Qualcomm and Teleepoch
Enter Into a 3G CDMA Subscriber Unit License Agreement, October
6, 2007
MTN chooses Cambridge Broadband
Networks for multi-service wireless network in Rwanda, October 6,
2007
Brazilian government to
publish 3G bidding rules soon, October 6, 2007
KTF 3G service suffers
from technical problems, October 6, 2007
Argentina’s Personal
lunches 3G service in Rosario, October 6, 2007
Russia has it's first 3G
network, October 6, 2007
AT&T could drop Alcatel-Lucent
as 3G mobile network supplier, October 6, 2007
Enea Extends License Agreement
with ZTE for 3G Handsets, October 2, 2007
LG to unveil premium handsets
in Brazil, October 2, 2007
KTF 3G subscribers doubled
in less than 3 months, October 2, 2007
3G policy in India will
be non-uniform, October 2, 2007
- previous news
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Emerging wireless technologies leave operators facing tough investment
choices - report
November 21, 2003
With uncertainties over the success of W-CDMA in delivering advanced
mobile data and multimedia services, mobile operators across Europe are
increasingly faced with the dilemma of whether or not to adopt one or
more of the emerging alternative wireless technologies, according to a
new report, The Role and Impact of Emerging Wireless Technologies, from
Analysys.
Hampered by problems with equipment availability and teething problems
with network and handset performance, most European operators have already
deferred the launch of their W-CDMA networks until 2004 or 2005. Those
operators that have launched 3G services have encountered limited success
– for example, NTT DoCoMo’s 3G FOMA service has been adopted by just 2%
of its cellular customers, some three years after commercial launch. This
contrasts sharply with the rapid growth to 40 million subscribers of its
2.5G i-mode service.
“Compared with three years ago, when W-CDMA was the only game in town,
operators are now facing up to the possibility that they may need to adopt
alternative wireless technologies to deliver the sorts of advanced data
services that their customers are demanding and which their investors
expect to generate higher ARPUs,” says Alastair Brydon, co-author of the
report. “Operators are asking themselves, should we plough ahead with
W-CDMA, should we deploy EDGE, should we consider WLAN or broadband wireless
access technologies, such as the proprietary systems from companies like
Arraycomm, Flarion and Navini, or put our faith in standards such as 802.16e
and 802.20?”
The report states that the decisions taken on these questions will have
profound implications for operators, infrastructure vendors and handset
vendors. “Wireless LAN is an early example of a technology that has threatened
to change the economics and competitive dynamics of the wireless data
market,” says Brydon, “but 802.11b is only the start – other emerging
technologies are set to have even greater impact.”
The report points out that the first thing operators need to do, before
deciding on which technologies to invest in, is to decide on their service
portfolio strategies. The high costs and capacity constraints of 2G/2.5G
cellular technology have limited most operators to providing premium-priced
voice telephony and data services such as SMS, that don’t consume much
network resource and deliver high revenue per Mbyte. Co-author, Mark Heath
says: “If mobile operators continue to focus on services like messaging
and ‘small-screen’ browsing, W-CDMA may not be needed at all.”
The report also suggests that there is still scope for mobile services
to compete directly with fixed voice and broadband data services. “3G
should not be written off yet,” says Heath. “W-CDMA wireless technology
coupled with its new speech coding provides the necessary capacity, quality
of service and cost base to rival fixed-line voice services.” Beyond the
opportunities for voice, a number of other advances such as data compression
and HSDPA will provide W-CDMA operators with the capability to rival fixed
broadband services. Heath says: “HSDPA allows W-CDMA to deliver a true
wireless broadband experience at a cost per Mbyte one ninth that of GPRS.
This will allow operators to cut prices dramatically.”
The report shows that the technology investment options for mobile operators
are not clear cut and suggests that if W-CDMA does not prove as successful
as initially expected, a diverse range of alternative wireless technologies
are likely to see significant deployment as operators jostle to differentiate
themselves in the market.
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3G Motorola A920
