The method concerns multicast service delivering through the UMTS and GSM
networks. For this aim is given higher priority to an opportune subset of
all the real-time services with guaranteed bandwidth transmissible by the
network. This subset is named IS-MBMS (Immediate Streaming-Multimedia
Broadcast Multicast Service). A certain amount of physical resources is
reserved in all the system for the IS-MBMS services; not real-time
services can be transmitted on the reserved resources when not used by
the IS-MBMS ones. The reserved resources allow for transmitting the
IS-MBMS services with minimum bit-rate, at least. The network announces
in the service area that an IS-MBMS content becomes available; in reply
one or more subscribed users transmit a request for joining a multicast
group for that service. The network transmits a notification message on a
multicast channel to give to the joined users useful information of how
get the announced service, i.e.: Service-Id, RB parameters, etc. The
IS-MBMS content is transmitted immediately on a point-to-multipoint
channel set-up in each involved cells, even if there are zero recipients
in the cell. Content is transmitted in parallel in different cells,
leading to service continuity, and the mobile station can perform soft
combining. During the IS-MBMS content delivery the network can count in
each involved cell the number of subscribed users joined to the
transmitted IS-MBMS service. The network switches from
point-to-multipoint to point-to-point or to no transmission depending on
the result of counting and on a fixed threshold. Alternatively the
network, parallel to the content delivery, can execute a checking
procedure to see if there are joined users in a cell: in this case the
point-to-multipoint channel is switched to no transmission (FIG. 3).