CHICAGO-A group of wireless industry analysts and reporters got a chance to watch Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola Inc. atone for past enhanced specialized mobile radio infrastructure sins by introducing its second-generation line of digital network and subscriber gear-the Integrated Dispatch Enhanced Network system.
The new iDEN system replaces the old Motorola Integrated Radio System, which never really performed to specifications. As RCR reported last week, ESMR provider Nextel Communications Inc., which kept its nationwide network strategy under wraps while iDEN was being developed this past year, is one of two U.S. beneficiaries of the new equipment; the Southern Co. is the other. McLean, Va.-based Nextel has committed $100 million to purchase the new equipment, including 100,000 new cellular-like subscriber units Motorola calls the i360. The 8.7-ounce i360 is capable of full duplex telephone interconnect, instant conferencing within a number of subscriber talk groups and acknowledgement/non-acknowledgement alphanumeric messaging. iDEN also is available in an installed mobile configuration; data capabilities are expected to be introduced later this year.
Instead of having to change out all of its MIRS infrastructure, Nextel can revamp it to iDEN standards via software upgrades. Some radios also may have to be replaced.
Nextel plans to call its portable handset the “PowerFone,” and it has been beta-testing iDEN’s revamped 3-to-1 Time Division Multiple Access system in five major metropolitan areas-Chicago, Boston, Denver, Atlanta and Detroit-for the past six months.
“While we have not completed our testing, we are cautiously optimistic that we can deploy this technology throughout our domestic and international systems and make a real difference in the wireless marketplace,” said Dan Akerson, Nextel’s chairman and chief executive officer. “The 3-to-1 system gives us access to a traditional telephony product.”
Akerson added, “The trend in telecom today is toward mobility, and the i360 fills this niche. We want a sustained competitive advantage. We want to be the only nationwide digital wireless system.”
Akerson isn’t worried that iDEN has incorporated a 8-kilobit vocoder instead of waiting to perfect a better 13 kbps unit. “The 8-kilobit vocoder meets our needs,” he said. “The voice quality is strong at 8.” According to Motorola, the 8 kbps vocoder provides quality equal to or better than current cellular analog service.
Chicago testers have been “refusing to give up the phones,” which have been priced at between $350 and $429 in the city, with monthly service costs ranging from $45 to $70, depending on the volume. “We’re still learning what the customer wants before we decide what features to bundle,” Akerson said. “We could have several models of handsets configured to what services a customer wants, including Internet access down the road.”
While data service is not available today, the handset will have the ability to plug into a laptop computer. Motorola is testing circuit-switched data and plans to look at packet switching with 20 kbps to 30 kbps capabilities next year.
Once it takes delivery of the new handsets, Nextel will first transition all ESMR users who are not using digital equipment, and then the company will concentrate on signing new high-end users. Typical cellular or personal communications services users will not be part of Nextel’s marketing scheme, even if the carriers decide to subsidize part of the handset’s cost.
Canada’s Clearnet Communications Inc. also will be using the iDEN technology, and Nextel hopes to sign a roaming agreement not only with that group but with other possible iDEN carriers in Mexico. Motorola has been asked to look at smart card technology to allow European users to roam in the United States, and the manufacturer also will be testing Signaling System 7 technology to facilitate domestic roaming.
New ESMR customers are learning the advantages of iDEN’s push-to-talk button, used when the set is in dispatch mode. One Motorola staffer commented that “this could be preferable over full duplex because you can say what you want to say before the next person can answer. He can’t talk until you let up on the button.”
