NEW ORLEANS-A standoff over 1XRTT technology enhancements began to brew at last week’s Wireless 2000 show, as Motorola Inc. challenged the business case of Qualcomm’s proprietary High Data Rate technology, introducing its own 1X enhancement for cdmaOne carriers to consider.
Qualcomm has aggressively marketed HDR as a solution for high-speed Internet access for cdmaOne carriers and finally received the support of Lucent Technologies Inc. last week. Lucent and Qualcomm plan to work with Code Division Multiple Access carriers worldwide to gain input and review the merits of HDR and present a proposal for standardization under the cdma2000-1X third-generation proposal. Some vendors like Hitachi have licensed the technology, and LG Telecom in Korea plans to deploy it.
CDMA carriers today are challenged to find the right high-speed data solution that will meet their needs in the 3G network arena. Many are figuring out just how HDR technology can be incorporated with the 1X platform, an upgraded technology for CDMA operators that offers extra voice capacity and higher data speeds of about 144 kilobits per second.
Some cdmaOne operators in Asia have become keenly interested in HDR technology, looking for ways to quickly roll out high-speed data services. Qualcomm claims the technology should become commercially available next year.
“M1 is certainly interested in Qualcomm’s HDR as we see it as a logical extension/enhancement of 1X,” said Chua Swee Kiat, spokesperson for M1, a cdmaOne operator in Singapore. “The Singapore market is sophisticated and competitive with high data usage, thus time to market for us and higher data speeds are crucial.”
HDR technology fits into a standard 1.25-megahertz channel dedicated solely to high-speed data, but some carriers don’t know if they want to dedicate channels just to data. At least one large cdmaOne operator, Sprint PCS, says it isn’t convinced HDR technology meets its needs.
“Sprint is studying HDR in the context of its 3G evolution plans,” said Oliver Valente, vice president of technology and advanced systems development with Sprint PCS. “We’re not yet convinced that HDR in its current form is acceptable … We’ll be working with our vendors and other operators to come up with a high-speed data standard that does.”
Valente declined to elaborate on what features are unacceptable to Sprint PCS, only saying the company isn’t convinced HDR technology will minimize its network costs as the carrier migrates to a high-speed data system.
Hence, Motorola’s announcement last week. It has introduced what it calls 1X Plus, which, unlike Qualcomm’s HDR solution, allows voice and data to co-exist on the same 1.25 megahertz of spectrum, said Motorola. This allows the operator to use base station assets more efficiently while significantly decreasing the cost of providing high-speed data services.
“It gives flexibility for voice and data, which is something carriers are concerned about,” said Dan Coombes, senior vice president of Motorola’s Network Systems Group. “When you dedicate spectrum and resources to data, there’s more hardware in the ground.”
Qualcomm was quick to point out last week that its solution has been demonstrated. The company’s demonstrations of the technology in November showed mobile transmission speeds of 1.8 megabits per second, though Qualcomm said HDR technology can and will commercially offer spectrally efficient speeds at 2.4 Mbps. Motorola claims 1X Plus will achieve data rates of more than 5 Mbps on existing cdmaOne infrastructure.
“Qualcomm’s approach of placing data and voice on separate carriers allows better optimization for each and therefore a higher capacity for both,” argued Jonas Neihardt, spokesman for Qualcomm. “HDR has been tested and demonstrated … The Motorola proposal, which right now is only a set of view charts and a few computer simulations, will not be available for at least a year, if then.”
Ultimately, any decision on enhancements to 1X technology will depend on carriers. And most won’t deploy a proprietary solution.
“The goal is to get 1XRTT out as quickly as possible,” said Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDMA Development Group. “HDR and 1X Plus are all ideas. The goal is to make sure it’s a carrier-driven evolution.”
Lucent and Qualcomm are seeking carrier input on HDR technology, which could mean changes to the HDR solution when the two companies seek standardization. That prospect hasn’t sat well with Qualcomm, which doesn’t want to see any changes to a technology it could, like cdmaOne technology, reap royalties from, sources close to the company say.
“We’re not building a proprietary solution,” said Brian Bolliger, director of Lucent’s Wireless Networks Group. “The final version might look like 1X. The plan is to standardize it and get the ball rolling.”
Nortel Networks said it is working with its customers to determine what solutions they are interested in before backing any specific standards. Nortel spokesman Mark Buford said Nortel’s customers tend to favor a combined voice and data solution.
In the end, cdmaOne carriers may never need to migrate to cdma2000 technology given the technology enhancements allowed within their existing networks, a prospect that has tremendous economic benefits to cdmaOne carriers, say analysts.
