What is Umts? its relation to GSM and CDMA.

Umts, GSM and CDMA

UMTS stands for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System. UMTS is one of the emerging cell phone technologies known as third-generation, or 3G. Third-generation systems are designed to include such traditional phone tasks as calls, voice mail, and paging, but also new technology tasks such as Internet access, video, and SMS, or text messaging.

One of the main benefits of UMTS is its speed. Current rates of transfer for broadband information are 2 Megabites per second. This speed makes possible the kind of streaming video that can support movie downloads and video conferencing. In a sense, UMTS makes it possible for user to enjoy all of the functionality of their home computer while they are roaming the streets. By combining wireless and satellite cellular technologies, UMTS takes advantage of all existing options to result in the Holy Grail of 3G presentation: seamless transitions between WiFi and satellite.

UMTS went live as a network for the first time in Japan in 2001. Japan is the only country with no Gsm network. Austria came with its own network in 03. A handful of other European countries joined the UMTS bandwagon in the next few years, plus South Africa and a few other African countries soon following suit. The U.S. has employed UMTS networks in several large cities, and the number is steadily growing. CDMA which is used by verizon and sprint in the USwill be moving over into UMTS.

UMTS is based on the Global System for Mobile (GSM) standard, which is the gold standard in Europe and more than 120 countries worldwide. In fact, UMTS is sometimes referred to as 3GSM. The two systems are not compatible, however. UMTS is incompatible with GSM. a lot of new cell phones come with both 2G GSM/ and 3G UMTS. User Can purchase cell phones with both technologies built in and use them around the world. The only negative is that the phones with both 2G/3G are on the expensive side.