Qualcomm touts HDR - NewsNow Story - December 01, 1999
internettelephony.com
NANCY GOHRING
SAN FRANCISCO--Qualcomm pushed its HDR solution here at the 1999 CDMA Americas Congress, but operators and vendors alike are hesitant to embrace the solution.
HDR is a CDMA high data solution that Qualcomm demonstrated just weeks ago in San Diego. The demo displayed 1.8 Mb/s data rates at full mobility.
Qualcomm has also achieved as high as 2.4 Mb/s in the lab, said Haleh Motamedi, senior project manager for Qualcomm.
At the recent demonstration, Qualcomm said it could deliver ASICS by next year and that KT Freetel in Korea has decided to implement HDR. The ASICS will be dual-mode so devices can operate on existing networks as well as the HDR overlay. "HDR is a complement to other CDMA [technologies]," Motamedi said. HDR essentially optimizes a network, through software upgrades, for high-speed packet-based data.
Because Qualcomm no longer operates an equipment manufacturing business, it must sell other vendors on the idea. That's proving to be a challenge.
Nortel Networks is lukewarm on the solution for a few reasons. HDR requires operators to dedicate a whole carrier to data, rather than sharing data and voice over the same spectrum. HDR also requires new terminals and offers another air interface--which the wireless industry doesn't need. "Those disadvantages far outweigh the advantages," said Hermon Pon, vice president of technology and chief technology officer of Nortel. "We'd rather just work on 1X and ways to improve data rates there," he said.
1X is a CDMA migration that offers high data rates--though not as high as HDR--and shares spectrum with voice. It's an accepted standard that operators intend to implement and most vendors will build to.
Nortel isn't alone in its skepticism?\operators also haven't committed to the concept. However, Qualcomm has done trials with U S West and Sprint PCS and says it is working closely with vendors. |
