Sources close to International Telecommunication Union activity on third-generation technology say standards likely will not be set during the 31 March meeting in Brazil.
The ITU had hoped ideally by the end of March to set a single 3G standard-one that will allow for global roaming, enhanced voice services and high-speed data rates to facilitate Internet access. But an ITU meeting last month in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, resulted in the ITU rubber-stamping all 16 radio transmission proposals submitted by standards bodies and other entities from around the world. It has now asked carriers to attempt to harmonize the 3G proposals by putting pressure on their infrastructure vendors.
The key meeting in Brazil will not result in any harmonized standards either, say sources, since new developments have come to the forefront and ITU members won’t have enough time to address them. Harmonization efforts are likely to take place in the next ITU meeting in June in Beijing.
One development, however, is news of a possible patent agreement between Qualcomm Inc. and L.M. Ericsson. Word broke in late February that the two companies are negotiating an agreement over CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) IS-95 patents to settle a lawsuit looming in a U.S. court. Sources close to the companies confirmed the two are negotiating a settlement that could give the companies access to each other’s technologies and potentially settle the dispute lingering within the ITU over intellectual property rights to 3G technology.
Qualcomm and Ericsson today remain deadlocked over 3G patents. Both claim to hold patents to wideband CDMA (W-CDMA) and cdma2000 technologies. Qualcomm has said it wants one CDMA-based standard, while Ericsson wants multiple standards and reciprocal licensing. The ITU has been trying to move ahead despite the IPR deadlock.
Another issue ITU members will not have time to address is a recent agreement among U.S. and European wireless executives at the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue forum held in February in Washington to pursue a framework for an umbrella CDMA standard that combines common elements of competing CDMA technologies and gives operators the ability to choose from three different CDMA modes-W-CDMA, cdma2000 and a time-division duplex mode for unpaired spectrum.
While many hail the agreement as potentially a major breakthrough in the 3G controversy, the agreement still does not resolve hotly contested differences over chip rate and pilot and synchronization schemes.
And 3G technology seems to remain a serious topic within the U.S. government as it looks to determine whether to take trade action against Europe. The United States remains concerned that Europe has chosen one 3G standard, W-CDMA technology, which it believes shuts out U.S. technology from Europe.
Executives at the TABD meeting-including Qualcomm and Ericsson-agreed the United States should not initiate a Super 301 trade action against Europe over 3G technology. Super 301, a multi-step process that calls for bilateral negotiations on trade disputes but can lead to retaliatory action, was used previously by the United States to leverage Japan into relaxing barriers to its telecommunications, satellite and super computer sectors.
But in late February, two key Senate and House leaders urged U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky to seriously look at the European Union’s exclusion of U.S. technology when studying unfair trade practices to U.S. exports.
The USTR is expected to move swiftly to provide Congress with a report on global trade barriers by 31 March. At the end of April, the trade-barrier list will be narrowed down, and the United States will begin trade negotiations to resolve disputes.
