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CDMA companies join GSM Association
16 February 2010
CDMA operators China Telecom, KDDI and Verizon Wireless plus CDMA vendor Qualcomm have finally joined the GSM Association
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China Telecom
KDDI
Verizon Wireless
Qualcomm
LTE
GSM Association
Three CDMA operators — China Telecom, KDDI and Verizon Wireless — have joined the GSM Association, and Qualcomm, the vendor that has promoted the CDMA standard as a rival to GSM for years, has become an associate member.
The three operators have gained membership to the GSMA after their commitment to deploy commercial services based on long-term evolution, a part of the GSM family.
China Telecom, KDDI and Verizon Wireless are the world’s biggest CDMA operators and are planning begin the commercial deployments of LTE this year.
LTE, along with these operators’ existing mobile broadband services, will deliver high-speed services to over 150 million customers over the next three years and will outperform fixed-line broadband networks with peak rate speeds of up to 100 megabits a second downlink and 50 megabits uplink.
“Verizon is excited about being offered and accepting membership,” said Dick Lynch, the US telco’s chief technology officer, at the GSMA’s annual conference and exhibition in Barcelona. “My technology was not previously welcome here.”
Verizon Wireless, which is 45% owned by the Vodafone group, is continuing with its CDMA 3G service while it rolls out 4G LTE services. “We’re servicing 91-92 million users today on our CDMA network,” said Lynch. The system will continue in operation to provide mobile voice services, until voice over LTE is fully functioning.
The GSMA welcomed the new members, but sources close to the association wanted to make it clear that the move did not signal the death of the CDMA technology family. GTB