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To: Sawtooth who wrote (16017)	10/5/1998 6:29:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 152472

All, 3G info; news \| opinion \| letters \| contact us \| calendar \| submit \| staff info October 5, 1998 3G will include a standard ‘pretty close' to GSM By Jeffrey Silva WASHINGTON—Pekka Tarjanne, outgoing secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union, predicted last week a family of third-generation wireless standards will emerge by year's end and that family will include a standard ‘‘pretty close'' to the Global System for Mobile communications-based technology dominated by Sweden's L.M. Ericsson and Finland's Nokia Corp. in Europe and elsewhere around the world. ‘‘I happen to be an optimist with respect to IMT 2000. I believe we are very close to an agreement on the third-generation issue. I believe the results will not be as strict a standard'' so that ‘‘everybody has to produce the same type of equipment and the same kind of interfaces.'' ‘‘It will be a family of standards ... with quite a lot of flexibility,'' said Tarjanne. ‘‘I think that will be in the interest of the ITU members and in the interest of the industry—the industry, in particular. Economies of scale around the world can be used so there will be a possibility for different parts of the industry to compete, so there will not be a monopoly, so that people will be able to create all kinds of funny gadgets and operations and facilities which can compete with each other for the benefit of everyone.'' Though most observers expect Geneva-based ITU to approve a family of 3G standards that includes a GSM-based wideband Code Division Multiple Access standard, Tarjanne's remarks still represent the first known public acknowledgement of where ITU is headed on 3G. The official ITU decision on 3G is expected in March, but an answer—albeit an unofficial one—could come sooner. ‘‘We are coming very close to the final result and I hope that by December I could be able to describe to you in detail the ITU family,'' said Tarjanne. Tarjanne's view's on 3G, in response to questions following a speech at the American Enterprise Institute last Tuesday, also provided a glimpse into European sentiment regarding GSM and its next-generation successor, W-CDMA. ‘‘The final ITU solution and the global situation will be pretty close to that [GSM]. I mean that [GSM] has so much support around the world, but not exactly what the Europeans themselves have decided. Europe is not the whole world.'' Maybe, maybe not. Today, CDMA developed by Qualcomm Inc., the San Diego wireless technology firm, is locked out of Europe. There is one school of thought that if W-CDMA becomes dominant in Europe, which is a real possibility if a European directive for a single, pan-European 3G standard is approved several months from now, Japan and much of the rest of world will follow suit. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute already has embraced W-CDMA. The United States submitted four 3G standards to the ITU on June 30. One of the four is W-CDMA, which is backed by Ericsson, Nokia and GSM mobile phone operators here and abroad. Another is cdma2000, which Qualcomm and others back. With the ITU having received 15 3G standards from around the world, Qualcomm, Lucent Technologies Inc., a major wireless equipment supplier, and CDMA wireless carriers are lobbying U.S. and foreign policy makers to converge the different CDMA standards into one. GSM backers argue 3G harmonization will degrade the resulting technology because the chip rate will be reduced. They claim Qualcomm is trying to leverage exorbitant royalties from manufacturers without regard to the quality of 3G technology. Qualcomm contends W-CDMA intentionally was designed not to be backward compatible with CDMA mobile phone systems in the United States. Convergence, Qualcomm claims, would offer backward compatibility in an environment where the lack of spectrum might make it the only viable option in the U.S. Some in the Clinton administration and Congress have voiced concerns about the European Union gaining an unfair trade advantage in a future 3G market potentially worth billions of dollars. Yet it is unclear, despite the strong rhetoric, how far the administration is willing to go on 3G. Administration aides have made it clear they will not press the EU to accept Qualcomm's technology per se. Given that, Qualcomm lobbyists are hoping they can persuade the administration to push for CDMA convergence. Complicating U.S. 3G policy is the fact that Motorola Inc. is not actively pushing for CDMA convergence. Neither are U.S. subsidiaries of Ericsson, Nokia and Canada's Northern Telecom Ltd., which nevertheless employ American workers around the country. ‘‘IMT 2000 is one of the core issues for the work of the ITU,'' said Tarjanne. ‘‘But the ITU is not the secretariat, although headquarters happen to be in Switzerland. It's a global organization and the decisions are taken by the members. In particular, on questions like IMT 2000, [decisions are] really [made] by member states [and the] 500 private sector companies who work hard.'' Latest Issue Copyright 1998, all rights reserved. Please report problems to webmaster.rcr@inlet.com October 5, 1998 rcrnews.com

To: Sawtooth who wrote (16017)	10/5/1998 6:33:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 152472

