Not So Quiet on the TDMA Front

Advocates of TDMA admit they have been too low key. However, if you heard members of the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium (UWCC) at its industry event in Vancouver, British Columbia, that is all about to change. The reason for the quiet disposition is that UWCC members have been tending to business, while the other air interface technologies have been beating a loud marketing drum. According to Leo Nikkari, vice president of Programs and Strategies, this strategy has left a lingering perception that TDMA is on its way out or is going down. In fact, according to Nikkari, TDMA is reaping the rewards of the standards challenges not only in subscriber growth but also in technology.

Double Up Growth During the week leading up to the conference, the UWCC released research results tracking TDMA subscriber growth. According to the report, 9.2 million worldwide subscribers were using TDMA at the end of last year, and the UWCC projected to double that figure by the end of this year. TDMA systems are used by 70 countries with almost complete coverage in North and South America.

"Too often, TDMA is left out of the technology debate," said Mike Buhrmann, UWCC president. "The reality is we have been quietly optimizing our networks and planning for the future."

Wireless Office Solutions A big part of that future embraces the wireless office solution (WOS), which, according to the UWCC, is a fundamental element not immediately available in the other interface standards. It provides seamless integration of on- and off-site communications mobility, using the same phone, via the same network infrastructure and the same digital radio standard.

According to a UWCC spokesperson, CDMA does not. David Crowe, an industry standards consultant, verified this and said CDMA advocates introduced a WOS proposal at a recent standards meeting.

"However, as of today, that solution is not available commercially," he said.

Crowe also said that CDMA has some interference problems with in-building cells, possibly making it not as flexible as IS-136.

And although GSM does offer WOS, its solution is limiting. For example, the private networks for enterprise use are available to employees, but not outsiders. Outsiders would use the wireless macrocell when inside the building, with the associated charges.

According to Chris Pearson, UWCC director of marketing, GSM advocates hoped to address this issue in their 3G proposal. However, it was dropped, which leaves the latest IS-136 specification the only technology capable of offering WOS today.

The Enterprise The IS-136 standard accommodates high densities of users in indoor locations with the addition of new microcells or picocells that allow carriers to tailor capacity to the needs of the specific enterprise. Carriers can offer enterprises mobile extensions of their wired PBXs via IS-41 links. The radio network automatically allocates frequencies from the public network for use within the building, and the dynamic channel capability always searches for the best channel.

WOS is a win-win solution for everyone -- the carriers that offer it, the enterprises that use it and the end users that take advantage of it, according to Rune Johanson, Ericsson Wireless Office Solutions vice president.

Carriers hang on to existing business users, attract new customers, increase airtime and revenue, and reduce churn by increasing loyalty. Enterprises benefit because of increased productivity, a reduction in callback costs and increased customer and employee satisfaction. And end users benefit by having one phone with one office number as well as increased accessibility and increased business opportunities.

Dan Hesse, AT&T Wireless Services (AWS) president & CEO, not only sees the potential, but actually has signed a joint marketing agreement with Ericsson to use its hardware, software and a performance-management platform for future expansion in this area. Hesse suggested that WOS already has evolved to a point of no return in the business environment. He likens it to using a garage-door opener.

"After having one, you will not want to go back to opening the garage door the old way," Hesse said.

AWS currently serves 400 corporate WOS customers and, according to Hesse, has 0% churn. And as a residual benefit, those customers also have increased their wireless phone use outside the office by 50%.

Hesse said that WOS likely will repeat the course of cordless phones in home use. The cordless phone is a $5 billion market with a rate of growth nearing 70% a year. Hesse said cordless customers will not go back to the phone wired into an RJ-11 jack. Because the WOS has met customer needs, he said the WOS will migrate naturally to the next horizon, which is the home.

"At AT&T, this is what we are betting the ranch on," Hesse said.

The Real World Many telecom traditionalists might see the WOS as a ploy for wireless carriers to take over wireline subscribers and market share. However, the motivation for WOS stems more from customer and workplace demand than infringing on another market. According to a Wall Street Journal report, there are significant changes taking place in the business environment. These changes have the potential to drastically reduce productivity in the workplace. Seven out of 10 phone calls fail to reach the person called. An employee spends roughly 90 minutes a day in voice mail. The average employee spends about 40% of his time away from his desk but about 65% within the same building or campus.

