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To: qveauriche who wrote (111848)	1/29/2002 4:48:23 PM
From: Stock Farmer	Respond to of 152472

the merits of an American TDMA carrier doing a GSM overlay... Maybe it has something to do with the carrier's customers?

To: qveauriche who wrote (111848)	1/29/2002 5:25:51 PM
From: Eric L	Respond to of 152472

qveauriche, << Could you follow up with a post addressing the relative ease with which: (a) a GSM/GPRS network could be upgraded to 1x as opposed to WDCMA? >> Since no manufacturer has yet attempted to commercialize 1xRTT for a GSM MAP network, and it does not appear that the IS-833 standard has yet been brought up to date to reflect Release A v.6 changes to 1xRTT, that question is somewhat moot. << or (b) a GSM/GPRS network could be upgraded to WCDMA as opposed to a CDMA network being upgraded to 1X? >> In a general sense (and assuming that the CDMA network has been upgraded to recent rev), it is easier for the CDMA carrier to upgrade to 1xRTT. It is much more seamless. However, once a carrier has upgraded his GSM network to include GPRS which is the bearer service for EDGE and WCDMA(or even commenced the process) he is a third of the way home or more. It is not very likely at that stage of his migration that he would elect to alter it ... and as pointed out above, the standard is not up to date, and nobody has yet started to commercialize an alternative 1xRTT upgrade. Do you know of any carrier that wants to be a guinea pig for being an early adopter for this, and work through the debugging process? What infra vendor do you think is in a position today to commercialize it? << More generally, would either of you have any defense at all for the merits of an American TDMA carrier doing a GSM overlay, with a GPRS overlay, with an Edge overlay, and then finally a WCDMA overlay as opposed to simply going straight to 1x, which is available in the here and now? Absolutely. For starters, the American TDMA carriers that are doing a GSM overlay are doing a GSM with GPRS overlay, NOT a GSM overlay followed by GPRS overlay. It is one step, not two. All base stations (at least from Nokia) that they have deployed, or will be deploying house GPRS & EDGE (and ultimately WCDMA or EDGE/WCDMA multi-radio) transceivers. All GPRS transceivers currently shipping to AWS & Cingular are software upgradable to EDGE. AWS will need to do some rearrangement on the portions of their net already overlaid with GSM GPRS, but new AWS deployment and Cingular's deployment will be upgraded to EDGE with software which is exactly what PCS & Verizon will do when cdma2000 release A (the IMT-2000 approved 3G CDMA) is commercially available. While the path to EDGE or EDGE/WCDMA is not as straightforward as it is from cdmaone to cdma2000, it is nowhere near as convoluted as those old Qualcomm slides we have seen a million times. I happen to think that 1xRTT is an ideal choice for capacity constrained American carriers, but Qualcomm (and their value chain) isn't playing with a full deck when they chase them. No CDMA/TDMA handsets anywhere on anybodies horizon, and in the case of a Cingular who is GSM GPRS in 28% of their national footprint, no fully standardized or commercialized upgrade path. The dual-mode handsets are a BIG issue. Making a technology flip is painful, no matter which way you flip. Having to run essentially parallel networks, when you have a subscriber base the size of Cigular's or AWS's is painful, but the pain is eased significantly with multi-mode handsets. Best, - Eric -