PeterCF

Apple's iPhone and the Future of Qualcomm: Part II

Hi,

Interesting stuff, anything with Qualcomm in always is. Re your question WCDMA being a BIG component of 3G/4G UMTS - I already think you know the answer, technically it is and is fundamental to 3G and UMTS. What is interesting is the shift to 4G (whatever that is) or as the WCMDA guys call it 3G LTE - here LTE could be consider a 4G technology. In reality 3G LTE will be WCMDA/UMTS as the core with OFDM added on for the 4G bit - i.e. the high speed air interface.

Critical however to the continued migration of GSM to WCMDA (and yes it will happen around the world, so sustaining its dominant position over CMDA) will be GSM spectrum re-farming. Once the operators are allowed to refarm their GSm licenses (900 and 1800) they will use it for 3G voice using WCMDA. Why, its 3 times more effiecient than GSM at handling voice - and all the GSm networks are creaking at the seems.

Peter Curnow-Ford