The issue with U.S.-based Qualcomm has never been whether it has great technology, but whether its technology can make great market strides. Stalked by what industry watchers call either envy or sheer dominance of GSM-based technology, Qualcomm has had to combat GSM’s increasing global footprint.
But with Qualcomm’s announcement of its GSM 1x solution trial with China Unicom, the company expanded its potential to bring GSM operators and subscribers within the coverage of its CDMA technology.
The beauty of this solution is that it will encourage handset manufacturers to roll out dual-mode CDMA/GSM handsets, said Kimberly Kleber, director of product marketing at Qualcomm.
However, Kleber admited the success of the solution depends on whether and when handset vendors produce dual-mode phones for the technology. She said the CDMA protocol has enough traction in North America, China and Southeast Asia to attract handsets that will use the solution. Japan also is a potential market as one of the protocol battlegrounds, with KDDI supporting CDMA and NTT DoCoMo backing GSM and UMTS technologies.
Kyocera, Sanyo and TCL Mobile said last year they plan to make dual-mode handsets. Kleber said it requires only a simple software upgrade and the use of subscriber identity module (SIM) cards.
When GSM 1x was unveiled last year, it was embraced by equipment makers like Nortel Networks, Kyocera, Samsung Electronics, Sanyo, Spatial Wireless, TCL Mobile and Winphoria Networks.
Both Nortel and Samsung expressed interest in areas that Kleber said will allow GSM 1x to enhance the value of networks-the radio access and the core network.
Nortel plans to support GSM 1x with cdma2000 radio access and GSM core network equipment, while Samsung will make radio access infrastructure. Spatial Wireless and Winphoria will provide mobile switching nodes.
But the China Unicom trial provides the technology the opportunity to reach a huge subscriber base of more than 8 million CDMA users and 60 million GSM users.
“This cooperation paves the way for bringing advanced cdma2000 1x services to our GSM subscribers, while at the same time expediting the commercial availability of dual-mode handsets in China, a market with a significant amount of GSM subscribers,” said Wang Jian-Zhou, president of China Unicom.
Qualcomm believes the technology will increase an operator’s voice and data capacity by using cdma2000 radio access in several bands like 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz and 2100 MHz.
“This trial is a significant step in the progression to the next generation of wireless services and demonstrates a cost- and spectrum-efficient means of providing current subscribers with the benefits of cdma2000 1x,” said Dr. Irwin Jacobs, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Qualcomm. GW
