Value can be created through the intelligent combination of network technologies   

The UMTS standard provides a good example of the benefits of this standardization philosophy, as it led to a large share of both the circuit and the packet switched domains of the core network being adapted from the GSM standard or its advanced level GPRS/EDGE and applied for use with the new standard through the upgrade of their software. These network nodes are obviously very effective at networking, as proved by their ability to take on tasks beyond the boundaries of the originally defined  network regime.

A further example of the inherent flexibility of the standard is the fact that from the very beginning onwards no single exclusive  technological standard has been defined at the transport network level. The carefully defined encapsulation of the transport and network levels, with clearly implemented service interconnection points, makes it possible in principle to organize all the communications traffic in a UMTS network using either the circuit-oriented ATM technology or the non-switched IP technology. In practice only the ATM-based transport networks were used to start with, as only this more mature technology was available on the market at the time and was able to use algorithms for prioritization and buffering to provide differential treatment of the various traffic classes defined in the UMTS standard during their transportation within the network.

The incredible potential of the IP technology seen in the enterprise networking market, particularly its commercial potential, was already recognized at that time. Experience with the application of different traffic classes in networks of a similar caliber to national mobile networks was however still too rudimentary to be able to guarantee stable operations in that environment. In the meantime this has changed fundamentally. With the introduction of the HSPA technology representing a further evolutionary step, the 3GPP has proved that its concept to date has been correct. It wasn’t just the provision of data rates of up to 14.4 Mbit/s to the user and 5.8 Mbit/s to the network which made this mobile broadband technology into real competition for the technological solutions common in the fixed networks, but the application of the IP technology at the transport level. This forced the majority of network operators to significantly increase their capacity in order to cope with the expected ­increase in data traffic. Here existing or easy to set up IP-based transport infrastructure was used, which had the additional charm of being the most economic solution.