1.
Telecommunication
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Telecommunication is the transmission of signs, signals, messages, writings, images and sounds or intelligence of any nature by wire, radio, optical or other electromagnetic systems. Telecommunication occurs when the exchange of information between communication participants includes the use of technology and it is transmitted either electrically over physical media, such as cables, or via electromagnetic radiation. Such transmission paths are divided into communication channels which afford the advantages of multiplexing. The term is used in its plural form, telecommunications. Early means of communicating over a distance included visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, other examples of pre-modern long-distance communication included audio messages such as coded drumbeats, lung-blown horns, and loud whistles. Zworykin, John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth, the word telecommunication is a compound of the Greek prefix tele, meaning distant, far off, or afar, and the Latin communicare, meaning to share. Its modern use is adapted from the French, because its use was recorded in 1904 by the French engineer. Communication was first used as an English word in the late 14th century, in the Middle Ages, chains of beacons were commonly used on hilltops as a means of relaying a signal. Beacon chains suffered the drawback that they could pass a single bit of information. One notable instance of their use was during the Spanish Armada, in 1792, Claude Chappe, a French engineer, built the first fixed visual telegraphy system between Lille and Paris. However semaphore suffered from the need for skilled operators and expensive towers at intervals of ten to thirty kilometres, as a result of competition from the electrical telegraph, the last commercial line was abandoned in 1880. Homing pigeons have occasionally used throughout history by different cultures. Pigeon post is thought to have Persians roots and was used by the Romans to aid their military, frontinus said that Julius Caesar used pigeons as messengers in his conquest of Gaul. The Greeks also conveyed the names of the victors at the Olympic Games to various cities using homing pigeons, in the early 19th century, the Dutch government used the system in Java and Sumatra. And in 1849, Paul Julius Reuter started a service to fly stock prices between Aachen and Brussels, a service that operated for a year until the gap in the telegraph link was closed. Sir Charles Wheatstone and Sir William Fothergill Cooke invented the telegraph in 1837. Also, the first commercial electrical telegraph is purported to have constructed by Wheatstone and Cooke. Both inventors viewed their device as an improvement to the electromagnetic telegraph not as a new device, samuel Morse independently developed a version of the electrical telegraph that he unsuccessfully demonstrated on 2 September 1837
2.
Mobile telephony
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Mobile telephony is the provision of telephone services to phones which may move around freely rather than stay fixed in one location. Mobile phones connect to a cellular network of base stations. Both networks are interconnected to the switched telephone network to allow any phone in the world to be dialed. In 2010 there were estimated to be five billion mobile cellular subscriptions in the world. S, public mobile phone systems were first introduced in the years after the Second World War and made use of technology developed before and during the conflict. The first system opened in St Louis, Missouri, USA in 1946 whilst other countries followed in the succeeding decades, the UK introduced its System 1 manual radiotelephone service as the South Lancashire Radiophone Service in 1958. Calls were made via an operator using handsets identical to ordinary phone handsets, the phone itself was a large box located in the boot of the vehicle containing valves and other early electronic components. Although an uprated manual service was extended to cover most of the UK and these cellular systems were based on US Advanced Mobile Phone Service technology, the modified technology being named Total Access Communication System. In 1947 Bell Labs was the first to propose a cellular telephone network. In 1956 the MTA system was launched in Sweden, both problems were solved by Bell Labs employee Amos Joel who, in 1970 applied for a patent for a mobile communications system. However, a consulting firm calculated the entire U. S. As a consequence, Bell Labs concluded that the invention was of little or no consequence, the invention earned Joel induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2008. The first call on a mobile phone was made on April 3,1973 by Martin Cooper. Bell Labs went on to install the first trial cellular network in Chicago in 1978. This trial system was licensed by the FCC to ATT for commercial use in 1982 and, as part of the arrangements for the breakup of ATT. The first commercial system opened in Chicago in October 1983, a system designed by Motorola also operated in the Washington D. C. /Baltimore area from summer 1982 and became a full public service later the following year. Japans first commercial service was launched by NTT in 1978. The first fully automatic first generation system was the Nordic Mobile Telephone system, simultaneously launched in 1981 in Denmark, Finland, Norway. NMT was the first mobile phone network featuring international roaming, the Swedish electrical engineer Östen Mäkitalo started to work on this vision in 1966, and is considered as the father of the NMT system and some consider him also the father of the cellular phone
3.
