Say goodbye to the supposed harmony in the 3G wireless standards world. The standards war is heating up again.

As Verizon Wireless and Lucent Technologies sat in one room of the Las Vegas Sands Expo and Venetian Hotel convention center singing the praises of CDMA 1XRTT technology and their three-year, $5 billion equipment contract, Nokia conducted a simultaneous press conference next door, questioning CDMA technology's migration path to 3G.

Timothy Eckersley, vice president of customer operations, North America, for Nokia, indicated at last week's Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association Wireless 2001 conference that some CDMA operators are regretting their choice of technology, citing CDMA's murky migration path to 3G and more expensive intellectual property rights structure. Eckersley also attempted to dispel the “over-hyped” myths concerning the spectral advantages of CDMA technology. He said GSM is more spectrally efficient because CDMA's advantages fade as more customers are added on the network.

“On GSM and IS-136, there is a clearer evolution path to EDGE and ultimately W-CDMA,” he said. “Because GSM/EDGE/W-CDMA share IPR [intellectual property rights] there will be a larger variety of terminals…. GSM can allow our carrier customers to enjoy open competition rather than being locked up in intellectual property. This allows operators to make one technology decision.”

CDMA operators are migrating to 1X, or cdma2000, technology during the second half of this year, adding 144 kb/s data services and doubling the capacity of their networks. During the middle of next year, CDMA carriers plan to offer megabit data speeds using 1X Evolution (EV) technology. After this stage, the technology's migration path becomes less clear. The CDMA Development Group (CDG) is trying to standardize another version of 1X Evolution called 1X EV DV (data and voice), which will offer even higher megabit speeds, up to 5 Mb/s. But the standard isn't finished.

“There is still more work that needs to be done,” said Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDG (See exclusive video interview). “The bigger issue is who supports DV. Is there a broad carrier support? Some aren't as interested in it.”

Ironically, Nokia and Motorola together are pushing hard to make their technology, known as 1xtreme, the defacto standard for 1X EV DV. Motorola and Sprint PCS showcased the technology last week.

Qualcomm, chief innovator of CDMA technology, has been criticized for making CDMA technology expensive because of the royalty fees it charges. Today, it claims to hold the same amount of IPR to W-CDMA — the GSM evolution path to 3G — as it does to today's Interim Standard-95 systems. Major manufacturers have signed deals with Qualcomm to license W-CDMA technology, but Nokia says Qualcomm's claims are invalid.

And Qualcomm has ended its silence over 3G technology. After announcing support for all flavors of CDMA-based 3G standards last year, it has maintained its neutrality over standards. But chairman and CEO Dr. Irwin Jacobs now touts the advantages of cdma2000 as it becomes evident rollouts of W-CDMA technology in Europe will be delayed. Jacobs' son, Dr. Paul Jacobs, executive vice president with Qualcomm, indicated last week the technology's maturity will make cdma2000 handsets significantly cheaper than W-CDMA handsets.

cdma2000 technology was the highlight of last week's show, as Verizon and Sprint PCS each announced their intentions to be the first to deploy 3G 1X systems in the U.S. Both firms want to tout their migration paths and dispel the myth that 3G networks are late everywhere.

“One could say there is a race,” said Charles Levine, president of Sprint PCS (See exclusive video interview). “We'll get there first on a national basis. We'll be deploying 1X through the rest of this year and we'll have every single market the beginning of next year.”

Sprint PCS set out a four-pronged migration strategy. By early 2003, it will enhance 1X's data capabilities to 307 kb/s through compression technologies. In late 2003, it plans to deploy 1X EV, reaching speeds of 2.4 Mb/s. 1X EV DV deployments will follow in early 2004.

“At the end of the day, we'll spend less than $2 billion total on spectrum and capacity,” said Levine. “I like my [3G] position.”

Verizon, which has been testing the technology in Princeton, N.J., also announced it would deploy 1X later this year, introducing the first commercial 3G system in the U.S. The company's deal with Lucent also includes deployment of 1X EV technology (see story).
Kelly Carroll contributed to this report.