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To: Uncle Frank who wrote (60103)	1/6/2000 2:31:00 PM
From: Boplicity	Respond to of 152472

will do. Greg

To: Uncle Frank who wrote (60103)	1/6/2000 2:33:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Adding A Big Dash Of Acronyms The Path To 3G Includes Recipe For Ambiguous Terminology By Peggy Albright Wireless is notorious for its alphabet soup of technology names and acronyms. Consumers confront terms like CDMA, GSM or TDMA simply to select service. But that's about as deep as it goes for the wireless buyer. Pity the poor professional, however, for industry-specific terms are even more cumbersome. The lingo has become more prominent and complex with the emergence of the International Telecommunication Union's many IMT-2000 standards. A case in point: TDMA, where technologies providing the evolutionary path to third generation and convergence with GSM have created a handful of new terms, some used differently by each camp. Ultimately these tongue-twisting terms could threaten the clarity of communication in what is, ironically, a communications field. For now, however, it appears they've pushed participants to parse meanings more carefully. Keeping names straight for various technology options has indeed become confusing, confirms Chris Pearson, spokesman for the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium. The problem arose at a recent meeting on EDGE (enhanced data rate for global evolution) and GPRS (general packet radio services), when panelists had to define numerous terms for the audience. As a result, UWCC is considering posting a glossary on its Web site. The IMT-2000 service that TDMA carriers plan to adopt is called UWC-136, named by the UWCC. On the path to UWC-136, TDMA carriers will deploy IS-136+ and IS-136HS, EDGE or EDGE Compact and GPRS. Much of the confusion surrounds EDGE, which both TDMA and GSM carriers can use for high-speed information services that roam across both networks. When AT&T Wireless Services talks about installing EDGE in 2001, it's talking about 3G. But most GSM operators say EDGE is 2.5G, a term often used to describe “pre-3G” services. That's because EDGE is primarily an alternative route to 3G services for GSM operators that will not have new spectrum for deploying their chosen IMT-2000 option, wideband CDMA. So some analysts, such as Herschel Shosteck and Associates Ltd., see EDGE as 2.5G. “We call it an orphan technology,” says Jane Zweig, executive vice president at that firm. “It's not required to get to 3G … It's really a whole new technology.” But EDGE is additionally confusing because it is often used interchangeably with IS-136HS and UWC-136. Are those terms equivalent? No. TDMA's evolution to UWC-136 starts with IS-136+, a software upgrade that offers data rates of up to 64 kilobits per second. The IS-136HS standard is a hardware addition. The term IS-136HS designates the high-speed data component of UWC-136; it is not synonymous with UWC-136. IS-136HS is achieved in two steps. In the first step, it offers a 384 kilobit-per-second data rate in a mobile environment, which is provided by EDGE. In the second step, it delivers the 2-megabits-per-second data rate. Thus, EDGE is synonymous with the first phase of IS-136HS. But it qualifies as 3G because it meets the 384 kbps performance requirements for IMT-2000 in both pedestrian and vehicular mobile environments, says Paul Meche, director of new systems technologies at Nokia and the former chair of the global TDMA Forum. EDGE Compact enables carriers to deploy EDGE-like services, with minimal use of spectrum, though at “slightly lower speeds,” Pearson says. GPRS is the packet layer management system that TDMA carriers will deploy with EDGE. GSM carriers can deploy this whether or not they go to EDGE. If it's any comfort to the TDMA folks, CDMA has its own terminology pitfalls. While many consider cdma2000's phase I technology, 1XRTT, as 2.5G, it's really 3G too, that camp says. Perhaps the industry could simply accept a new term for all of the above: “interim technologies.”