Tech Specs: Wide Area Wireless Packet Data Services

Computerworld -

TECHNOLOGY ADVERTISED DATA RATE (K BIT/SEC.) INITIAL ROLLOUT AT&T Wireless Services Inc. GSM/GPRS 20 to 40 June 2001 EDGE Up to 150 June 2001 Bell Mobility CDMA2000 1X Up to 86 March 2002 Cingular Wireless GSM/GPRS 20 to 40 June 2002 EDGE Up to 150 January 2003 Nextel Communications Inc. IDEN 30 to 50 January 2003 Sprint PCS Group CDMA2000 1X 50 to 70 Summer 2002* Verizon Communications CDMA2000 1X 60 to 80 January 2002 VoiceStream Wireless Corp. GSM/GPRS 40 November 2001 * Service will launch with nationwide coverage

All of the enhanced wide-area wireless services offer a digital, packet-switched architecture that features continuous connectivity and faster speeds. But the underlying technologies differ, which limits interoperability and could affect coverage. Those technologies include the following:



CDMA2000: The successor to the Code Division Multiple Access standard, CDMA2000 may eventually support speeds up to 2.4G bit/sec. The first generation, called CDMA2000 1x, calls for speeds up to 144K bit/sec., but vendors claim typical speeds of 50K to 80K bit/sec.



EDGE: The standard known as Enhanced Data Rates for GSM and TDMA/136 Evolution has a maximum data rate of 384K bit/ sec. Vendors claim initial end-user rates of up to 150K bit/sec.



GPRS: General Packet Radio Service is the successor to the Global System for Mobile Communications, a popular European standard. The maximum data rate is 144K bit/sec., but vendors advertise end-user speeds of 20K to 40K bit/sec.



IDEN: Nextel Communications added compression to Motorola Inc.'s Integrated Digital Enhanced Network data network service to increase the data rate to 56K bit/sec. via a new modem card. Nextel is considering offering a CDMA2000 1x service as an upgrade path.

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