Version of CDMA Gaining New Markets
New Technology Networks Expected to Be Deployed In Latin America and Asia
BY BRAD GRAVES
Staff Writer
A faster and more versatile variety of Qualcomm Inc.’s signature technology has been spreading its roots around the globe.
“What a difference a year makes,” said Jeff Belk, senior vice president for marketing at Qualcomm during last week’s CDMA Americas Congress at the San Diego Convention Center.
Last year at this time there were three networks using the advanced “1x” version of that signature technology, CDMA. Today, 27 commercial networks on four continents use it, according to the CDMA Development Group of Costa Mesa.
The trade group predicts 23 other new-technology networks will be deployed in the coming year, largely in Latin America and Asia.
CDMA stands for Code Division Multiple Access, a wireless communication technology now used by 135 million subscribers worldwide. A competing technology called Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) claims 747 million worldwide subscribers.
Qualcomm holds many patents on CDMA and receives royalties when CDMA equipment sells. It also makes CDMA chips.
One refrain from CDMA equipment vendors at the conference was that a move to the next-generation technology drives more customer use, hence more revenue.
The next-generation technology goes beyond voice to take in position location, messaging and the wireless Internet.
Data calls can drive up voice calls, Belk argued, saying a person who uses a phone to get movie times probably makes a voice call as a next step.
Advanced services include Verizon Wireless’ Get It Now service, where a person can download games, information and ring tones over the air using a technology Qualcomm calls BREW. Representatives of Verizon and Sprint say they sell game downloads on their 1x networks for monthly fees.
Local CDMA equipment vendors such as Ericsson and Kyocera displayed their wares on the conference show floor, as did handset-maker Nokia, which employs more than 1,000 people at its San Diego Product Creation Center.
Nokia works in both the GSM and CDMA standards. It does all of its CDMA research and development on its campus overlooking Interstate 15 in Sabre Springs.
R & D; takes in hardware, software and chip design. Chips are fabricated elsewhere. The phones are produced in Brazil, Mexico and South Korea with some final assembly in Dallas.
Nokia offers some high-end GSM models, but so far its CDMA models target the low and middle markets, said company spokesman Keith Nowak.
The newest locally engineered offering is the model 3585i, which has not yet begun shipping. With its low price and features like electroluminescent panels that glow in time to its ring, the phone is aimed at the youth market. The phone also has global positioning capabilities.
Sprint may soon offer a similar phone without the global positioning feature, Nowak said.
In other show highlights:
– Brian O’Shaughnessy, an executive with Canadian carrier Bell Mobility, spoke highly of the 25 percent of his customers that must prepay their cell phone bills. Such service is not just for the “credit challenged,” he said. Rather, it is a way to introduce young people to wireless service, with the intent of later upgrading them to monthly billing. The youth market is highly interested in the new data services, he noted.
– Qualcomm showcased its model 6100 wireless phone microchip, a CDMA 1x chip capable of receiving videos. A 2D/3D graphics accelerator in the chip gives video games the illusion of perspective. One demonstration game lets players select how far downrange they want to shoot a missile. Chip samples are due in January.
– Companies provided updates on a CDMA data communications technology for laptops that promises to make 1x look slow. It’s called 1x EV-DO. Domestically it is only offered by Monet Mobile in the Dakotas, Minnesota and Wisconsin.