DaveMG: As of now, not clear whether WCDMA will be practical within the current cellular or PCS spectrum in the US or even overlays to GSM or TDMA in the US. Perhaps Clark or engineer or one of the other experts on all this will comment.
As you know well, since you have had the intestinal fortitude to try to get Tero to answer direct questions, Europe does indeed intend to allocate new spectrum for 3rd gen CDMA - presumably the WCDMA flavor. This is not a virtue necessarily but a necessity. No other room at the inn. Also the US has in fact done nothing as gdog says. There is a hint of politics in that, but of course that couldn't possibly be true.
Eventually the FCC may initiate some action, but in international forums (fora?) the US has been less than forthcoming on agreeing to new worldwide sprectrum (including the US) for 3rd gen use. Why? Not clear. Perhaps just bureaucratic inertia, but there have been a few suggestions that perhaps CDMA has some influence in the administration and/or other US relevant agencies and that keeping current frequency allocations may help CDMA. What lies behind all these moves, or nonmoves, is very difficult to find out.
Perhaps all that is really going on is that it is first things first, i.e. settle on the specs for the 3 flavors of CDMA 3rd gen, then deal with the spectrum requirements based upon the real requirements the specs call for. But given all the fun and games during the "holy wars", this may be a carry over - or maybe not? :-) Anyone with a crystal ball, or even better, some factual info, please comment. Chaz
PS The above is my limited understanding based on limited info. |
