There must have been thousands of posts, on this thread, TLM, Qualcomm, Ericsson, Nokia and who knows where else, on EDGE, 3G, 4G, 2.5G and "the coming wave". It was all gonna happen.
And then, nothing. The money disappeared, and everything imploded.
It hasnt imploded completely. The carriers, at least in the US, have just begun to handle it a little more quietly. Sprint PCS has already begun to sell the first 1xrtt handset in the US.
www1.sprintpcs.com|4552860543832631241/542450408/5/7001/7001/7001/7001/-1
Of course, you wouldnt know it is 1xrtt from the website. They dont even mention the increased data capability on their webpage. PCS, wisely in my opinion, has decided to start seeding the 1xrtt handsets into the market even before the infrastructure has been installed in most places. Their goal is for a nationwide launch by the middle of '02.
The reason for the early seeding of handsets (without a customers knowledge) is that 1xrtt will provide a 1.6-2x increace in voice capacity for PCS. This will only be true for the new handsets....so they have a vested interest in speeding the roll-out of new handsets even if consumers dont see much of a benefit yet. Handsets which take advantage of the increased data capabilities will likely be available in the next 6-9 months.
I think that the during this time period you are going to start articles talking about the comeback of '3G'. The articles that used to concentrate on the European efforts towards 3G will shift to the US, Korea and Japan.
Slacker |
