I don't recall seeing this posted before.
It is a rebuttal to George Gilder's WSJ editorial "AT & T's Wireless Debacle", written by Rod Nelson, Chief Technology Officer of AT & T Wireless and posted on AT & T Infocenter
which is the company's internal website.
Stu
WIRELESS: THE TDMA FACTS
The Real Story of AT&T Wireless Technology
Many of you read George Gilder's May 1 Wall Street Journal editorial, "AT&T's Wireless Debacle," and realized it is a one-sided portrayal of how some communications companies will bring the benefits of a wireless world to consumers and businesses.
The debates over which technology would best serve customers ended a long time ago. Without question or hesitation, AT&T's Wireless' technology choice is the best choice for AT&T and its customers. Beyond its current capabilities, TDMA can be efficiently and gracefully upgraded to deliver the next generation of wireless services for our customers, like high-speed data and rich multimedia applications.
AT&T Wireless utilizes TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) IS-136 digital technology, the most widely deployed technology in the Americas. For data services, AT&T Wireless relies on its packet-based CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data) technology to deliver information efficiently and securely over its Wireless IP network. These wireless voice and data networks deliver high-quality services to 12.6 million customers today, and are poised to deliver next generation services in the future.
AT&T relies on TDMA technology because it is the most cost-effective and widely used technology in the Americas. TDMA has more flexibility than other digital technologies and supports the AT&T Wireless vision for the future of wireless service.
AT&T's TDMA (voice) and CDPD (packet-based data) networks today deliver seamless voice and data services to over 3,000 cities nationwide. Most importantly, our packet-based network allows AT&T to offer our customers flat-rate pricing for voice and data services, which is something CDMA cannot offer. No CDMA solution offers these combined benefits to carriers or customers.
Looking to the future, AT&T Wireless is pursuing its plans to cost-effectively upgrade its existing TDMA network to EDGE (Enhanced Data-rates for Global Evolution). EDGE will bring 3G high-speed voice and data capabilities to every major city around the world. What's unique about EDGE is that it bridges two dominant wireless standards - TDMA in the Western Hemisphere and GSM which is used throughout Europe and Asia - to provide seamless 3G services over one compatible network.
Because TDMA and GSM are based on common elements of time division multiplexing, this is a natural convergence. GSM and TDMA combined have about 250 million subscribers today and will double in 2 to 3 years. These technologies will continue to enjoy the largest market share, bringing service to more than 80% of the world's wireless subscribers.
TDMA will double capacity using smart adaptive antennas and related techniques. This capacity upgrade will not require a new generation of handsets because it will be designed to be backward compatible with existing equipment. Most importantly, this capacity upgrade can be selectively deployed where it is needed and when customers are prepared to use the technology.
Let me also clarify some of the blatant misinformation hyped by CDMA proponents.
First, CDMA is far from a dominant worldwide standard for wireless technology. There are more than 11 million paying TDMA customers in North American, compared to 7 million claimed by the CDMA Development Group. Worldwide TDMA has five times as many subscribers as CDMA. Nearly 250 million people use TDMA and GSM technologies, compared to 50 million attributed to CDMA.
Secondly, it's economically viable for AT&T Wireless to migrate our equipment to third generation wireless services by building on our existing base. Our TDMA assets and wholly-owned spectrum and alliances around the world make it strategically sensible for us to migrate in tandem with the GSM operators around the world. And, our technology plan delivers similar or higher data rates (384kbps) as the CDMA proponents at much lower cost. These cost savings ultimately benefit TDMA customers.
As for leadership, AT&T Wireless has continually led the industry in delivering new technologies, services and pricing. The key word is delivering, not promising.
AT&T invented cellular communications, and created the first national network in 1990. We introduced digital in 1993 and invented CDPD that same year. Over the past few years, we've enhanced the voice quality, performance and services in our network by introducing IS-136 service. The ease with which TDMA IS-136 channels could be exchanged for analog channels enabled rapid nationwide digital coverage, while CDMA operators still struggle for contiguous "all-digital" coverage.
In 1997, it was AT&T Wireless that introduced customers to the wireless web with its PocketNet Service, allowing customers - for the first time -- to access the Internet using their wireless phones. Let us also not forget how AT&T Wireless revolutionized the way people use their wireless phones when it introduced Digital One Rate, the country's first flat-rate pricing plan.
Finally, CDMA's circuit-switched networks have limitations that TDMA critics all-too-easily ignore. The growth in wireless data use depends heavily on companies using Internet Protocol (IP) networks to deliver services - both now and in the future. Industry experts and analysts agree that packet-based IP is the future for wireless services. AT&T is already using a Wireless IP, packet-based network with CDPD. CDPD currently delivers data up to 19.2kbps, which is slightly faster than circuit-switched networks that operate at 14.4kbps. And while AT&T's TDMA/CDPD networks can easily and cost-effectively be upgraded to EDGE, CDMA carriers will have to go through several upgrades, including scrapping their current circuit-switched networks, to get to the same point.
Moreover, within the CDMA camp lies confusion and incompatible plans to migrate to 3G. CDMA's incessant need to be upgraded has already proven problematic. For example, the initial deployment of CDMA systems has apparently resulted in lower capacity than was hoped, even though expectations have been ratcheted down significantly over time. Thus it has been critical to upgrade these systems-at considerable expense-after only a few years of operation. If history is the best indicator of the future, the claim of doubling the capacity of CDMA is likely to be overly optimistic.
It is also puzzling that the CDMA community is pushing a large number of incompatible data capabilities, all within a similar time frame. Qualcomm and the CDMA community offer a complicated, three-step migration path: 1xRTT to HDR to 3xRTT. Each step will confuse and inconvenience customers and cost the carrier significant money. Gilder and Vigilante may claim otherwise, but this is anything but elegant.
We note also that the brand of CDMA being pursued by Bell Atlantic and Sprint is radically different than W-CDMA being considered by GSM operators for 3G services elsewhere in the world and may well leave the CDMA community fractured.
Detailed analysis by multiple operators and vendors show that W-CDMA and EDGE offer similar data capabilities and performance, but EDGE offers greater flexibility for deployment with limited initial spectral requirements. AT&T's strategy to deploy a 384kbps technology based on EDGE minimizes technology "whiplash" and customer churn while aligning with the emerging dominant global standard.
A clear distinction must be drawn between listening to the technologists and understanding the technologies. The technologies, which in this case are the competing wireless standards, TDMA or CDMA, are being enhanced with innovation in technology. Listening to the technologists can mislead you down the wrong path. So while some analysts advance their own biased opinion, the true road to the Emerald City begins with TDMA.
Rod Nelson
Chief Technology Officer
AT&T Wireless
For more information on TDMA/EDGE, visit the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium website |
