High-Speed Access Options-Wireless Speed By Degrees
By Denise Culver, Special to Inter@ctive Week
November 20, 1998 12:35 PM ET
It's almost a truism today that wireless services won't succeed in the long run unless they can deliver the same goods as their wired counterparts. Chief among those goods is data access at megabit rates. Developers say the technology is ready to push broadband wireless access into the mass market. All that is lacking is a plan to get that done.
One big issue that's keeping broadband wireless deployment on a slow track is the lack of fully defined international standards for third-generation (3G) wireless technologies. The International Telecommunication Union still hasn't finished work on Layer 2 and Layer 3 protocols for 3G networks; discussions on as many as seven major issues still are taking place.
Another drag on mass-market broadband wireless deployment is that the business imperative isn't in synch with the business plans of service providers, many of which still are struggling to pay down their initial infrastructure and licensing debts. Basic economics dictate a go-slow approach to network upgrades, which has resulted in the development of so-called 2-1/2-generation (2-1/2G) technologies as an interim step to 3G deployment.
"A lot of providers are looking at wireless data and saying: 'Well, it hasn't been wildly successful yet, so why should I build out to 3G?' " says Faye Vorick, manager of strategy and end solutions for new technology at Motorola Inc.'s Cellular Infrastructure Group. "They're looking to 2-1/2G as a test of the waters to determine whether 3G is going to be worth the cost and effort."
Halfway There
Motorola is approaching the evolution to 3G in a series of releases, says Neal Campbell, director of wireless products management. He describes the first move, up to 2-1/2G, as a software upgrade, with the migration to 3G involving an additional software upgrade plus card upgrades in the infrastructure.
"Most of our operators have the bulk of their capital expenditures tied up in their current base station products," Campbell says. "We're looking at developing products that enhance the systems where their money already has been spent. Operators are telling us that things can't be too much more expensive for them to operate a system, or it won't matter whether it's 2-1/2G or 3G."
With these cost constraints in mind, Motorola plans to release two interim products next year. The first is IS-95B technology, which will provide Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators with wireless data capabilities of up to 64 kilobits per second. The second, based on general packetized radio system (GPRS) technology, is intended for use in wireless personal communications services networks based on the international global system for mobile communication standard. Motorola says its GPRS product will deliver data access at 64 Kbps to 100 Kbps.
Motorola expects to release its first 3G product in 2000, when it plans to launch its IS-95C Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) technology to deliver voice and data - a rate of 2 megabits per second in stationary environments - as well as video and multimedia applications.
Qualcomm Inc. is looking for a faster path to wireless megabit service and is taking a proprietary track to get there. In late September, the company demonstrated its new High Data Rate (HDR) wireless technology, based on the CDMA technology for which it holds a number of key patents.
HDR supports CDMA data rates of more than 1.5 Mbps in a bandwidth spectrum of only 12.5 megahertz through use of a special handset that works with providers' existing infrastructure and networking systems, says Gwenn Larsson, director of technical marketing in the wireless infrastructure division. "We essentially took the CDMA interface and optimized it for packet data," she says. "We found that when you separate voice and data, you can provide higher transmission speeds and extra capacity on the same bandwidth. We expect to release this product to our providers within the next two years, if not sooner."
Economic realities are leading network operators to demand more practical technology approaches from suppliers, Larsson says. "Providers want us to develop products that enable them to reuse portions of their infrastructure and spectrum they already have in place," she says. "We're still trying to identify the implications and costs for our providers to move to a wider band."
Qualcomm's HDR initiative has raised big doubts among wireless market watchers. The first is that HDR embodies a proprietary approach, which means makers of handsets and other terminals will have to sign on for HDR knowing that the products they develop for that technology won't comply with eventual 3G standards. So far, no one has made that commitment. A second issue is that the technology involves bandwidth-sharing among users, similar to the setup on local area networks. As more data users access the network, their data rates will fall.
LMDS Options
In addition to focusing on delivering broadband access to the mass market, wireless gear makers are preparing to compete with wired access technologies for small and midsized businesses. One key access platform for this market is Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS). Ericsson Inc. reportedly is just weeks away from rolling out a product targeted at LMDS providers. The company says it will release a product known by its project name - Wireless Broadband Access - in the first quarter of next year. According to Pekka Keino, director of wireless local loop in Ericsson's network solutions division, the product will deliver 30 Mbps per sector for its providers.
"Each sector will be able to cover about two miles, depending on terrain, and you'll be able to stack sectors for additional capacity," Keino says. "We developed the product with these specifications in mind because we've determined that small business customers need between 1 Mbps and 3 Mbps, while medium-sized business customers need 3 Mbps to 8 Mbps."
Ericsson's new product platform is optimized for data, which is where the company sees the greatest promise for growth. It is being developed primarily for LMDS, which operates at the 28-gigahertz spectrum range, although it can be adapted for use by providers of 24-GHz and 38-GHz services, Keino says.
The Wireless Broadband Access initiative marks a new phase for Ericsson in the broadband wireless arena, he adds. "This is a big strategic step for us for the long term," Keino says.
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