re: Ericsson & cdma2000
>> cdma2000 - Ericsson's Gateway to North American Market
Mike Woolfrey
Research Analyst
EMC
January 23, 2001
Ericsson originally entered the CDMA market through the acquisition of Qualcomm's infrastructure operations in March 1999. With the deal came R & D operations in San Diego and Boulder, BTS and BSC hardware and technology. It also gained supply contracts with cdmaOne operators US West (now Qwest) and Leap Wireless in which Qualcomm had a financial interest. Since then, Ericsson has continued to supply these two comparatively small operations. North American manufacturing is based in Montreal (MSC), San Diego (radio networks) and North Carolina (handset R&D).
In a recent interview with the director of technical product marketing Phil Hester, EMC learnt that the introduction of new cdma2000 1x systems is an area that Ericsson is keen to develop. At the time of Ericsson's entrance to the CDMA market the majority of operators had 2G cdmaOne suppliers already established. As new 3G systems are deployed and with the need for greater interoperability, Ericsson believes that IOS contracts can contribute to increase its market share.
Ericsson's Offerings
In 2000 Ericsson launched various components of its cdma2000 solution. In June at the CDG Annual Congress it introduced its Packet Core Network and in October 2000 its radio access network components. Its AXE switches (CMS 11) are currently being developed to function across all standards, Ericsson hopes to make an announcement about further switch developments at CTIA show 2001. Throughout its handset and infrastructure developments, Ericsson has maintained that backward interoperability with IS-95 standards as being essential. Whilst admitting that it is slightly behind its competitors, Ericsson hopes to have cdma2000 1x equipment available for commercial quantities in Q3 2001.
cdma2000
The cdma2000 standards laid down by the ITU and subsequently the TIA are based on Qualcomm's HDR technology. cdma2000 1x now has two phases:
cdma2000 1x approx 100% increase in voice capacity and 144 Kbps data rates
cdma2000 1x EV another 100% rise in voice capacity. EV is split into two sections, DO (data only) will see downlink data rates of 2.4 Mbps and a uplink of 300 Kbps. DV (data and voice) will see 2.4 Mbps for both directions.
Out of the standards the various vendors have added to the confusion with their own branding of cdma2000 1x systems. Nokia and Motorola have co-developed 1XTREME, with Lucent deploying 1xRTT. As yet Nortel and Ericsson are sticking with the TIA's classifications.
Despite the different names, each has the fact that it operates in a single 1.25MHz channels of spectrum in common. Existing operators, therefore, can use existing 5MHz of spectrum: there are benefits of use in greater bandwidths. Three carriers can be present in 5MHz, seven in 10MHz and 11 in 15MHz. With the enhancements of 1x systems to achieve data rates of 2.4 Mbps the timescale for 3x systems has been pushed back.
Trials
Whilst admitting that commercial deployments will not be until later in 2001, Ericsson has been conducting various field and lab tests on its cdma2000 systems. These have been conducted in conjunction with Qwest and Leap Wireless, along with IOS tests with unnamed suppliers and what were described as 'leading operators'.
Results so far were described as encouraging with data rates reaching the required 2.4 Mbps and voice capacity 60% increase on IS-95 systems.
Ericsson was keen to stress that the voice capacity increase is a cloudy issue, whilst cdma2000 1x boasts a 100% increase, CDMA itself as a technology claims to have no capacity limit. In reality the network set-up, configuration and component efficiency all contribute to this. Hester indicated that it would be much easier to reach 100% capacity increase out of a poorly set up cdmaOne network than one that is running at its optimum. When pressed on handsets and whether this is likely to slow the introduction of the new networks, progress was described as being 'slightly ahead of the networks'. Nonetheless Ericsson is experiencing the same industry problems with multi-mode and multi-frequency solutions, stressing that initial handsets would be tri-mode (AMPS, CDMA IS-95, cdma2000).
The future
As previously mentioned Ericsson sees IOS supply deals as a probable route to a larger market share. The 700MHz auction could potentially see a wave of new bidders, with non cellular companies like Microsoft and Yahoo! being linked to possible bids. Whilst CDMA has no distinct advantages over other technologies at this frequency, Hester did point out that modifications to the radio network would make it suitable. <<
- Eric - |
