cfoe,
Re: <<What happens to all of the SPs that bid tons of money for 3G spectrum? What do they do for 3G?>>
The chances seem pretty good that Q will be first to market with a workable W-CDMA chip. But the timing for that seems to be paralleling HDR or 1xEV. So one default scenario for the W-CDMA proponents would be to opt for 1xEV in new spectrum. Besides the base station buildout, this would require the development of dual mode-voice/data phones which would do voice in existing spectrum and data in new spectrum. (A new gadget, but not insurmountable technically. After all, there are dual mode voice phones now.) Then pure data devices like PDAs, laptops, etc. could be migrated to new spectrum, which could open up more voice capacity in old spectrum.
For that matter, the Euro GSMers could ultimately (probably much later) make a similar choice. Rather than replacing all their base stations and phones, just go with 1xEV in new spectrum. Add the 1xEV base stations and use dual mode-GSM voice/1xEV data phones, and retain the existing GSM infrastructure. They would get full return on their GSM investment while migrating to 3G data capabilities.
This is a simplification, of course, but there has to be more than one way to skin the prevailing voice-centric model. 1vEV offers one such way.
Just my musings,
jack |
