UMTS implementations

Right now, there are 391 commercial 3G Operators in 135 Countries worldwide. 157 of them are using UMTS (From 3GToday). The story behind implementation of some operators can be found below.

Europe

In Europe, the license process resulted in some extremely high prices being paid, notable in the UK and Germany. In Germany, bidders paid a total 50.8 billion euros for six licenses. It has been suggested that these huge license fees have the character of a very large tax paid on income expected 10 years down the road - in any event they put some European telecom operators close to bankruptcy (most notably KPN). Over the last few years some operators have written off some or all of the license costs.

The first UMTS network in Europe was launched by Manx Telecom on the Isle of Man (a large island in the Irish sea) in 2001. Manx Telecom is part of the O2 group, which is now a subsidiary of Telefonica. O2 used the island as a testbed for 3G technology.

The 3 service was launched in the UK and Italy in March 2003. To meet this early date, this was a soft-launch with limited coverage of the UK initially available.

In December 2003, Mobitel has launched UMTS in Slovenia. T-Mobile launched UMTS in Austria, and began trials in the UK and Germany. Also, in November 2005 the T-Mobile UMTS network in the Netherlands went live (however, this was not a commercial launch, but meant to meet regulatory requirements imposed upon the spectrum auction).

In February 2004, Vodafone began a wide-scale UMTS launch in several European markets, including the UK, Ireland, Germany, The Netherlands and Sweden. In Portugal, UMTS was launched just before the Euro 2004 began.

In April 2004, VIPnet and T-Mobile launched UMTS in Croatia.

In Spain, the first operator to kick-off full 3G services was Amena on November 2004, although "early adopter" test were already in place in the country.

The first UMTS network in Poland was launched in 2004 by Plus GSM, but coverage was still limited to Warsaw. In April 2005, Era GSM launched another UMTS network in Warsaw, providing cheap (about 20 euros per month) internet access, among other 3G services. In January 2006 most of top major cities are covered by Era GSM, Orange and Plus GSM.

In Finland, UMTS licenses were provided by the government free of charge. In 2004, Elisa Oyj and TeliaSonera began deploying commercial UMTS networks, and in 2005 Dna Finland began commercial UMTS service.

In Serbia, UMTS was launched on 22 November 2004 by mobile operator Mobtel (now Telenor) but not for commercial purpose - testing only, commercial usage started 27 December 2006 and it was purchase by Mobile telephony of Serbia (Mobilna telefonija Srbije). Officially commercial use of UMTS 3G network in Serbia started with video conversation between Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and singer Zdravko Colic. It is estimated that at that time Mobile telephony of Serbia had ~80,000 users with UMTS capable mobile devices. Telenor Serbia (ex Mobtel) started with commercial usage of UMTS after 2 years testing period on 1 March 2007.

The mainly used UMTS network in Russian Federation is Skylink, which is mostly used by people who spend a lot of time in countryside, in poor GSM coverage areas. Since double format compatible phones appeared in Russia not so long ago, the Benefon UMTS mobile phones are also distributed by Skylink.

North America

The UMTS spectrum allocated in Europe is already used in North America. The 1900 MHz range is used for 2G (PCS) services, and 2100 MHz range is used for satellite communications. Regulators have however, freed up some of the 2100 MHz range for 3G services, together with the 1700 MHz for the uplink. UMTS operators in North America who want to implement a European style 2100/1900 MHz system will have to share spectrum with existing 2G services in the 1900 MHz band. 2G GSM services elsewhere use 900 MHz and 1800 MHz and therefore do not share any spectrum with planned UMTS services.

Initial rollout of UMTS in Canada is handled exclusively by the 1900 MHz band. T-Mobile's roll-out of UMTS in the US will focus on the 2100/1700 MHz bands just auctioned.

Under a previous agreement with NTT DoCoMo, US provider AT&T Mobility (formerly Cingular, and at the time of the NTT deal was the original AT&T Wireless) was required to build and market UMTS networks in four major United States cities by the end of 2004. At CTIA 2004, Cingular announced that their 3G network would be a 1900 MHz only implementation of UMTS and would launch by the end of that year as planned. However, since then they have chosen to deploy on 850 MHz and did not release any 1900 MHz-only devices. As of August 2006, Cingular has deployed UMTS/HSDPA networks in 17 U.S. markets covering 52 cities. Markets include New York (NY), Albuquerque (NM), Austin (TX), Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Portland (OR), Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose (CA), Seattle, Tacoma, Washington, D.C. and the metropolitan area of Puerto Rico, San Juan.

