Market aspects of UMTS

Various trends are creating a significant opportunity for the personal communications industry to contribute to, and even further, the development of the information society through the development and introduction of services based on the third-generation mobile system, UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System). However, will there be sufficient demand for these services to enable telecoms operators, service providers and equipment manufacturers to justify the huge investments required in UMTS development? What will these trends mean for the nature of UMTS services? Will technology be able to meet the demands of bandwidth and capacity hungry mobile multimedia services? This presentation addresses these questions and examines the market aspects of UMTS. First, the EC funded UMTS Market Forecast Study conducted by Analysys and Intercai on behalf of, and with contributions from, the UMTS Forum is briefly described. The key drivers, enablers and barriers to the successful development of UMTS are discussed and the major market forecasts from the study presented. The presentation then goes onto examine the nature of UMTS services and some of the implications and challenges for the industry in realising the opportunity that UMTS offers