It all seemed straightforward. A demand existed for a digital wireless solution operating in the 450MHz band, a demand mainly driven by operators of analogue networks in Central and Eastern Europe. The GSM camp had decided it was not interested in addressing this market, so CDMA450 equipment vendors such as Nortel hastened to fill the space. A number of Eastern European operators have deployed CDMA450 networks, and one, Eurotel Praha, has even implemented CDMA450 EV-DO. So far, so good. Then Siemens announced that it was teaming up with Flarion Technologies to offer the latter’s proprietary OFDM technology in a 450MHz variant. Well, OK, the market has become marginally more competitive. Then the dam burst.

First out of the box were ZTE who announced a partnership with Alcatel to offer CDMA2000 solutions, in particular CDMA450 products. The Chinese vendor has been eyeing the European market for some time and the CDMA450 route seems to offer its best chance of gaining a foothold. Alcatel, on the other hand, is edging into unknown territory as the French authorities have made plain their opposition to the incursion of CDMA into the GSM heartland.

Then came another twist in this increasingly tortuous tale; the entry into the lists of IPWireless offering UMTS450, a complete high-speed packet-based data and voice solution designed for UMTS operators with access to spectrum in the 450MHz band. The USP of this solution is that it will allow users to roam into the 2GHz UMTS TDD bands (assuming that 3G operators have implemented TDD and that handsets are available).

And, as the market was absorbing this new information, enter Ericsson. The Swedish manufacturer announced last week that it had signed frame agreements to supply and test CDMA2000 450MHz terminals with AnyDATA, Axesstel and Ubiquam. Testing and features will include fixed wireless capability for CDMA2000 1X and 1xEV-DO, PTT capability, and R-UIM capability, among others.

Although not household names, the three companies with whom Ericsson has struck frame agreements seem to have considerable track records in the CDMA2000 arena. AnyDATA designs and manufactures CDMA2000 modules and modems, including units for the 450MHz band. Axesstel is in the fixed wireless voice and data products field, focusing on CDMA.

And Uniquam claims to have been at the centre of CDMA450 handset development since the company was founded in 2002 being the first to implement push-to-talk (PTT or PoC) in a CDMA450 handset. The company also developed and launched the first Compact Flash data card for CDMA450. Uniquam is headquartered in South Korea and Axesstel has a R&D centre in the same country.

Deploying 450MHz networks, regardless of the technology, does offer operators considerable benefits in terms of cost effective wide area coverage. These advantages have spurred increasing interest in the technology with more and more administrations opening up the band and offering licences. Swedish regulator PTS recently completed a tendering process of a nationwide 450MHz licence that was won by Nordisk Mobiltelefon A/S, an enterprise which already holds a similar licence in Norway and is hot favourite to win a 450MHz licence in Finland. As the company is committed to CDMA450 in all its licence areas, a Pan-Nordic network with roaming is in prospect.

The only problem for the poor old NMT450 operators is making a choice from the growing range of technology offers in the 450MHz space. Probably thinking it might have been easier to stick to analogue.
Ian Channing