Eric: The problem is time. WCDMA will not be in place in commercial operation until long after CDMA/1xEV in current spectrum. While you seem to accept the European view that 1xMC is not 3rd gen, since HDR/1xEV meets and exceeds the 3rd gen specs, and will be in substantial use a year from now, and there will be zero standard WCDMA then (only DoCoMo's nonstandard "test"), how is it a problem of roaming when WCDMA is not actually available - roam to and from what if there is no WCDMA yet?
Suggest your basic assumption in the following is flawed:
" Think about it this way; suppose you're an executive at France Telecom's wireless division, and your company's just begun the commercial rollout of its W-CDMA network."
(But when is that - what month and year is your W-CDMA "commercial rollout"?)
"You need a roaming agreement with a British carrier. You know that some of your subscribers will end up buying handsets that allow them to roam on cdma2000 networks, but that others won't. The smartest course of action here is, without a doubt" [sic.]", the most fail-safe one, which would be to do roaming agreements, if possible, with a carrier that's using W-CDMA" [but the carrier will not have W-CDMA in place - realistically]", just so that your company has all of its bases covered."
And if the move toward convergence - a close congruence of CDMA2000/WCDMA happens, isn't this moot anyway? There are many pressures and current efforts heading toward just that, no?
What am I missing?
Best.
Chaz |
