buck,
Re: Wireless Data - Wireless Technologies (CDMA, TDMA, GSM) Qualcomm et al Part 1 of a 3 part article from upside.com linked by "buck".
<< Wireless Web Article >>
Excellent, unbiased, and timely link that accurately depicts the development of the 3 major wireless technologies, IMO. Thanks for posting it. It is good enough that I think it should be posted in its entirety here:
>>SO WHERE IS THE WIRELESS WEB?
February 11, 2000 - by Dee McVicker - Upside Magazine - Part 1 of 3
Wireless data is hot. You can't open a magazine without reading about microbrowsers on cell phones or turn on a television without seeing an advertisement for the Internet-in-your-pocket.
Japan is blasting away, with all jets driving, toward the new wireless Internet. As far back as October 19, 1998, NTT Mobile Communications Network Inc. (NTT DoCoMo, Tokyo), Japan's leading mobile operator, piloted a cellular network that joined together the cell phone and motion video.
Expected to launch commercially in March 2001, the network and others like it will give birth to a new wireless-communications era. For NTT DoCoMo's 3 million "i-mode" cell-phone subscribers (roughly 10 percent of the company's total customer base), for example, it will mean wireless high-speed Internet news, banking, video streaming, travel reservations, Web radio, and a slew of other services.
But here in the U.S., matters are not proceeding at the same headlong rate. Most wireless carriers are still smarting from their enormous (and painfully recent) investments in upgrading their network to support digital services (PCS). There is also some concern that the data market will bloom slowly -- a prediction that may become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The long and short of it is that next-generation cellular data services will happen on this continent, but it will be at least a three-to-six-year engagement before they do.
Data That Grabs You
Few cellular operators can ignore the importance of data. In major cities, up to eight wireless-network operators now compete for business. Data transmission represents a new source of revenue extraction from their customer base. Even though data currently represents less than 2 percent of wireless traffic, according to Datacomm Research, a cursory look at the 40 percent growth of messaging in Europe during 1999 (to a whopping billion messages sent per month, according to The Yankee Group) indicates that wireless data services have profit potential.
Most observers expect that wireless data services will evolve in much the same way the landline Internet grew. E-mail and other text messaging services will come first. "I think in the North American market, what hasn't had any widespread adoption yet is messaging. Whether it's done through e-mail and browsers or through SMS, I think that is going to be an initial step that will get people used to wireless data devices," says Larry Paulson, president of Product Line Management for Nokia (NOK) CDMA handsets, Dallas, Texas.
Eventually, the goal is "third generation," or 3G, devices (digital cell phones were the second generation) that will deliver data rates of up to 2 Mbps. Just for comparison, current cellular-network transfer rates plod along at 9.6 Kbps or 14.4 Kbps, at best, which is OK for e-mail and some of the new Internet services being lauded by cell-phone carriers. Phone.com's (PHCM) Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) microbrowser is helping squeeze the Web into these pipes, but that's a stopgap measure.
In the long term, 3G will bring about full mobile multimedia -- video streaming and audio streaming, plus location-based services that will be able to notify a traveler there's a concert in which he'll be interested in the city he's visiting, for example.
Every Call Is a Winding Road
Any and all of these nifty data services will require investment in hardware and software upgrades. How much, when, and how fast will depend on the operator's existing transmission equipment. Network operations are currently divided into three technology families, code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), and global system for mobile communication (GSM).
Each is facing a multigenerational path to higher data rates: a two-and-a-half generation (2.5G) modification followed by a third-generation (3G) modification. TDMA and GSM operators can take the 2.5G step with Ericsson's general packet radio service (GPRS), which will give them up to 115 Kbps, and then step up to 3G with enhanced data rates for global evolution (EDGE), which will bump them up to 384 Kbps and even, in some cases, 2 Mbps. CDMA operators can step into 2.5G with Qualcomm's cdma2000 1X, for up to 307 Kbps, and then step up to 3G with cdma2000 3X, which will give them up to 2 Mbps. 2-Mbps Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) is also a 3G option for GSM and CDMA operators.
Part of what is making it hard for U.S. wireless operators such as GTE Wireless (GTE) to immediately commit to 3G is their reluctance to give up a cash cow. "If we gave you 800-kilobit packet-data service as a user, we could fit 100 voice calls into that same bandwidth," explains Keith Radousky, vice president of engineering for BellSouth Cellular Corp. (BLS), Atlanta, Ga., which is also deploying 2.5G modifications as a soft step into 3G. Voice currently makes up the majority of operator income. "So there's a question of opportunity loss," he adds.
Japan's NTT DoCoMo doesn't have the same concern, one reason why it's not hesitating to jump into 3G. Japanese and European operators running out of bandwidth can license new spectrum for 3G; U.S. operators cannot.
The marriage between high-speed data and voice is a longer shot for U.S. network operators, because the operators already occupy the 2GHz band that other countries are now licensing for 3G. Moreover, U.S. PCS operators are running voice over this band -- very profitably, thank you -- so operators are already vested in existing infrastructure. <<
[Dee McVicker of Gilbert, Ariz. is a freelance writer specializing in broadcasting, information technology and telecommunications.] <<
<eom> see next post for part 2
- Eric - |
