Qualcomm, Ericsson pushing CDMA/GSM convergence

Qualcomm and Ericsson Wednesday said they were conducting dual-mode CDMA 1X and GSM infrastructure trials in South Africa in a bid to show mobile operators there that CDMA can be used as an alternative to the typical GSM 3G technologies.

The two vendors are performing demonstrations throughout Johannesburg roaming between CDMA 1X and 1X EV-DO networks to GSM networks, using dual-mode handsets and Qualcomm's GSM1X Global Gateway, which supports the seamless hand-off from one network to the other.

Qualcomm and Ericsson officials said carriers in Africa are looking toward CDMA as a possible complimentary technology because of its greater spectral efficiencies and subscriber capacities, but don't want to give up their investments in GSM networks. The trials will show that the two technologies can coexist on the same network, the companies said.

For years CDMA proponents have said that GSM carriers could switch to CDMA technologies for 3G since building a UMTS would require the construction of a whole new parallel network to GSM. While no carriers have taken up the challenge, a few carriers worldwide have deployed both GSM and CDMA networks, running them in parallel. Most carriers, however, face far more limitations including technology requirements written into their spectrum, the costs of dual-mode handsets, and their unwillingness to deviate from global 3GPP standards.

"We definitely don't think this is a trend," an Ericsson spokeswoman said. "But we do think it's an interesting option, especially for carriers that are spectrum constrained or don't have a wideband license."

In other CDMA news, LG Electronics kept its lead in the U.S. CDMA handset market, according to new data from IDC. According to its fourth quarter report, LG sold 16 million handsets in the U.S. in 2004, 27% of the U.S. total, and was fourth overall in total handset sales, just a year after launching its first GSM handset.