The continuing explosive growth in mobile communication is demanding more spectrally
efficient radio access technologies than the prevalent second generation (2G) systems such as
GSM to handle just the voice traffic. We are already witnessing high levels of mobile
penetration exceeding 70% in some countries. It is anticipated that by 2010 more than half of
all communications will be carried out by mobile cellular networks. On the other hand, the
information revolution and changing life habits are bringing the requirement of commu-
nicating on a multimedia level to the mobile environment. But the data handling capabilities
and flexibility of the 2G cellular systems are limited.
