3G Woes Continue

3G has been a lot easier for the CDMA camp than the GSM crew. While CDMA carriers simply upgrade their 2G networks to EV-DO, the GSM carriers have to overlay new UMTS W-CDMA networks, and those have proven fraught with problems. Ever since DoCoMo terminals overheated and sucked batteries dry last year, and right through to the handoff problems "3" is now experiencing in the UK, W-CDMA has yet to have a market success story. Research firm Arcchart now explains some of the problems W-CDMA is having as they relate to failed handoffs between 3G and 2G networks. Essentially, they say that the lack of standard implementations is partly to blame. If each infrastructure and terminal manufacturer's hardware is just a little different, enormous problems can result, and the benefits of scale economies remain out of reach. Remarkably, Arcchart says that 100% of the calls they make on the 3G network are dropped in a failed handoff to a 2G network.

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