Cha2,
<< biggest joke in all this is, there is no generally approved DS mode yet with agreed specifications >>
You and I disagree on this, but perhaps you are technically correct, if by your statement you mean that the ITU has not ratified the standard with a "final approval" under IMT-2000. There is most certainly, however, a "generally approved DS mode ... with agreed specifications".
On December 17, 1999 the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) approved "Release 99" specifications. Standards bodies from China, Europe, Japan, Korea and the United States, approved this the comprehensive set of 300 specifications for 3rd Generation Mobile communications.
I have formed the opinion that So far as the UMTS Forum and 3GPP are concerned there is a UMTS 3G standard (even though the ITU has not ratified the standard) and a plan has been set to evolve the standard at a future date into "Release 2000" .
I realize that the ITU has not yet ratified "Release 99". The ITU has however said (in their 12/10 press release regarding the six "agreed to" network-related standards):
"These six recommendations have been agreed under the fast-track approval procedure. Under this procedure, the draft text of a recommendation is circulated to all ITU-T members to determine whether the Study Group is to be assigned the authority to give it final approval ("decision") at its next meeting. After unanimous approval by the Study Group, the standard takes effect. The decision step is scheduled for June 2000."
I am further under the impression that vendors are working to the "Release 99" specifications in planning to supply 3G infrastructure and handsets to the initial 3G networks on roughly the published timeframes that we are now seeing (and debating).
I have noticed recent increased cooperation (and what appear to be some compromises) between countries, standards bodies within those countries, and the Operators Harmonization Group (OHG) which represents the interests of ARIB, TTC, ETSI, TIA, TTA, T1, CWTS, 3GPP, & 3GPP2, and whose founding members are Bell Atlantic Mobile, Bell Mobility, BellSouth Cellular, China Mobile, China Unicom, DACOM, DDI, Hansol M.Com, IDO, Japan Telecom, KDD, Korea Telecom, LG TeleCom, Microcell Connexions, NTT DoCoMo, Omnitel, SingTel, SK Telecom, Sprint PCS, Telefonica Moviles, Telesystem International Wireless, T-Mobil, Vodafone AirTouch, and VoiceStream Wireless.
You maintain that "there is neither a standard approved anywhere in the world for DS mode, nor are there agreed specifications for DS mode". I maintain that there is indeed a standard for DS mode, and that there is such high likelihood that the standard will be blessed by the ITU in June, that vendors and network carriers who are very close to developments are acting on that standard now, and making decisions about deploying it.
Best,
- Eric - |
