Possibly they could graft HDR onto their TDMA system, market it well, and do OK. I wish they would go CDMA
Well, it looks like the TDMA guys are really flopping around grasping at straws:
Ready to serve data TDMA vendors disagree on best delivery method
Dated 5/1/00 Source: internettelephony.com
NANCY GOHRING
The fourth annual Universal Wireless Communications Consortium, held last week in Cancun, Mexico, was an opportunity for vendors to tout their data-enabling wares and for the entire TDMA community to express excitement about wireless data prospects.
One subject resurrected at the show was circuit-switched data. Some vendors are revisiting the topic, which has been dismissed by many operators. "We believe there?s value in circuit-switched [data]," said Mary Chan, TDMA product realization vice president for Lucent Technologies, which developed a technology that offers direct connection capability using circuit-switched networks.
Alastair Westgarth, vice president of wireless Internet for Nortel Networks, compares circuit-switched data with ISDN because when it first was available, ISDN wasn?t widely used. "For 24 to 30 months, ISDN had its heyday," before cable modems, DSL and other technologies, he said. Some TDMA operators may employ circuit-switched data because it?s quicker to roll out than packet-switched offerings and will allow them to make some data services available immediately, he said.
New technologies such as packet-based wireless solutions historically cause operators to make rapid decisions about deployments. "Operators are constantly hedging their bets," said Dave Murashige, vice president of marketing for Nortel Networks.
But that may just be vendor-speak "It?s a dopey idea," said David Nagel, chief technology officer and president of AT&T labs.
Circuit-switched data requires the mixing incompatible circuit- and packet-based technologies, Nagel said. Users can access data on AT&T?s wireless network using circuit-switched connections, but the operator doesn?t recommend it.
Lucent showcased what it believes will be a better solution than circuit-switched technologies?its wideband radio base station. The base station helps operators transition into next generation services. Because it is software-defined, operators can migrate into TDMA enhanced data rates for GSM (EDGE), GSM EDGE, universal mobile telephone service and wideband CDMA?all using the same hardware, Chan said.
"Our GSM and TDMA customers want to invest in hardware that is reusable," she said.
Intelligent antenna built into the base station increases capacity. In addition, the wideband radio lets operators engineer their networks for the appropriate amount of voice and data traffic customers generate. Lucent expects to begin customer trials at the end of this year.
Though much of the data focus is on fast connections, the speeds available today using cellular digital packet data and even short message service enable a significant amount of profitable services, said Keith Shank, director of strategic market innovations for Ericsson. He noted that NTT DoCoMo?s highly successful i-mode service operates over a 9 kb/s connection.
-----------------------------------------
Editorial Comment: These guys are CLUELESS and have the exact same mentality as Big "T" demonstrated today - keep those creaky legacy systems operable no matter what.
And has the ERICY guy paid any attention to the wonderful in-service record of DoCoMo's i-mode? Is this the vendor who bespeaks the future for AWE??!!
Or is it cousin Lucent, which seems to be promoting what T's CTO claims is a "dopey idea."
I'm sorry for the retired persons of America in this stock, but in 20+ days AWE will be shortable. These guys will never get a clue. Zeglis is a lawyer. Hesse was a smart cookie to go to TeraBeam. |
