Re: Interesting view of CDMA from the GSM side
>> The Third Generation: the Future of the CDMA
GSNBOX
Mobile News
Adem Sehovic
January 26, 2001
The expansion of the cdmaOne technology has started, everybody usually claims, thanks to the enthusiasm of the Koreans that, with the boom of the subscriptions really in this Asian country, have decreed the success of what has become the second standard of digital mobile telephony in the world. The first one, for number of end users, is our GSM. Certainly, the cdmaOne counts today at least 65 million end users (a bit less than the half only in Korea) and it is the technology of second dominant generation in USA.
But the cdmaOne seems, however, to be in big difficulties. Or at least, its evolution, the standard of third generation cdma2000. In fact, the announcement that also the Korean operators seem to direct themselves towards the competing standard 3G (WCDMA, that will be adopted also in Europe), together with the decision of Anatel, the Authority for the telecommunications in Brazil, to grant a licence to 1.800 MHz for the PCS (marking, as a matter of fact, the opening of the biggest market in Latin America to the GSM), cut every "historical" grip to the supporters of the technology promoted by the American Qualcomm. In addition, as if it was not enough, the cdma2000 also loses ground in China whose government seems willing enough to promote the "local" technologies.
However it is, the Brazilian decision has represented a hard blow to the cdmaOne industry.
In fact, Qualcomm expected a more "flexible" choice, a technology "open and abreast with the times." The firm USA, therefore, hoped in a more favorable decision of Anatel, namely in the choice of the spectrum at 1.900 MHz for the PCS that would have allowed the implementation of the CDMA, besides the one of the GSM. This would have been, Qualcomm asserts, a more appropriate choice, also considering the possibilities of roaming: Brazil, in fact, hosts every year a lot of tourists coming from the United States, where there are not nets at 1.800 MHz, and that, therefore, are not able to use their cell phone in roaming on the PCS net 1.800.
This, some analysts observe, means to deprive, in the short time, of notable revenues for the sector and, therefore, the choice of Anatel has represented indeed a surprise for many people.
Well, the Brazilian decision assumes another light if considered under the aspect of the future development of the telecommunications. It signifies a predominantly economic choice, since the GSM is the most diffused standard at world level, more open to the innovation in comparison to the competing CDMA and, accordingly, it opens more ways towards a global mobile communication. In this perspective, a matter that has received notable attention in Brazil has been the one that has interpreted the choice of Anatel since directed to the third generation: choosing the frequencies 1.800 MHz, we leave free the 1.900 MHz spectrum for 3G.
The evolution of the current CDMA in Brazil leaves the way open to a lot of possibilities, however, in first place to the launch of the services 1XRTT at 800 MHz, classified according to the specific statement ITUs as technology of the next generation of the mobile telecommunications. In fact, it appears more than probable that the greatest part of the operators cdmaOnes in the world that intend to follow the direction of the Mobile Internet, will decide to develop really the services 1XRTT, as a relatively first simple and painless step towards the third generation of the cdma2000. It is a technology of package data transmission (like the GPRS in Europe) that reaches, in theory, the 144 kbpses of capability and requires contained changes of computer software and hardware to the terminals and the existing nets. Besides, the 1XRTT promises a notable saving on the capability of battery life doubling, in the meantime, the capability of the single available channel. Indeed a fascinating proposal for the operators, perhaps even more interesting of the promise of the Mobile Internet.
As already mentioned, the 1XRTT is seen as first preliminary step towards 3XRTT, technology of third generation that combines three channels of 1,25 MHz so as to guarantee a capability of maximum transmission inclusive between 1 and 2 Mbps. This, that introduces itself as a natural evolution, is now put under discussion by the operators that fear excessive costs for the offer of data services at high speed, considering the expensive evolution towards 3XRTT not more tightly necessary. The matters for a similar reasoning can be explained by the fact that it is also possible for the operators to provide notable capacity/speed of wireless connection thanks to some 1XRTT updatings. In first place, it is about HDR and of 1XTREME.
The HDR is a standard promoted by the American Qualcomm, mother of the CDMA, and it promises speed up to 750 kbpses in mobile environments, and up to 1,2 Mbpses in fixed environments using a single channel of 1,25 MHz. This would allow Qualcomm, in theory, to offer solutions HDR commercially with the maximum speed of 2,4 Mbpses, on two channels obviously. Besides, the technology of data transmission is at package and the implementation is relatively simple.
For the development of the HDR, Qualcomm has invested 200 million dollars in Korea Telecom Freetel that is working together with Samsung Electronics to promote the diffusion of the technology in the biggest world markets within 2001. Among the companies that support the development of the HDR there are also Hitachi and Lucent Technologies. Besides, the CDMA Development Group has expressed its own support to the standardization of the HDR, baptizing it 1XEV, namely 1X Evolution so as to appease the worries of those people that feared problems of compatibility caused by technological clashes among the different manufacturers. And, not less important, the Group has announced that it considers the 1XEV as a first phase of the path of the evolution 1X.
Parallelly, Nokia and Motorola have united their strengths for the development of a more advanced technology that allows the contemporary transmission of voice and data, baptized 1XTREME. This standard, that embeds an advanced functionality that is not present in the HDR, doesn't have, however, to be necessarily considered competitor of the same HDR. In fact, the two solutions don't exclude one another. Everything depends, therefore, on the speed with which the two technologies will be able to impose themselves to the operators.
The CDMA world finds itself, therefore, in front of a choice. The 1xrtt represents indeed a tempting proposal that potentially allows, we have said, to offer services of next generation using the same 800 MHz spectrum at disposition today. Besides, the supporters of this technology assert, the 1X would be able to reach more elevated speed of connection in comparison to the competitors of the GSM area, namely of the GPRS and perhaps also of the EDGE. This, therefore, would offer to the CDMA an additional march so as to compete in those markets that are still "undecided" on the standard 3G to implement. But not everything is so simple.
As already mentioned, in an evaluation in the long run the essential choice is the one that concerns the available frequencies. But not less important seems to be the strategy adopted particularly by some Asian countries, and in first place by China, that has the tendency to create a heterogeneous national market. This allows them, then, to aim at the research and development in a context where the profit and the risk don't represent the essential matter. In this way the base is created for allowing the national manufacturers to develop and to export with success the new technologies. We shouldn't be surprised, therefore, to see competing standard coexist on the same national market. After all, also this is liberty to communicate. <<
- Eric - |
