Humberto Saabedra is the Editor-in-Chief of AnimeNews.bizPhoneNews.com and an occasional columnist for Ani.me. He can also be found musing on things at @AnimeNewsdotbiz

10 responses to “CDG Announces New CDMA Standards”

  1. DP

    Fascinating information. It would appear that CDMA has more left in the tank than the GSM fanboys might have one believe…

  2. Christopher Price

    I wouldn’t go that far. The CDG’s last attempt, EV-DV, failed horribly.

    It really boils down to implementation cost. Most 3G networks of today are focusing their dollars on 4G deployment and expansion.

    It appears SVDO only requires device/chipset improvements on the handset. Like EVRC-B, if it doesn’t require extensive modification, I presume that can be adopted without much problem.

    But, if it requires swapping out hardware on each tower, it isn’t going to take off (except on networks in developing worlds, which haven’t been built yet).

  3. Don Louie

    What was supposed to be bad about EV DV, that had blazing speeds

  4. Christopher Price

    The problem was that, essentially, two competing CDMA standards. EV-DO was ready to go, and offered competitive advantage over UMTS. EV-DV had a three year lag time, and EV-DO Rev A included most of what EV-DV promised.

    SVDO really is closing the loop, and adding what EV-DV promised, into today’s EV-DO networks… namely, VoIP bridged with EVRC-B calling, simulatenous with data. Unforuntately, it’s too little, too late to give CDMA a path to becoming a 4G standard.

    Speaking of 4G, I forgot to include the entire UMB debacle… that was really what I was linking the CDG to. EV-DV was Qualcomm’s debacle… wanted to clear the air on that one.

  5. Don Louie

    I don’t think either of those, UMB and EV DV, were bad Sprint just chose WiMax so Verizon had to go with LTE

  6. Christopher Price

    Verizon chose LTE not because of anything Sprint did. Vodafone was the main driver to that decision. For years, Vodafone (which owns a 45% share of Verizon Wireless) has lamented Verizon’s choice of CDMA. They have always wanted Verizon to switch to GSM/UMTS. It had gotten to the point that Vodafone threatened to dump their stake of Verizon Wireless, and invest in other carriers (Cingular/AT&T Wireless were historically two threats that they used).

    With LTE, Verizon had little reason, or motivation, to not comply. It would improve global roaming between Vodafone and Verizon, and for once their deployment timetables could sync up.

    WiMAX catered more to Sprint’s demands of being “right here, right now”. This gives Sprint competitive advantage, and a chance to lock customers into 4G with little to no competition. Which, is why you’re seeing LTE carriers start ramping up their deployment timetables.

  7. Don Louie

    You proved my point, no U.S. carrier had a 4G platform til Sprint announced thier’s. Before all the hoopla EV DV and UMB were buzz words

  8. Christopher Price

    EV-DV was dead long before 4G. UMB had a lot of buzz from Qualcomm, but it was a pump-and-dump scheme. They tried to bolster CDMA UMB at the cost of WiMAX.

    Then, once WiMAX appeared to be beaten up all it could, they dropped the bombshell that they were moving to LTE-only. UMB never existed beyond theoretical silicon in someone’s computer and maybe a test lab. It was, however, a great tool to make WiMAX look bad.

    We won’t ever know if Qualcomm would have genuinely moved forward with UMB, and I don’t want people to think that they couldn’t… it just wound up being a tool to attack WiMAX from both sides. Had WiMAX collapsed, Qualcomm might very well have offered UMB, but I think that was the only way they actually would have.

  9. Don Louie

    I just hope this will be cost effective and all CDMA will take advantage of this

  10. True York

    This is the news I’ve been waiting for, but I won’t jump up for joy as yet. Sprint and Verizon still have to agree to it.