All, More 3G info; news \| opinion \| letters \| contact us \| calendar \| submit \| staff info October 5, 1998 Confusion colors ‘family of systems' concept for 3G By Lynnette Luna The campaigning efforts in Washington, D.C., are set to heat up within the next few months as the International Telecommunication Union enters the decision-making process for third-generation technology. The CDMA Development Group's operator members recently submitted a letter to 21 key government officials stressing the importance of harmonization for 3G technologies, in particular wideband Code Division Multiple Access based on the GSM platform and cdma2000, based on Interim Standard-95 technology, because the two proposals are similar technically and provide no basis for competitive differentiation. ‘‘There's no way you're going to get the IS-136 proposal and the CDMA proposals to converge,'' said Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDG. ‘‘We're not calling on the government to select a standard. We're asking them to stress the need for convergence.'' LaForge said Chinese and Japanese officials are asking the CDG why the United States can't seem to converge the two CDMA proposals. The United States has three separate submissions to the ITU—UWC-136, W-CDMA and cdma2000. The ITU is in charge of coordinating a process to identify a family of 3G systems to allow for high-speed data and Internet access, full-motion video and other sophisticated multimedia services. The CDG is trying to move the debate on Capitol Hill away from the vendors. Time Division Multiple Access and Global System for Mobile communications carriers claim Qualcomm Inc. has been spending large amounts of money trying to deny their technology choices and position the 3G issue as a trade-war issue with Europe, which has resisted converging its chosen W-CDMA proposal with the cdma2000 proposal. ‘‘There has been a lot of misinformation coming out about Qualcomm and CDMA proponents in general,'' said LaForge. ‘‘We wanted to make it clear that CDMA operators are really thinking about convergence ... This is not a manufacturer issue.'' Meanwhile, the GSM North American Alliance and the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium have joined forces to provide a unified lobbying force on Capitol Hill and collaborate on technical issues. ‘‘Competing TDMA and GSM manufacturers and operators today come together and make it very clear: we support multiple 3G standards,'' Don Warkentin, chairman of the GSM Alliance and president and chief executive officer of Aerial Communications Inc., said at PCS '98. ‘‘Efforts by other groups to artificially constrain the marketplace to one single standard are not in the best interests of the consumer.'' The UWCC has been conspicuously quiet since it was formed in 1996 compared with the high-profile lobbying and media campaigns of the CDG and the GSM Alliance. UWCC has since hired an outside attorney and a lobbyist to make sure the government allows carriers to have a choice in choosing a 3G technology. The group is increasing its budget and IS-136 members have agreed to contribute more. ‘‘The position UWCC wants to get across with its new efforts is that it supports the concept of a family of standards,'' said Greg Williams UWCC chairman and vice president of wireless systems with SBC Communications Inc. ‘‘We believe in multiple technologies, [and] we believe that countries should not restrict the technologies to be used in any given spectrum.'' Confusion seems to exist around what a family of standards or systems means. The two concepts seem to be used interchangeably. Michael Callendar, chairman of the ITU-R Task Group 8/1, responsible for the radio aspects of International Mobile Telecommunications-2000, noted the ITU is attempting to develop a flexible standard for wireless access to global telecommunications infrastructure that will serve both mobile and fixed users in both public and private networks. The desire for flexibility has resulted in the ITU's family of systems concept, one that has been widely misinterpreted, according Callendar. ‘‘The family of systems concept originated from the network side,'' he said. ‘‘Because of the dollars invested, it is sensible to allow networks to evolve. The family concept was never intended to apply to the air interface.'' It's clear at this point that the GSM Alliance and the UWCC have no plans to collaborate on the network side. The two groups, along with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, have agreed on a common next-generation technical standard for high-speed modulation air interface to support high-speed data and high-speed packet data architecture. These standards will provide a migration path to third-generation technology. ‘‘There continues to be a lot of confusion about what the family of standards discussion is all about,'' said Leo Nikkari, vice president of programs and strategy with UWCC. ‘‘What we're trying to be clear on is that it makes a lot of sense for us to look at convergence of general TDMA technologies, in particular for higher speed data. At this juncture, we are building a common overlay product with the intention of going to a common air interface speed ... ANSI-41 and GSM MAP are not the same architecture. They are not designed to work together.'' The CDG said it supports a family of systems concept, under which the ANSI-41 platform and the GSM MAP platform would be merged to allow for global roaming. TDMA operator SBC Communications Inc., which also owns GSM operator Pacific Bell Wireless, says it has a protocol converter in its network to convert from ANSI-41 to the GSM MAP platform. Stuart Sharrock contributed to this article. Latest Issue Copyright 1998, all rights reserved. Please report problems to webmaster.rcr@inlet.com October 5, 1998 rcrnews.com