Welcome to the third issue of the Basestation Conference E-Newsletter – and a belated Happy New Year to you (although we well timed to wish our Chinese readers success in this new year of the Rooster!)

With spring on its way, our thoughts turn to the upcoming Basestation Conference 2005 (April 26 th – 29 th , Bath Spa Hotel, Bath UK ). Following the success of last years conference, the somewhat provocatively titled “The Commodity Basestation: When, How and Who Wins?” last year, we have expanded the conference to a total of 4 days to address the key issues in the industry.

The first day of the conference focuses on the proliferation of emerging “megabit mobile” wireless technologies – HSPDA, WiMAX, UMTS-TDD, TD-SCDMA and OFDM. Our analyst speakers from Credit Suisse First Boston and Sound Partners will bring an independent business assessment of the different technologies. Our speakers from many leading companies including Siemens, Lucent, Intel, Datang, IPWireless and Flarion will analyse the business case benefits of the different technologies and explore how these systems complement or compete with each other.

The second day focuses on deployment challenges, particularly for data coverage in-building, a critical issue for any claims of “megabit mobile” performance – some commentators have even talked about it as a crisis for 3G. Speakers from technology merchant bank Interregnum, leading cell planning specialist CDS and one of Europe 's largest cell-site constructors, Galliford-Try will bring their perspectives to the business issues impacting deployment of high-speed services. Later in the day speakers from Powerwave, Andrew , PA Consulting, ip.access, Opencell and picoChip will explore the emerging solutions for data coverage.

The final two days of the conference are focussed on the business and technology issues driving basestation evolution. Analysts Arete Research will provide a detailed perspective of the pricing issues in the basestation market and how the industry is restructuring to meet these challenges. The business benefits and challenges of outsourcing are explored by specialist manufacturer Elcoteq and leading software outsource companies. Leaders of the OBSAI and CPRI architecture initiatives provide insights as to how these standards are being used and the next steps in standardisation. Senior staff from leading technology companies including TI, Intel, Xilinx, Altera, Freescale, ADI, Agere and Wintegra give their insights on technology evolution driving all-IP backhaul and Software Defined Radio.