Bangladesh
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Bangladesh, officially the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It shares land borders with India and Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and China are located near Bangladesh but do not share a border with it. The countrys maritime territory in the Bay of Bengal is roughly equal to the size of its land area, Bangladesh is the worlds eighth most populous country. Dhaka is its capital and largest city, followed by Chittagong which has the countrys largest port, Bangladesh forms the largest and eastern part of the Bengal region. Bangladeshis include people of different ethnic groups and religions, Bengalis, who speak the official Bengali, make up 98% of the population. The politically dominant Bengali Muslims make the nation the worlds third largest Muslim-majority country, most of Bangladesh is covered by the Bengal delta, the largest delta on Earth. The country has 700 rivers and 8,046 km of inland waterways, highlands with evergreen forests are found in the northeastern and southeastern regions of the country. Bangladesh has many islands and a coral reef and it is home to the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world. The countrys biodiversity includes a vast array of plant and wildlife, including critically endangered Bengal tigers, the Greeks and Romans identified the region as Gangaridai, a powerful kingdom of the historical subcontinent, in the 3rd century BCE. Archaeological research has unearthed several ancient cities in Bangladesh, which had trade links for millennia. The Bengal Sultanate and Mughal Bengal transformed the region into a cosmopolitan Islamic imperial power between the 14th and 18th centuries, the region was home to many principalities which had inland naval prowess. It was also a center of the worldwide muslin and silk trade. As part of British India, the region was influenced by the Bengali renaissance, the Partition of British India made East Bengal a part of the Dominion of Pakistan, and was renamed as East Pakistan. The region witnessed the Bengali Language Movement in 1952 and the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, after independence, a parliamentary republic was established. A presidential government was in place between 1975 and 1990, followed by a return to parliamentary democracy, the country has also been affected by poverty, natural disasters, hunger, dominant party systems and military coups. Bangladesh is a power and a major developing nation. Listed as one of the Next Eleven, it has the 46th largest economy and it is one of the largest textile exporters in the world. Its major trading partners are the European Union, the United States, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, with its strategically vital location between Southern, Eastern and Southeast Asia, Bangladesh is an important promoter of regional connectivity and cooperation
4.
Grameenphone
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Grameenphone, widely abbreviated as GP, is the leading telecommunications service provider in Bangladesh. With more than 54.5 million subscribers and 46. 3% subscriber market share and it is a joint venture between Telenor and Grameen Telecom Corporation, a non-profit sister concern of the microfinance organisation and community development bank Grameen Bank. Telenor, the largest telecommunications company in Norway, owns a 55. 8% share of Grameenphone, Grameen Telecom owns 34. 2%, Grameenphone was the first company to introduce GSM technology in Bangladesh, and built the first cellular network to cover 99% of the country. The idea of providing mobile phone access throughout Bangladesh, including its rural areas. He was inspired by the Grameen Bank microcredit model and envisioned a business model where a cell phone can serve as a source of income. After leaving his job as an investment banker in the United States, Quadir met and successfully raised money from New York-based investor and he then returned to Bangladesh and worked for three years to gain support from organisations such as Grameen Bank and the Norwegian telephone company, Telenor. The result was a consortium with Telenor and Grameen Bank to establish the telecommunications company Grameenphone, dagens Næringsliv, on 30 October 2014, referred to Quadir as Telenors Døråpneren til Asia. Translated into English, “Iqbal Quadir was central in Telenor’s first entry into Asia 20 years ago, now Asia is by far the most important market for Telenor. ”Grameenphone received a license for cellular phone operation in Bangladesh from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications on 28 November 1996. The company started operations on 26 March 1997, Independence Day in Bangladesh, Grameenphone originally offered a mobile-to-mobile connectivity, which created a lot of enthusiasm among the users. It became the first operator to reach the million subscriber milestone as well as ten million subscriber milestone in Bangladesh, on 16 November 2006, GP formally changed its logo to match its parent company Telenors logo. Accompanys past, added the then CEO of GP, Grameenphone uses the following numbering scheme for its subscribers, +88017 XXXXXXXX Example, A Active Mobile Number is Added +8801778801040. 880 is the ISD code for Bangladesh and is needed only in case of dialling from outside Bangladesh,17, is the prefix for Grameenphone as allocated by the government of Bangladesh. The eight-digit number XXXXXXXX is the subscriber number, according to Grameenphone, it has invested more than BDT259 billion to build the network infrastructure since 1997. It invested over BDT15 billion in 2014 alone, Grameenphone has built the largest cellular network in the country with over 8,000 base stations. As of presently, over 99 percent of the population is within the coverage area of the Grameenphone network. The entire Grameenphone network is also GPRS/EDGE/3G enabled, allowing access to dial-up quality speed Internet, there are over 10 million GPRS/EDGE/3G users in the Grameenphone network. GP has 3G network at most of the urban and sub-urban area, Grameenphone was the first operator to introduce the pre-paid mobile phone service in Bangladesh in September 1999. It offers the pre-paid subscription under the name Easy Prepaid which is currently called Nishchinto, Amontron, Shohoj, Bondhu, Aapon, Smile, Spondon, Business Solution prepaid
5.
