3:05 PM -- Acronym fans rejoice! The next generation of CDMA tongue-twisters is here -- way before the technology itself arrives.

Yep, the CDMA Development Group (CDG) says it has decided that "Ultra Mobile Broadband" will be the brand name to describe the technologies and services supported by the forthcoming CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Revision C (Rev. C) standard. So far, so standard.

But what's this? "The new standard is expected to be published early in the second quarter of 2007 and become commercially available globally in early 2009," the CDG says. So realistically that probably means that initial deployments could start in 2009, but anyone who's been around wireless a while knows that schedules have a habit of slipping.

I suppose the CDG wants to get the word out because there are more rivals to CDMA technology these days. Particularly with GSM-derived networks still in ascendance and WiMax at the gate. Bear in mind, however, that operators are only just starting to deploy EV-DO Rev A now.

Oh yeah, for those of you that are curious, the CDG says that Rev C has the "ability to support peak download speeds as high as 280 Mbit/s in a mobile environment." Just don't hold your breath for it. — Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung