I found it on the online WSJ... can't link unless you have an account... here's the info.
STOCKHOLM -- The European Telecommunications Standards Institute,
ETSI, Thursday approved a compromise proposal for the new standard for
mobile telephone communications, an Ericsson official told Dow Jones
Newswires over the telephone from Paris.
The adopted proposal is a modification of the W-CDMA solution backed
and developed by telecommunication equipment suppliers LM Ericsson AB
of Sweden and Nokia Oy of Finland together with Japan's largest cellular
operator NTT DoCoMo.
In a preliminary vote late Wednesday, the W-CDMA (wideband Code
Division Multiple Access) technology got 61% of the votes, but this was
short of the 71% needed for final approval.
'The adopted proposal is basically the W-CDMA proposal to which will
added some features from the rival proposal concerning indoor coverage for
instance,' said Aake Persson, marketing manager for Ericsson Mobile
Systems.
He stressed that the adopted solution is a compromise and that 'there are no
losers we are all winners.'
The rival proposal, promoted primarily by France's Alcatel (ALA),
Germany's Siemens (G.SIE) and Canada's Nortel, is a TDMA/CDMA
solution (Time Division Multiple Access).
ETSI comprises Europe's telecommunications operators and global
equipment suppliers, and has been sanctioned by European authorities to set
the standard for the third generation of mobile systems.
The third generation of mobile systems will complement the existing Global
System for Mobile Communications (GSM) digital networks in Europe, and
mainly facilitate internet traffic and multimedia transfer. |