Combine these averages with other prevalent trends, and the result is a niche that wireless carriers can fill effectively. Consider these trends: As companies continue to downsize or right-size, employees are being asked to pick up the slack. The average work week is moving from 44 to 51 hours. Quality customer service/responsiveness has become a competitive necessity. Time to market and first to market timelines constantly are being shortened. And employee satisfaction is moving up the priority list.

Due to these changes in office environments, U.S. wireless companies not surprisingly are looking at tools such as the WOS to change the statistics and compensate for trends.

According to Robert Mac-Kenzie, Rogers Cantel vice president of PCS and product development, the wireless carrier worked to reverse those threats for its first commercial installation for Fuji Graphics Systems. Last year, Fuji wanted to consolidate three of its locations into one. Fuji thought the old key telephone system would not handle the large number of users at the new combined site.

MacKenzie said the WOS integrated wireless and wireline communications needs by duplicating features, dialing plans and voice mail. Employees were able to take advantage of 4-digit dialing inside the building and 5-digit dialing from outside the building to reach other employees. They were able to use one phone number, one voice mailbox for call delivery whether they were inside the corporate walls or off campus. Fuji received office zone pricing for unlimited in-building usage.

According to MacKenzie, the benefits were obvious. Employee productivity went up because less time was spent in voice mail, and employees did not have to wait for callbacks. The company experienced significant cost savings both in airtime and in long-distance charges.

"The wireless office solution can pay for itself in the first two years in long-distance savings," MacKenzie said.

MacKenzie also revealed that the WOS creates interesting loyalty byproducts as well. More than 60% of Fuji employees are using the WOS. Those employees who had personal wireless service through a competitive service have since shifted their business to Rogers Cantel.

MacKenzie said employees have responded enthusiastically: "They say, 'Take away my PC, take away my parking spot, but don't take away my wireless office solution."

Rogers Cantel set up an operational TDMA network simulating four cities at the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium (UWCC) industry event last month. Within the Vancouver Trade Center, TDMA handsets could migrate between the sites and experience the handoffs from Cantel's 850MHz switch; to Ericsson's 1.9GHz switch in Montreal; to Lucent's 1.9GHz switch in Redmond, WA; and to Nortel's 1.9GHz switch in Richard-son, TX. The supersystem frequency coordinated with Cantel frequencies, using part of Cantel's F band. The network demonstrated the new ACELP vocoder. Ericsson, Nokia and Philips provided the dual-mode handsets, while Tandem provided WIN services.

Other vendors demonstrated their TDMA commitment as well:

Watkins Johnson and Telos Engineering demonstrated a functional WJ Base2 IS-136 base-station system with a Telos switch. The Base2 macrocell base station and the Telos MSC communicated via an IS-634 open interface. This joint effort demonstrated the first implementation of an IS-634 open "A" interface for TDMA applications between an independent radio vendor and a switch provider.

The programmable base station and the scaleable, programmable distributed MSC offer a low-cost solution for wireless carriers. The distributed switch architecture significantly reduces network equipment and trunking costs compared with traditional centralized MSCs.

Remote programmability facilitates the introduction of new network services and features, while modular architecture allows minimal up-front capital investment and affordable upgrades.

According to Richard Lober, Watkins-Johnson director of wireless infrastructure sales, the affordability is enhanced because it is a wideband software-definable radio, and most of the processing is done in the software. The product can process AMPS, 800MHz IS-136 and 1.9GHz IS-136. He also said it is third-generation-ready.

* Nortel surpassed 1 million subscribers in Colombia, one of the fastest-growing cellular markets. Of that 1 million, 800,000 are TDMA digital wireless customers.

"Four years ago, we launched two of the world's first 100% TDMA digital networks in Colombia," said John Vice, Nortel vice president & general manager of Wireless Networks. "And we have introduced a number of new features and voice quality enhancements in Colombia before rolling them out to the rest of the world."

One of the main features is Nortel's capability that allows carriers to offer creative tiered billing solutions to businesses and other groups of users. Colombian wireless providers also are currently using WIN services such as personal number, mobile sleep mode, short message service, authentication and 1-button callback.

* DSC demonstrated its commitment to TDMA by joining the UWCC. The consortium promotes the global deployment of IS-41 WIN service platforms within IS-136 TDMA-based networks.

The company currently is participating in two UWCC working groups: the Global TDMA forum and the Global WIN Forum.