The growing commercialization of Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), also known as Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), has been the topic of an annual white paper by 3G Americas since 2003, when the focus was 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Rel-99. With the rapid progress of the evolutionary 3GPP roadmap for UMTS to HSPA, from Rel-5 (2004 white paper), to Rel-6 (2005 white paper), to Rel-7 (2006 white paper), and the commercial deployment of 200 UMTS/WCDMA networks worldwide serving more than 158 million customers as of as of December 6, 2007, the tradition continues with considerable information to update on Rel-7 and a new focus on Rel-8 in this current white paper, UMTS Evolution from Release 7 to Release 8 – HSPA and SAE/LTE. Some sections of this paper were updated in December 2007.