Do not seek for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for GSM/WCDMA!
Toast, baby, toast! The Euros crack next!
Caxton
US mobile groups edge towards 3G networks
By Richard Waters in Las Vegas
Published: March 19 2001 20:39GMT | Last Updated: March 19 2001 21:13GMT
US mobile communications companies are edging towards
building high-speed third generation wireless networks, under
plans being unveiled this week.
Two of the biggest national carriers - Verizon Wireless and
Sprint PCS - will start adding elements of 3G technology to their
networks this year, according to announcements made to
coincide with the US mobile industry's main annual gathering,
which begins on Tuesday in Las Vegas.
But Cingular Wireless has put off an expected announcement of its own plans for 3G amid
signs that SBC Communications and BellSouth, its owners, have yet to agree on the
technology.
The cautious moves and continuing disagreement over wireless technology standards
highlight the problems US companies have had in matching the rapid growth seen by the
wireless industry in large parts of Europe and Asia. American companies claim that their
tentative approach to high-speed wireless data shows that they will avoid the high costs
and uncertainty that now surrounds 3G.
Cingular had been expected to adopt the same GSM technology used in most other parts of
the world before moving to wideband-CDMA, the 3G standard to be used in Europe and
parts of Asia.
Such a move would echo plans already outlined by AT&T Wireless and move the US
industry closer to the rest of the world in terms of technology. However, with a mixture of
technologies in its existing networks and signs in Europe and Asia that wideband-CDMA
may prove more expensive and take longer to develop than thought, Cingular's owners have
yet to agree on which technology to adopt, according to one person familiar with the
discussions
In its own first step towards 3G, Verizon yesterday unveiled a $5bn, three-year contract to
buy equipment from Lucent Technologies. Verizon's decision to use so-called CDMA2000
technology marks the first big 3G win for Lucent, the troubled US telecoms equipment maker
which missed out on most of last year's big European high-speed mobile contracts.
Lucent's specialisation in CDMA technology, used by two of the six national wireless
carriers in the US and several big Asian companies, left it badly placed to compete in Europe
where GSM is the norm. www.ft.com/telecoms
news.ft.com. |
