NEWSLETTER MARCH 2003

Making the most of mobile multimedia

Despite a recently less than buoyant mobile phone market, GSM subscribers have grown tenfold over the past five years. It is predicted that the number of such subscribers worldwide should exceed one billion by the end of 2003 or early 2004. New handsets with colour displays, innovations such as the multimedia messaging service (MMS) and, particularly, the albeit still slow emergence of third generation (3G) networks offering services such as video on demand, high speed multimedia and mobile Internet access now seem set to retrigger some growth in this formerly dynamic market. A recent report by Arthur D. Little and Exane concludes 3G will enable mobile operators to optimise networks and rebuild balance sheets. While it forecasts mobile multimedia will increase competition in some parts of Europe, there should be a small increase in subscriber revenues.

GSM digital mobile phone platforms have won a major share of the global market. The so-called 2G GSM itself, 2.5G technologies such as general packet radio services (GPRS) and enhanced data for GSM evolution (EDGE), and 3G wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) technology now have over 70% of the digital market worldwide. The USA and some parts of the Far East are still committed to less spectrum efficient time division multiple access (TDMA) technology, which is not directly compatible.

The GSM Association ? representing a large number of the world's mobile wireless operators, regulators and industry bodies ? and the UMTS Forum, which focuses more specifically on promoting universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS)/3G GSM technologies, are working closely with the global 3G Partnership Project (3GPP) to ensure open, internationally-accepted and non-proprietary standards. 3GPP itself is a global co-operation between the major European, US, Chinese, Japanese and Korean telecommunications standardisation organisations.

While the USA and Europe have somewhat different priorities, these new standards should make it possible for equipment to be fully interoperable worldwide ? between both mobile phones and fixed services as well as with applications such as wireless local area networks (LANs) in the office and home, and increasingly in high traffic hot spots such as airport terminals or even cafes. This requires a high level of flexibility in portable terminal design, allowing them to be adapted simply to specific requirements.

Chip improvements are also necessary for new generation terminals to provide the additional facilities required for mobile multimedia applications. This includes ensuring longer standby times and lower overall power consumption as well as providing more memory, bigger and brighter screens, improved audio quality, ability to play audio and video signals, and imaging and image processing for multimedia messaging.

But it is really new services that are going to boost 3G market acceptance. The GSM Association announced last month during its annual meeting in Cannes that it will focus on shortening time to market and ensuring the global availability of new and developing wireless services this year. It sees a primary goal as the acceleration of the global rollout and interoperability of advanced multimedia services particularly through 3G networks.

Non-voice services such as SMS text messaging have established an important share of the GSM market ? more than 24 million SMS messages are sent every month according to the GSM Association. The ?store and forward? MMS as an evolution of SMS is already growing, making it possible to exchange a wide range of personalised multimedia content between mobile subscribers ? including images, audio, text and video as well as combinations in a single message and to multiple recipients.

The current launches of such services shows that 3G is not essential for MMS ? but running over 2G and 2.5G switched-packet systems can be expensive. Always-on 3G systems will offer much higher bandwidths, making it possible for example to send streaming audio and video material ? downloading full MP4 video clips would normally take too long over GPRS networks.

The GSM Association is not only trying to sustain system standardisation but is also keen to help drive and define terminal interoperability, availability and usability ? key elements in encouraging increased mobile service uptake and use worldwide. The MEDEA+ programme is fully concerned with the relevant equipment developments and many MEDEA+ project partners are also involved in the standardisation issues, helping define clear parameters for equipment and network design.

Moreover, many of the research projects set in train by MEDEA+ in wireless communications technology and applications have a major role to play in resolving outstanding technical problems. These include the seamless handover of calls between different public and local networks, and reducing power consumption in 3G terminals that have to provide much higher levels of performance and functionality ? the target being to provide battery lives equivalent to current GSM handsets. It is also necessary to develop versatile portable multimedia terminals for everyday use, as well as their supporting base stations, that will work with a range of still evolving standards.