24th April - Huawei Technologies and Qualcomm announced the completion of Europe's first MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service) field trial, carried out in conjunction with Telecom Italia. This trial represents a significant milestone in the development of the solution.

MBMS technology is based on 3GPP standards and supports multicast and broadcast innovative services, allowing speeds of up to 256kbps on a mobile device. The trial, which was conducted by means of Huawei MBMS solution together with the handsets powered by Qualcomm's MSM7201A chipset, demonstrated MBMS service deliveries of between 128kbps and 256 kbps under various indoor and outdoor MBMS channel conditions.

Test results also indicated that MBMS technologies, in some conditions, enable greater service reception and capacity than expected, thus enhancing MBMS' potential within the commercial network environment.

By utilizing existing UMTS/HSPA networks and frequencies, MBMS technology is a promising technology to provide more value-added and innovative mobile multimedia multicast/broadcast and interactive services to end-users.

This jointly technical trial was a crucial part in understanding the MBMS technical features and potentials which enable new multimedia multicast and broadcast services by utilizing existing UMTS/HSPA networks and frequencies.

Steve Mollenkopf, senior vice president of product management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, said "This milestone of MBMS technology is a very important step in bringing the benefits of mobile TV to wireless users with network operators being able to leveraging their existing infrastructure. We are happy to be working with Huawei and Telecom Italia on bringing MBMS to market, and look forward to further accomplishments with this technology."

Yu Chengdong, President of Huawei's Wireless Product Line, said, "MBMS not only can provide mobile TV service but it can also carry other mobile data broadcasting services, such as mobile advertising and newspapers. It supports a number of value-added mobile services and applications, significantly increasing profitability for 3G operators. MBMS technology is set to become one of the most competitive multicast and broadcast technologies. Huawei plans to continually innovate to ensure that future products and solutions are of the highest possible standard."