EDGE is dead. Long live EDGE.
Depending on where they stand on the EDGE debate, some operators want EDGE born alive. Others think it should be left as merely an idea.
Andrew Seybold of the Andrew Seybold Group is not amused by the optimism expressed about the technology and has declared it dead even before it is born.
“I don’t believe that for a minute,” he said of the notion that some carriers, including AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and Cingular Wireless, are committed to the technology because of its efficiency with data.
But the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium, which espouses all the virtues of TDMA and EDGE technologies, believes that skeptics have lost sight of both the technical and economic advantages of the protocol.
“EDGE will provide the ability to multiply the existing efficiency on data,” remarked Frank Ubany, UWCC’s chairman.
He said GPRS will combine with EDGE for data efficiency because of the small implementation cost, adding that it is a natural path for GSM to global 3G.
Chris Pearson, UWCC’s executive vice president, chipped in the view that it can be deployed in existing spectrum, so EDGE can be complimentary to UMTS technology.
AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless have not retracted any commitments on their planned migration paths to 3G, a scenario some analysts believe is confirmed by their anticipated GSM overlay s for their current TDMA infrastructures.
One of the downsides associated with EDGE is that it is transitional and it could be plagued by a short life span. It may not take off because of the looming shadow of 3G technology on the GSM migration path: wideband CDMA. In a recent study, Strategis Group analyst Christine Stasikowski noted that “GSM operators may decide to skip EDGE altogether as W-CDMA technology will be around the corner.”
In the study, she predicted that GSM operators in Europe will not adopt EDGE, but will gravitate to W-CDMA from GPRS. However, in the United States, operators may adopt EDGE since an upgrade to W-CDMA may not be necessary.
Stasikowski thinks that only operators who lose out in the bid for more spectrum will settle for EDGE, which promises the technology a lease on life since some bidders are doomed to emerge on the short end of the battle.
Seybold draws attention to the beauty of cdma2000 in the context of efficiency.
“Of the top five carriers in the United States, Sprint, Verizon and Nextel are for cdma2000 1x and 1x-EV,” he pointed out, “because it is a much smarter migration path and easier upgrade for their networks.” He also referred to the strides of KDDI in Japan on the CDMA 1x front as well as Korea Telecom in South Korea.
“A lot of claim is being made that it is efficient,” he said, “but it’s not going to happen.”
But Urbany and Pearson believe that AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless are committed and also point out the advantages going EDGE’s way because of the standing of TDMA in Latin America, the Middle East and Russia.
Pearson said Vimpelcom in Russia and Celcom in Israel have already adopted EDGE, noting that EDGE is always looking for cooperation models.
Since TDMA is the dominant technology in Latin America, EDGE continues to have a good chance for the future.
Seybold says that phone makers have been clever to make their phones EDGE-compatible, so as as not to lose out in case of a hiccup with the migration to W-CDMA.
The new phones by Siemens, Motorola Inc., Nokia Corp. and Ericsson Inc. have not discounted EDGE technology. For instance, the Siemens S47 phone will accommodate the GSM/GPRS/EDGE/W-CDMA path, but could skip EDGE to W-CDMA.