Roll-out in the US has been limited by a lack of suitable spectrum until recently. The FCC auctioned spectrum in the 1750 and 2150 bands , and at least one winner, T-Mobile, has announced a roll-out of a national UMTS network on these frequencies starting in 2007.

Previous US roll-outs have suffered due to lack of spectrum, requiring the sharing of the 850 MHz and 1900 MHz bands allocated for cellular communication in the US with existing 1G and 2G networks. The UMTS requirement for 5 MHz frequency slots, much larger than that required for existing networks, can create difficulty for US operators as many are only licensed for 5 MHz in each direction in certain areas, and as such cannot run both their existing system and UMTS in the areas affected.

Because of the frequencies used, early models of UMTS phones designated for the US will likely not be operable overseas and vice versa; other standards, notably GSM, have faced similar problems, an issue dealt with by the adoption of multi-band phones. Most UMTS licensees seem to consider ubiquitous, transparent global roaming an important issue.

Africa
The first UMTS network in Africa was launched on the island of Mauritius in November 2004. In South Africa, UMTS was launched in December 2004 by Vodacom followed in June 2005 by MTN. Namibia launched UMTS in December 2006, making it the 3rd Country in Africa to launch 3g services. While Globacom Nigeria is underway to going 3G, Starcoms Nigeria has already flooded the Nigerian Market with Sim enabled 3G fixed wireless phones.


The Middle East
UMTS/HSDPA services are being offered by many operators in the Middle East, mainly in United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain. In 2006, the first UMTS/HSDPA license was awarded to ETISALAT Misr in Egypt. A second license was purchased by Vodafone Egypt in 2007 to enable them to launch the service immediately after the launch of Etisalat Misr's 2G/3G Network.

The Middle East operators are using the primary 2.1 GHz band for the UMTS/HSDPA operation.


Asia and Pacific
In Singapore, Singapore Telecommunications started their trial during December 2004 and it was successfully launched during March 2005 followed by StarHub and MobileOne.

In Malaysia, Maxis Communications started offering UMTS 3G services in February 2005 utilizing the 2.1 GHz UMTS band. Rival telecommunications company Celcom followed suit in a few months later also on the same band. Initially only offered as an option to postpaid customers, by early 2006 both telcos were also offering 3G to prepaid customers.

In the Philippines, UMTS was launched in 2006 by SMART and shortly thereafter by Globe.

Indonesia 3G era began when the government granted 3G licenses to the top three cellular operators: Telkomsel, Excelcom and Indosat. On 14 September 2006, Telkomsel launched its 3G service, followed by Excelcom XL3G on 21 September 2006. The XL3G offers 3G service in 6 major cities (Jakarta, Medan, Batam, Bandung, Surabaya and Denpasar) and allows international 3G roaming to Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia. Other than the first widest 3G service, XL3G also claims the title of the first fastest 3G service in Indonesia, as it offers high speed data access using HSDPA technology.

Government of India is currently evaluating the process of 'Spectrum Allocation' for 3G services. The final decision on the same is to be announced by end Q1 2007. The most likely mode is auctioning of 3G spectrum with a reserve base price. Commercial launch is only expected in 2008.

In Taiwan, Far Eastone launched its WCDMA-based 3G service on July 13 2005, offering 3G services offered by NTT DoCoMo in Japan. Chunghwa Telecom followed suit on 26 July 2005, using a WCDMA 3G network deployed by Nokia. Other local carriers offering 3G services include Taiwan Cellular Corporation and VIBO Telecom.

In South Korea, SK Telecom and KTF both operate UMTS/HSDPA networks since 2006. KTF (and possibly also SK Telecom) use the 2.1 GHz band which allows the use of European GSM/UMTS phones by travelers in case there is a roaming agreement in place between KTF and the home operator of the traveler.

Australia
Telstra has rolled out a UMTS network in Australia under the brand Next G in the 850 MHz band that will eventually replace the Telstra CDMA network and enhance its existing 2100 MHz UMTS network in October 2006. The 850 MHz band uses HSDPA and it will allow better coverage in rural areas where there are greater distances between subscriber and base station. This network covers a claimed 98% of the Australian population. As current phones on the market do not support the UMTS 850/2100 bands, handset choices available to Telstra subscribers will initially be limited. 2G CDMA network is set to replace in February 2008.