The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third

generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard.
Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS
is a component of the International Telecommunications Union IMT-2000 standard
set and compares with the CDMA2000 standard set for networks based on the
competing cdmaOne technology. UMTS uses wideband code division multiple access
(W-CDMA) radio access technology to offer greater spectral efficiency and
bandwidth to mobile network operators.
UMTS specifies a complete network system, which includes the radio access
network (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network, or UTRAN), the core network
(Mobile Application Part, or MAP) and the authentication of users via SIM (subscriber
identity module) cards.
The technology described in UMTS is sometimes also referred to as Freedom of
Mobile Multimedia Access (FOMA)[1] or 3GSM.
Unlike EDGE (IMT Single-Carrier, based on GSM) and CDMA2000 (IMT Multi-Carrier),
UMTS requires new base stations and new frequency allocations.
Contents
[hide]

1 Features

2 Air interfaces
o

2.1 W-CDMA (UTRA-FDD)

2.1.1 Development

2.1.2 Rationale for W-CDMA

2.1.3 Deployment

2.2 UTRA-TDD

2.2.1 TD-CDMA (UTRA-TDD 3.84 Mcps High Chip Rate (HCR))

2.2.2 TD-SCDMA (UTRA-TDD 1.28 Mcps Low Chip Rate (LCR))

2.2.2.1 Objectives

2.2.2.2 Technical highlights

2.2.2.3 History

2.2.2.4 Frequency bands & Deployments

2.2.3 Unlicensed UMTS-TDD

2.2.4 Comparison with UMTS-FDD

2.2.5 Deployment

2.2.6 Competing Standards

3 Radio access network

4 Core network

5 Frequency bands and channel bandwidths

5.1 UARFCN

5.2 Spectrum allocation

6 Interoperability and global roaming

o

6.1 Handsets and modems

7 Other competing standards

8 Migrating from GSM/GPRS to UMTS

9 Problems and issues

o

9.1 Security issues

10 Releases
o

10.1 Release '99

10.2 Release 4

10.3 Release 5

10.4 Release 6

10.5 Release 7

10.6 Release 8

10.7 Release 9

11 See also

12 References
o

12.1 Citations

12.2 Bibliography

13 Documentation

14 External links

Features[edit]
UMTS supports maximum theoretical data transfer rates of 42 Mbit/s when Evolved
HSPA (HSPA+) is implemented in the network.[2] Users in deployed networks can
expect a transfer rate of up to 384 kbit/s for Release '99 (R99) handsets (the

original UMTS release), and 7.2 Mbit/s for High-Speed Downlink Packet Access
(HSDPA) handsets in the downlink connection. These speeds are significantly faster
than the 9.6 kbit/s of a single GSM error-corrected circuit switched data channel,
multiple 9.6 kbit/s channels in High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data (HSCSD) and 14.4
kbit/s for CDMAOne channels.
Since 2006, UMTS networks in many countries have been or are in the process of
being upgraded with High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), sometimes
known as 3.5G. Currently, HSDPA enables downlink transfer speeds of up to 21
Mbit/s. Work is also progressing on improving the uplink transfer speed with the
High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA). Longer term, the 3GPP Long Term
Evolution (LTE) project plans to move UMTS to 4G speeds of 100 Mbit/s down and 50
Mbit/s up, using a next generation air interface technology based upon orthogonal
frequency-division multiplexing.
The first national consumer UMTS networks launched in 2002 with a heavy
emphasis on telco-provided mobile applications such as mobile TV and video
calling. The high data speeds of UMTS are now most often utilised for Internet
access: experience in Japan and elsewhere has shown that user demand for video
calls is not high, and telco-provided audio/video content has declined in popularity
in favour of high-speed access to the World Wide Webeither directly on a handset
or connected to a computer via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or USB.[citation needed]
Air interfaces[edit]

UMTS network architecture

UMTS combines three different terrestrial air interfaces, GSM's Mobile Application
Part (MAP) core, and the GSM family of speech codecs.
The air interfaces are called UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA).[3] All air
interface options are part of ITU's IMT-2000. In the currently most popular variant for
cellular mobile telephones, W-CDMA (IMT Direct Spread) is used.

Please note that the terms W-CDMA, TD-CDMA and TD-SCDMA are misleading. While
they suggest covering just a channel access method (namely a variant of CDMA),
they are actually the common names for the whole air interface standards. [4]
W-CDMA (UTRA-FDD)[edit]

3G sign shown in notification bar on an Android powered smartphone.

UMTS base station on the roof of a building

W-CDMA or WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), along with
UMTS-FDD, UTRA-FDD, or IMT-2000 CDMA Direct Spread is an air interface
standard found in 3G mobile telecommunications networks. It supports conventional
cellular voice, text and MMS services, but can also carry data at high speeds,
allowing mobile operators to deliver higher bandwidth applications including
streaming and broadband Internet access. [5]
W-CDMA uses the DS-CDMA channel access method with a pair of 5 MHz wide
channels. In contrast, the competing CDMA2000 system uses one or more available
1.25 MHz channels for each direction of communication. W-CDMA systems are
widely criticized for their large spectrum usage, which delayed deployment in
countries that acted relatively slowly in allocating new frequencies specifically for
3G services (such as the United States).
The specific frequency bands originally defined by the UMTS standard are 1885
2025 MHz for the mobile-to-base (uplink) and 21102200 MHz for the base-tomobile (downlink). In the US, 17101755 MHz and 21102155 MHz are used instead,
as the 1900 MHz band was already used.[6] While UMTS2100 is the most widely
deployed UMTS band, some countries' UMTS operators use the 850 MHz and/or

1900 MHz bands (independently, meaning uplink and downlink are within the same
band), notably in the US by AT&T Mobility, New Zealand by Telecom New Zealand on
the XT Mobile Network and in Australia by Telstra on the Next G network. Some
carriers such as T-Mobile use band numbers to identify the UMTS frequencies. For
example, Band I (2100 MHz), Band IV (1700/2100 MHz), and Band V (850 MHz).
UMTS-FDD is an acronym for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)
- frequency-division duplexing (FDD) and a 3GPP standardized version of UMTS
networks that makes use of frequency-division duplexing for duplexing over an
UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) air interface.[7]
W-CDMA is the basis of Japan's NTT DoCoMo's FOMA service and the mostcommonly used member of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
(UMTS) family and sometimes used as a synonym for UMTS. [8] It uses the DS-CDMA
channel access method and the FDD duplexing method to achieve higher speeds
and support more users compared to most previously used time division multiple
access (TDMA) and time division duplex (TDD) schemes.
While not an evolutionary upgrade on the airside, it uses the same core network as
the 2G GSM networks deployed worldwide, allowing dual mode mobile operation
along with GSM/EDGE; a feature it shares with other members of the UMTS family.