DL - 4G Americas

2 PROGRESS OF RELEASE 99, RELEASE 5, RELEASE 6, RELEASE 7 AND RELEASE 8:
EVOLVED EDGE, UMTS/EVOLVED HSPA (HSPA+) AND LTE/EPC
The 3GPP Rel-99 UMTS specifications, initially standardized in early to mid 1999 and published by 3GPP
in March 2000, established the evolutionary path for GSM, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and
Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) technologies. Rel-99 enabled more spectrally efficient
and better performing voice and data services through the introduction of a 5 MHz UMTS carrier. Rel-4
was completed in March 2001, Rel-5 was published in March 2002 and Rel-6 was completed in March
2005.
The first commercial deployment of UMTS networks began with the launch of FOMA by NTT DoCoMo in
2001, with 2003 as the year when Rel-99 UMTS networks were more widely commercialized. The number
of commercially deployed UMTS systems has grown rapidly since then, as substantiated by more than
370 commercial UMTS networks as of year-end 2010. Rel-4 introduced call and bearer separation in the
Core Network, and Rel-5 introduced some significant enhancements to UMTS, including HSDPA, IMS
and IP UTRAN. 6 Rel-6 introduced further enhancements to UMTS including HSUPA (or E-DCH), MBMS
and Advanced Receivers. 7
Leading manufacturers and service providers worldwide support the 3GPP evolution and to illustrate the
rapid progress and growth of UMTS, participating 4G Americas’ member companies have each provided
detailed descriptions of recent accomplishments on Rel-99 through Rel-10, which are included in
Appendix A of this white paper. A number of these technology milestones are also summarized in this
section.
2.1 PROGRESS TIMELINE
In November 2003, HSDPA was first demonstrated on a commercially available UMTS base station in
Swindon, U.K., and was first commercially launched on a wide-scale basis by Cingular Wireless (now
AT&T) in December 2005 with notebook modem cards, followed closely thereafter by Manx Telecom and
Telekom Austria. In June 2006, "Bitė Lietuva" of Lithuania became the first operator to launch HSDPA at
3.6 Mbps, which at the time was a record speed. As of year-end 2010, there were more than 376
commercial HSPA networks in 150 countries with 128 additional operators with networks planned, in
deployment or in trial with HSPA (see Appendix G). It is expected that almost all UMTS operators will
deploy HSPA.
6 3GPP Rel-5 and Beyond - The Evolution of UMTS, 3G Americas, November 2004.
7 The Global Evolution of UMTS/HSDPA - 3GPP Release 6 and Beyond, 3G Americas, December 2005.
www.4gamericas.org February 2011 Page 13