RCR Opinion>
VIEWPOINT
By Lynnette Luna
The 3G debate these days could be characterized as a global poker
game—no one is quite sure who's bluffing, who holds the winning cards
or who plans to fold. Whether convergence of two primary
CDMA-based proposals—W-CDMA and cdma2000—is achieved
depends on the actions of some powerful players of the game:
· Qualcomm Inc. and L.M. Ericsson, of course. The two are holding up
the International Telecommunication Union process by claiming to hold
intellectual property rights to both W-CDMA and cdma2000
technologies. Qualcomm won't license its IPRs unless one CDMA
standard is achieved. Ericsson won't grant its patents unless full
reciprocity is granted and each country is allowed to choose which
technology it wants to deploy. Qualcomm has said it holds patents to
CDMA technology, in general to concepts such as soft handoff and
power control. Ericsson declines to comment on which patents it holds.
No one has determined what patents are essential to any of these
standards.
· Europe. The U.S. government is pushing the European Union to open
up its standards process as the European Telecommunications Standards
Institute appears to push ahead with W-CDMA technology only. A bitter
fight may be in order, with World Trade Organization implications.
· Japan's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. The country was
ready to push ahead with GSM-based W-CDMA technology in step
with the Europeans when Qualcomm jumped in to declare it holds
essential patents to the proposal. The MPT is trapped between the
interests of the United States, which earlier this year told Japan it was
concerned the country wasn't keeping its standards process open, and
Europe, with which it had planned to become a world leader in wireless
telecommunications technology. Today, it appears the MPT is opting to
wait for the big referee, the ITU, to come up with a standard rather than
deciding on its own.
· NTT DoCoMo. DoCoMo has the most to lose if the ITU process is
delayed too long. The carrier plans to become the first in the world to
deploy W-CDMA technology to relieve network-capacity problems.
Economic pressures may spur DoCoMo to look for a solution.
· Vodafone/AirTouch. The two combined will make the largest wireless
operator in the world. Chris Gent, CEO of Vodafone, has said in
published reports the two companies will use their size to put as much
pressure as possible to ensure one global 3G standard.
· China. The Chinese are in charge of trying to harmonize the 16 different
radio transmission technology proposals submitted to the ITU. The
Ministry of Information Industry has said it fully supports global efforts to
harmonize 3G technologies, but has yet to allow commercialization of
second-generation CDMA technology, IS-95, in China.
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