Free UMTS Technical Note

9th March , 2004

Europe : Experience with the introduction of third generation of mobile telecommunications in Slovenia

On the 12th December last year Mobitel, as the first operator in the world, started Mobitel UMTS network with a complete set of services.

The first experience of 1000 users was positive. Faster data transfer (during phase one up to 384 kb/s) allows quicker mobile access to Internet, email and information networks, a fact proven by actual data. Data transfer through UMTS is monthly averaging 10 times more than the GPRS and has totalled 17,7 GB since introduction.

For Mobitel UMTS users Planet portal is offering a special set of content and services called Planet UMTS, which has been chosen by more than nine thousand users, which means there is a growing and genuine interest in UMTS. Most visited content sets on Planet UMTS are Novelties (83.000 visits in February), followed by Sports (73.716), Erotic videos (52.320), Cinema (43.986), Weather (42.362) and Planet Radio (23.426).

One of the most interesting novelties of Mobitel UMTS network is, as it turned out, video telephony, which is used by more than 80 percent of Mobitel UMTS users. Their first experience is positive, despite minor problems caused by flaws in mobile phones. New software is now available for Motorola A835 mobile phone and Mobitel will provide free mobile phones upgrades to all users. The new software now allows a smooth transition between GSM/GPRS and UMTS network.

Network and plans
The signal of Mobitel UMTS network is now covering Ljubljana and Ljubljana airport, while phase two of network constructing is in process. By the end of March this year 80 new UMTS base stations will start operating, thus enabling 31 percent coverage of population. Another 70 UMTS base stations will start operating by the beginning of summer, and Mobitel UMTS network signal will be covering 40 percent of Slovenian population. Thus network signal will besides Ljubljana and Maribor also reach: Celje, Kranj, Novo Mesto, Murska Sobota, Koper, Nova Gorica, Velenje, Postojna, Radovljica, Zagorje and Kocevje. During second half of the year Mobitel will provide another 150 UMTS base stations and reach as much as 55 percent of country's population with UMTS network signal. During first quarter of 2005 a total of 490 UMTS base stations will be operating, which means the coverage will reach 62 percent of population. Mobitel UMTS signal will cover all communities with a population over 1.500 and the Slovene Road Cross (main Slovene road network).

Mobitel UMTS roaming
Besides mobile phones, good network, interesting content and services, one of the key elements of UMTS success is the possibility of roaming in foreign operators' networks. Intensive negotiations on roaming with various operators are in progress, and it is already technically possible to use video telephony roaming in UK operator's H3G network. It is the first roaming agreement of a kind with an operator outside H3G group. Plans for 2004 include dozens of bilateral UMTS roaming agreements.

Main findings of 3GSM Congress in Cannes and 3G Mobile World Forum in Tokyo
Judging by the forecasts of 3GSM World Congress in Cannes and 3G Mobile World Forum in Tokyo, user friendly UMTS mobile phones of various manufacturers will still come to the market this year. Beside that, 40 to 50 mobile operators will offer UMTS, and most of the leading operators will introduce UMTS to all markets important to them. Operators, that chose other solutions, are also beginning to realise the great importance of UMTS. A good example is Japanese NTT DoCoMo, which will adjust their own third generation network FOMA with UMTS this year and thus enable compatibility. According to forecasts of the biggest operators, UMTS will show its advantages by 2004 and 2005, while reaching a massive use in 2007. This concurs with last year's forecast of Mobitel's Managing Director. Anton Majzelj predicted the third generation of mobile telecommunication to flourish in 2007.

Statistics
GPRS roaming is on the present day available at 46 operators in 28 countries, and Mobitel GSM roaming at 264 operators in 160 countries of the world already. The total number of Mobitel network users comes to 1.419.016 on March the 3rd 2004; 650.940 Mobitel GSM/UMTS subscribers, 641.722 Mobiusers (prepaid), 40.789 Mobitel NMT subscribers, and 85.565 Debitel subscribers. Multimedia portal Planet visited 397.344 various Mobitel GSM/UMTS network users, and 139.047 users had chosen their own Planet. Mobitel Planet is used by more than 28% of Mobitel GSM/UMTS network users, which is one of the highest penetrations in the world.

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