Cingular Scores World's First EDGE Network

Today in the Indianapolis market, Cingular Wireless takes a big step forward by commercially launching the world's first EDGE network. EDGE (Enhanced Data GSM Evolution) is a technology that was put on the shelf years ago, because it was thought to be an unnecessary step on the road to 3G technologies like UMTS. However, the costs and challenges of UMTS have re-opened the window of opportunity for EDGE such that GSM carriers around the globe are planning deployments. While the USA has traditionally lagged the EU with respect to GSM deployments, with EDGE it should come as no surprise that a US mobile carrier has taken the lead: US carriers have not 'wasted' money on UMTS licenses and have no obligation to undergo UMTS expenses, however the US GSM carriers are seriously pressured by the 1xRTT of their CDMA competitors. As a software-based upgrade that provides data rates up to 170Kbps, EDGE is the only logical competitive response to 1xRTT. The US GSM carriers can use EDGE to delay their woes until the CDMA camp goes to EV-DO or EV-DV, at which time GSM carriers will be forced into the expensive UMTS upgrades to remain competitive - perhaps by that time all the bugs will be worked out of UMTS. Cingular is under serious pressure from many sides these days, and it's good to see them taking some leadership.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    molly, 16 Jul 2012 @ 3:55am

    hi.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.