Asian Wireless Operators to Spearhead 3G Adoption

Asian Wireless Operators to Spearhead 3G Adoption

BY SUDHIR CHOWDHARY TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Even as European wireless carriers that have pinned their hopes for delivering third-generation (3G) wireless data service on UMTS (universal mobile telecommunications system) technology are in trouble, their Asian counterparts are emerging as the saving grace for the beleaguered wireless industry.

According to a new report from Datacomm Research, the GSM family of wireless technology platforms, comprising of today’s GSM, GPRS, EDGE and 3GSM, are finding a rapid following in Asia where some carriers have both GSM and CDMA2000 networks and can upgrade to 3G using their existing spectrum.

CDMA2000 is poised to capture the lion's share of 3G subscribers for the foreseeable future. There are currently some 25 million CDMA customers, as opposed to just 150,000 WCDMA users. Nearly all of those are in Japan, where NTT DoCoMo has launched a nationwide network called i-mode that is based on the WCDMA standard.

One of the principal problems with the Europe's UMTS operators was that they shelled out huge sums for their 3G licenses, but the necessary technology will not be ready for at least three years. Operators have spent about $120 billion on UMTS spectrum, but there have been repeated delays in commercial launches.

In the wireless evolution, WCDMA (wideband code division multiple access) is the 3G standard for operators on the GSM/GPRS/UMTS migration path, and is going head-to-head with CDMA2000 3G networks that operators are rolling out in the United States and other regions.

While it has been heavily hyped, many carriers have their doubts about this route because dual-mode, GSM-WCDMA handsets that handle older and newer networks are years away from being introduced in Europe and rest of the world.

The Datacomm Report titled "UMTS at the Crossroads: Strategies for Success," emphasizes that there are courses of action that can prove beneficial for GSM-based carriers. Operators need more flexibility from government regulators to make 3G course corrections. Instead of dictating to customers, carriers should be able to respond to consumer demands.

Companies need the freedom to use other technologies, such as EDGE (enhanced data for GSM evolution), public wireless local area networks, GSM1x (the CDMA2000 network overlay for GSM) or CDMA2000--or a combination of those choices, the report reiterates. Yet another flaw in the European market for wireless evolution was that it kept CDMA out of the wireless market, keeping the focus on GSM, and there may be a psychological barrier preventing its acceptance in the region.

The bottom line is that while companies facing bottom-line issues, such as European operators, are finding it hard not to be interested in alternative technologies as they try to get new networks up and running, their Asian counterparts are steadily marching ahead.

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