UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System: development of standards for the third generation

The standards for UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) are being developed by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standardisation Institute). UMTS is a set of standards aimed at the global market and it will be a real third generation global system for mobile communications adding new features and introducing relevant technological innovations while evolving from both GSM and ISDN. UMTS standardisation is a market driven process and UMTS standards are based on the carefully selected market requirements developed in close co-operation with the UMTS Forum and GSM MoU (GSM Memorandum of Understanding Association). UMTS belongs to the IMT-2000 family and whilst supporting existing services, will be capable of offering new and revolutionary services including multimedia and access to Internet offering a speed of 2 Mbit/s for a single user at a radio access network. This article attempts to give an objective view of the UMTS standardisation in Europe.