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To: slacker711 who wrote (3724)	3/2/2000 6:40:00 PM
From: slacker711	Respond to of 34857

americasnetwork.com. Feeling A Bit EDGE-y? Some analysts are worried that too many interim standards are providing an unnecessary distraction. "Though W-CDMA follows a clear evolutionary path from GPRS, EDGE is really an orphan technology," asserts Jane Zweig, executive vice president with Herschel Shosteck Associates. "The timing for EDGE is unclear, given that most operators will try to get spectrum [to implement full-blown 3G]. And while the IS-95 route to 3G is fairly straightforward, the CDMA camp also has its interim spec, HDR, which is also a distraction and not required." Zweig argues that if TDMA operators move forward to EDGE without support from the GSM camp, the 3G world will splinter even further. "EDGE requires a significant investment, doubling of cell density required for data speed for low bit-error rates," says Zweig. "But if GSM doesn?t go for EDGE in a big way, [then you] don?t have adequate R&D, economies of scale, or manufacturer support. For AT&T Wireless, which is planning to implement EDGE, these factors could be a big challenge." Most GSM experts believe the first proving ground for 3G migration will be the trials of GPRS. Siemens and Omnipoint have announced a GPRS trial, and AT&T Wireless will be deploying GPRS in its network the second half of this year, according to Ken Woo of AT&T Wireless. It won?t deploy commercially yet. "We want our engineers to have experience in GPRS-based traffic, to nail down the bugs," he says. A network test bed is being set up at AT&T Labs in Red Bank, N.J., and at AT&T facilities in Basking Ridge, N.J., Lower Manhattan, Menlo Park, Calif., and Redmond, Wash. A GPRS-based packet exchange with British Telecom is planned, and AT&T is looking at EDGE as a more advanced data-oriented solution. "In terms of evolving to UMTS or wideband CDMA, it?s something we?ll probably have to look at," says Woo. "But EDGE is about high-speed data, and we?re working on new methods to improve voice quality on EDGE. To implement that technology, we need more spectrum." Siemens? Chaudhury believes that early GPRS trials will be the litmus test for true wider-band 3G solutions, but not all will be IMT-2000-based. "Operators will be cautious," he predicts, "and GPRS will be the proving ground for how wireless data picks up." GPRS requires software upgrades to GSM base stations only to gain higher speeds for data, whereas EDGE requires significantly more expensive changes in modulation schemes and coding ? and, hence, hardware. "A lot of operators are skeptical about the demands for wireless data, but with the Internet, things are expected to be different," says Chaudhury. "Both IMT-2000 and GPRS are great for a greenfields approach to high-speed networks. But while some vendors will leapfrog to W-CDMA, EDGE is also a definite goal. If operators can?t get enough spectrum for an IMT-2000 license, they can use EDGE to provide consumers with high-bandwidth mobile services."