Janak Parekh
03-24-2006, 08:25 PM
Two interesting headlines in the North American wireless industry caught my eye this week: <li> Cingular is going to be <a href="http://rcrnews.com/news.cms?newsId=25920">shutting down legacy TDMA and analog networks</a> by 2008. While the analog shutdown isn't surprising, as the government has been encouraging carriers to start planning for it to free up spectrum for 3G and other technologies, the quick TDMA shutdown is a bit of a surprise. Looks like Cingular is looking to open up space for their burgeoning GSM/UMTS/HSDPA networks. As it stands, there's no (current?) Pocket PC Phone with TDMA <i>or</i> analog, so this is a good thing for us. :)<br /><li> EVDO Revision A is making its way to the market, with the announcement of <a href="http://www.sierrawireless.com/news_events/news.aspx?year=2006&contentid=69DE1D29-632E-46D1-9EC9-2B4AD117C246">Sierra Wireless's announcement of both Cardbus and Mini-PCI cards</a> supporting the standard. EVDO Rev A will support roughly 3Mbps downstream/1.8Mbps upstream; while it remains to see what bandwidth carriers will support, the card is supposed to be available in the 3rd quarter, hinting at some EVDO Rev A support at the end of this year. No clue if any EVDO Rev A Pocket PCs are in the deadline or if existing Pocket PCs could be upgraded, but either way, this is seriously fast bandwidth (outside of Japan).