OXFORD, United Kingdom-The announcement by NTT DoCoMo of a five-month delay to its wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) launch must have been music to the ears of Irwin Jacobs, the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Qualcomm. While the major wireless operators in Europe have remained quiet since the announcement, it remains unclear what the implications of DoCoMo’s third-generation (3G) delay will mean for commercial W-CDMA deployments around the world.
According to Jacobs, even prior to NTT DoCoMo’s statement, there had been renewed interest in the Qualcomm-backed cdma2000 technology by European mobile operators.
“They wanted to be aware of possible alternatives, in case they needed a contingency plan,” Jacobs said. “If W-CDMA goes ahead on schedule, then there is no need for a plan. If, however, there are any significant delays, then some will wait it out, while others will want to serve their customers and might have further interest in our 3G technology.”
While not prepared to name the European operators involved, Qualcomm said it realized the enormous political sensitivity to any discussions.
“But any decision is going to be driven by the operators, and some that we are talking to in Europe are very large and have shown a renewed interest in our 3G offering,” said Paul Fiskness, Qualcomm’s vice president of project finance and direct investment. “If anyone could make it happen, and we are talking to some substantial entities, they could.”
Stefan Karlsson, Ericsson’s vice president of W-CDMA, while admitting it is important that WCDMA reaches the market on time, stressed that 3G is not only about technology.
“Its about consumers and what they want to have,” said Karlsson. “Technology is only an enabler, and what’s really important is to understand and optimize the surrounding issues, such as content and applications.”
But commenting on the technology argument, Karlsson said that it is difficult to understand how the European operators could launch with anything other than W-CDMA.
“Maybe there are some global operators that fancy cdma2000, that could be one case-maybe an operator that doesn’t have an infrastructure in Europe today,” he speculated.
Qualcomm pointed to Vodafone as a worldwide operator that has a good window on what is happening around the world with 3G technology.
“It is certainly watching what is happening in Australia (where Qualcomm has secured a 3G license), and as the largest mobile operator in that country, it is naturally close to the situation,” commented Fiskness.
Sensitive to what is happening in its home market, Qualcomm also dismissed any reported disagreement between Vodafone and its U.S. partner Verizon Wireless over which 3G technology should be deployed in the United States.
“We believe this was an event perhaps cooked up by certain equipment vendors. It is a non-issue between the two firms,” concluded Fiskness.
