Parsing NTT's statements...
"DoCoMo, which is testing 3G technology, is finding that it is unsuitable for carrying large video or sound clips, one of the services that could provide new revenue streams for mobile operators... Sustained bursts of multimedia data consume large amounts of the radio spectrum and DoCoMo says it will be too costly to download large files, such as pop videos, to handsets."
The ramifications of Enoki's statements go well beyond streaming video and music.
wCDMA, being spectrally inefficient and dogmatically insistent on mixing voice and data, will be incapable of economically transferring high data bandwidth.
If streaming video and music is problematic with only a few users, internet access, rife with images, will be problematic with a few more.
NTT is clearly stating that, with wCDMA, mobile wireless access that transcends present 2G perceptions is not possible.
Contrast this vision with HDR (1xEV), designed from the ground up with high data transmission precisely in mind.
3G - and HDR (1xEV) - is fundamentally about data. According to NTT's statements, wCDMA has proven itself incapable.
How will the world generally, and Europe specifically, respond?
Vendors with vested wCDMA interests will:
* attempt to redefine 3G
* claim that all technologies share wCDMA's limitations
European Operators will:
* reexamine 3G spectrum purchases.
* reexamine their commitment to UMTS wCDMA.
* evaluate 1xEV options, while filtering anti-1xEV FUD through the prism of Vendors' past wCDMA distortions.
* evaluate 1xEV trials - like Verizon's beginning this Spring. Parent Vodafone will no doubt be interested in results.
We have a new ball game... |
