<AT&T Wireless executives not only proclaimed Edge to be as strong a technology as
W-CDMA and CDMA2000,
the two main contenders to the title of third-generation mobile technology: They also
discounted as "hype" the data
speeds touted by proponents of these two technologies and another competing
technique known as high data rate
(HDR) technology. They proclaimed Edge to provide a better business case in the
United States, where spectrum
for new data services is scarce. And they showed ways to speed up Edge to 1Mbps
and to build on Edge to create
the fourth generation of mobile technology.>
GMT Sep 12, 2000, 11:35 PM | ET Sep 12, 2000, 06:35 PM | PT Sep 12, 2000, 03:35 PM
New York - In the never-ending battle of global mobile standards, AT&T Wireless is ever more staunchly defending
its evolutionary path toward the wireless Internet against critics and rivals. Tuesday, the company laid out a
roadmap that is firmly rooted in a technology known as Edge, which stands for enhanced data for GSM evolution.
Edge has been considered by some to be only a half-step toward the next generation of mobile services, known as
the third generation (3G).
AT&T Wireless executives not only proclaimed Edge to be as strong a technology as W-CDMA and CDMA2000,
the two main contenders to the title of third-generation mobile technology: They also discounted as "hype" the data
speeds touted by proponents of these two technologies and another competing technique known as high data rate
(HDR) technology. They proclaimed Edge to provide a better business case in the United States, where spectrum
for new data services is scarce. And they showed ways to speed up Edge to 1Mbps and to build on Edge to create
the fourth generation of mobile technology.
The statements came during a technology road tour by AT&T Wireless and Ericsson, its supplier. AT&T Wireless
has been laboring to improve its image at least since the tepid reception of its initial public offering in April. The
share price for the tracking stock is currently hovering at about 25, down from an all-time high of 36. The company
is even said to be considering a bid for Nextel, in part to generate new excitement among investors.
Also, AT&T Wireless management is still smarting from the Wall Street Journal article written in May by
technology pundit George Gilder, who declared AT&T Wireless "the epitome of an antitechnology high-tech
company whose leaders want to tell the technology what to do" rather than "listening to the technology." In that
article, Gilder took AT&T Wireless to task for "doggedly opposing a US innovation called Code Division Multiple
Access, which could restore America to wireless leadership in the Internet age."
On Tuesday, Michael Bamburak, vice president of technology architecture and standards for AT&T Wireless,
continued his company's assault on CDMA – in particular, on the 3G versions of it. Proponents of these
technologies are only engaging in hype when they tout peak data rates of 2Mbps, Bamburak said. Those kinds of
rates can only be achieved a very short range from a cellular base station – and then only if one person is using all
of the shared capacity in the entire cell site and if that person is standing still, he implied.
Bamburak contended there is no performance difference between Edge and the CDMA-based technologies, adding
that each technology will deliver customers data at speeds ranging from 28.8Kbps to 128Kbps, depending on their
location within a cell site and other conditions. That would compare with current-generation wireless data rates of
somewhere around 10Kbps, depending on the technology.
What's more, Edge is the best choice for the United States, where spectrum is scarce, because it can be provided
in as little as 2x1MHz of existing spectrum, versus 2x15MHz of new spectrum for W-CDMA and CDMA2000, AT&T
execs said. Its business case is further strengthened by its nearer-term market-readiness, they said, and by its
global acceptance by GSM carriers, which dominate the market outside the United States and therefore create a
higher-volume, lower-cost supply of everything from chips to handsets.
"The whole thing is to get to convergence on a global platform," Bamburak said. Both the US time-division multiple
access (TDMA) and European global system for mobile communication (GSM) are based on TDMA technology.
And, Bamburak said, Edge technology is compatible with W-CDMA, the 3G version developed by GSM engineers.
AT&T Wireless would even favor W-CDMA if more spectrum becomes available in the United States, but
executives expressed significant doubts that the government's current efforts to free up more spectrum would
produce sufficient frequencies anytime soon.
AT&T Wireless is not the only US mobile operator deploying Edge. Others include BellSouth and Southwestern
Bell, said John Giere, Ericsson vice president of strategic marketing.
AT&T Wireless intends to launch services based on Edge technology in mid- to late 2001. To do so, the company
must install a 200KHz radio based on general packet radio service (GPRS) at every cellular base station.
Bamburak could not be specific on the timing for nationwide coverage, saying only that it would take less than
three years.
AT&T Labs is already working to improve the performance of Edge, which produces lower data rates the farther a
user goes from a base station. A new technique using two antennas to superimpose two copies of the same signal
delivered to a single device – at which it all gets sorted out by digital signal processors – could help Edge achieve
a peak rate of 480Kbps throughout a cell site, with less frequency-consuming coding, said AT&T Labs researcher
Rob Calderbank. This enhancement is expected to reach a vote in the European Telecommunications Standards
Institute by the end of the year, he said, and could be commercialized in 2002. From there, researchers are
already building to achieve 1Mbps with Edge technology, he said.
At Tuesday's event, AT&T Wireless officials also hinted that they could launch location-based wireless services by
the end of the year. They discussed deploying 'smart antenna' technology to improve their use of existing
spectrum. They said they'd eventually move voice traffic onto the Edge interface, as mobile communications moves
from circuit-based network to one based on the Internet protocol.
AT&T Wireless officials even plotted the evolution to 4G, which they called a pre-standards research initiative with
commercial services operating at up to 10Mbps in a few years. They'll get to it via Edge technology, they said. |
