ERICSSON MAKES CDMA INFRASTRUCTURE STRIDES; BUT
HANDSETS ON HOLD
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 01, 1999 11:47 PM
- Phillips Business Information
Dec. 01, 1999 (WIRELESS TODAY, Vol. 3, No. 231 via COMTEX) -- SAN
FRANCISCO - Ericsson [ERICY] attended its first CDMA Americas Congress
since its technology agreement with Qualcomm [QCOM] and the purchase of
Qualcomm's infrastructure division jettisoned the vendor into the CDMA market
this spring. Ericsson execs are anxious to show the company has hit the ground
running concerning CDMA.
At the show in San Francisco yesterday (11/30), Ericsson announced delivery of
the first commercial CDMA network that uses the standard Interoperability
Specification (IOS) developed by the CDMA Development Group.
In fact, Ericsson execs were proud to report that U S West's [USW] Salt Lake
City network, launched last month, uses Ericsson- branded compact base
stations and base station controllers. The IOS technology provides an open
interface between the base station subsystems and U S West's backbone
network.
Jan-Anders Dalenstam, Ericsson's senior vice president of Business Development
and Strategic Marketing for CDMA Systems, cited deals with Mexican carrier
Pegaso and with Alcatel [ALA] in Chile.
Dalenstam said Ericsson is focusing on the infrastructure market before offering
CDMA handsets because the company believes handsets are "not as critical
when it comes to getting market share."
Given the much shorter life cycle for handsets compared to infrastructure
products, handset market share tends to fluctuate among vendors as new features
are introduced, he said. Thus, Ericsson can afford to enter the handset game later
- but it needs to get into the infrastructure market right away to avoid missing out
on long-term contracts.
Ericsson clearly will not have CDMA handsets on the shelves in time for the fourth
quarter buying surge. However, Dalenstam said the company will introduce CDMA
handsets in mid-2000.
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