BROADBAND STANDARDS SEEN NECESSARY, BUT THEY SHOULDN'T SLOW INNOVATION
SAN JOSE, Cal. -- Standards for broadband wireless access (BWA) are necessary but shouldn’t delay “time to market” for new developments in BWA technology, said Sheldon Fisher, asst. vp- architecture and technology for Sprint’s Broadband Wireless Group in Wireless Communication Assn. (WCA) keynote here Fri. Industry “can’t wait” for standards process that takes 12-18 months, Fisher said, and such delays will impede innovation. Standards don’t “destroy innovation,” said WCA Task Force on Standards Chmn. Gary Smith of WorldCom, but standards process should be sensitive to industry’s rapidly developing new technologies.
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Standardization should be “royalty-free, open system” said Mark Dale, Broadband Wireless Internet Forum (BWIF) Technical Council chmn., and he encouraged “royalty-free cross-licensing of all essential intellectual property.”
Telecom industries of U.S., Canada and Mexico agree 1.7 GHz band is best spectrum for 3rd-generation (3G) wireless devices, said Vivian & Assoc. Pres. Weston Vivian, who moderated panel. Ericcson Eurolab senior research specialist Jamshid Khun-Jush, said debate on allocation of 1.7 GHz band for 3G wireless devices didn’t affect Europe as much as N. America. Vivian told us there was little commercial use of 2.5 GHz band in Europe, where it’s mostly occupied by military systems. “Same battles exist” in Europe, he said, but over different frequencies.