With the very advanced mobile broadband technology LTE looming on the horizon, future handset technologies encompassing exceptionally fast processors, large memory banks and durable batteries will continue to develop at a frenetic pace. DOUG CHAMBERS elaborates about the exciting multimedia future…

Today, millions of people across the world spend their working days in front of a computer using online services that enable them to get their jobs done much more efficiently than was possible just 15 years ago. But this is the exception, rather than the rule - about five billion people don't have regular access to a computer and can't afford to buy one. By contrast, more than 3 billion people - almost half the world's population - have a mobile phone. Many of these people will experience their first interactive, multimedia services on a mobile device, not a conventional computer. Although the primary functions of a mobile phone have long been voice calls and text messaging, there are now many models available that are squarely focused on providing access to multimedia services.

In the past few years, there have been major improvements in four key aspects of handset technology - connection speeds, screen quality, processing power and the user interface. Today, there are more than 140 mobile networks in 100 countries capable of delivering content to users at broadband speeds of between 1 megabit per second and 7.2 megabits per second (using a 3G technology called HSPA). These speeds are comparable to those offered by fixed broadband lines and are quick enough to make downloading videos and other multimedia content fast and easy.

To take advantage of these speeds, a user needs a device with an HSPA radio and manufacturers have moved quickly to meet that demand. Worldwide, there are now more than 450 different HSPA devices available from almost 100 suppliers. Of these devices, 200 are mobile handsets and this alreadybroad selection is growing steadily as more mobile broadband networks are launched and demand increases. Although HSPA is still a new technology, in Europe, HSPA handsets are now available for less than 200 euros (without a service contract) at retail and that price will fall further as manufacturers gain economies of scale.

Leading technology and chipset providers have announced solutions that will enable manufacturers to rollout HSPA handsets costing less than 85 euros at wholesale within the next 12 to 18 months. We see 2008 as the year in which HSPA really gathers global momentum.

There were more than 22 million people worldwide with an HSPA device at the end of 2007 and that number is set to rise to 67 million by the end of this year, according to Wireless Intelligence, the GSMA's industry tracking database. While most HSPA users today are in Europe, the U.S., Korea, and other developed markets, this advanced technology is also making inroads into developing markets.

In Indonesia, more than 300,000 people are using HSPA devices while there are 200,000 HSPA connections in South Africa and a further 115,000 in Chile. In developing countries, fixed-lines are few and far between and Wi-Fi hotspots are rare. In these markets, HSPA is going to be the primary way for most people to obtain a broadband connection to the Internet and we see a large market developing in Asia, Africa and Latin America for low-cost HSPAenabled handsets.

Here at the GSMA, we are running the 'Horizon Phone' programme to encourage handset makers to develop HSPA handsets capable of working in three frequency bands (850Mhz/1900Mhz/2100Mhz), so that travelers will be able to access broadband multimedia services wherever HSPA networks are available. As part of that programme, a panel comprising nine mobile operators has selected two mobile phones developed by LG Electronics as the winning products to spearhead the Horizon Phone initiative. As well as making it easier for HSPA users to roam, we believe this initiative will help operators to establish 850 MHz as an integral 3G frequency band, which will lead to greater economies of scale, more cost- effective communications and a greater choice of products for users. Of course, adding an HSPA radio to a mobile phone isn't sufficient to turn that handset into a multimedia computer.

Downloading multimedia content at broadband speeds isn't much use if the phone can't process the incoming data fast enough. Just like a personal computer, a multimedia handset needs a powerful chip capable of rendering incoming video or graphics on its screen. This is an area, handset makers and their semiconductor suppliers are paying a lot of attention to. The very latest phones have processors running at more than 600Mhz - significantly faster than the Intel Pentium II chips that were the brains of personal computers in the late 1990s. Similarly, the quality of the processor needs to be matched by the quality of the display, so that the user can view the content clearly and easily.

Mindful of this issue, handset makers are steadily improving the screens on their models. Some of the latest phones have three-inch, high-resolution displays capable of showing more than 260,000 colors - good enough to show television-quality video clips and even detailed Web pages clearly. The latest handsets also come with large memory banks or memory card slots, enabling even large multimedia files to be stored on the handset and accessed at will.

The final piece of the jigsaw is making these sophisticated and potentially complex handsets easy to use. A user-interface designed originally for voice calls and text messages isn't necessarily going to be the right approach to providing easy access to a wide range of multimedia services, such as mobile television, music downloads, Internet access or video games. Again, a lot of innovation is taking place in this area. A growing number of high-end handsets have touch-sensitive screens that enable the user to simply tap the application they want to open, while others have full QWERTY keyboards that make it easier to type in Web addresses, usernames and passwords.

Some new handsets also have context-sensitive virtual keys that activate different tasks depending on which application is being used at the time. So, what comes next? The big challenge for handset makers will be to keep pace with the capabilities of the mobile networks. Worldwide, there are now almost 30 HSPA networks providing users with download speeds of up to 7.2 megabits per second. Upload speeds are also rising - 31 HSPA networks worldwide now enable users to upload content at speeds of more than 1 megabit per second. A fast upload connection means a user can quickly send large files, as well as receive them.

Moreover, future advances in HSPA technology will lead to further dramatic improvements in the speed and capacity of mobile networks. HSPA Evolved (also known as HSPA+) is the next step and will enable download speeds of up to 42 megabits per second and upload speeds of up to 11 megabits per second. The first HSPA Evolved services will be available in late 2008 or early 2009. These connection speeds will enable users to easily swap high-resolution photographs and video clips and we envisage that the cameras built into handsets will continue to improve rapidly.

HSPA networks also have significantly lower latency than conventional mobile networks, meaning they can respond rapidly to each new request from a user. That will make it easier to use the mobile networks for a wide range of real-time services from collaborative working to database queries to online gaming. Again, handsets will need to develop further still, so they can rapidly process three-dimensional graphics and other large multimedia files. Looking out four years from now, we envisage mobile operators will be deploying a very advanced mobile broadband technology, known today as Long Term Evolution or LTE.

With sufficient spectrum, these networks will be able to provide very high-speed services to large numbers of people simultaneously. It is envisaged that LTE networks will offer mobile users download speeds up to an extraordinary 100 megabits per second. Downloading content at that kind of speed is going to require handsets with exceptionally fast processors, large memory banks and durable batteries. With LTE looming on the horizon, we expect handset technology to continue to develop at a frenetic pace. That should make for a very exciting future for this industry and its billions of customers.