Jul 13, 1998 12:00 PM,

InterDigital chases U.S. CLEC market

Nancy Gohring

InterDigital's proprietary fixed broadband code division multiple access system hit Iowa last week as part of a trial with Pioneer Holdings and North West Rural Electric Cooperative. TrueLink, the wireless local loop product, will operate in the PCS spectrum to offer fixed voice services to residential users.

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"We hope it becomes a solution for a commercial product," said Mike Thompson, president of Pioneer Holdings, a company formed to offer a local choice in rural areas. "If it does, that puts us in the position where we don't have to negotiate interconnection agreements."

InterDigital agrees that TrueLink offers competitive local exchange carriers a cost-effective solution for reaching customers. "We can show other operators who have bought PCS licenses that they can use this technology to gain access to the competitive local exchange market," said Chris Giacoponello, director of program management for InterDigital. TrueLink can be adapted to work in most frequencies and is far cheaper than implementing a landline network, he said.

Although the Iowa trial involves only voice, B-CDMA is capable of offering ISDN-rate data speeds. Demand exists for such services in rural areas that don't have any high-speed data connections, Thompson said.

Because B-CDMA meets the IMT-2000 third generation requirements, InterDigital's partners-Alcatel, Siemens Telecom Networks and Samsung-could develop a mobile offering to compete with other 3G technologies, an InterDigital spokeswoman said.

Migrating TrueLink into a mobile solution makes sense, said Bob Egan, research director for The Gartner Group. Countries currently using GSM for mobile solutions will choose a derivative of GSM for 3G networks and develop a GSM wireless local loop solution, he said. The many developing countries that use CDMA for WLL systems will likely choose CDMA for wireless and 3G systems. If B-CDMA supporters develop a mobile solution, B-CDMA may also emerge as a 3G contender in areas that employ the technology as a WLL system, he said.