Government of Bangladesh
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The Government of Bangladesh is led by the Prime Minister, who selects all the remaining Ministers. The Prime Minister and the other most senior Ministers belong to the supreme decision-making committee, the Government has three branches, the Executive branch, the Legislative branch and the Judicial branch. The current Prime Minister is Sheikh Hasina, leader of the Bangladesh Awami League, Bangladesh Awami League led by her, and its Grand Alliance won the two-thirds majority numerically the party controls 230 seats out of 299. The President is the Head of State, a ceremonial post. The real power is held by the Prime Minister, who is the head of government and this system was first practised in 1991 and adopted to the constitution in 1996. The prime minister is appointed by the president, commanding the confidence of the majority of the MPs. The cabinet is composed of ministers selected by the prime minister, the executive administrates the country and executes the laws, passed by the legislature. It maintains the law and order in the country. It also maintains relationship with foreign countries and it works for defence, liberty and sovereignty of the country. As head of the state, the president can grant pardon to a man sentenced to death penalty or lessen the punishment, in some cases, it also performs some legislative and judicial functions. The executive on the other hand calculated the income and expenditure of the government and it also performs various public welfare services such as, education, agriculture, establishment of industry, trade & commerce, land reform, tax and revenue collection. Beside this, it accepts and implements various development projects. The legislature of Bangladesh is unicameral, the 300 members are elected by universal suffrage at least every 5 years. It consists of 350 members at present, there is universal suffrage for all citizens at the age of 18. On 16 May 2004, the Jatiyo Sangsad passed the 14th constitutional amendment to reintroduce quotas for women, the number of seats in parliament is to be raised to 345,45 of which will be reserved for women in the next parliament. The seats will be allocated to parties in proportion to their share of the vote. This quota system replaces the previous law which expired in 2001. Until 2001 a system of reserved seats for women was used and this provision of guaranteeing women reserved seats expired in April 2001
6.
