The European Telecommunications Standards Institute agreed last week to standardize all technologies the International Telecommunication Union has accepted for the third-generation market.
RCR reported last week the European Commission planned to officially ask the European standards body to take up this work. The ETSI board agreed to do so prior to the EC’s official request.
Paul Reid, ETSI’s 3rd Generation Marketing Officer, said ETSI will begin work quickly to put the standards in place for recognition with the various European regulatory bodies. European governments plan to grant, auction or selectively tender 70 to 80 3G licenses this year.
To date, ETSI only has accepted wideband Code Division Multiple Access technology, designed for Global System for Mobile communications-based networks, as a 3G standard. The U.S. government, with pressure from American wireless firms, namely Qualcomm Inc., has prodded the EC since 1998 to open up the European wireless market to multiple standards, including the tri-mode CDMA standard that includes both W-CDMA and Interim Standard 95-based cdma2000 technology, a technology incompatible with W-CDMA technology.
ETSI’s move last week came quietly, without the saber rattling American firms likely would have made if the decision was made last year when tensions were running high over standards and a standoff was brewing between L.M. Ericsson and Qualcomm over patents. The U.S. government, however, has continued to quietly push the issue with the EC.
“Since 1998, we have raised the concern that the publication of one standard effectively mandated a single standard in Europe,” said U.S. Commerce Deputy Secretary Robert Mallett. “ETSI approval of all the IMT-2000 standards will truly give potential licensees the freedom to choose the technology that best meets their needs and the needs of their customers.”
But the European Union still is requiring that at least one network use W-CDMA technology to allow for pan-European roaming. Operators choosing technologies other than W-CDMA technology risk becoming islands or incurring more expenses to ensure roaming with W-CDMA networks.
Whether widespread cdma2000 deployments occur may depend on how inexpensive standards bodies can make the new tri-mode CDMA standard. The 3G Partnership Project, the group working on W-CDMA technology on behalf of ETSI, is collaborating with 3G Partnership Project 2, established by the U.S. Telecommunications Industry Association to work on cdma2000-related technology, to identify the hooks and extensions needed to allow the two technologies to work together.
“The 3GPP group feels like it’s fairly close to convergence to allow relatively easy and affordable tri-mode and tri-band phones,” said Mark Roberts, senior technology analyst with First Union Securities.
Vodafone AirTouch plc, which operates CDMA technology in the United States and GSM networks in other parts of the world, is committed to a unified technology across all its properties around the world, said Roberts.
Likewise, MCI WorldCom Inc., which plans to merge with CDMA operator Sprint Corp., is bidding for a license in the United Kingdom.
“I’d be astonished if Sprint PCS/MCI wouldn’t want a common technology as well,” said Roberts.
While the EU last year said carriers could choose whatever 3G technology they wanted as long as one network in each region operates W-CDMA, it became a revolving door, U.S. officials said. Carriers are required to deploy an ETSI-approved standard.
