Apollo,
re: 1xRTT cdma2000
I just clipped an overview of the status of 1xRTT implementation in Korea researched by Mike Woolfrey of EMC Cellular:
Message 16041249
EMC is the official statastician for GSMA but the serve a very large customer base.
Mike is one of the most objective wireless research analysts I follow, and he does not "dig the dirt". His UK firm, managed by Julian Herbert, is perhaps the most credible in the world, and their research methodology is very sound. They are focused on one industry only - mobile wireless.
This is the first really comprehensive report that I have seen on 1x in Korea since SKT "launch" took place 9 months ago. It is quite positive, and gives a very clear picture of user rates (average throughput about 72 Kbps).
No mention is made of the handover problem between IS95B & IS95C 1xRTT.
For those that consider 1xRTT to be 3G, and for Merlin who made a similar statement about applications (in response to your question about constraints), Mike says:
Korean operators are quite rightly proud of being the first nation to offer 3G networks. The government may wish to classify this as 2.5G, but to all intents and purposes the networks are 3G, according to ITU definitions. But like the rest of the industry there is too much focus is on data speeds. The issue is now whether or not the data speeds can be used to create mass market applications. ... Now that the operators have the system and hardware, attentions are turning to making the technology profitable. This can only done through the continued development of applications.
I remain a little on the conservative side, in terms of estimating the pace of rollout of 1xRTT in the States.
There are several reasons for this, but the two principle ones are:
1.) Inexperience of US carriers with packet-switched data (although Verizon may call on the experience of their CDPD group). All three Korean carriers had all been through the learning curve on IS95B
2.) Some normal debugging necessarry for a US as opposeed to Korean (regional standards variations) implementation.
On the positive side, Both Sprint PCS and Verizon have invested considerable time, effort, and dollars on peparing their networks for the implementation, and their engineering talent and leasdership is top notch.
I suspect that by end of 2002 they will be well deployed.
Congratulations on your well deserved, back to back, Cool Posts.
- Eric - |
