EDGE Belongs to GSM in 2003
March 19, 2003
GSM operators and vendors at the EDGE Operators' Forum (EOF) in
New Orleans provided timely advice regarding the progress of EDGE
and its current commercialization to an important audience of rural,
regional, and international operators representing the Americas,
Asia Pacific, and the Middle East.
Key points presented:
-- Deployment: EDGE is here and ready for the market. EDGE will
be deployed by fourteen operators representing over 84 million subscribers
in nine countries throughout the Americas, with the first commercial
launches beginning the 2nd half of 2003. A growing number of operators
in Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Europe have been actively
evaluating EDGE as a complementary deployment with UMTS. One vendor
reports over fifteen trials currently underway.
-- Market readiness: GSM operators are already seeing the uptake
of messaging, a good precursor to high-speed wireless data services.
Worldwide, there were an estimated 430 billion mobile messages sent
in 2002 with GSM operators accounting for the largest market share.
-- Spectral efficiency: EDGE is the most spectrally efficient 3G
radio access technology up to 100 Kbps while UMTS offers the best
spectral efficiency for data rates higher than 100 Kbps, thus provide
a fully complementary network plan. EDGE may be deployed within
an operator's existing spectrum and does not require a new 3G license.
-- Terminals: All EDGE devices will support GSM/GPRS and work on
multiple spectrum bands including variations of 800/900/1800/1900
MHz. The cost of including EDGE capabilities within a device is
considered negligible and industry consensus is that EDGE will be
a standard feature in all new GPRS terminals from the end of 2003.
Multiple vendors have already made commercial announcements regarding
devices and PC-cards.
-- Infrastructure: There are hundreds of thousands of EDGE-capable
GSM base stations being deployed today, that require relatively
simple software and hardware upgrades and thereby provide the lowest
total lifetime cost of network ownership for operators. Vendors
providing infrastructure include Alcatel, Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia,
Nortel Networks, and Siemens.
-- Cost to upgrade: Practical experience shows that the cost to
upgrade to EDGE from GSM/GPRS is about $1-$2 per POP, in addition
delivering three times the data capacity.
-- Global availability: EDGE will be globally available for operators
by 2H 2003 in all primary spectrum bands with commitments in place
by terminal and infrastructure vendors.
Chris Pearson, Executive Vice President of 3G Americas, remarked
to press and analysts at an EDGE Operators' Forum briefing during
CTIA, "Today, we are showcasing the outstanding progress of EDGE:
from AT&T Wireless becoming the first operator to announce deployment
of EDGE in 2000, followed by Rogers, Cingular, T-Mobile, Telcel,
and another nine operators in the Americas to date; AT&T Wireless
completing the first EDGE call with multiple vendors in 2001; the
massive amounts of infrastructure shipped by multiple vendors since
2002; operators nearing completion of their EDGE network upgrades;
the announcements of commercial EDGE devices by multiple vendors;
to the commercial deployments of EDGE expected in the second half
of 2003."
Alan Hadden, President of the GSA, commented, "We have indicated
that EDGE is not just an Americas' technology and confirm that EDGE
is being deployed on a global basis in all major continents." He
continued, "Operators with commitments to EDGE represent about 100
million subscribers. They have the advantages of both the economies
of scale with GSM/GPRS and the interoperability of EDGE with UMTS
(WCDMA) that will be assured through the standards work of the 3GPP.
This translates into a world of 3G services for GSM customers."
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3G Motorola A920
