, CTO for SkyWeb.
SkyWeb will sell broadband
wireless services in Finland using a simple integrated UMTS TDD/WiFi
PCMCIA data card, delivering a true broadband connection that is completely
mobile. SkyWeb also plans to offer wireless telephone handsets for
voice services over the wireless network using VoIP.
From its history as a next-generation
wireless technology pioneer and as the first country to adopt the
GSM standard, Finland is one of the most closely watched markets to
determine which telecommunications advances will succeed. The Finland
decision follows recent news in Japan, another advanced wireless market,
that IPMobile, a Japanese broadband wireless services company, has
submitted its application to deploy a UMTS TDD system in the same
2010 MHz spectrum which was recently allocated by the Japanese regulator
exclusively for UMTS TDD use. IPMobile announced plans to commence
wireless broadband services in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka by October
2006, with nationwide service planned by 2010.
Historically, both Finland
and Japan have been leaders in their selection of next-generation
wireless technology. “Like the governments of Finland and Japan,
regulators and operators worldwide are ignoring hype and choosing
the right technology,” said Liz Kerton, executive director,
Global UMTS TDD Alliance. “Unlike other broadband wireless technologies,
UMTS TDD is a global, interoperable, mobile, carrier-class technology,
which is available today – covering over 22 million people in
20 countries.”
International standardization
and compliance with global spectrum requirements has made UMTS TDD
the logical choice for every national regulator considering broadband
wireless access services. The dozens of countries who support the
UMTS TDD standard will benefit from widespread wireless broadband,
unbeaten performance, international roaming, cross-border compatibility,
and scale economies – much as they have with GSM. The result
is that the UMTS TDD standard has being adopted to build broadband
wireless networks faster than any other alternative technology worldwide.
About the UMTS TDD Broadband
Wireless Standard
UMTS TDD, the TDD branch of the 3G UMTS international telecommunications
standard, was developed by the 3GPP to meet the growing demand for
ubiquitous, very high speed, low latency, mobile, IP network. Major
mobile operators, Internet service providers, and new operators around
the world have chosen UMTS TDD because UMTS TDD networks are compliant
with international spectrum standards, offer exceptional performance,
are standards-based, and offer economies of scale. Today, UMTS TDD
covers more people in more countries than any other broadband wireless
access technology.