Governor Tarkin: Princess Leia, before your execution, you will join me at a ceremony that will make this battle station operational. - Star Wars
Lucent and Verizon Wireless announced today that Verizon Wireless has selected Lucent to deploy 1xEV-DO Revision A technology into its nationwide network.
Lucent’s Rev. A solution, which consists of incremental hardware and software upgrades to Verizon Wireless’ existing Lucent-supplied base stations, will enable Verizon wireless to introduce a range of new services such as enhanced push-to-talk, messaging, and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi | WiMAX | WiMAX | Edge | CDMA2000/ 1 x EV-DO |
WCDMA/ UMTS |
|
| Standard | 802.11a | 802.11b | 802.11g | 802.16d | 802.16e | 2.5G | 3G | 3G |
| Usage | WLAN | WLAN | WLAN | WMAN Fixed | WMAN Portable | WWAN | WWAN | WWAN |
| Throughput | Up to 54Mbps | Up to 11Mbps | Up to 54Mbps | Up to 75Mbps (20MHz BW) | Up to 30Mbps (10MHz BW) | Up to 384Kbps | Up to 2.4 Mbps (typical 300-600Kbps) | Up to 2Mbps (Up to 10Mbps with HSDPA technology) |
| Range | Up to 300 feet | Up to 300 feet | Up to 300 feet | Typical 4-6 miles | Typical 1-3 miles | Typical 1-5 miles | Typical 1-5 miles | Typical 1-5 miles |
| Frequency | 5GHz | 2.4GHz | 2.4GHz | Sub 11GHz | 2-6GHz | 1900MHz | 400, 800, 900, 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100MHz | 1800, 1900, 2100MHz |
EV-DO, Rev A promises speeds of around 3.1Mbps down and 1.8Mbps up. With the improved upstream speed, Verizon hopes to offer VoIP and more multimedia services. Lucent’s CDMA2000 1xEV-DO with Revision A will be commercially available in 2006. Financial details are not being disclosed.
Verizon Wireless and Lucent completed the industry’s first, live, over-the-air calls using EV-DO Rev. A technology in August 2005, and have since conducted live VoIP and video telephony calls using its (QoS) feature.
Sprint is following close behind with its own Rev A upgrade. Sprint’s EV-DO vendors Lucent Technologies, Motorola and Nortel Networks have agreed to supply the Rev. A upgrade under their current contracts. Cingular is moving from EDGE to a full-blown 5 Mhz wide 3G implementation. Their higher speed will be enabled by HSPDA and HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access). T-Mobile, which could use additional spectrum before it commits to 3G, could get it at the AWS auction this August. Meanwhile they’ve got Starbucks.
Skeptics might point out that Mobile WiMAX (might) deliver twice the speed at half the cost.
Airspan’s WiMAX Forum certified MicroMAX and MacroMAX base stations, for example, work with their 16eUSB, Mobile WiMAX CPE and EasyST and ProST subscriber terminals while ADAPTIX’s new Mobile WiMAX SX series of Base stations and mobile Terminals are expected to be available shortly. The base stations cost from $20,000 to $40,000 with mobile terminals from $250 and $300 each. That price is expected to drop rapidly as mobile WiMax systems proliferate.
C/Net reports Sprint is big on “4G” technology like WiMAX:
“4G will give us a 10-fold cost-performance advantage. When you get 10 times the cost improvement, that’s a pretty big deal,” said Sprint Nextel CEO Gary Forsee.
Mobile WiMAX proponents claim a couple of hundred simultaneous users can share a tower. Cellular-based EVDO Rev A might top out with a couple dozen users per tower.
But Sprint, the largest holder of 2.5 GHz licenses, isn’t likely to undercut their own EV-DO business, of course. The FCC’s Kevin Martin is no friend of the rebel alliance, either.
It’s up to Craig McCaw and Intel to save the world.
EVDOinfo.com, EVDOforums and 3G News have more.
Related DailyWireless articles include; Verizon Tests Rev A, VoIP On Cell Phones - Wait a Year, Qualcomm Says EV-DO RevA Ready, T-Mobile’s HSDPA Move, 3G: HSDPA or Not?, Sprint Rolls Out EV-DO, CDMA vs OFDM, Mobile WiMAX: The Attack Plan and Cellular At The Races.
