UMTS TDD: Difficult Path, Promising Future

This IDC study examines the UMTS TDD cellular service standard underlying the nomadic data and voice services of Woosh Wireless and forming the third prong of 3G in New Zealand. The status of UMTS TDD is assessed by profiling a number of service providers leveraging the technology around the world. In particular, an analysis of the pioneering activity of Woosh in New Zealand and the perspectives of a number of Global UMTS TDD Alliance members are reconciled to assess the viability, strengths, and limitations of this 3G standard. This report addresses questions around the inherent risk that exists given that a single vendor — IPWireless — has been behind all deployments of UMTS TDD worldwide, to date. The research assesses the positioning of IPWireless and whether the technology will move out of the secondary service provider community to gain substantial worldwide adoption and endorsement from established carriers and the major cellular network vendors.

Although UMTS TDD was designed from the outset to integrate with UMTS WCDMA, the rocky global transition to 3G that has resulted in an oversupply of WCDMA capacity, and the need for carriers to see strong commercial justification for their deployments on the back of insurmountably expensive 3G licences has meant that the adoption of UMTS TDD around the world has, to date, been limited.

"Despite the substantial liabilities inherent in the UMTS TDD community over-reliance on a single vendor, the move by IPWireless towards a chipset and software technology focus and impending partnerships with major network vendors mean that UMTS TDD may indeed be at an inflection point for adoption," says Christopher Loh, senior analyst, Telecommunications, IDC New Zealand.