Banglalink
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Banglalink, is one of the largest cellular service providers in Bangladesh. Banglalink Digital Communications Ltd. is fully owned by Telecom Ventures Ltd. of Malta, following business combination, in April 2011, between Vimpelcom Ltd. and Wind Telecom S. P. A, Vimpelcom owns 51. 92% shares of global telecom holding. Vimpelcom is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and is listed as an ads on the Nasdaq global select market under the symbol VIP, Banglalink attained 1 million subscribers by December 2005 and 3 million subscribers in October 2006. In less than two years, by December 2007, Banglalink overtook Aktel to become the second largest operator in Bangladesh with more than 7.1 million customers, as of September 2015, Banglalink had a subscriber base of 32.61 million with 24. 81% market share. It is an owned subsidiary of Telecom Ventures Ltd. of Malta which is owned by Global Telecom Holding. Banglalink had 1.03 million connections until December 2005, the number of Banglalink users increased by 257 per cent and stood at 3.64 million at the end of 2006, making it the fastest growing operator in the world of that year. In August 2006, Banglalink became the first company to provide free incoming calls from BTTB for both postpaid and prepaid connections, on 20 August 2008, Banglalink got past the landmark of a 10 million subscriber base. Sheba Telecom Ltd. was granted license in 1989 to operate in the areas of 199 upazilas. Later it obtained nationwide 15-year GSM license in November 1996 to extend its business to cellular mobile and it launched operation in the last quarter of 1997 as a Bangladesh-Malaysia joint venture. An agreement was reached with Orascom worth US$25 million was finalised in secret, the pact has been kept secret for legal reasons, considering financial fallout and because of the feud. Integrated Services Ltd. the Bangladeshi partner, was being shown as purchasing the shares held by Technology Resources Industries of Malaysia for $15 million. ISL then paid another $10 million to Standard Chartered Bank to settle Shebas liabilities, in September 2004, Orascom Telecom Holdings purchased 100% of the shares of Sheba Telecom Limited. It was acquired for US$60 million, Sheba had a base of 59,000 users, of whom 49,000 were regular when it was sold. Afterward it was re-branded and launched its services under the Banglalink brand on 10 February 2005, in March 2008, Sheba Telecom Limited changed its name as Orascom Telecom Bangladesh Limited, matching its parent company name. In July 2013, following the 2011 ownership restructuring in the parent company, Banglalink uses the following numbering scheme, +8801987434664 N1N2N3N4N5N6N7N8 Where,880 is the ISD code for Bangladesh and is needed only in case of dialling from outside Bangladesh. 19 is the code for Banglalink as allocated by the Government of Bangladesh. Omitting +880 will require using 0 in place of it instead to represent local call, Banglalink currently offers two prepaid plans. All the prepaid plans come in two phases—Standard and M2M, all connections provide GPRS to subscribers
7.
UMTS
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The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. UMTS uses wideband code division multiple access radio access technology to offer greater spectral efficiency, UMTS specifies a complete network system, which includes the radio access network, the core network and the authentication of users via SIM cards. The technology described in UMTS is sometimes referred to as Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access or 3GSM. Unlike EDGE and CDMA2000, UMTS requires new base stations and new frequency allocations, UMTS supports maximum theoretical data transfer rates of 42 Mbit/s when Evolved HSPA is implemented in the network. Users in deployed networks can expect a transfer rate of up to 384 kbit/s for Release 99 handsets, since 2006, UMTS networks in many countries have been or are in the process of being upgraded with High-Speed Downlink Packet Access, sometimes known as 3. 5G. Currently, HSDPA enables downlink transfer speeds of up to 21 Mbit/s, work is also progressing on improving the uplink transfer speed with the High-Speed Uplink Packet Access. The first national consumer UMTS networks launched in 2002 with a emphasis on telco-provided mobile applications such as mobile TV. UMTS combines three different terrestrial air interfaces, GSMs Mobile Application Part core, and the GSM family of speech codecs, the air interfaces are called UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access. All air interface options are part of ITUs IMT-2000, in the currently most popular variant for cellular mobile telephones, W-CDMA is used. Please note that the terms W-CDMA, TD-CDMA and TD-SCDMA are misleading, while they suggest covering just a channel access method, they are actually the common names for the whole air interface standards. W-CDMA or WCDMA, along with UMTS-FDD, UTRA-FDD, or IMT-2000 CDMA Direct Spread is an air interface found in 3G mobile telecommunications networks. W-CDMA uses the DS-CDMA channel access method with a pair of 5 MHz wide channels, in contrast, the competing CDMA2000 system uses one or more available 1.25 MHz channels for each direction of communication. W-CDMA systems are criticized for their large spectrum usage, which delayed deployment in countries that acted relatively slowly in allocating new frequencies specifically for 3G services. The specific frequency bands originally defined by the UMTS standard are 1885–2025 MHz for the mobile-to-base, in the US, 1710–1755 MHz and 2110–2155 MHz are used instead, as the 1900 MHz band was already used. Some carriers such as T-Mobile use band numbers to identify the UMTS frequencies, in the late 1990s, W-CDMA was developed by NTT DoCoMo as the air interface for their 3G network FOMA. Later NTT DoCoMo submitted the specification to the International Telecommunication Union as a candidate for the international 3G standard known as IMT-2000. The ITU eventually accepted W-CDMA as part of the IMT-2000 family of 3G standards, as an alternative to CDMA2000, EDGE, later, W-CDMA was selected as an air interface for UMTS. As NTT DoCoMo did not wait for the finalisation of the 3G Release 99 specification, however, this has been resolved by NTT DoCoMo updating their network
8.
