UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System: Development of standards for the third generation

The standards for the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) are being developed by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standardisation Institute). UMTS is a set of standards aimed at the global market. It will be a real Third Generation Global System for Mobile Communications adding new features and introducing relevant technological innovations while evolving from both GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Networks). UMTS standardisation is a market driven process and UMT standards are based on the carefully selected market requirements developed in a close co-operation with the UMTS Forum and GSM MoU (GSM Memorandum of Understanding Association). UMTS belongs to the IMT-2000 family and whilst supporting existing services, will be capable of offering new and revolutionary services including multimedia and access to Internet offering a speed of 2Mbit/s for a single user at a radio access network. This article attempts to give an objective view of the UMTS standardisation in Europe. The article does not necessarily express the opinions of any group or company I am affiliated with, neither of ETSI SMG Special Mobile Group, ETSI PT SMG (Project Team) or Ericsson.