More 3G info and how it impacts (or is impacted by) QCOM:
US Will Lag In 3G Wireless, Report Says 03/17/99.
Newsbytes PM, March 17, 1999 pNA
Full Text
TEMPE, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1999 MAR 17 (NB) -- By Grant Buckler, Newsbytes. Third-generation cellular
services will be available in Japan within about two years, then in Europe, and finally in North America,
according to a report on the technology from research firm Forward Concepts. Adoption of the
technology, which will provide for high-speed data transmission as well as voice service, will take longer
in the United States largely because Qualcomm Inc., is using influence in Washington to try to protect its
cdma2000 technology from rival Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) and UWC-36, Will
Strauss of Forward Concepts told Newsbytes.
The three are the principal contenders to serve as standards for third-generation wireless technology.
All three are likely to co-exist in the US market, Strauss said. "Qualcomm is probably the biggest
impediment to the US going along with everyone else" on third-generation wireless standards, Strauss
said. "Qualcomm has some very powerful friends in Washington." Forward Concepts' study forecasts that
these three standards at a minimum will be in use as third-generation wireless comes to commercial
use, and that at least the first handsets on the market will work with only one of them. In Europe,
Forward Concepts expects W-CDMA to prevail, probably by government mandate. It was developed by
Ericsson. In February, Newsbytes reported on a TransAtlantic Business Dialogue meeting at which senior
executives of US and European companies supported the idea of one third-generation CDMA standard,
with three modes. These modes would include versions of the cdma2000 technology, backed mainly by
current users of second-generation CDMA technology, the W-CDMA standard backed by the North
American GSM Alliance, and a Time Division Duplex (TDD) mode. Valerie Christopherson, a
spokeswoman for the CDMA Development Group in Costa Mesa, Calif., said the standard would make it
much easier for wireless phone manufacturers to build multi-mode handsets that would work with any
of the standards. Forward Concepts also said that as third-generation cellular technology evolves,
multi-mode cellular phones will appear that can work with different cellular systems and with satellites,
and eventually satellite systems will be deployed that will support high-speed data communications
from anywhere on Earth. Worldwide roaming is expected after 2005, says the report. More information
about the report is available on Forward Concepts' World Wide Web site at
forwardconcepts.com . Reported By Newsbytes News Network, newsbytes.com
(19990316/Press Contact: Will Strauss, Forward Concepts, 602-968-3759 /WIRES TELECOM, ASIA/)
|
