Wireless Bytes

Unstrung picks a trio of news tidbits that have caught its attention this week.

Ericsson Eyes TD-SCDMA
Swedish meatball Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERICY) is to jump into China’s homegrown 3G standard, developing kit based on Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) technology.

“We will be involved in one way or another, either through partnerships or by developing our own equipment,” CTO Hakan Eriksson tells Reuters.

The Chinese government has been eagerly touting the benefits of TD-SCDMA, and the technology is tipped to feature in the award of 3G licenses, due later this year (see China Preps for TD-SCDMA).

Ericsson is not the only Western network vendor attempting to grab a slice of the TD-SCDMA pie. Nortel Networks Ltd. (NYSE/Toronto: NT) has teamed with China Putian; Siemens AG (NYSE: SI; Frankfurt: SIE) has linked with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.; and Alcatel (NYSE: ALA; Paris: CGEP:PA) has announced a similar deal with Datang Telecom Technology Co. Ltd. (See Nortel Teams on Chinese 3G, Huawei, Siemens Push 3G Deal, and Alcatel Tangos With Datang.)

“A TD-SCDMA offer would improve Ericsson’s odds of success in China,” notes Current Analysis’s Peter Jarich. “To best improve its odds, however, partnering with a Chinese company that claims its own TD-SCDMA products -- ZTE Corp. or UTStarcom Inc., for example –- would make sense.”

Ericsson was unable to provide comment by press time. Last week the vendor announced it is to pull the plug on its CDMA network business (see Ericsson Ends CDMA Battle).

Flarion Preps Standard
Alternative network infrastructure vendor Flarion Technologies claims to be making headway in its quest to standardize its proprietary Flash-OFDM technology.

“We hope to achieve standardization within the next thirty days with multiple vendors,” according to EMEA marketing director, Joe Barrett.

Previous reports suggest the vendor is keen for Flash-OFDM to be adopted as part of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)'s specifications (see Riviera Roundup).

Er, What’s 3G Again?
Here’s one that won’t exactly bring cheer to the U.K.’s five carriers attempting to claw back the £22.5 billion ($42 billion) splurged on 3G licenses a few years back, as well as countless millions recently spent on advertising such services.

A report from regulator Office of Communications (Ofcom) states that 85 percent of the U.K. population have absolutely no idea what 3G relates to. Zippo, zilch, nada.

In fact, the term 3G was understood by fewer people than any other technology on the list, including broadband, digital radio, and digital TV.

Hmmm... great job on the marketing there, folks.

— Justin Springham, Senior Editor, Europe, Unstrung