UMTS : Universal Mobile Telecommunications System is one of the third-generation (3G) mobile telecommunications technologies, which is also being developed into a 4G technology. The first deployment of the UMTS is the release99 (R99) architecture. It is specified by 3GPP and is part of the global ITU IMT-2000 standard. The most common form of UMTS uses W-CDMA (IMT Direct Spread) as the underlying air interface but the system also covers TD-CDMA and TD-SCDMA (both IMT CDMA TDD). Being a complete network system, UMTS also covers the radio access network (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network; UTRAN), the core network (Mobile Application Part; MAP) as well as authentication of users via USIM Cards (Subscriber Identity Module).
Unlike EDGE (IMT Single-Carrier, based on GSM) and CDMA2000 (IMT Multi-Carrier), UMTS requires new cell towers and new frequency allocations. However, it is closely related to GSM/EDGE as it borrows and builds upon concepts from GSM. Further, most UMTS handsets also support GSM, allowing seamless dual-mode operation. Therefore, UMTS is sometimes marketed as 3GSM, emphasizing the close relationship with GSM and differentiating it from competing technologies.
