In the wake of several announcements regarding HSDPA contracts and gear testing, the CDMA Development Group reminded the wireless industry that CDMA technology’s evolution path is marching along swiftly and expects to announce further advancements by the end of this year.
The CDG said it expects CDMA2000 1x EV-DO Revision A to make its commercial debut in late 2006 in Asia and the United States. The group also said that the Revision C standard is likely to be published in the first half of 2007, which the group says would put CDMA operators ahead in the race to introduce all-Internet Protocol and next-generation multimedia technologies.
“With commercial Revision A products available this year, and work on Revision C well under way, CDMA2000 has a clear evolutionary path for the next decade,” said Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDG. “This roadmap gives CDMA2000 operators and equipment manufacturers a major competitive advantage in terms of time-to-market because they can make and execute long-range plans today.”
The CDG says Rev. A leverages CDMA’s IP heritage and supports latency-sensitive and bandwidth-intensive applications such as Voice over IP and Instant Multimedia Messaging. In addition, the CDG says Rev. A allows operators to provide integrated voice, data and video services at a lower cost and across multiple networks. The group points to KDDI, LG Telecom, Sprint Nextel Corp., Telecom New Zealand and Verizon Wireless as operators that have committed to deploying Rev. A.
EV-DO Revision B increases throughput to a maximum of 73.5 megabits per second on the downlink and 27 Mbps on the uplink via multiple carriers and a 64-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation scheme and was approved for publishing by 3GPP2 TSG-C in March, the CDG said.
EV-DO Rev. C is expected to deliver higher data rates and spectral efficiency along with low latency, making it ideal for enriched multimedia services and supportive of bandwidth scalability from 1.25 megahertz up to 20 megahertz and will be backward-compatible with Rev. A and B, according to the CDG.
The 3GPP2 is evaluating proposals for Rev. C and the CDG says a decision on a standard is expected by June.
But don’t expect CDMA operators to jump on board right away, buying up every kind of network upgrade available.
Peter Jarich, principal analyst at Current Analysis, says operators will pick and choose which upgrades make sense for their markets, investing only in the technology they feel they need. Case in point: Jarich points out that some operators may choose to skip over Rev. B’s higher data speeds in favor of Rev. C’s new modulation schemes.
In addition, Jarich points out that there’s a hardware vs. software factor. If an update requires only a software upgrade, an operator may be more inclined to sign on.
“I think it’s a smart move to show that your technology is evolving, that you have a clear migration plan, that you’re not going to leave anyone stranded,” said Jarich. “It gives those who want to upgrade to new technology an idea of how you can support their needs. No technology wants to seem like it’s left behind. This is the industry’s way of letting us know that CDMA is still around, that’s it’s really kickin’.”
Meanwhile, ABI Research issued a recent report stating that although overall base-station deployments are on the decline, the prospects for W-CDMA and EV-DO base stations are trending upward worldwide.
Lance Wilson, director of Mobile Wireless Research at ABI, explained that the improved deployment forecasts are based on progress made by both technologies in key markets and reflects higher capital expenditures by carriers.
“The business climate for those technologies, driven by the growing traction of wireless data services, is improving,” he said, “and will continue to do so for most of our forecast period.”
In addition, ABI noted that base-station designs, based on cost, performance and physical size, are being driven by the needs of service providers. Wilson said ABI studied two base stations in particular that illustrate service providers’ changing expectations about what they want from a base station-Alcatel’s Evolium 9100 MSB along with Nokia Corp.’s Flexi W-CDMA BTS base stations. RCR
