IP Wireless landed a big trial win for its Time Division Duplexing UMTS technology today, announcing Orange has concluded its evaluation of the small vendor's technology and is launching technical and marketing trials in Lille, France.

The trial is IP Wireless' first announced with a major Tier I vendor, having secured several smaller trials and deployments for its TDD technology around the world, but it is also the first test of a European 3G carrier looking to integrate TDD technology with its existing UMTS networks. Many UMTS licenses awarded in Europe have allotted TDD and Frequency Divison Duplexing (FDD) bands, but carriers chose to launch Wideband CDMA over the paired FDD bands in order to get to market quickly. The TDD bands have either gone unused or have been used for separate broadband wireless solutions that don't integrate back to carriers' mobile data services.

Orange's testing of IP Wireless' TD-CDMA technology, however, may indicate Orange and other carriers are interested in pursuing this latter-day UMTS specification and integrating its high-speed data capabilities into their 3G networks, IP Wireless officials said. Orange is targeting the trial at enterprise customers, and will presumably deploy the technology alongside of its current W-CDMA gear in that market. Orange uses Nortel Networks, Alcatel and Nokia UMTS gear in its France markets.

Orange has been evaluating IP Wireless' technology for some time as it has ramped up its high-speed data plans. AT 3GSM World in Cannes last month, Orange launched a trial HSDPA network, using Nortel gear, over which IP Wireless demonstrated its data cards' backwards compatibility to W-CDMA based networks.