NEWBURY, U.K.-Vodafone Group plc and Qualcomm Inc. said they will conduct a field trial in the United Kingdom starting the fourth quarter to demonstrate how Code Division Multiple Access wireless access technology can be integrated into a Global System for Mobile communications network.
The companies said they will demonstrate the ability of the GSM A-interface to support CDMA as an alternative wireless access technology and to evaluate the performance of the hybrid GSM-CDMA system technology.
The trial will make use of four CDMA commercial base stations and a base station controller provided by Qualcomm. Vodafone will provide base station sites and a mobile switching center formerly used in Vodafone’s GSM network.
The phones for the trial will be Qualcomm 1.9 GHz personal communications services phones, modified with software supplied by The Technology Partnership. The phone casing also is being modified to accommodate GSM Subscriber Identity Module cards.
“Results from the integration and trials will provide invaluable experience in evolving toward third generation systems where multiple air interfaces such as CDMA may be expected to coexist with a common network,” said Ted Beddoes, Vodafone’s technical director.
Installations will begin next month, the companies said. The trial is expected to run through the first quarter of next year.
