Global Mobile Daily 3/29/01
Vodafone's U.S. rift and takeover bid are fantasy
Rumors of a rift based on the 3G path chosen by U.S. operator Verizon Wireless and the preferred technology of its 45% shareholder Vodafone are unfounded, according to senior Verizon management.
Furthermore, any notion that Vodafone is poised to take control of the U.S. operator is distorted and has been dismissed out of hand as an unbalanced belief emanating from western Europe.
In an interview with GMDaily, Verizon Wireless CTO Richard Lynch said that Verizon was surprised by rumors suggesting any takeover bid by Vodafone. "The New York perspective is quite the opposite," he said.
Verizon last week announced that it would deploy cdma2000 technologies 1xRTT this year and 1xEV-DO (data only) technology no less than 12 months later. "Chris Gent has never questioned my technology," said Lynch.
The news comes amid reports that Gent's Vodafone, which has opted for WCDMA with its European partners, is seeking a 3G standardization with Verizon.
Lynch said that his choice of technology held "significant advantages" over a WCDMA operator, since every new cdma2000 technology could be plugged into Verizon's existing equipment.
Since Lynch refuses to commit himself beyond 1xEV-DO and 2003, conjecture on whether Verizon will implement WCDMA after 1xEV appears groundless. Lynch says that, for now, Verizon stops at 1xEV-DO. "I don't want to stop to make any predictions," he said.
Vodafone is said to be concerned that cdma2000 isolates Verizon from the WCDMA standard and prevents global roaming. But Lynch says the issue is overwhelmed. "One tenth of one quarter of one half of our customers care about an implement they can travel with," he says. "The typical New York user doesn't even leave the New York system." |