LTE (telecommunication)
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In telecommunication, Long-Term Evolution is a standard for high-speed wireless communication for mobile phones and data terminals, based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA technologies. It increases the capacity and speed using a different radio interface together with core network improvements, the standard is developed by the 3GPP and is specified in its Release 8 document series, with minor enhancements described in Release 9. LTE is the path for carriers with both GSM/UMTS networks and CDMA2000 networks. The different LTE frequencies and bands used in different countries mean that only multi-band phones are able to use LTE in all countries where it is supported. LTE is commonly marketed as 4G LTE, but it does not meet the criteria of a 4G wireless service, as specified in the 3GPP Release 8 and 9 document series. The requirements were set forth by the ITU-R organization in the IMT Advanced specification. The LTE Advanced standard formally satisfies the ITU-R requirements to be considered IMT-Advanced, to differentiate LTE Advanced and WiMAX-Advanced from current 4G technologies, ITU has defined them as True 4G. LTE stands for Long Term Evolution and is a trademark owned by ETSI for the wireless data communications technology. However, other nations and companies do play an role in the LTE project. The goal of LTE was to increase the capacity and speed of data networks using new DSP techniques. A further goal was the redesign and simplification of the architecture to an IP-based system with significantly reduced transfer latency compared to the 3G architecture. The LTE wireless interface is incompatible with 2G and 3G networks, LTE was first proposed by NTT DoCoMo of Japan in 2004, and studies on the new standard officially commenced in 2005. Initially, CDMA operators planned to upgrade to rival standards called UMB and WiMAX, the evolution of LTE is LTE Advanced, which was standardized in March 2011. Services are expected to commence in 2013, additional evolution known as LTE Advanced Pro have been approved in year 2015. The LTE specification provides downlink peak rates of 300 Mbit/s, uplink peak rates of 75 Mbit/s, LTE has the ability to manage fast-moving mobiles and supports multi-cast and broadcast streams. LTE supports scalable carrier bandwidths, from 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz, the simpler architecture results in lower operating costs. In 2004, NTT DoCoMo of Japan proposes LTE as the international standard, in September 2006, Siemens Networks showed in collaboration with Nomor Research the first live emulation of an LTE network to the media and investors. As live applications two users streaming an HDTV video in the downlink and playing a game in the uplink have been demonstrated
9.
Robi
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Robi Axiata Limited, DBA Robi, is the second largest mobile network operator of Bangladesh. It is a joint venture between Axiata Group Berhad, of Malaysia, Bharti Airtel Limited, of India and NTT DoCoMo Inc. of Japan. Axiata holds 68. 7% controlling stake in the entity, Bharti holds 25% while the remaining 6. 3% is held by NTT DOCOMO of Japan. The first merger of Bangladesh’s telecom sector has come into effect with the beginning of the operation of Robi Axiata Limited as the company on November 16,2016. Following the merger of Robi and airtel, the company is now known as Robi Axiata Limited. Having successfully completed the process, Robi has emerged as the second largest mobile phone operator in Bangladesh. The merged company has nationwide network coverage, Robi first commenced operation in 1997 as Telekom Malaysia International with the brand name ‘AKTEL’. In 2010 the company was re-branded to ‘Robi’ and the changed its name to Robi Axiata Limited. As of November 2016, Robi Axiata uses two brands robi and airtel for its mobile services, ‘airtel’ is as an independent product brand of Robi Axiata. Robi Axiata has spectrum on GSM900,1800 and 2100 MHz bands, Robi Axiata Limited started as a joint venture company between Telekom Malaysia and AK Khan and Company. It was formerly known as Telekom Malaysia International Bangladesh Limited which commenced operations in Bangladesh in 1997 with the brand name AKTEL, in 2008, AK Khan and Company exited the business by selling its 30% stake to Japans NTT Docomo for US$350 million. On March 28,2010, AKTEL was rebranded as Robi which means Sun in Bengali and it also took the logo of parent company Axiata Group which itself also went through a major rebranding in 2009. In 2013, after five years of presence, Docomo reduced its ownership to 8% for Axiata to take 92%, on 28 January 2016, it was announced that Robi Axiata and Airtel Bangladesh will merge in Q12016. The combined entity will be called Robi, to serve about 40 million subscribers combined by both networks, Axiata Group will own 68. 3% share, while Bharti Group will own 25%. The remaining shares will be owned by NTT Docomo, finally Robi and Airtel were merged on November 16,2016 and Robi set sail as the merged company. Robi uses the following numbering scheme for its subscribers, +88018 N1N2N3N4N5N6N7N8 Where,18 and 16 is the access code for Robi as assigned by the Government of Bangladesh. Omitting +88 will require to use 0 in place of it instead to represent local call, after merger with airtel, besides 018, Robi owns 016 number series too. Robi offers an array of different packages, Robi has got the widest international roaming coverage among all the operators in Bangladesh
10.
