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To: Asterisk who wrote (7702)	1/28/1998 9:06:00 PM
From: Ramsey Su	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Michael, right now it is a stalemate 61% to 39% with 71% required for approval. Is it possible that no agreement is reached and everyone goes home? If yes, wouldn't it in essence be a victory for QCOM because it will buy them time to demonstrate CDMA/GSM overlay. I don't know of ERICY or anybody else working on a solution to allow a transition to 3G. Aren't both proposals lacking in terms of total backward compatibility right now? Another question, using the ladder example again, we know the technology is there to build a ladder, be it pine, oak or titanium. The standard is therefore just specs. In the case of 3G, imagine we are living in the stone age. The tribes are trying to get together to agree on standards for a "climbing device" to reach the caves. No one has ever made one of these devices before. After extensive research, even though there were agreement on the height, width, etc, no one came up with anything that works. What good is the standard? One final question. What if the ERICY team's proposal is adopted, does that prevent other alliances from proceeding ahead with a different idea anyway and let the market place ultimately choose the winner? Ramsey

To: Asterisk who wrote (7702)	1/28/1998 9:30:00 PM
From: stealthy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Third Generation saga: Following is another recent 3G discussion from EETimes (Jan 26), but the hardcopy version has substantially more detail than the below abrieviated online version: " techweb.cmp.com " ------------------------ 6:00 p.m. EST, 1/28/98 ETSI appears headed for cellular stalemate By Peter Clarke PARIS -- The European Telecommunications Standards Institute's move to establish a standard for the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) appears to have hit a stalemate. In a vote Wednesday, two proposals for the third-generation mobile system received strong support. The vote was crucial because its outcome is likely to determine whether a dominant standard emerges for third-generation mobile terminals, based on a form of wideband CDMA radio interface, or whether multiple standards are pursued around the world. The vote occurred on the first day of the ETSI SMG 24-bis meeting that is being held Jan. 28 to 29 in Paris. The result of the vote is that the wideband CDMA proposal backed by Ericsson and Nokia received 61.1 percent, a wideband TDMA proposal got 0.2 percent and a hybrid wideband TD-CDMA proposal backed by the UMTS Alliance received 38.7 percent. The UMTS alliance includes communications-equipment makers Alcatel, Siemens, Motorola, Nortel and Sony. The vote was not much different from a preliminary vote in Madrid, Spain, last December in which the wideband CDMA proposal received 58.45 percent and the hybrid TD/CDMA proposal 41.55 percent. Because the 71 percent support required by the ETSI technical working procedures was not reached, discussions will continue tomorrow. If no proposal achieves 71 percent support, the ETSI committee is expected to call for another vote with adoption of a proposal based on a simple majority of more than 50 percent. But that could introduce delays. ------------------------ NOTE: Additional extracts of the full hardcopy version reads in part: --------------- " Whichever way the ETSI vote goes the US is likely to become isolated and lag behind developments in Asia and Europe. This is partly because of a reluctance to take a prescriptive approach to technology use in mobile comm. and partly because of available spectrum issues. The main effort in the US focuses upon maintaining backward compatibility with the 2nd generation IS-95 CDMA... " " .... Geographically what is at stake is access,or at least ease of access to the potential mobile comm. markets of SEA in the 21 st century." " ... Japan is determined to be first to roll out thirdgen systems. " " Ericcson and NOkia clearly believe their best chance of catching up with Japan is by piggybacking off their technology." " ..... chairman of the GSM MoU Assoc. called on the two rival camps to work out a formula for compromise. "As operators we only see benefit in a way forward which ensures one global radio interface for UMTS, in that it encompasses all regions. Also we firmly believe that any ETSI radio interface selection must be wholeheartedly supported by the global GSM operator community to be successful. There may be a degree of brinkmanship going on; waiting for Ericsson and Nokia to say " We'll give you something to make sure all your hard work has not been in vain" " " ------------------- The full implications of the above are not clear to me; But hope it's of some help to other thread readers, who may be able to provide coherent interpretation; Stealthy