Verizon Wireless to trial end-to-end VoIP over 3G

Verizon Wireless will conduct trials in early 2006 of CDMA 1X EV-DO Revision A, the next step in the evolutionary path of CDMA2000 and the first cellular technology capable of supporting end-to-end Voice over IP.

Verizon Wireless announced today that it has completed its first tests of the technology using Lucent Technologies’ base station gear and software and a Qualcomm test terminal. The companies completed live over-the-air VoIP calls, but Verizon Wireless said it plans to conduct more extensive trials in 2006. The companies did not reveal where they would conduct the trials or whether they would be full market trials serving Verizon Wireless customers.

Both Sprint and Verizon Wireless have said they plan to pursue the revision path of EV-DO instead of pursuing the EV-DV (Evolution-Data/Voice), which was originally intended to be the next step on CDMA’s 3G evolutionary chart. EV-DO technologies are data optimized technologies and were originally intended to add robust data capacity to select parts of the network, while EV-DV supplied both traditional voice and data throughout the network footprint.

Recent developments in VoIP, however, have persuaded carriers that voice could be much more easily packetized over DO’s IP channels. While EV-DO doesn’t have the uplink capacity nor the latency requirements to support VoIP, Revision A will have theoretical 1.8 Mb/s reverse link to compliment its 3.1 Mb/s downstream capacity. In addition to capacity, the technology is expected to have much lower latency properties and built-in QoS to prioritize voice packets across the radio network.

In June, Japanese CDMA operator KDDI announced it would commercially deploy Release A in its networks by the end of 2006. Sprint has said it plans to start testing Release A next year and to have shifted its push-to-talk service and other voice applications to a full VoIP stack over Release A in 2008.

Lucent, like most vendors, is still developing its EV-DO Release A kit. Though the technology will run on the same 1X base stations that its current EV-DO gear resides on, Lucent is designing a new line card and software to support the new technology. The software used in Verizon Wireless’s tests was pre-commercial, but Lucent officials said its full Release A commercial portfolio will be available by 2006. No Release A handsets have been released but Qualcomm has begun sampling its Release A handset MSM chipsets and base station radio chips.