Welcome to this latest issue of the Basestation Newsletter, providing a last roundup of issues impacting the wireless basestation community before the summer recess!

This year’s Basestation Conference (April 26th-29th) received widespread approval from the growing number of delegates. For those of you who were not able to attend, a recent article by Mike Roberts of 3G Mobile summarizes well the key issues addressed by the conference. Dates for the Basestation Conference 2006 are 9th – 11th May, Bath, UK.

Looking back at this year’s conference the most significant feature, for me, is the rapidly growing complexity of the market in which we find ourselves. WiMAX is now taken very seriously by most basestation players – whilst acknowledging the position of this technology on the hype curve and how much there is still to do in standardisation and product development to realise the promises. The 3G in-building coverage issue is now combining with Fixed Mobile Convergence to create a major opportunities where WiFi can be both complement and competitor. And the 3G development accelerator is being squeezed to get HSDPA/HSUPA into the hands of operators screaming for them.

Our challenge is to stay on top of this deluge of change and to pick out the key issues reshaping the industry through the conference and this newsletter. In this issue Matt Lewis of ARCchart provides an analyst’s perspective of this emerging complexity he christens the “Wireless Cocktail”. We received a wealth of high-quality material this month, including our first contribution from a major operator, Telecom Italia Mobile, covering some new approaches to ensuring high-quality in a deployed network. The Basestation Newsletter is increasingly recognized as providing a focused channel to the wireless basestation community around the globe. Enjoy!

With the development of radiomobile technologies from 2G (GSM) systems to 3G (UMTS) systems and VAS services based on localization, the need has also arisen to add an ever-increasing number of radio stations, with limited and controlled radioelectric coverage, to the network. more>>  

There is a huge pent up demand among 2 billion subscribers for high-speed data services. Operators are also scrambling to offer data services to improve ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) and hence profitability. more>>  

Traditionally, test equipment has been selected on the basis of test coverage versus price. However, today, operators additionally need to consider field technician productivity and skill level. more>>