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To: Clarksterh who wrote (25307)	3/28/1999 1:50:00 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

W-CDMA convergence on cdma2000 Clark, I think we can converge our debate about W-CDMA proceeding on its own track if we think of it as a marketing game as you say. Ericy has a lot of brand equity in W-CDMA so they will not be just dropping it and going to cdma2000. But Ericy can reduce the chip rate to the same as cdmaOne, adopt the same synchronisation, and compromise on a few more variables so that they are almost the same other than in some arcane details which cost little to include in a multimode handset. This way they can have their own Ericsson created standard, W-CDMA, while maintaining nearly complete or complete backward compatibility to cdmaOne and achieving compatibility with cdma2000 and keeping Vodafone/AirTouch and the other roaming, multinational companies and subscribers happy. A bit like the Microsoft 'embrace and extend' approach where through market dominance they can shift the paradigm so that they define the systems. I think it a bit of a stretch for Ericy to achieve this when there is no technical reason for it that I can think of and they are opposed by some very big and ugly companies like Lucent, Motorola, Nokia, the Koreans, NEC, Fujitsu etc. Ericy isn't that big and is trying to catch up. Oh yes, they can also adopt the turbo coding instead of our dear old concatenated Reed-Solomon convoluted coding. I think 'turbo' will sell to the tailfin and racing-stripes brigade better than convolutional handsets. Meanwhile, they'll be producing cdmaOne from the ex-Qualcomm infrastructure division as fast as they can go. Today's paper reports Ericy as being back in the fold with Telecom New Zealand for analogue upgrade. That will be a $300m order [guess] very soon. Q! has been wise to leave it to the service providers to decide. Vodafone/AirTouch will tell Ericy what they want and Ericy will comply or fail to sell their W-CDMA. Qualcomm will need to be responsive too. If Europe does go "W-CDMA" and the USA goes "cdma2000", I think they'll be like the different engine oils in cars. Yes, there are arcane differences but you can use any of them in your car and you'll never know the difference. Though certain people will swear by Castrol, or Pennzoil, or Wynns. I can assure you the differences are mainly marketing hype though there are some technical truths. They are largely the same because engine makers specify performance requirements and compatibilities. It seems that the wireless world will be similar. So I'll compromise my argument that W-CDMA will be still-born inasmuch as the wonky chip rate and major differences will be quietly shelved. But the brand will probably continue. Fine by me. Mqurice