re: 1XEV-DO & MSM5500/CSM5500
<< The biggest difference between Qcom and others is that Q don't sell vaporware. >>
It appears that they have been unable to.
1xEV-DV anyone?
>> Qualcomm Makes Slow Progress with CDMA2000 1XEV-DO Technology
Wireless Internet
Issue 30
05 July 2001
mmwirelessinternet.com
Qualcomm's campaign to persuade operators to adopt its version of third-generation technology rather than the rival W-CDMA appears to be making little headway.
While the company claims that five operators are planning to use its high data rate 3G technology, CDMA2000 1XEV-DO, none of these has yet announced a contract for equipment. As a result, Qualcomm is unable to produce any more than approximate deployment dates - and in some cases not even that.
This is despite Qualcomm's claim that EV-DO, which offers transmission speeds of up to 2.4Mbit/sec, will be available sometime next year. W-CDMA, it says, will not be available until 2003 or 2004.
In contrast 48 operators in western Europe alone have already awarded contracts to W-CDMA vendors.
Moreover, there are significant question marks over most of the five companies in the Qualcomm list - Korean operators SK Telecom and KT Freetel, American giants Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless and Japanese operator KDDI.
While SK Telecom and KT Freetel are both using second-generation CDMAOne technology, and have implemented the higher-speed CDMA200 1XRTT, which offers speeds of up to 144kbit/sec, both made it clear some time ago that they would be moving to W-CDMA.
This was why they bought 3G licences which gave them a free choice of technology. The Korean government has had great difficulty in finding a suitable buyer for the third licence, which requires the use of EV-DO technology (For related story, click here).
Qualcomm admits that the Koreans have chosen to use W-CDMA but appears reluctant to discuss how EV-DO will fit into this plan. All it says is that the carriers' deployment of W-CDMA has been delayed and that in the meantime "they will focus on growing their 1X networks." Verizon Wireless, meanwhile, has recently confirmed that it is also considering using W-CDMA. This follows pressure from 45-per-cent shareholder Vodafone, which is migrating its wholly-owned operations to W-CDMA.
Verizon chief executive officer Dennis Strigl said last week that Verizon and Vodafone would be working closely together to enable roaming between their two networks. He added that this involved talking to unnamed equipment vendors to find a solution.
But it is hard to see how this situation will be resolved, short of Verizon deploying a W-CDMA network.
This leaves only Sprint PCS and KDDI looking like firm members of the EV-DO camp. Qualcomm says it expects KDDI to deploy in the second half of 2002 and Sprint in the second half of 2003.
Even if Qualcomm's claim that these five users are committed to EV-DO does prove to be correct, this would represent something of a poor return, given the number of operators which might have been expected to follow the CDMA2000 migration path.
Operators which use CDMAOne technology have been expected to upgrade to 1XRTT as a stepping stone and then to EV-DO. Similarly, GSM operators will migrate through GPRS and possibly EDGE to reach W-CDMA.
Operators using alternative technologies, such as TDMA or iDen, have been expected to migrate towards either of the two 3G alternatives W-CDMA or EV-DO.
But while those GSM operators deploying GPRS have so far all said they will continue on the same path and go on to W-CDMA, the position looks less clear in the CDMA camp. Qualcomm's list of five EV-DO users constitutes less than half of the operators thinking of using 1XRTT.
The CDMA Development Group (CDG), an industry body dedicated to promoting CDMA technology, lists 13 operators which are trialling 1XRTT or intend to do so.
Qualcomm says the figure will be higher as the CDG's figure counts only those operators which have publicly announced 1XRTT trials. It expects all the current CDMAOne operators to upgrade to 1XRTT as this provides a near doubling of network capacity on much the same software and chipset architecture as CDMAOne.
This much is not in any real doubt, but it is at the next stage of the migration that Qualcomm seems to be losing out.
The wavering of Verizon, one of the largest US carriers, could have repercussions for Qualcomm's technology in the South American market, where operators have historically followed the lead of the big US companies.
Most carriers in South America currently use either CDMAOne or TDMA, as in the US.
The TDMA operators are being heavily wooed by the CDMA world. A recent CDG report, for instance, argued that the CDMA migration path could be more advantageous for them than W-CDMA.
But one of the advantages that the report specified rests upon the assumption that Qualcomm would develop a dual-mode TDMA/CDMA chipset.
But Qualcomm appears to be backing away from this position. When asked if it intended developing a TDMA/CDMA chip, the company told Wireless Internet that it has committed its resources to GSM/CDMA chips.
If Qualcomm is indeed shelving the development of a dual-mode TDMA/CDMA chipset then TDMA carriers will be forced to offer dual-mode handsets to enable roaming on their legacy networks.
Avoiding this scenario was seen by the CDG report as a big economic advantage of a CDMA migration path.
One recent event which points to an erosion of the South America CDMA market was the decision by Telemar, a Brazilian fixed line carrier that bought spectrum and intends to begin offering cellular services next year, to deploy a GSM/GPRS network. This implies a migration to W-CDMA in the future.
Meanwhile Telecom New Zealand, which is launching a 1XRTT service in its home territory in the fourth quarter of this year, says its migration path will be influenced by its links with Hutchinson Telecom Australia, with which it has signed a deal to share development costs. Hutchinson is to deploy a W-CDMA network.
One option open to Qualcomm, which it has not ruled out, is to buy spectrum and run its own network using CDMA technology.
It has already used this strategy in Australia to establish a service that will use EV-DO technology.
The company would neither confirm nor deny that it was considering joining the LG-led consortium that is poised to buy the third 3G licence in South Korea which mandates the use of CDMA2000 technology. <<
- Eric - |
