Verizon's BroadbandAccess is underpinned by Qualcomm's cdma2000 1xEV-DO technology, while AT&T Wireless's EDGE is a spin-off from GSM, the European cell-phone standard, which in turn is supported by a host of manufacturers led by Nokia and Hewlett-Packard.
Cingular Wireless is in the process of integrating AT&T Wireless--and its EDGE high-speed data net--into its markets. The remaining major cell-phone providers are likely to follow the two pacesetters, with T-Mobile able to offer EDGE and Sprint offering EV-DO. Not to be left out, Nextel Communications Inc. is currently testing its own high-speed data-networking scheme.
What's interesting about the new high-speed data networks is that they could threaten some existing landline-based broadband offerings, like cable modems and DSL. Nextel says its FLASH-based service from Flarion Technologies has downlink speeds of up to 1.5 megabits per second and bursts up to 3.0 Mbps. BroadbandAccess claims speeds of up to 2.4 Mbps in bursts, with 300 to 600 kbps in typical usage. EDGE claims speeds of 100 to 130 kbps with higher bursts.
The EDGE--and GSM--approach has the advantage of being there first: GSM claims some 80 percent of the cell-phone market worldwide, and that is a significant base. Most GSM users, like most mobile-phone subscribers, have long-term contracts.
One thing that's certain about the dawning high-speed wireless networks: they will grow in demand in the coming years. Qualcomm, which had agonizing problems bringing its CDMA technology to market, predicts mobile wireless data demand per user per month will exceed 200 megabytes by 2006. Based on that assumption, Qualcomm says a cell-phone subscriber consuming 200 megabytes monthly would spend $4 a month on cdma2000 (Verizon Wireless's technology) compared with $14 a month for WCDMA (from some GSM providers). Subscribers using still another technology, GPRS, would spend a whopping $83 a month for 200 megabytes, according to Qualcomm's calculations. Qualcomm's calculations, do doubt, would be disputed by its competitors.
