Harald -
Some operators have told us that they expect to continue GSM/EDGE service for another
10-15 years, especially in rural areas. At Range, we borrow a line from King James Bible,
"GSM will be with us always, even unto the ends of the Earth."
UMTS is designed to deliver high data rates over fairly short distances and has poor
power-efficiency characteristics for both the Node B and the UE. LTE is a step further in
that direction. As long as that trend continues, which it will because that's where
the money is, 2.xG systems will have no cost-effective replacements in areas with low
subscriber density.
-- David
On Dec 13, 2011, at 6:19 AM, Harald Welte wrote:
Another note: I've recently seen some operator predictions for Germany,
and they assume something like GSM being in operation until 2020 -
definitely significantly longer than the life time of their existing GSM
licenses (expiring in 2016). This tells us a lot about the
installed/deployed user base, as well as the limited 3/3.5/4G coverage..