1. 3G Systems

3G Systems are intended to provide a global mobility with wide range of services including telephony, paging, messaging, Internet and broadband data. International Telecommunication Union (ITU) started the process of defining the standard for third generation systems, referred to as International Mobile Telecommunications 2000 (IMT-2000). In Europe European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) was responsible of UMTS standardisation process. In 1998 Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) was formed to continue the technical specification work. 3GPP has five main UMTS standardisation areas: Radio Access Network, Core Network, Terminals, Services and System Aspects and GERAN.

3GPP Radio Access group is responsible of:

Radio Layer 1, 2 and 3 RR specification Iub, Iur and Iu Interfaces UTRAN Operation and Maintenance requirements BTS radio performance specification Conformance test specification for testing of radio aspects of base stations Specifications for radio performance aspects from the system point of view 3GPP Core Network group is responsible of: Mobility management, call connection control signalling between the user equipment and the core network. Core network signalling between the core network nodes. Definition of interworking functions between the core network and external networks. Packet related issues. Core network aspects of the lu interface and Operation and Maintenance requirements 3GPP Terminal group is responsible of: Service capability protocols Messaging Services end-to-end interworking USIM to Mobile Terminal interface Model/framework for terminal interfaces and services (application) execution Conformance test specifications of terminals, including radio aspects 3GPP Services and System Aspects group is responsible of: Definition of services and feature requirements. Development of service capabilities and service architecture for cellular, fixed and cordless applications. Charging and Accounting Network Management and Security Aspects Definition, evolution, and maintenance of overall architecture. Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP) was formed for technical development of cdma2000 technology which is a member of IMT-2000 family. In February 1992 World Radio Conference allocated frequencies for UMTS use. Frequencies 1885 - 2025 and 2110 - 2200 MHz were identified for IMT-2000 use. See the UMTS Frequency page for more details. All 3G standards are still under constant development. In 1999 ETSI Standardisation finished for UMTS Phase 1 (Release '99, version 3) and next release is due December 2001. UMTS History page has a list of all major 3G and UMTS milestones. Most of the European countries and some countries round the world have already issued UMTS licenses either by beauty contest or auctions.