Late-starting US pulls ahead in phone tech?

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/68/34920.html' target='_blank'>http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/68/34920.html</a><br /><br /></div>"Strange things are happening in the US, which for some years has been wearily resigned to receiving bleeding edge phone technology many months after the rest of the world, if at all. No more. Not only do potential GSM buyers here now have access to a nationwide network that leaves GPRS in the dust, but the handset manufacturers are targeting the US first with higher specification phones. On the heels of AT&T Wireless activating its faster EDGE technology in most major urban areas last November, Nokia has launched a version of its flagship 6600 smartphone in the US first, with considerably beefier specifications."<br /><br />For once, North America is ahead of Europe at something related to mobile phones. Let's see how long it lasts! :lol:

[Mike Temporale]

I don't believe it. This has to be a misprint, or maybe an early Aprils fools joke. :wink:

[ShivShanks]

"Strange things are happening in the US, which for some years has been wearily resigned to receiving bleeding edge phone technology many months after the rest of the world, if at all. No more. Not only do potential GSM buyers here now have access to a nationwide network that leaves GPRS in the dust, but the handset manufacturers are targeting the US first with higher specification phones. On the heels of AT&T Wireless activating its faster EDGE technology in most major urban areas last November, Nokia has launched a version of its flagship 6600 smartphone in the US first, with considerably beefier specifications."

For once, North America is ahead of Europe at something related to mobile phones. Let's see how long it lasts! :lol:

I think its going to last quite a while. Already 3G is better of a reality in the US than has ever been in Europe. CDMA 2000 1xRTT which as per ITU-T definitions is 3G is a reality in the US for a long time. I have unlimited wireless data access at 144kbps in the US right here right now. Europe is struggling badly with the transition to 3G since all the operators paid crazy unrealistic amounts of money for the 3G spectrum licenses and now are sitting on their @sses with no money to deploy 3G. Also CDMA is technically superior to GSM. While even in GSM the US has taken the lead with high speed EDGE deployment by AT&T. GSM's 3G evolution to W-CDMA is taking a beating. Only in Japan has there been a W-CDMA deployment of any significance, and even there its trailing CMDA 2000 1xRTT by a wide margin. Japan's NTT DoCoMo had serious issues with its first generation W-CDMA phones. By comparison KDDI in Japan hit a home run with CDMA 3G.

Some people here just look at GSM and somehow think the US is behind. But once you look at other technologies you will realise how far ahead the US actually is. While CDMA was being developed, Europe certainly had an advantage with GSM. But now that CDMA has matured and overtaken GSM Europe will keep playing catch up. Today you have a nationwide 3G CDMA footprint in the US (by Verizon and Sprint) whereas you'll be hard pressed to find pockets of 3G in Europe. Once CDMA 2000 1xRTT EV-DV with 2Mbps daa rates is deployed in the US its game over.

[ShivShanks]

Nokia has launched a version of its flagship 6600 smartphone in the US

Ugh!! They call that a smartpone? -
http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Page=3&Id=589
If thats the best Nokia can do then MS Smartphones have a pretty good chance what with better applications and developer communies even if Nokia has a better brand name. Just wait for Motorola and Samsung to come up with better WM Smartphones.

[possmann]

"smart" "phone".... :x

Oh Well - we'll see how this plays with outlook and other online services... frankly I'm shocked to read that the US is now taking a lead - in fact I still find that hard to believe... of course then if you believe everyone's opinion or online article, I have some property to sell... :wink:

[ShivShanks]

frankly I'm shocked to read that the US is now taking a lead - in fact I still find that hard to believe...

I just read a Lehman Brothers Analyst report that Verizon is going to rollout CDMA 2000 1xRTT EV-DO nationwide. Verizon has it already deployed in San Diego and Washington DC where people can today get wireless data at 2MBps (500 Kbps average). Imagine the same thing nationwide! Who needs WiFi then? I can take my laptop all over the country and get wireless data. Goodness :) Already I can access any website all over the country with my Samsung i500, just not at 2Mbps. The US wireless market is certainly looking good whether some people choose to believe it or not. Today its largely a myth that Europe is ahead of the US.

[aristoBrat]

Does 1xRTT EV-DO allow you to get incoming voice calls while you're on the data network?

500 kbps does nothing for me if all of my incoming calls go to voicemail, like with regular 1xRTT. Makes an "always on" connection almost impossible. :(

[ShivShanks]

Does 1xRTT EV-DO allow you to get incoming voice calls while you're on the data network?

500 kbps does nothing for me if all of my incoming calls go to voicemail, like with regular 1xRTT. Makes an "always on" connection almost impossible. :(

Well 1xRTT EV-DO is data only (hence DO) and not voice oriented. That said theoretically you could I suppose have handsets which could use it in some way. The real deal would be the next version called 1xRTT EV-DV (Data and Voice). With EV-DV you could do data and voice on the same carrier without any problems. Incidently Sprint plans to jump straight to EV-DV in the late 2005+ time frame (could be earlier if pressurized by Verizon) unlike Verizon which plans to go to EV-DO first. Think of EV-DO as a laptop, PDA data access technology and a fixed wireless modem technology for remote places where cable and DSL don't reach. But nothing prevents someone from coming up with a phone that has an EV-DO modem plus 1xRTT radio in it esp. for PPC phone edition type devices. And with such devices you could solve the always on problem. If CPU speed increases and miniaturization happens faster you could even have SmartPhones which could do this. In fact Verizon has promised more devices with EV-DO support so we'll have to wait and see whats going to happen. The whole always on problem could even be solved totally in software if someone does voice by VOIP on EV-DO. For that VOIP technology would have to improve a lot and it seems more likely to happen on PPC Phone Edition type devices. Already PPCs from Toshiba allow you to do VOIP over WiFi (Toshiba e805). So wait and watch, exciting things can happen.