Ericsson's Taiwan center provides WCDMA, HSDPA, video TV tests

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on March 29, 2006. It reports that Ericsson Taiwan Ltd. reently announced that its cell-phone interoperability testing (IOT) center is now providing wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA), High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA, a 3.5G technology) and video television testing services. At present, several new cell-phone models developed by various Taiwanese makers are currently being tested at the IOT center.

Ericsson set up the Taiwan cell-phone IOT center in 2005. It is the first in Asia and the fourth in the world. At present, the IOT center provides testing services for global system for mobile communications (GSM) systems, enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE) systems, general packet radio service (GPRS) systems, and the aforementioned WCDMA, HSDPA and video television systems. In general, the IOT center is expected to shorten testing times and costs for local cell-phone makers by 40 percent.

According to Ericsson Taiwan, the Asia-Pacific region has replaced Europe and the United States as the global cell-phone design and production center. In the next two years, some 40 percent to 50 percent of Ericsson's handsets will be designed and produced by suppliers in the Asia-Pacific region.

According to Ericsson Taiwan, many global mobile telecom companies have begun to deploy their HSDPA networks, while cell-phone makers are actively promoting HSDPA handsets. Currently, there are three HSDPA handset models available in the market, but the number is expected to reach 10 by the end of 2006.

According to Ericsson Taiwan, 3G WCDMA has reached a popular stage, while the HSDPA standard is just becoming a widely available application. At present, the number of global WCDMA service subscribers has reached about 50 million, with two million to three million new subscribers being added every month. To date, a total of 226 different WCDMA terminal products have been released into the market.

Currently, the number of global mobile-phone uses has reached 2.2 billion, with a global penetration rate of 35 percent. The number is expected to grow to about 3 billion in 2010, when the GSM/WCDMA market share is expected to reach 85 percent from the current 76 percent.