Samsung outlines cdma2000 1X mission
By Anne Young, Total Telecom, in Singapore
20 June 2002
Korean vendor thinks WCDMA is 'doubtful' in Korea; plans to target GSM
operators with next-generation CDMA.
Samsung executives were in ebullient mood at the CommunicAsia press
conference Wednesday, although whether this was to do with Korea's victory over
Italy in the World Cup or the vendor's confidence in its future 3G growth strategy
was unclear.
After encouraging journalists to engage in Korean football chants, Hyung-Kwon
Song, vice president, overseas business management group, wireless systems,
telecommunication network, got down to business by outlining Samsung's mission
to encourage GSM operators to adopt cdma2000 1X overlays instead of building
whole new networks based on wideband CDMA (WCDMA).
And it became clear that the vendor, which was the first company to commercialize
the cdma2000 1X platform, sees little future for WCDMA in Korea.
Indeed, Young-Man Ji, vice president, marketing strategy team, mobile
communication division, telecommunication network business, said he was
"doubtful of WCDMA in Korea."
This may seem an odd statement to make given that South Korea has issued two
licenses to operators for WCDMA networks. But the WCDMA license holders,
Korea Telecom Freetel (KTF) and SK Telecom (SKT), have in the meantime
deployed next-generation cdma2000 1X EV-DO, which provides peak data rates of
up to 2.4 megabits per second.
How the Korean mobile operators will proceed with WCDMA is not clear, but
Samsung is obviously convinced that they are in no great hurry to build expensive
networks when they can already offer fast data rates to users simply by upgrading
their existing CDMA networks.
It's also clear that Samsung thinks there is an opportunity to persuade GSM
operators not to go down the GSM/GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA route, but instead to
install a cdma2000 1X EV-DO overlay that allows them to keep bits of their existing
networks, such as the HLR (home location register) and the billing systems.
At the U.S. CTIA event in March this year Qualcomm, Samsung and a number of
other vendors unveiled the GSM1X system – a combination of cdma2000 1X radio
access and GSM core network equipment, combined with cdma2000
R-UIM-enabled handsets. R-UIM is similar to the SIM card in a GSM phone and
allows roaming between CDMA networks.
"There is room to move into GSM markets," said Song. "There is a market
opportunity."
He added that one potential customer for the technology could be SingTel, which
recently delayed awarding the contract to build its WCDMA-based 3G network.
"The market will decide what happens with 3G," said Song.
In the meantime Samsung is still keeping a large finger in the GSM and WCDMA
pie – and indeed is one of the companies bidding for the Korean WCDMA network
contracts. The company is also strong in the area of GSM handsets, and exhibited
a series of new GPRS handsets at the CommunicAsia exhibition that are set to
come onto the market later this year.
The handsets include what Samsung claims to be the world's first GPRS
video-on-demand phone, the SGH-V100, plus three other GPRS handsets – the
SGH-S200, SGH-S100 and SGH-Q300.
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