Also see this older article on CDMA450 in China. Sorry if posted earlier, I haven't read the whole week's backlog yet.
HINA READY TO ALLOW ENTRY TO MORE CDMA OPERATORS
by Lynnette Luna
Telephony, Sep 23, 2002
China, a country that once wavered on plans to introduce CDMA, could soon support multiple CDMA operators. Industry sources indicate some of China's fixed-line operators want to enter the mobile wireless business through cdma2000 networks that operate in the 450 MHz band.
Lucent Technologies, a vendor that has spearheaded CDMA deployments in the 450 MHz band in Eastern Europe and Russia, acknowledged the existence of RFPs for such networks but would not disclose which companies have issued them.
“I do believe China will go ahead with CDMA 450,” said David Poticny, vice president of Lucent's mobility division.
CDMA 450 is beginning to gain momentum in China primarily because it is relatively inexpensive to deploy. The lower frequency translates into less towers and base stations, compared with a traditional 900 MHz system, to cover vast regions such as China.
CDMA 450'S GLOBAL INROADS
CHINA: Operators have circulated RFPs
INDONESIA: Mobile Selular Indonesia launched
ROMANIA: Telemobile launched; plans for national coverage by 2003
RUSSIA: MCC and Delta Telecom launched trial system; other operators obtaining nationwide licenses
SPAIN, PORTUGAL AND FRANCE: Inquam wants to migrate networks
This low-cost technology is getting a boost from the European experience with WCDMA as well. Across that continent, operators paid billions for WCDMA licenses in the 2.1 GHz band, but because of the struggling economy and expense of equipment, many are scaling back deployment plans. Additionally, WCDMA's spectrum-hogging characteristics don't allow a feasible deployment of the technology in the 450 MHz band.
The 450 MHz band has become, paradoxically, a back door through which CDMA technology has been able to enter Europe, a continent dominated by government-mandated GSM technology. The NMT Association, which represents 450 MHz operators worldwide, is not governed by the European Telecommunications Union and in 1999 accepted CDMA as one of the digital standards its operators could adopt, though few have until recently. Romanian operator TeleMobile launched the region's first commercial CDMA 450 system in December with plans to offer nationwide service by 2003.
Additionally, Qualcomm formed a U.K.-based company last year called Inquam with the mission of purchasing flailing NMT 450 networks and migrate them to CDMA 450. Inquam owns TeleMobile and purchased the assets of Dolphin, a bankrupt terrestrial trunked radio operator in Europe. Its hope is to obtain regulatory approval in Spain, Portugal and France to migrate those networks to CDMA. The company last fall made a $45 million cash investment in Mobile Selular Indonesia to deploy CDMA 450. Inquam executives did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Ironically, it is the Russian government that can take the credit for persuading the Chinese telecom ministry to allow more operators to introduce CDMA. After years of intense lobbying from CDMA vendors and the U.S. government, China finally opened the doors to CDMA technology in 2000, allowing just one operator, China Unicom, to nationally roll out service.
Russia, however, wants cheaper equipment and wants to use China's influence to give legitimacy to the 450 MHz band's support of next-generation mobile technology, said Joseph Nordgaard, founder of consulting firm Spectral Advantage and a pioneer of the CDMA 450 business. The Russian government is licensing various operators to create a nationwide CDMA 450 system. Today, CDMA has the largest footprint of any mobile technology in Russia, and Lucent is in the process of expanding trial systems in St. Petersburg and Moscow, he said.
Nordgaard, on behest of the Russian government, approached the Chinese earlier this year about the possibility of deploying CDMA 450 in China. The two governments have been in discussions all year. The Chinese telecommunications ministry recently met in Washington with the State Department to discuss opening up its domestic market to CDMA 450.
“China has a very pronounced need to provide low-cost telecommunications to its vast land mass,” said Nordgaard. “This will help bring economies of scale, build China's growing expertise in CDMA and create opportunities for American companies to sell into the Chinese market.”
CDMA 450 is currently supported by just two handset manufacturers: Hyundai and Synertek, which is a consortium of Korean vendors. Last month, Chinese vendor Huawei Technologies entered the market with a set of CDMA infrastructure solutions for the 450 MHz band. Lucent, Huawei and ZTE are already infrastructure suppliers in the Russian CDMA 450 market.
“We know we can't be the only provider,” said Lucent's Poticny. “We're looking for other infrastructure providers. For more handsets, there has to be a reasonable number of operators to get a reasonable number of vendors interested in this.”
Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDMA Development Group, said CDMA 450 is becoming the backdrop for what he describes as a growing movement toward cdma2000 in general. Several carriers around the world are deploying the technology faster than their WCDMA counterparts. CDMA 450 becomes even more appealing because of the spectrum's propagation capabilities, said LaForge.
But pushing CDMA 450 will take significant lobbying in some countries because many governments have chopped up the band for other uses. In many countries, a reasonable block of spectrum doesn't exist, said Poticny. In the U.S., for instance, the band is tied up with government and military communications. And while various vendors and carriers have made submissions to the International Telecommunications Union, that governing body has yet to accept the 450 MHz spectrum as a 3G band — although that has not deterred many carriers.
“We intend to work with regulators,” Poticny said. “It may be a long-term thing, but if it's possible over time to free up a band for this type of technology, it would be very advantageous in terms of coverage for a particular country.”
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