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3GPP2 Completes cdma2000 Specification

Seoul, South Korea, April 18, 2000

The 3GPP2 Organization Partners - ARIB (Japan), CWTS (China), TIA (North America), TTA (Korea), and TTC (Japan), announced the completion of the cdma2000 Release A specification. Each of these globally recognized Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs) has standardized cdma2000 and submitted these standards to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as part of the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 "IMT-2000" initiative.

The IMT-2000 initiative is planned to offer new user benefits such as advanced multi-media services, data rates up to 2 Mbps, next-generation mobile Internet and advanced packet services, global roaming, and more. Such advanced communications systems are intended to provide anytime, anywhere services. This will be a major advancement to systems currently deployed which are referred to as second generation or "2G" systems.

Dr. K.J. Wee, Senior Research Officer of the Korean Radio Research Laboratory and Convener of the Seoul 3GPP2 OP meeting, stated: "We are very pleased that the dedicated efforts of the 3GPP2 Partners were able to develop cdma2000 as a global standard and meet the aggressive ITU schedule for IMT-2000."

cdma2000, along with four other Radio Transmission Technologies (RTTs), will be officially approved as IMT-2000 Radio Technologies at the May meeting of the Radio Assembly in Istanbul, Turkey. 3GPP2 also developed "cross-mode" specifications based on the recommendation of the Operators' Harmonization Group (OHG). These two specifications enable operation of cdma2000 on an evolved GSM-MAP (Mobile Application Part) network and W-CDMA (Wideband CDMA) on an evolved American National Standards Institute (ANSI)-41 network and will be included in IMT-2000.

New work items for 3GPP2 include the definition of an All Internet Protocol (IP) network for wireless. This will allow operators to take advantage of the efficiencies of Internetworking Protocols in their wireless networks and maintain open interfaces. One of the challenges of defining an All IP network will be to maintain interoperability with the traditional circuit network, as well as providing an evolution path for operators' current networks.

The five Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs) who, along with their participating company members, are involved in 3GPP2 are:

  1. The Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB) was chartered by the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Japan, as a public service corporation on May 15, 1995. ARIB has about 300 members, including both Japanese firms and overseas firms.
  2. China Wireless Telecommunication Standards Group (CWTS) is the SDO responsible for wireless standardization in China, as approved by the Ministry of Information Industry (MII).
  3. The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is both a Trade Association of over 1,000 members and an ANSI-accredited SDO with participation from 400 companies and organizations which develop standards for equipment and systems used in the USA and around the world. TIA is also the Secretariat for 3GPP2. For more information, see www.tiaonline.org and www.3gpp2.org.
  4. The Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) of Korea is the SDO authorized by the Ministry of Information and Communication for standardization activities in Korea and represents 150 members.
  5. The Telecommunications Technology Committee (TTC) of Japan contributes to standardization in the field of telecommunications by establishing protocols and standards for connection between telecommunications networks, terminal equipment, and a telecommunications network, etc., as well as the dissemination of those standards. It has 160 members.

For further information about this news release or any other information, contact: Henry Cuschieri, Manager, 3GPP2 hcuschie@tia.eia.org


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