Ramsey,
<< Cingular will have something that is still a few upgrades behind what SK is testing RIGHT NOW???????? >>
1xEV-DO is exciting technologically ...
... but I am much more interested in technology adoption than technology itself.
As a Qualcomm shareholder it is extremely difficult for me to get all warm and gooey about 1xEV-DO ... and as a Verizon user I'll be darned if I can figure out right now what I'd do with it if it were available to me today. ADSL fits my home and office needs and 1xRTT in a smartphone (used as a modem for my laptop) will satisfy my mobile and portable computing needs ... which I guess makes me a neo-Luddite. <g>
I've been following 3GPP2 proceedings very closely, and it appears that aside from SKT, KTF, KDDI and Verizon, there is not a great deal of interest in the CDG carrier community for DO and the majority of carriers have expressed the opinion that they are liable to pass on DO in favor of 1xEV-DV with voice and data integrated along the lines of WCDMA with the HSDPA extension.
Perhaps that sentiment will change based on results of commercialization in Korea, and trends in the America's relative to broadband or wireless wideband data acceptance.
If it does not, however, DO is not going to enjoy very favorable economies of scale outside of Korea, and Japan. It seems to me that it would make it much easier for Verizon to introduce DO if Sprint PCS, Alltel, Bell Mobility, Qwest, and Nextel also planned to do so, but at this time they seem to be expressing little interest.
To make matters worse it appears that Qualcomm made a tactical error in 3GPP2 in regard to enhancements they wanted to make to DO and when they attempted to introduce them recently they were basically told that those enhancements would have to wait for Revision C which is primarily focused on DV on an all-IP network.
DO could wind up being a very niche technology within a technology niche.
In a certain sense DO is to 1xEV-DV what EDGE is to WCDMA with HSDPA.
Me, I'm just watching.
Time will tell.
As for Cingular, the stark reality is that they have made their decision, and as a result there is one less major prospect for CDMA and one more major carrier in the America's GSM camp.
Best,
- Eric - |
