Nokia Ships EDGE Wireless
The high-speed, next-gen service could launch commercially as soon as the end of this year.
By Tim Kridel
Bucking the trend of missed deadlines and slipping production schedules, Nokia has begun shipping next-generation wireless network infrastructure earlier than it expected.
The enhanced data rates for global evolution (EDGE) equipment is being shipped to AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless. AT&T Wireless plans to offer EDGE by late 2002, while Cingular Wireless plans to upgrade all of its markets to EDGE by early 2004. Both service providers are currently upgrading their TDMA and GSM networks to general packet radio service (GPRS), which promises data rates up to 168 Kbps.
EDGE is an optional, interim step as a TDMA or GSM operator migrates to W-CDMA. For example, AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless will upgrade to GPRS and then EDGE before upgrading to W-CDMA. EDGE's benefits include theoretical data rates of up to 473 Kbps and the ability to squeeze more voice calls into the same amount of spectrum.
Judging by the contracts that they've awarded to vendors so far, most major European operators will skip EDGE and migrate directly from GPRS to W-CDMA. That decision will affect North American operators because the cost of EDGE handsets and network infrastructure won't be shared by their European counterparts. But any cost premium might be cheaper than buying additional spectrum, which W-CDMA requires.
Although EDGE supports data rates as high as 473 Kbps, it's unclear whether users will see anything near those rates. GPRS is already available in several North American markets and much of Europe, but handset and modem designs limit throughput to 40 Kbps at best instead of the full 168 Kbps.
The next-generation version of CDMA, called 1XRTT, can support rates up to 144 Kbps, but service providers such as Sprint PCS say users can expect throughput to average around 65 Kbps. Service providers might cap EDGE's throughput if there isn't a business case for high data rates or if devices that support the maximum rate aren't available.
Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless both plan to launch 1XRTT in some markets by this summer. This past spring, Sprint PCS said it plans to launch a 307-Kbps version of 1XRTT in the latter half of 2002 and a 2.4-Mbps version in some markets by 2003. A quick upgrade from GPRS to EDGE should help AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless compete with CDMA-based rivals.
Although it's unclear when EDGE phones and modems will be available in commercial quantities, Nokia's announcement is the latest sign that vendors are finally cranking up production of next-generation wireless. That's welcome news for investors, service providers and handset vendors smarting from 2001, when sales of new phones declined to an estimated 395 million worldwide from about 440 million in 2000.
Wide deployments of 1XRTT, GPRS and EDGE are supposed to spur demand for new phones, but that's hardly a sure bet: On Jan. 9, NTT DoCoMo — regarded as visionary in making wireless data a mass-market item — conceded that it probably won't make its goal of 150,000 next-gen subscribers by March. That service launched in October with much fanfare, but so far has attracted only about 35,000 customers. |
