Year after year, while data access rates continuously reach record highs as countless new services become available, 500 UMTS networks worldwide serve more than 1.3 billion subscribers. By 2015 the number of subscribers will reach at least 3.4 billion.

In 2012, Huawei’s introductions of solutions for flexible carrier bandwidth, increasing UMTS connections and UMTS 900 MHz (UMTS900) refarming have opened a new chapter on the UMTS story..

Flexible Carrier Bandwidth Increases Frequency Efficiency

In 2012 Huawei launched a flexible carrier bandwidth solution for UMTS900 refarming that makes it possible to deploy a large-scale UMTS network using only 4.6 MHz, 4.2 MHz and even 3.8 MHz bandwidth instead of the traditional 5MHz bandwidth to dramatically improve frequency efficiency. This solution has already been successfully deployed for commercial networks in Hong Kong, Spain, Australia, Canada and Poland.

Revolutionary Breakthrough in UMTS Connections

Huawei also launched in 2012 a solution for significantly increasing the number of simultaneous HSPA+ connections in a single UMTS cell.

Too many simultaneous small data packet requests occurring the same cell from numerous smartphone users tends to cause what has been termed a “connection storm” for network performance: a severe reduction of the processing efficiency for a UMTS air interface, resulting in deteriorated end user experience.

Breakthrough technologies and specialized chipsets allow more than 1,000 smartphone connections in one UMTS cell, effectively doubling overall cell capacity.

UMTS900 Refarming Driving UMTS Development

Building a UMTS900 network via frequency refarming is an effective way to enable much smoother user experience during handovers from LTE to UMTS for vastly improved user experience indoors and at the cell-edge. This is especially true in urban areas where operators face especially complex wireless environments that adversely affect indoor user experience and network capacity.

Huawei has so far deployed 32 UMTS900 commercial networks worldwide, including networks in France, Hong Kong and Singapore. These networks have already shown vastly improved peak data rates and end user experience indoors and at the cell-edge. In one case where a UMTS900 overlay network was deployed over an existing UMTS 2100 MHz (UMTS2100) network from another vendor. APRU increased by 8% after one year.

UMTS the Right Choice for Seamless Voice and Data

Operators looking to substantially remove dropped calls for handovers to LTE while providing a seamless user experience are looking to UMTS for building strong networks for both voice and data. To fully realize the benefits of UMTS, the number of sites supporting UMTS should equal the number of sites supporting GSM to ensure a smooth evolution alongside HSPA+, DC-HSPA+ and LTE networks.

For 2013, Huawei innovation will contribute to the continuing development of UMTS as the new universal standard for building strong voice and data networks.