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To: Stewart V. Nelson who wrote (8673)	2/19/1998 1:30:00 PM
From: Caxton Rhodes	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 152472

New Rifts Threaten Paris Accord On Mobile Systems Future By Jeremy Scott-Joynt 18-FEB-98 Just as the dust has settled after Europe's agreement on a single air interface for third generation mobile systems (3G), a new row is brewing which could once more see the GSM and CDMAOne communities at each other's throats. ÿÿÿÿÿÿ Last week a meeting in Japan of standards body representatives from Europe, North America and Asia attempted to explore ways in which the GSM and CDMAOne world's could compromise. But the meeting ended in acrimony as the two camps exchanged accusation and counter-accusation, placing question marks against the apparent success of recent European Telecommunications Standards Institute efforts in Paris to unite the two camps behind a single Universal Mobile Telecommunications Standards for 3G systems. ÿÿÿÿÿÿ The simmering differences emerged as the meeting in Japan explored ways in which CDMAOne and GSM could be made less incompatible. According to Fred Hillebrand, chairman of ETSI's Special Mobile Group, the CDMA camp proposed changes in the way terminals interoperate with the air interface, including cutting the speed of the chipsets in GSM handsets to bring them in line with IS95 devices. But "it's not clear why we should seek this kind of commonality. We can't achieve it without reducing the performance of GSM equipment. They have to improve on Paris, not degrade it" said Hillebrand. ÿÿÿÿÿÿ The CDMA camp also called for the creation of global standards body to oversee ongoing 3G development. According to Hillebrand this would only slow up the 3G standards process, and risk missing the 30 June deadline to submit a completed UMTS specification to the International Telecommunication Union for inclusion in that body's own IMTS-2000 mobile standards initiative. ÿÿÿÿÿÿ Hillberand's concerns were echoed by George Schmitt, ceo of Omnipoint, one of the US GSM operators already worried that their relatively narrow spectrum allocations may not be big enough for UMTS. "I hope operators and carriers can just live with the [Paris] decision. We have to stop arguing about things like chip rates, which some vendors have done and which defeats the purpose [of the earlier decisions]." ÿÿÿÿÿÿ Neil Lilly, head of systems strategy with Orange in the UK and chairman of the GSM MoU Association's 3G Interest Group, also expressed impatience with what he believes is CDMA intransigence. "We've come along way" he said, arguing that the GSM camp had made most of the running in terms of finding grounds for compromise in the run up to the Paris accord. "Now it's your [the CDMA world's] turn" he said. ÿÿÿÿÿÿ Other operators are worried that the if the positions of the two camps continue to harden the progress made in Paris could be irrevocably lost. Craig Fairhill, VP of strategic technology for Airtouch International, which operates both CDMA and GSM networks, warned against giving up on the CDMA stance too soon. "I'd like to say we we'd see a coherent effort in the US. We're not there, but we see ourselves very close to compromise. There's some experience out there in the IS95 community and it would be a shame to walk away from it" he said. ÿÿÿÿÿÿ For their part CDMA supporters claim that the real stumbling block in Japan was ETSI's position. "The meeting in Japan was pretty hairy" said one CDMAOne representative, "because it seemed to us that the Japanese and Korean wanted to bring everything all together. But when you've got ETSI saying they're not interested in convergence, you've got a problem. Everyone has to step up a gear on this."