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To: marginmike who wrote (21397)	1/15/1999 9:53:00 PM
From: Sawtooth	Respond to of 152472

From the January 18, 1999 issue of Wireless Week Patent Debate Set End Result Could Be IPR Report By Caron Carlson WASHINGTON--The International Telecommunication Union will convene a special membership meeting in February to address the protracted intellectual property rights dispute complicating the third-generation standardization process. "We still see a big, gray cloud over the ITU," Fabio Leite, ITU counselor, said last week upon disclosing the planned meeting. "It has not yet started to rain, though. We're starting to see signs that give me more confidence." The meeting will take place Feb. 6 in Malaysia following a three-day technical session there. The purpose is to allow members to debate the impact of the outstanding IPR issues on the ITU's 3G process and to develop a report providing additional guidance and advice, Leite said. In the meantime, ITU technical experts are free to continue studying proposals based on code division multiple access technologieseven though the union, at this stage, cannot officially consider proposals embroiled in IPR disputes. Early last month, an ITU announcement declared that CDMA-based proposals would be dismissed if Qualcomm Inc. and Ericsson Inc. did not resolve their IPR dispute by Dec. 31. However, because the Malaysia forum is a preparatory rather than a decision-making meeting, the participants are not bound by the Dec. 31 deadline, a majority of the membership concluded, according to Leite. "We can separate the technical discussions from the IPR discussions that involve more legal and commercial issues," Leite said. "We can let the technical work in Malaysia go ahead. It is very clear, however, that at the March meeting, a decision cannot be taken on a technology that's blocked by IPRs." The March meeting, which will be held in Brazil, is expected to produce one or more recommendations on radio-transmission technology for 3G systems. Proponents of time division multiple access technology, which have met ITU deadlines to date, are willing to support further consideration of the CDMA-based proposals as long as it does not interfere with the overall 3G schedule. "We understand that the ITU is in a difficult position, and we hope that our flexible position on the IPR issue will help ITU address this difficult topic so that a 'family of RF interfaces' can be standardized for [3G]," Paul Meche, co-chairman for the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium, told the union. UWCC Chairman Gregory Williams met with FCC Chairman William Kennard last week to further explain the consortium and its work. Williams said he is concerned not only about securing ITU approval but also the approval of governments around the world. "It is not just Europe that has a closed market," he said. "[South] Korea is closed too. There are a lot of other closed areas around the world that are important to the TDMA camp." Commissioner Susan Ness, in an address to The European Institute Jan. 12, pressed for joint U.S./European leadership on 3G and trade issues and called for a more open dialogue on standards. Referring to 3G as a "sticky policy issue squarely confronting U.S. and EU policymakers," Ness expressed concern over Europe's decision to require its operators to comply with European Telecommunications Standards Institute-approved standards. The ETSI standard doesn't require EU 3G systems to be compatible with other types of mobile wireless systems, she said. "Thus, consumers using existing mobile wireless systems that are incompatible with the 3G standard adopted by ETSI will not be able to enjoy seamless roaming with their systems in the EU." Meanwhile, U.S. standards committees forwarded the merged wireless multimedia and messaging services and wideband CDMA/North America proposal to the ITU, which distributed it for evaluation last week. The merged proposal, wideband packet CDMA, which was announced in September, offers nothing new in terms of advancing harmonization between Qualcomm- and Ericsson-backed standards, but demonstrates expanded cooperation between the TDMA and global system for mobile communications communities. wirelessweek.com