Research forum leader takes on wireless challenge

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2003 22:46:31 -0800
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>

Posted on Mon, Dec. 15, 2003

Research forum leader takes on wireless challenge
HE SEEKS AGREEMENT ON THE FUTURE OF 4G
By Jon Fortt
Mercury News
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7495085.htm>

Mikko Uusitalo resembles a Finnish Clark Kent with his thin-rimmed oval 
glasses, buttoned-up white shirt and boyishly cleanshaven face. It may be a 
good thing, too; if Uusitalo is to succeed at his mission, he could use 
some super-human luck.

As chairman of the Wireless World Research Forum, Uusitalo's task is 
getting dozens of self-interested manufacturers, service providers and 
governments across the globe to agree on a vision for the nuts and bolts of 
tomorrow's cell phone networks. This technology, often called 
fourth-generation or 4G wireless, probably won't arrive for 10 more years.

When 4G does arrive, it could operate at 100 megabits a second -- nearly 10 
times faster than most of the wireless hot spots that laptop users are 
gushing about today.

Uusitalo's mission offers a glimpse at the ways the global wireless 
business can imitate politics. The U.S. approach has been to let companies 
and technologies joust for survival, expecting that the best will prevail. 
The European approach, which Uusitalo is following, has been to gather 
everyone around the table and try to find a single solution. Once there is 
a standard, battle begins.

Bringing the WWRF's European approach to the world stage will be a 
challenge -- and it's part of the reason why Uusitalo visited Silicon 
Valley this month to gather support for his eclectic group. Its 150 members 
include the Department of Trade and Industry in the United Kingdom, the 
Institute for Infocomm Research in Singapore, Samsung in South Korea and 
Intel in the United States.

``It would be a win-win situation for all if the competition for the right 
approach was made at an earlier stage -- that would be a major change,'' 
said Uusitalo, whose day job is manager of research cooperation for cell 
phone giant Nokia's research center. ``This has some aspects of what you 
might call gentleman's war.''

The goal, in part, is to avoid a repeat of the situation in the United 
States where there are three major incompatible cell phone networks, CDMA, 
GSM and iDEN, fighting for survival. In Europe there is one: GSM.

Still, the global climate right now can be harsh toward diplomats.

``It's very hard to reach consensus on much of anything right now because 
we seem to have a clash of ideas and ideals,'' said Nancy Snow, a 
communications professor at California State University-Fullerton. ``It 
affects the business sector; it affects politics.''

Not everyone thinks the European early-consensus approach is better than 
gloves-off competition from the start.

There are advantages to both approaches: The largest U.S. carrier, Verizon, 
maintains a CDMA network different from the dominant global standard, and 
the company is pushing ahead with an upgrade called 1x EVDO that will offer 
data speeds faster than what Europe has to offer. On the other hand, 
consumers in Europe have a choice of more advanced cell phone technologies, 
and can switch more easily between wireless providers.

Michael Powell, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, is among 
those who question the necessity of the united approach. During a visit to 
the Mercury News, he pointed out that while European countries all operate 
on the same type of GSM/GPRS network, the monolithic approach hasn't helped 
them bring the faster 3G EDGE wireless networks into being.

``They destroyed 3G for themselves, for the most part,'' Powell said. Plus, 
he suggested, future cell phone chips will enable phones that operate on 
any global network. ``If your phone has a chip in it that can pick any 
spectrum, why do you care what they pick? You've swung the intelligence to 
the handset, and the handset makes those decisions for you.''

Uusitalo wants to have basic 4G blueprints hashed out by 2007, when his 
group is scheduled to present a plan to the International 
Telecommunications Union, a United Nations agency that designates certain 
bands of frequencies for use in regions across the globe. His task, for 
now, is to grow his coalition and keep most people feeling like harmonious 
shepherds, not rebellious cowboys.

That could require a man of steel, but Uusitalo does like a challenge. 
Rather than use the bridge and drive to work every day in his native 
Finland -- he lives across a lake from his Nokia office -- during the warm 
season he pulls out a kayak and paddles himself to work for 20 minutes.

``Certainly there will be some cowboys,'' Uusitalo allows. ``This is a free 
world. If you want to be a cowboy, that's good for you. Be a cowboy.''

Contact Jon Fortt at jfortt () mercurynews com or (408) 278-3489.

Archives at: <http://Wireless.Com/Dewayne-Net>
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>

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