The Wide World of Wireless
By Genia Jones
The
Federal Communication Commission's decision to allow multiple wireless standards
to duke it out in the U.S. market has yet to result in a clear winner. Mobile
providers have established an array of standards defining the way calls and data
are transmitted. But unfortunately for these companies and their customers,
wireless protocols are often incompatible and limited to a small range of
frequencies. Translation: A mobile phone that works in San Francisco may not
work in Las Vegas.
Mobile protocols determine how a phone
structures a message and which radio frequencies are usable. In the United
States, several incompatible wireless standards compete, and each of these
protocols is limited to a particular set of radio frequencies. Access to these
frequencies, in turn, is con trolled by the FCC, which auctions usage on a
piecemeal basis. This means that it's difficult for any one company to provide
uniform mobile-phone coverage throughout the United States.
The Code Division Multiple Access digital
protocol has a slight lead in the U.S. Analog phones, which do not use digital
technology and are uniformly expected by industry analysts to become obsolete
within the next few years, still account for more than one-third of the American
market.
Europe and parts of Asia, the most established
wireless markets, have approached mobile protocols differently. Europe's
dominant wireless standard is based on Time Division Multiple Access technology.
It allows wide access to compatible radio frequencies, and thus more
comprehensive coverage throughout the region. Technologies related to TDMA also
reign in major mobile areas in Asia and Latin America.
By 2004, TDMA-similar technologies are expected
to represent 79 percent of global wireless subscri! ptions, according to
research firm Ovum. Analog usage will have dropped off the map by then,
declining from 21 percent last year to 3 percent in 2004. But in the United
States, CDMA is expected to remain the leading protocol, gaining in market share
of subscribers and new mobile phones. The future could hold a new digital
divide: The wireless standards of the United States and those of the rest of the
world.
Font: TheStandard