Die Studie von 3G Americas ist zwar nicht für den deutschen Markt gedacht, allerdings können viele Schlussfolgerungen auf diesen Markt angewendet werden. Wirklich wunderbar detailiertes Dokument, kann ich nur empfehlen. Hier die englische Einleitung:

We are at the dawn of a new decade that will bring to mass market the mobile broadband innovations introduced over the last several years. 3G technology has shown us the power and potential of always-on, everyplace network connectivity and has ignited a massive wave of industry innovation that spans devices, applications, Internet integration, and new business models. Already used by hundreds of millions of people, mobile broadband connectivity is on the verge of becoming ubiquitous. It will do so on a powerful foundation of networking technologies, including GSM with EDGE, HSPA, and LTE. LTE in a forthcoming release will be one of the first technologies to meet the requirements of International Mobile Telephone (IMT) Advanced, a project of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) that this year defined official “4G” requirements.

Through constant innovation, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) with High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) technology has established itself as the global, mobile- broadband solution. Building on the phenomenal success of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), the GSM-HSPA ecosystem has become the most successful communications technology family ever. Through a process of constant improvement, the GSM family of technologies has not only matched or exceeded the capabilities of all competing approaches, but has significantly extended the life of each of its member technologies.

UMTS-HSPA, in particular, has many key technical and business advantages over other mobile wireless technologies. Operators worldwide are now deploying both High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), the combination of the two technologies called simply HSPA. HSPA is the most capable cellular- data technology ever developed and deployed. HSPA, already widely available, follows the successful deployment of UMTS networks around the world and is now a standard feature.

HSPA is strongly positioned to be the dominant mobile-data technology for the next five to ten years. To leverage operator investments in HSPA, the 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) standards body has developed a series of enhancements to create “HSPA Evolution,” also referred to as “HSPA+.” HSPA Evolution represents a logical development of the Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) approach, and it is the stepping stone to an entirely new Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) radio platform called 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE). LTE, which uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), will be ready for deployment in 2010. Simultaneously, 3GPP — recognizing the significant worldwide investments in GSM networks—has defined enhancements that will significantly increase EDGE data capabilities through an effort called Evolved EDGE.
Combined with these improvements in radio-access technology, 3GPP has also spearheaded the development of major core-network architecture enhancements such as the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), previously called System Architecture Evolution or SAE, as well as developments in Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC). These developments will facilitate new types of services, the integration of legacy and new networks, the convergence between fixed and wireless systems, and the transition from circuit-switched approaches for voice traffic to a fully packet-switched model.

The result is a balanced portfolio of complementary technologies that covers both radio- access and core networks, provides operators maximum flexibility in how they enhance their networks over time, and supports both voice and data services.

Download: LTE Studie (pdf, 1,5MB)