LTE, UICC and the Future of Mobile Communications
Jean-Louis Carrara, vice president of business development for telecommunications, Gemalto North America
Mobile broadband. The idea that we should be able to connect to the Internet – to work, play and communicate – anytime, anywhere is growing more important to consumers. IT research firm Ovum estimates that by 2014, the number of mobile broadband subscribers will grow by 1000%, and that there will be more than 2 billion mobile broadband users generating annual revenues of $137 billion globally.
Yes, people still need to make voice calls, but clearly mobile data is what consumers want most. Operators need to evolve to offer the newest and most innovative mobile data services and applications and while reducing their costs. And, they must do this while giving subscribers the most secure and seamless experience possible.
Recognizing this demand, most major mobile operators in the United States and many worldwide have announced plans to begin migrating to an all-IP wireless network eventually capable of supporting voice, video and data services – a network called Long Term Evolution (LTE). LTE represents an exciting new era of connectivity for consumers and new opportunities for mobile operators and handset manufacturers. LTE takes advantage of the scalability of the Internet architectures and combines it with the security of the GSM family of networks based on smart cards.
In this article we will outline LTE and its benefits, how
a piece of secure technology called a Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC)
will be critical to realizing these benefits, and what it all means for the
United States mobile communications industry, as well as globally.
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The UICC is the smart card used in mobile terminals for GSM and UMTS/3G
networks. 