Frustrated by the lack of cooperation in Europe over convergence of third-generation technology, some U.S. cdmaOne operators have vowed to push ahead aggressively with cdma2000 technology.
“Negotiations have gone on long enough,” said Keith Paglusch, senior vice president of technical services and network operations with Sprint PCS. “We’re going to move forward with cdma2000. We would like to see a single standard, and if new evidence comes forward to find another way, we are certainly willing to listen. But we’re not going to be in a sit-back-and-wait mode.”
In recent months, U.S. cdmaOne operators have rallied behind creating one Code Division Multiple Access 3G standard that is backward compatible to their second-generation systems. The CDMA Development Group assembled delegation teams to travel around the world and discuss convergence of two primary Code Division Multiple Access proposals: cdma2000, a migration path from cdmaOne technology, and W-CDMA based on the Global System for Mobile communications platform.
Both standards implement different chips rates, cdma2000 with 3.6864 megachips per second and W-CDMA with 4.096 mcps, and neither camp is unwilling to change theirs. GSM operators want the fastest chip rate possible, saying a lower chip rate will degrade the standard. Cdma2000 proponents say the lower chip rate will accommodate for backward compatibility and will not have any impact on system performance. Convergence of the two would provide for economies of scale, say proponents.
“We as a group have flown across a couple of continents trying to talk to groups in Europe about harmonization, and we’re not getting a lot of cooperation,” said Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDG. “At this point, Sprint and the others are saying they will push hard on harmonization but move ahead on cdma2000 … They are frustrated by the lack of willingness [of GSM operators] to move off of their positions. We’ve had a team working with the cdma2000 proposal, and most in the industry and in the world know our proposal is further along.”
U.S. cdmaOne operators for the most part have been quiet concerning their plans for 3G technology as they have been trying to hammer out a compromise with European, U.S. GSM operators and others. Sprint PCS has been the only U.S. cdmaOne operator to announce a trial for cdma2000 technology, scheduled for around 2000. Now others, like cellular operator Bell Atlantic Mobile, have asked their vendors to align with them in pushing ahead with cdma2000. Operators in the coming months are expected to announce cdma2000 trials. Some European operators plan to trial W-CDMA technology next year.
Third-generation technology will allow global roaming and higher data speeds to enable services such as Internet access and full-motion video.
“We still are open to the opportunity for convergence, but we’ve informed our vendors that we are moving ahead with cdma2000,” said Ted Hoffman, vice president of technology development with BAM. “We want them to be aligned with us.”
Sprint PCS also has told Lucent Technologies Inc., Motorola Inc., Nortel Networks and its other infrastructure and handset vendors to push ahead with cdma2000.
“We believe through very direct conversations that our vendors are very much supportive of moving ahead with cdma2000,” said Paglusch. “We’re serious about this, and we want to communicate that to other countries that are on the brink of deciding which way they want to go. We’re not going to sit back and wait for technology to pull us along. We want to pull it … Sprint has far too much invested in our network. We’re unwilling to put at risk our $5 billion network.”
CDMA vendors Lucent and Qualcomm have been the strongest supporters of convergence of two CDMA standards, while Motorola and Nortel have not pushed the issue as strongly.
AirTouch Communications Inc. sees itself in a different position because 70 percent of its wireless business lies outside of the United States. The carrier, through ownerships in Germany, Japan and South Korea, is testing W-CDMA technology.
“Here in the United States, we’re evaluating what type of testing and assessment we need to do,” said Craig Farrill, vice president of strategic technology with AirTouch.
“We are taking a world view to this and strongly believe the world would be better off with a harmonized standard.”
Harmonized to AirTouch means shrinking the 13 different CDMA-based 3G proposals that were submitted to the International Telecommunication Union in June, into at least three-two employing the different chip rates and one allowing for low-mobility applications.
“One chip rate would be the preferred solution. There’s still room for negotiation, particularly if we can get more and more carriers from different parts of the world to agree. That would increase the scale,” said Farrill. “That would be the desired outcome. But there is a path for every carrier with three modes, and since we are every type of carrier ourselves, we’ve looked at it in all of our countries.”
Farrill believes roaming problems could be solved with handsets that will have all technologies and frequencies programmed inside. Though costly, the volume of units sold could drive down prices.
Paglusch said handsets with the two different chip rates is not economical.
“We have not been able to see any fair representation by manufacturers of where the economies of scale exist,” he said.
The ITU today is reviewing 15 different standards submitted from standards bodies and groups from around the world. The majority are based on W-CDMA technology. The ITU believes a family of 3G standards will be adopted.
CdmaOne operators still are hopeful one CDMA standard can be adopted for 3G services. LaForge says the Japanese and Chinese want convergence, which could put pressure on Europe to look for ways to do the same. Vendors say open letters to standards body European Telecommunications Standards Institute, which chose W-CDMA technology, asking it to study convergence with cdma2000 have gone unanswered.
