UMTS Down Converter Also Fastest for 3G

MUNICH, October 2, 2001 - Acterna (NASDAQ: ACTR) today announced the release of the Acterna UMTS Down Converter, the industry's first product designed specifically to measure radio frequency (RF) propagation in the UMTS frequency range. Based on the field-tested and proven Acterna platforms, the Acterna UMTS Down Converter is also the fastest RF propagation measurement tool on the market designed specifically for 3G environments.

UMTS, or the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, is the 3G wireless technology standard being implemented by European carriers. UMTS provides service in the 2GHz band and will offer global roaming and personalized features. It also is expected to provide greater capacity, faster data speeds and enhanced versions of the services already available on most handsets. Telecommunications companies have paid approximately $100 billion for UMTS licenses in several European countries, and the UMTS Forum (London) predicts UMTS deployments to begin in 2002.

RF propagation measurement allows network operators to build network efficiencies in frequency bands such as the high-range UMTS band. The higher frequency range licensed for UMTS has a different behavior than the current GSM band. Understanding this behavior is necessary to align RF prediction models so that the number of base stations needed is reduced at the time of deployment. This analysis capability also enables reduced interference problems without simultaneously creating coverage "holes." Other benefits are increased capacity, reduced churn and increased the network operator's quality of service (QoS) at the time of deployment.

"As European GSM carriers migrate to UMTS, they must be prepared for the challenges associated with deploying this higher frequency band," said Cyrille Damany, general manager and vice president for Acterna's Wireless Networks Division. "The Acterna UMTS Down Converter brings to the market an affordable UMTS test solution for network operators to test in RF frequencies and confront head-on the capacity challenges associated with 3G."

The Acterna UMTS Down Converter is based on an Acterna drive-test platform that combines excellent sampling performance with high accuracy in a lightweight, portable, battery-powered instrument. It is designed to allow the accurate, fast and reliable measurement of multiple technologies and networks simultaneously in a single test run. These measurements often are performed on multiple channels in a mobile environment. The conflict between vehicle speed and the required sampling interval necessary to ensure the accuracy of measurements leads to a requirement for very high sampling rates from measuring instruments. The Acterna UMTS Down Converter rises to this challenge by providing a high sampling rate of up to 100,000 samples/second and fast scanning rate of up to 1000 channels/second. This higher sampling rate allows measurement of multiple channels on different technologies and networks simultaneously at realistic vehicular speeds - up to 100 km/h or 60 mph.