U.S. government officials pressed L.M. Ericsson Chief Executive Sven-Christer Nilsson last week to lobby the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to adopt the tri-mode CDMA third-generation standard framework agreed to at a TransAtlantic Business Dialogue meeting months ago.
Government officials are concerned over statements Ericsson made in a recent press release that detailed the company’s direction for third-generation technology. The Sweden-based vendor said it remained committed to wideband Code Division Multiple Access technology as the leading global 3G standard for new spectrum and that it would support the standards in ETSI and Japan’s standards body with no further changes to avoid delays.
This was a red flag to U.S. officials who have prodded Europe to adopt multiple digital standards and hoped the recent Ericsson/Qualcomm Inc. agreement would solve that problem.
Ericsson and Qualcomm ended their intellectual-property-right deadlock over CDMA patents and indicated they would jointly support approval by the International Telecommunication Union as well as other standards bodies-including the U.S. Telecommunications Industry Association and ETSI-of a single CDMA 3G standard that encompasses three modes: direct sequence Frequency Division Duplex, multicarrier FDD and Time Division Duplex. This allows operators to select which mode of operation to deploy based on market needs, the two companies said in March. This framework was adopted by telecommunications executives at February’s TABD meeting.
U.S. officials are concerned Ericsson only is willing to push the TABD agreement for approval within the ITU. This was apparent from meetings Nilsson participated in with U.S. departments, including the Clinton administration, the State Department and the National Economic Council last week during his trip to Washington where he met with regulators to explain the company’s deal with Qualcomm and commitment to Interim Standard-95-based technology.
“We explained that we were supporting at the ITU a single CDMA standard with three modes,” said John Giere, vice president of external and public affairs with Ericsson in New York. “That level is where the TIA, ETSI and ARIB are developing a final standard … They want us to somehow go beyond that.”
The U.S. government has been frustrated with the response from the European Union and ETSI in its effort to open up the telecommunications market there to multiple mobile phone 3G standards.
Ericsson, which has a strong hand in ETSI, could make headway, say government sources. In the end, said Giere, it’s a government-to-government issue.
“I guess what we’ll have to see is what happens at the end of the ITU process,” said Giere. “The working groups are still out there continuing to put touches on the standards. Now it’s up to countries to license the spectrum. This is where [the government] has concern. It wants Europe to license openly and fairly.”
U.S. officials say ETSI’s intentions will be discussed at the next TABD meeting in May.
Ericsson announced Friday NTT DoCoMo selected the company to supply W-CDMA base stations and mobile phone units. Ericsson and Vodafone plc also announced agreements to develop and evaluate W-CDMA technology.
In related news, the CDMA Development Group confirmed that Ericsson has applied to become a member.
