US
: The Global UMTS TDD Alliance announced today that several new operators
and vendors have joined the organization, passing the 50-member milestone
in less than nine months since the group's inception. The Alliance
also announced the successful conclusion of its second summit meeting,
where more than 80 executives from more than 20 countries joined to
discuss UMTS TDD insights, strategies, and developments. In addition,
in response to the growing worldwide deployments, the Alliance formed
a subcommittee to address and advance global roaming capabilities.
"The
Global UMTS TDD Alliance is a dynamic and effective forum for the
many operators that are deploying UMTS TDD around the world to share
technical and business learnings, as well as to work with the growing
list of vendors that are supporting the technology," said Liz
Kerton, executive director, Global UMTS TDD Alliance. "With our
membership continuing to expand, it is clear that UMTS TDD is gaining
tremendous momentum around the world."
Launched
at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes in February 2004, the Global
UMTS TDD Alliance has grown to include 30 operators and 20 equipment
manufacturers and vendors, a list of which can be found on the Alliance
web site at www.umtstdd.org. Membership in the Alliance continues
to be reserved for companies actively involved with the technology
versus companies that just want to monitor the technology's progress.
Sonaecom,
a leading Portuguese integrated communications company, hosted the
second members-only Global UMTS TDD Alliance Summit in Portugal and
hosted tours of their UMTS TDD cell sites and operation centers in
Lisbon. Many new TDD networks were represented at the Summit, which
stimulated discussions on roaming between member networks and the
creation of a Roaming Subcommittee within the Alliance.
The summit
also included case studies of UMTS TDD deployments from Sonaecom,
Woosh Wireless (New Zealand), Maxis (Malaysia), and NextWave Telecom
(US). Multiple vendors presented their technology and product roadmaps
for UMTS TDD network infrastructure and a myriad of new devices expected
to become available in the near future. Member delegates participated
in interactive panels that covered key topics for members, including
VoIP, marketing strategies, as well as deployment strategies and learnings.
The UMTS
TDD Standard for Broadband Wireless
Many of the biggest trends in telecommunications and technology point
to the need for a ubiquitous, very high speed, low latency, packet-based
platform to provide broadband and other packet services to users at
home, at work, or on the road. The first platform that meets this
need and the only one with proven, real-world traction is the TDD
branch of the 3G UMTS standard, UMTS TDD (also known as TD-CDMA).
Optimized for high-speed data, UMTS TDD can be used by operators and
manufacturers worldwide and has emerged as the leading standard for
mobile broadband.
UMTS
TDD is the best choice for provisioning ubiquitous broadband data
and voice services not only because of the unmatched performance and
economics of the solution, but its standards-based nature, and the
growing market lead of the technology in commercial deployments in
countries around the world, including Australia, Germany, Malaysia,
New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, and the United States.