Qualcomm Inc (QCOM)

[khemara_qc]

TNZ ROLLING OUT EV-DO - 02 July 2004

Richard Chirgwin

CDMA 3G Getting Traction

Late last week, Lucent announced it had won a contract to upgrade Telecom New Zealand's mobile network with an EV-DO capable CDMA 1xRTT 3G system.

The company has hailed the agreement as giving further impetus to the EV-DO technology, which has already won business with Verizon and Sprint in America. Bart Vogel, Lucent's ANZ managing director, told CommsWorld the kiwi carrier is the company's fourth EV-DO customer, which puts TNZ "at the forefront of global high speed data deployment".

"What New Zealanders will have before Christmas is a network which provides connections as fast as any in the world - up to 2.4M bits/s", he said. "That's as much as 15 times faster than the current 1xRTT network, and up to six times faster than you can get with UMTS."

Vogel also sees the rollout as significant for customers, because with large-scale rollouts beginning, the handset decision should also become easier. EV-DO's backwards-compatibility is also important here, he said: EV-DO capable phones can step down to 1xRTT speeds if they roam into that network, and EV-DO base stations can support 1xRTT phones. Lucent contends that this capability gives the new technology an advantage for carriers seeking a phased rollout.

"The mobile phone makers will have an assurance of a global market for devices and applications," Vogel said.

TNZ is planning a range of services on the EV-DO network, including video messaging and downloads, videoconferencing, Internet and corporate network access.

The current Lucent FlexentR CDMA2000 base stations in TNZ's will support EV-DO with a software upgrade.

Lucent's role in TNZ's mobile network is analogous to Alcatel's in the wired network: it provides project management, network planning and design, installation, integration, testing, and optimisation.

http://www1.commsworld.com.au/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=commsworld/home&var_el=art&ar...