GSM
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As of 2014 it has become the de facto global standard for mobile communications – with over 90% market share, operating in over 219 countries and territories. This expanded over time to include communications, first by circuit-switched transport, then by packet data transport via GPRS. Subsequently, the 3GPP developed third-generation UMTS standards followed by fourth-generation LTE Advanced standards, GSM is a trademark owned by the GSM Association. It may also refer to the most common voice codec used, the decision to develop a continental standard eventually resulted in a unified, open, standard-based network which was larger than that in the United States. In February 1987 Europe produced the very first agreed GSM Technical Specification, the MoU drew-in mobile operators from across Europe to pledge to invest in new GSM networks to an ambitious common date. In 1989, the Groupe Spécial Mobile committee was transferred from CEPT to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, in parallel, France and Germany signed a joint development agreement in 1984 and were joined by Italy and the UK in 1986. In 1986 the European Commission proposed reserving the 900 MHz spectrum band for GSM, the former Finnish prime minister Harri Holkeri made the worlds first GSM call on July 1,1991, calling Kaarina Suonio using a network built by Telenokia and Siemens and operated by Radiolinja. In the following year,1992, saw the sending of the first short messaging service message, work began in 1991 to expand the GSM standard to the 1800 MHz frequency band and the first 1800 MHz network became operational in the UK by 1993 called and DCS1800. Also that year, Telecom Australia became the first network operator to deploy a GSM network outside Europe and the first practical hand-held GSM mobile phone became available. In 1995, fax, data and SMS messaging services were launched commercially, in the same year, the GSM Association formed. Pre-paid GSM SIM cards were launched in 1996 and worldwide GSM subscribers passed 100 million in 1998, in 2000 the first commercial GPRS services were launched and the first GPRS-compatible handsets became available for sale. In 2001 the first UMTS network was launched, a 3G technology that is not part of GSM, worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded 500 million. In 2002 the first Multimedia Messaging Service were introduced and the first GSM network in the 800 MHz frequency band became operational, EDGE services first became operational in a network in 2003 and the number of worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded 1 billion in 2004. By 2005, GSM networks accounted for more than 75% of the cellular network market. In 2005 the first HSDPA-capable network also became operational, the first HSUPA network launched in 2007. Worldwide GSM subscribers exceeded three billion in 2008, GSM is a second-generation standard employing time-division multiple-Access spectrum-sharing, issued by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute. GSM, for the first time, set a standard for Europe for wireless networks. It was also adopted by many countries outside Europe and this allowed subscribers to use other GSM networks that have roaming agreements with each other
11.
