By Joanne Taaffe
InfoWorld Electric
Posted at 6:57 AM PT, Apr 3, 1997 A wideband version of CDMA
technology fast enough to allow the downloading of full motion video
over wireless networks is under development by Nippon Telegraph &
Telephone (NTT) and L. M. Ericsson.
Sweden's Ericsson is one of several companies joining NTT of Japan on
the project to adapt current CDMA (code division multiple access)
technology -- now used in the United States and Korea -- so that it
will be capable of the wideband transmission necessary for multimedia
applications.
Lucent Technologies and Japan's NEC are also involved in the
development, which aims to boost wireless transmission speeds
initially up to 384Kbps and eventually as high as 2Mbps, according to
Hans Jarne, Ericsson's vice president for Mobile Telephone Systems PD.
Current CDMA technology allows narrowband transmission and was
developed for voice. The new wideband technology, which will be tested
in Tokyo toward the end of the year, could let users quickly download
Internet pages and video onto a laptop using a mobile phone
connection, for example, Jarne said. The technology will not be put to
widespread use until the next century, he added.
This wideband application of CDMA will be called W/CDMA, Ericsson said.
L. M. Ericsson Telephone Co., with headquarters in Stockholm, can be
reached at _http://www.ericsson.se/_.
Joanne Taaffe is a Paris correspondent for the IDG News Service, an
InfoWorld affiliate.