Fact Or Fiction?: Wireless '98 spotlights brewing 3G standards debate

Talk of third generation wireless platforms dominated the Wireless '98 show in Atlanta last week, highlighting an industry in the developing stages of another contentious battle over standards and the overall validity of the 3G concept.

Several major carriers apparently are trying to forge the lead on this subject of migration to wideband data networks. Last week, Sprint PCS and AT&T Wireless Services-two of the largest wireless network operators in the U.S.-revealed their 3G migration plans at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association show.

Sprint, which operates an IS-95 code division multiple access (CDMA) system, announced plans to develop a 3G architecture in conjunction with its infrastructure vendors and committed to testing the platform by no later than 2000. Sprint wants to take the lead in forging a backward-compatible, higher data rate standard that will work within its existing spectrum, carrier officials said.

"We're really trying to get out in front and set the stake as to what it is we want," said Al Kurtze, chief operating officer of Sprint PCS. "Dealing with these things conceptually doesn't help you very much."

The CDMA Development Group also issued a resolution on 3G last week, calling for a single worldwide wideband standard with a CDMA air interface that would accommodate the evolution of both CDMA and GSM networks.

Meanwhile, the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium, which supports IS-136 time division multiple access (TDMA) technology, offered its own 3G solution. The group proposed UWC-136, a graded migration path-from IS-136 to IS-136+ to IS-136HS-that would provide increasing data rates within carriers' existing spectrum. AT&T Wireless, the largest TDMA operator, said it can add the initial IS-136+ capability to its wireless networks within three months once a standard is in place, allowing the carrier to offer a service that supports 64 kb/s of raw data.

"We will be changing modulation. We still preserve our 30 kHz channels, and we just about double our data rate," said Nick Kauser, chief technology officer for AT&T Wireless.

Ericsson and Lucent Technologies officials said their companies' infrastructure gear can support at least the first stage of evolution.

"Both of our vendors have confirmed we can do that with a software change," Kauser said.

Part of the UWCC's goal is to forge a common migration path for IS-136 and GSM networks. The association and AT&T Wireless believe the UWC-136 standard would accomplish that.

"This is an evolutionary path for GSM as well," Kauser said. "We're making data evolution common. The data applications will be completely identical."

Many network equipment vendors are behind the multiple 3G options that are emerging, but some vendors and even some carriers believe the 3G concept is still more fantasy than fact.

One industry analyst said last week that recent 3G activity is mostly posturing and predicted that it will probably not produce much in the near term.

"There's going to be a lot of religion and a lot of marketing just so you can say we have a future," said David Roddy, chief telecommunications economist at Deloitte & Touche. "People will become frustrated because of the religion and the marketing, and the standards bodies will not accomplish much in the next year."