JEDDAH, 4 May — The very first WCDMA live voice call in field was successfully carried out yesterday by Ericsson and Vodafone, described as the world’s largest mobile systems vendor and mobile network operator respectively. “This is yet another milestone in bringing 3G to the customers and a proof point of Ericsson’s pole position in the market,” a press release said adding that the call was made in a complete WCDMA network, based on commercial nodes. It was set up with a mobile phone over an air interface and handled in Vodafone UK’s 3G network in Thames Valley, to be terminated on a fixed line in Newbury.
“This live call, using commercial equipment, is a step in our rollout plan designed to ensure pioneering customers like Vodafone to have an early market launch,” said Torbjorn Possne, executive vice president and head of Ericsson’s business unit WCDMA, PDC. “This clearly demonstrates that Ericsson not only is the leader in technology but also the first to bring it to the market.
Ericsson has a long and strong tradition of working with open standards. Since Ericsson initiated research on WCDMA in 1989, Ericsson has been a pioneering driver in established standardization bodies, such as ETSI and 3GPP with the aim to reach common mature standards in WCDMA.
To date, Ericsson has supplied no less than a third of all the technology contributions to develop the standard WCDMA, which is far more than any other vendor. This determined technology push has resulted in a head start on the market for the new generation of mobile technology.
