Tero,
<< I'm not sure how USA can get out of its current isolation >>
It is coming out, just as Europe is coming out of theirs.
We will survive, so will you.
I think you may find the viewpoint of this American right up your alley. As a matter of fact, his viewpoint is similar to my own.
BTW: I am violently opposed to the pending 1800 MHz Brazil decision and that has nothing to do with a technology bias, it has to do with consistency in the Americas. I don't know if you have read the Terry Phillips article on this subject linked off the GSM home page, but I am surprised they published it there.
>> When It Comes to Standards, More Is Not Better
Telecommunications Online (Americas Edition)
April 2000
Jim Mollenauer
Cruising the Information Superhighway
Once again I am reminded of the value of standards, even if sometimes imposed at gunpoint. Years ago (almost 60?) the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandated the National Television Standards Committee?s television standard for the United States. It has stood the test of time, and no one thinks twice about taking the TV along when moving from place to place. It could have been otherwise if uniformity of transmission format had not been mandated. During the past year or two, CableLabs has DOCSIS-certified cable modems from about a dozen vendors. No one doubts that the rigorous certification process will enable consumers to buy cable modems and take them from city to city when they move. In this case, it was not the government but the Golden Rule, and the cable operators had the gold.
The opposite situation has occurred with cell phones, even though portability is this device?s most important consideration. Unfortunately, you can?t always take your cell phone with you and expect it to work, because the FCC went along with the antiregulatory tide and said, ?Let the market decide.? Well, the market hasn?t fully decided, even though third-generation (3G) wireless is not that far away.
Traveling to Europe, I am always envious of the locals who use their GSM phones nearly anywhere, and the bill catches up with them. Or they transfer their smart cards and, presto, different handsets are personalized as their phones. On this side of the Atlantic, the market has declared GSM ?not invented here.?
When my analog cell phone began giving me problems, it looked like a good time to go digital. But what kind of digital? Different service providers use different technologies; a phone that works on one network doesn?t work (at least without roaming charges) on another. My first choice was GSM since it could also be used in Europe. No, not really: The frequency is different. Well, I could take the chip out and put it in a European phone. True, but GSM coverage is poor here and, in fact, nonexistent in a large belt running down the country?s middle from Chicago through most of Texas.
As a second choice, I now have a CDMA handset that sometimes works and sometimes doesn?t, depending on where I am. It doesn?t work at my house, even though I live close enough to a major highway to hear that in the summer. All those eyesore towers along the interstates and I can?t get a strong enough signal a few blocks away. Coverage is divided between analog and three types of digital service. Clearly, this reduces the coverage for any one of them. At least there?s a backup analog mode in the phone, just in case the Digital Age hasn?t really arrived.
When I go to standards meetings for broadband wireless, I cross my fingers that history won?t repeat itself. With luck we?ll achieve global compatibility, bringing manufacturers and users the benefits of global markets, with quantity production pushing prices down. In truth it could go either way.
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has been working on broadband access networks for some time. Meanwhile, the International Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) has chartered working group 802.16 with a similar scope. IEEE 802 considers itself multinational (if not officially an international organization) while ETSI is regional. The European Union has not been shy about mandating use of standards that were developed mainly for Europe.
At the moment, 802.16 has two contenders for consideration as the standard: one purpose-built for broadband access; the other a modified version of the DOCSIS cable modem standard. Initially there were a dozen proposals, but a beauty contest score sheet eliminated most of them.
With strong participation from Europe and Israel, the first proposal has evolved closer to the current work in ETSI; a complete merger is not out of the question. The DOCSIS proposal has moved away from using strict cable modem MAC protocol, which was the original idea, and has added features that wireless service providers desire, such as ATM. It still shows its roots in the cable industry with 188-byte MPEG frames as the basic unit for building the transmission and no direct support for TDM traffic (e.g., T1 and E1) that actually makes up the bulk of today?s wireless access traffic.
By summer, the shoot-out will probably be over. With luck, we may have a single worldwide standard for high-speed broadband equipment. This can catalyze the growth of access networks that don?t depend on buried fiber to provide megabits per second to its users.
If things go well, this could set an example to keep the cellular industry on track as 3G standards are debated. Uniform technology is even more important for the mobile market than it is for fixed access, and the stakes are higher. The temptation for major players to play by rules they have written themselves is strong. If it is resisted, we?ll all be better off. The world has become too small for multiple standards in wireline communication, let alone mobile and fixed wireless.
Jim Mollenauer is a contributing editor with Telecommunicationsmagazine and president of Technical Strategy Associates in Newton, Mass. He consults on high-speed networks, including ATM, cable modems and wireless. (jmollenauer@technicalstrategy.com) <<
- Eric - Former BAM/Omnipoint guy turned Verizon/Voicestream zealot <g> |
