Verizon to offer two megabit mobile service
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Vodafone partner Verizon Wireless is to launch an Internet service capable of delivering data at up to 2.4 megabits per second (mbps) to users' mobile phones.
18 March 2003 Vodafone partner Verizon Wireless is to launch an Internet service capable of delivering data at up to 2.4 megabits per second (mbps) to users' mobile phones. The service will be available from late summer in two US cities.
The new service uses an extension to Verizon's CDMA2000-based mobile network called 1xEV-DO. Despite being the technical building block of high-speed third generation (3G) mobile networks, the basic CDMA2000 standard offers data speeds of just 9.6 kilobits per second (kbps).
CDMA2000 was developed by San Diego, California-based Qualcomm, which originally researched CDMA technology for use in military communications and introduced it in 1995. However, early implementations proved unreliable.
Initial extensions to CDMA2000 boosted the data transfer rates first to 64kbps — equivalent to European GSM second generation networks enhanced with general packet radio standard (GPRS) technology — and then to 144kbps.
However, while 1xEV-DO offers a peak performance of 2.4mbps, average throughput is nearer 700kbps, admits Qualcomm. Third generation networks based on wideband CDMA (WCDMA), the global standard, can offer similar speeds, but Qualcomm claims that its CDMA2000/1xEV-DO combination offers a lower price per megabit.
However, that may change as third generation networks based on WCDMA take-off. This month, the first UK-based 3G network was launched and most mainstream mobile operators have plans to switch on their 3G networks in the course of the next year.
CDMA2000 and 1xEV-DO are proprietary Qualcomm technologies incompatible with GSM and the WCDMA standard adopted in Europe, Japan and most of the rest of the world. A patent dispute prevented the rest of the industry from adopting Qualcomm's technology in its entirety.
Vodafone owns 44% of Verizon Wireless, a result of the merger of its US subsidiary Vodafone AirTouch with Bell Atlantic's mobile assets. Bell Atlantic, since renamed Verizon, owns a controlling 56% stake in the US company.
The Vodafone network outside America runs on GSM technology, with upgrades to WCDMA planned during the next few years. When Verizon opted for CDMA2000 instead of committing to WCDMA it was widely regarded as a snub to Vodafone.
This is because handsets capable of working on both types of networks will cost more and impose greater inconvenience on users who wish to globally roam from Verizon Wireless's network in the US to any Vodafone network elsewhere in the world and vice versa.
