International
Mobile
Telecommunications-Advanced
(IMT-Advanced) systems are mobile systems that include the new
capabilities of IMT that go beyond those of IMT-2000. Such
systems provide access to a wide range of telecommunication
services including advanced mobile services, supported by mobile
and fixed networks, which are increasingly packet-based.
IMT-Advanced systems support low to high mobility applications
and a wide range of data rates in accordance with user and
service demands in multiple user environments. IMT Advanced also
has capabilities for high quality multimedia applications within
a wide range of services and platforms, providing a significant
improvement in performance and quality of service.
For the last 20 years, ITU has been coordinating efforts of
government and industry and private sector in the development of
a global broadband multimedia international mobile
telecommunication system, known as IMT. Since 2000, the world
has seen the introduction of the first family of standards
derived from the IMT concept. ITU estimates that worldwide
mobile cellular subscribers are likely to reach the
4 billion
mark before the end of this year of which IMT systems technology
will constitute a substantial part considering that already in
May 2007, there were more than 1 billion IMT-2000 subscribers in
the world!
During the
ITU World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-07) in Geneva last November,
additional globally harmonized spectrum was identified for use by IMT, which
represents an important step in the worldwide development of IMT systems,
allowing for increased capacity and coverage requirements.
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