Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel Tests Mobile High-Speed Wireless Technology

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 16:32:52 -0500

February 10, 2004

Nextel Tests Mobile High-Speed Wireless Technology

Nextel says the service has downlink speeds of up to 1.5 megabits per second
with bursts up to 3.0 mbps.

By William David Gardner
Seemingly shut out of the mobile wireless high-speed sweepstakes in recent
years, Nextel Communications Inc. is launching a trial of its version of
wireless broadband this month. Nextel says the service has downlink speeds of up
to 1.5 megabits per second with bursts up to 3.0 mbps.

Utilizing technology from start-up Flarion Technologies, the trial will be
conducted in the Raleigh-Durham, N. C., market. Partnering with Nextel in the
trial will be IBM, Cisco Systems, and Nortel Networks. Until now, Nextel has had
to sit on the sidelines while its mobile phone service competitors offered
high-speed data services " GSM/EDGE by AT&T Wireless and CDMA2000 EV DO by
Verizon Wireless, for instance..

"This market trial will help us understand how the wireless broadband service
performs, how valuable it is to our customers and what the market is likely to
pay for it," said Nextel's COO Tom Kelly in a statement.

Nextel said participants in the trial will include employees from Cisco, IBM,
and Nortel. Cisco and Nortel are supplying infrastructure components for the
trial, which is expected to last for six months. Nextel said it is offering the
service to additional subscribers ranging from large corporations to medium and
small business and even to individual users.

The Flarion technology is based on its FLASH (Fast low-latency access with
seamless handoff) architecture, which in turn is based on OFMD (orthogonal
frequency division multiplexing) technology. The technology traces its lineage
to TDMA and CDMA, although Flarion adds its own unique features to the
architecture. The architecture spans from its RadioRouter base station products
to end user network card modems and embedded chipsets. Everything is tied
together with proprietary software. The IP network supports both broadband data
and packetized voice.

Cisco will provide the core network infrastructure for the trial and Nortel will
provide additional support. Customer care and billing will be supplied by
Amdocs' customer management products.

After examining the trial preparation plans, technology research firm
ABIresearch said services like and including Nextel's broadband wireless could
garner a significant portion of the overall spending for wireless broadband
before the end of the decade. In a statement, ABI said, "The future of wireless
does not revolve solely around UMTS (GSM) and CDMA2000. Though investment in
these technologies is still expected to dominate overall carrier spending, rival
technologies, including Flash-OFDM like that of Flarion, could represent about
20 percent of overall spending before the end of the decade."

In the meantime, Nextel's users can look forward to an upgrade in Nextel's iDEN
network. Motorola has developed a more robust packet data technology called
WiDEN that is four times the speed of its current iDEN network. Nextel said the
iDEN and WiDEN technologies are separate from Florian's FLASH-OFDM service.

http://www.commweb.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=17602951

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