GSM steps up data offerings: Nokia to deliver HSCSD solution

Nokia has agreed to deliver its first high-speed, circuit-switched data solution to Finland's Sonera. The move sends "positive signals" to the market, said Janne Linkola, development manager of cellular networks for Sonera. Because of speed constraints, most people have not considered GSM data useful until now, he said. "High-speed circuit-switched data is a good message that the speed barrier isn't there anymore," Linkola said.

Through a combination of simple hardware and software upgrades, HSCSD boosts data speeds to 14.4 kb/s in a single channel or 57.6 kb/s in four combined channels. "It puts wireless on par with landline," said Kim Purdie, product manager for wireless data for Nokia.

HSCSD is attractive to Sonera because it is backward-compatible with its existing network and interfaces easily with common infrastructures such as corporate intranets. Linkola expects that accessing corporate intranets, especially for e-mail, will likely be the best application for it.

However, Purdie said that applications requiring constant throughput, such as telemetry, multimedia and video, make efficient use of circuit-switched solutions.

HSCSD does have a couple of downsides. Current GSM handsets cannot support it. In addition, because it is circuit-switched, if an operator chooses to offer 57.6 kb/s, the solution ties up four channels, using valuable capacity.

"You don't want it to take away from voice," Purdie said. As a result, operators might opt to offer circuit-switched data services only to select business users, charging them a premium, she suggested.

Some GSM operators may implement both HSCSD and general packet radio service (GPRS), a packet-based data solution that will be available in one or two years.

"There is a debate whether to use one or both," said Kaj Hagros, assistant marketing manager of network systems for Nokia.

Some say they may not implement HSCSD but instead wait for GPRS. Nokia has been promoting the implementation of HSCSD, though, because it is fairly inexpensive, easy to implement and available now, Hagros said. "It gives operators time to offer high-speed data now and wake up interest and start to educate the market," he said. GPRS, on the other hand, involves a more expensive and complicated upgrade and isn't yet available.

Code division multiple access carriers aren't far behind their GSM counterparts. In May, Motorola began offering its circuit-switched product for CDMA networks, and GTE has begun to test it.

CDMA players may be in a better position to offer high-speed data, said Ira Brodsky, president of Datacomm Research. They likely won't run into capacity problems, and most existing CDMA handsets can support data.

As for future CDMA data solutions, players may not have a specific strategy for adding data capabilities, Brodsky said. "Their strategy is to roll out whatever is next in the software revisions," he said. Some CDMA players appear to introduce data services without learning about customer needs and demands, Brodsky said.