Motorola reveals rev. A platform

Motorola unveiled its prototype for the next generation of CDMA 3G services today at the 3G World Congress in Hong Kong, demonstrating VoIP, video telephony and other high-bandwidth applications over its new CMDA 1X EV-DO rev. A channel card and a Qualcomm test modem.

The demos at Motorola’s booth were the vendor’s first public tests of the new technology, which promises not only improved data capacities on the uplink and downlink, but also the low latencies and built-in quality of service necessary to support VoIP and other real-time high-bandwidth applications. Rev. A has a theoretical upstream capacity of 3.1 Mb/s per carrier and a theoretical downlink of 1.8 Mb/s per carrier.

Motorola wasn’t the only vendor touting its Rev. A solution at the annual CDMA show in Hong Kong. Lucent rolled out its own pre-commercial Rev. A solution at the show, coming off of successful tests with Verizon Wireless in August.

Back in the U.S., Nortel Network landed another trial win for its high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) solution. Nortel announced a contract to expand Tier 2 carrier EDGE Wireless’ GSM network in four Western states and conduct a trial of its UMTS/HSDPA technology this month. Though Nortel failed to get a piece of Cingular’s massive UMTS/HSDPA contract after launching two of AT&T Wireless’ initial 3G networks, it has since seen success internationally, winning key trials and full contracts with both SK Telecom and KTF in South Korea, mmO2 and Vodafone in the U.K., and Orange in France.

EDGE Wireless, a Cingular affiliate operating in Oregon, California, Wyoming and Idaho, will be Nortel’s first HSDPA trial in the U.S., demonstrating video streaming, gaming, Web browsing and FTP downloads in the field. Nortel and EDGE, however, did not say in which market the trials will be conducted. For the GSM expansion, Nortel will supply base stations, base station controllers and R4 call servers. The companies didn’t reveal the contract value.