EDGE goes a step further, becomes an alternative to 3G

Evolved EDGE is Emerging as an Attractive Alternative to 3G

According to a new Research Brief from ABI Research, GSM operators are increasingly focused on Evolved EDGE as a viable alternative to 3G network upgrades in 2008 and beyond, following the forthcoming release of a new 3GPP standard. With spectral efficiency similar to HSDPA and 1xEV-DO, Evolved EDGE promises to deliver data rates equivalent to 3G while utilizing existing GSM spectrum licenses.

ABI Research forecasts that the Evolved EDGE market will generate $25 billion in revenue from network upgrades and mobile devices during the period between 2008 and 2011, and will reach 504 million subscribers worldwide by the end of that period.

ABI Research analyst Ian Cox says, "As we move to the end of the decade GSM networks will continue to grow, and we expect over 2.5 billion subscriptions by 2010. In parallel, W-CDMA and HSDPA will grow to more than three quarters of a billion. This leaves a huge potential market for Evolved EDGE to be deployed in areas where 3G isn't available."

For users, Evolved EDGE provides better coverage and delivers higher data rates, using a new handset, with power efficiency equivalent to a GSM handset.

For operators, Evolved EDGE will enable relatively simple network enhancements to be provided with a software upgrade to existing EDGE-capable networks.

"The radio spectrum can be used more efficiently to provide data service continuity between GSM and W-CDMA," notes Cox. "Evolved EDGE, which uses the same spectrum as GSM and EDGE, will allow broadband data speeds to be supported across the network."

http://www.cellular-news.com/story/20340.php

 

With my current aircard (Sierra 860), I can peak at around 230kbps in real life speeds and average between 100kbps and 150kbps. Latency around 500ms. I have found this setup to be quite usable for regular web browsing. Works better than I thought and MUCH better than tethering. Not bad at all for a non-3G setup.

Now, I don't think Cingular will even bother with this Evolved EDGE since their focus is on 3G now. Maybe T-Mobile USA or some regional US carriers might invest in this, plus we may see it in other countries where 3G will arrive at a slower pace.

 

yeah but the problem is T-Mobile is too far behind and it will take at least another year to start launching their first 3G cities and that will be using non-standard spectrum (2100). If they go for this Evolved EDGE, they can bring faster speeds long before they are ready to deploy 3G because this is just a software upgrade, plus it uses their current 1900 spectrum. They can bring this upgrade nationwide way before they can put 3G on their first market and it will last for another couple of years more while they finish deploying UMTS nationwide. So I think for them this is worth a look. For Cingular it's a different story, they already have 3G in a lot of areas so it's too late for them to consider this.

 

If you use the terms correctly, CDMA IS faster!

FDMA/TDMA < CDMA/WCDMA

 

...and what's even funnier is that the evolution of EVDO and UMTS goes back and uses TDMA.

 

HSDPA upgrades in incremental steps that double the DL speed. Cingular is only deploying the second upgrade now, although most of the HSDPA out there is still on the first version. The third upgrade was just announced a couple of days ago by Nortel. It remains to be seen though if we will ever see the 4th upgrade, but at least it hasn't disappeared into thin air like other technologies did. It's just too early to start naysaying about HSDPA.

1st - 1.8mbps
2nd - 3.6mbps
3rd - 7.2mbps
4th - 14mbps