TABLE OF CONTENTS Engineering is only one essential part of a successful code division multiple access (CDMA) wireless network. As engineers, we serve our companies best by understanding a variety of business issues and applying our engineering knowledge to create solutions. Part 9, "Conclusion," looks at the current picture and future possibilities and challenges of CDMA-based cellular telephone service to the world.
In August 2002, Sprint PCS activated the first third-generation (3G) cdma2000 1x network across the United States. Yesterday, service was briefly unavailable in San Antonio, Texas, probably as the base station was switched over. For the first time, 3G code division multiple access (CDMA) is a reality across an entire large national network. Technically, it appears sound. Will it demonstrate the 50 to 100 percent increase in call capacity expected? How much of that call capacity improvement will be realized before customers are using cdma2000 cellular telephones? Will customers have enough interest in data services to make them profitable?
These major questions face the industry as a whole and face each company as the market reaches saturation and the industry moves out of its initial growth phase and into its mature, competitive phase. Growth will become more a matter of market share than a matter of attracting new customers to the industry. There are a host of minor questions as well. In the first section of this chapter, "CDMA Now," we will look at these issues across...
