W-CDMA Bugs Will Delay 3G Take-off

date: May 14, 2002 - source: BWCS

Matsushita has warned that ongoing technical problems with W-CDMA technology will delay mass market 3G take-up. According to the Financial Times, Matsushita president Yasuo Katsura has been quoted as stating that Japanese W-CDMA glitches will take until mid-2003 to solve. Katsura’s statement casts further doubt on NTT DoCoMo’s ability to meet its target of signing up 1.29 million 3G subscribers by March 2003.

Katsura has also called into question whether early launch European W-CDMA operators such as Hutchison 3G will be able to offer sufficient quantity and choice of handsets to attract consumers to sign up for next-generation services. Hutchison’s main handset supplier, NEC, has insisted that it will meet its delivery targets.

The forthcoming soccer World Cup being hosted by Japan and South Korea will provide the sternest test yet of both W-CDMA and rival 3G standard cdma2000. DoCoMo has already warned that it will be restricting access to its networks during the tournament in order to prevent capacity problems. Meanwhile Japanese cdma2000 proponent KDDI has already established a significant lead over DoCoMo in the race to sign up 3G subscribers within a month of launching services.

In sharp contrast to the ongoing W-CDMA handset delays cdma2000 vendors appear to have had few problems in delivering a selection of models in sufficient volumes. Samsung has just announced that it has developed a new cdma2000 1xEV-DO handset capable of uplink and downlink data speeds of up to 2.4Mbps. The new device, which has a 260,000 colour screen and in-built camera, will be tested on SK Telecom’s 3G network before being launched commercially at the end of May.

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