re: GAIT (almost) out of the GAIT
Finally ... Maybe.
This article does not mention the newly released (not launched) Ericsson T62u
Herschel's Main Man, Jane Zweig, says:
"GAIT phones in general will be expensive to support, hard to support, and we don't see the vendor commitment given the R&D that has to be spent on all these technologies,"
That is slightly different than what she and Hersch said in the CDG sponsored whitepqaper published 9 months ago.
<< Have you heard if Ericsson has managed to truly ramp the T68 yet? >>
I have not.
>> New Phones Out Of The Gait
Peggy Albright
March 4, 2002
Wireless Week
For years now TDMA operators in the United States have looked to the day when they could offer phones that provide seamless roaming capabilities between TDMA and partnering GSM networks. Such phones finally are nearing commercialization and could, at long last, reach customers as early as this month.
Cingular Wireless is on track to launch its GAIT phones by late March. AT&T Wireless, meanwhile, is on a similar path. "We'll be making a couple announcements in the next month or so," says Ritch Blasi, spokesman for AT&T Wireless.
The cross-platform handsets, built according to specifications developed by the GSM ANSI-136 Interoperability Team (GAIT) initiative, were conceptualized a few years ago to facilitate roaming between TDMA and GSM core networks. The idea was to give U.S. TDMA and GSM operators the ability to roam on each others' systems and give American and international mobile phone users roaming capabilities when traveling abroad.
As with voice, roaming is critical to the success of wireless data services because business travelers and consumers alike expect to use the network wherever they are, even though most mobile networks essentially are regional in nature. With a GAIT phone equipped with GPRS, customers could take their next-generation features with them when they roam on partnering GPRS networks.
Several months ago, when AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless adopted GSM as the foundation for their next-generation networks, the anticipated GAIT handsets gained interest as forward- and backward-compatible products that customers could use as AT&T's and Cingular's networks evolved.
Since then, AT&T and Cingular Wireless have decided to share part of the burden of their GSM and GPRS buildouts along 3,000 miles of interstate highways in Midwestern and Western states. That has led some analysts to question whether the GAIT devices will have as long of a market life as they otherwise might have enjoyed.
Of course, Cingular and AT&T are confident they will. "Obviously, we still have the TDMA network that's serving most of our customers and the GAIT phone does exactly what we need. When we have a market that has both TDMA and GSM, it gives people another option. And it will have GPRS," Blasi says.
Cingular responds similarly. "GAIT will still be the tool Cingular uses to seamlessly deliver its products and services to customers as we migrate from TDMA to GSM," says Michelle Mindala, executive director of supply chain at Cingular.
Despite the loyalty of the two operators to these devices, so far only two vendors have shown a determination to provide solutions that address these operators' multi-band, multi-mode handset needs.
Nokia is set to distribute its 6340 device, a GAIT-compliant device that will allow users to roam between 1900 MHz GSM, 1900 MHz TDMA, 800 MHz TDMA and analog networks. It includes an electronic wallet feature to facilitate micropayments. It is not a GPRS product.
The other anticipated product, announced by Siemens Information and Communication Mobile Group last spring, is not fully GAIT-compliant, but is expected to support TDMA in 800 MHz and 1900 MHz frequencies and GSM in 900 MHz and 1900 MHz frequencies, as well as GPRS. It does not support analog.
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications does not list any GAIT phones on its Web site as current or forthcoming products and Motorola discontinued its work on GAIT products last year.
With a narrow vendor pool and finite market, what is the overall market viability for the GAIT handsets? "GAIT phones in general will be expensive to support, hard to support, and we don't see the vendor commitment given the R&D that has to be spent on all these technologies," says Jane Zweig, CEO of the Shosteck Group.
But don't tell that to Cingular and AT&T, which are banking on these phones to deliver services during their migration paths. <<
- Eric - |