General Packet Radio Service
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General Packet Radio Service is a packet oriented mobile data service on the 2G and 3G cellular communication systems global system for mobile communications. GPRS was originally standardized by European Telecommunications Standards Institute in response to the earlier CDPD and it is now maintained by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project. GPRS usage is typically charged based on volume of data transferred, contrasting with circuit switched data, sometimes billing time is broken down to every third of a minute. Usage above the cap is charged per megabyte, speed limited. In 2G systems, GPRS provides data rates of 56–114 kbit/second, 2G cellular technology combined with GPRS is sometimes described as 2. 5G, that is, a technology between the second and third generations of mobile telephony. It provides moderate-speed data transfer, by using unused time division multiple access channels in, for example, GPRS is integrated into GSM Release 97 and newer releases. The GPRS core network allows 2G, 3G and WCDMA mobile networks to transmit IP packets to external networks such as the Internet, the GPRS system is an integrated part of the GSM network switching subsystem. This is much faster using the ordinary SMS over GSM. GPRS supports the protocols, Internet Protocol. In practice, built-in mobile browsers use IPv4 since IPv6 was not yet popular, in this mode PPP is often not supported by the mobile phone operator but if the mobile is used as a modem to the connected computer, PPP is used to tunnel IP to the phone. This allows an IP address to be assigned dynamically to the mobile equipment and this is typically used for applications like wireless payment terminals, although it has been removed from the standard. When TCP/IP is used, each phone can have one or more IP addresses allocated, GPRS will store and forward the IP packets to the phone even during handover. The TCP handles any packet loss, devices supporting GPRS are divided into three classes, Class A Can be connected to GPRS service and GSM service, using both at the same time. Such devices are known to be available today, Class B Can be connected to GPRS service and GSM service, but using only one or the other at a given time. During GSM service, GPRS service is suspended, and then resumed automatically after the GSM service has concluded, most GPRS mobile devices are Class B. Class C Are connected to either GPRS service or GSM service, must be switched manually between one or the other service. A true Class A device may be required to transmit on two different frequencies at the time, and thus will need two radios. To get around this requirement, a GPRS mobile may implement the dual transfer mode feature
12.
High Speed Packet Access
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A further improved 3GPP standard, Evolved High Speed Packet Access, was released late in 2008 with subsequent worldwide adoption beginning in 2010. The newer standard allows bit-rates to reach as high as 337 Mbit/s in the downlink and 34 Mbit/s in the uplink, however, these speeds are rarely achieved in practice. The first HSPA specifications supported increased peak data rates of up to 14 Mbit/s in the downlink and 5.76 Mbit/s in the uplink. It also reduced latency and provided up to five times more capacity in the downlink. HSDPA has been introduced with 3GPP Release 5, which accompanies a improvement on the uplink providing a new bearer of 384 kbit/s. The previous maximum bearer was 128 kbit/s, as well as improving data rates, HSDPA also decreases latency and so the round trip time for applications. HSPA+ introduced in 3GPP Release 7 further increases data rates by adding 64QAM modulation, MIMO and Dual-Cell HSDPA operation, even higher speeds of up to 337.5 Mbit/s are possible with Release 11 of the 3GPP standards. The first phase of HSDPA has been specified in the 3GPP release 5, phase one introduces new basic functions and is aimed to achieve peak data rates of 14.0 Mbit/s with significantly reduced latency. The improvement in speed and latency reduces the cost per bit, further new features are the High Speed Downlink Shared Channels, the adaptive modulation QPSK and 16QAM and the High Speed Medium Access protocol in base station. The upgrade to HSDPA is often just an update for WCDMA networks. In general voice calls are prioritized over data transfer. The following table is derived from table 5. 1a of the release 11 of 3GPP TS25.306 and shows maximum data rates of different device classes and by what combination of features they are achieved. The per-cell per-stream data rate is limited by the Maximum number of bits of an HS-DSCH transport block received within an HS-DSCH TTI, so for example Cat 10 can decode 27952 bits/2 ms =13.976 MBit/s. Categories 1-4 and 11 have inter-TTI intervals of 2 or 3, Dual-Cell and MIMO 2x2 each multiply the maximum data rate by 2, because multiple independent transport blocks are transmitted over different carriers or spatial streams, respectively. The data rates given in the table are rounded to one decimal point, further UE categories were defined from 3GGP Release 7 onwards as Evolved HSPA and are listed in Evolved HSDPA UE Categories. Notes, As of 28 August 2009,250 HSDPA networks have commercially launched mobile services in 109 countries. 169 HSDPA networks support 3.6 Mbit/s peak downlink data throughput, a growing number are delivering 21 Mbit/s peak data downlink and 28 Mbit/s. CDMA2000-EVDO networks had the lead on performance, and Japanese providers were highly successful benchmarks for it
