The 3G debate these days could be characterized as a global poker game-no one is quite sure who’s
bluffing, who holds the winning cards or who plans to fold. Whether convergence of two primary CDMA-based
proposals-W-CDMA and cdma2000-is achieved depends on the actions of some powerful players of the game:
Qualcomm Inc. and L.M. Ericsson, of course. The two are holding up the International
Telecommunication Union process by claiming to hold intellectual property rights to both W-CDMA and cdma2000
technologies. Qualcomm won’t license its IPRs unless one CDMA standard is achieved. Ericsson won’t grant its patents
unless full reciprocity is granted and each country is allowed to choose which technology it wants to deploy.
Qualcomm has said it holds patents to CDMA technology, in general to concepts such as soft handoff and power
control. Ericsson declines to comment on which patents it holds. No one has determined what patents are essential to
any of these standards.
Europe. The U.S. government is pushing the European Union to open up its standards
process as the European Telecommunications Standards Institute appears to push ahead with W-CDMA technology
only. A bitter fight may be in order, with World Trade Organization implications.
Japan’s Ministry of Posts and
Telecommunications. The country was ready to push ahead with GSM-based W-CDMA technology in step with the
Europeans when Qualcomm jumped in to declare it holds essential patents to the proposal. The MPT is trapped
between the interests of the United States, which earlier this year told Japan it was concerned the country
wasn’t
keeping its standards process open, and Europe, with which it had planned to become a world leader in wireless
telecommunications technology. Today, it appears the MPT is opting to wait for the big referee, the ITU, to come up
with a standard rather than deciding on its own.
NTT DoCoMo. DoCoMo has the most to lose if the ITU process is
delayed too long. The carrier plans to become the first in the world to deploy W-CDMA technology to relieve network-
capacity problems. Economic pressures may spur DoCoMo to look for a solution.
Vodafone/AirTouch. The two
combined will make the largest wireless operator in the world. Chris Gent, CEO of Vodafone, has said in published
reports the two companies will use their size to put as much pressure as possible to ensure one global 3G standard.
China. The Chinese are in charge of trying to harmonize the 16 different radio transmission technology proposals
submitted to the ITU. The Ministry of Information Industry has said it fully supports global efforts to harmonize 3G
technologies, but has yet to allow commercialization of second-generation CDMA technology, IS-95, in China.
