RSSEV-DO to Get a New Name: UMB
By Ed Oswald | Published December 5, 2006, 4:45 PM
Perhaps the name was getting a bit too long, but beginning with the next revision of the EV-DO data standard the technology will be referred to by the acronym "UMB," short for Ultra Mobile Broadband.
Otherwise known as CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Revision C, UMB promises data rates of as much as 280Mbps downstream in mobile environments. The application of the technology is still quite a ways off; the UMB standard will not be completed until next year, with commercial availability by 2009.
The CDMA Development Group (CDG), a industry trade association, says UMB would deliver data faster by many times over that of any current solution. For example, Revision A, currently commercially available from US carriers Sprint and Verizon, provides 450-800Kbps in a fixed situation.
Even the planned Revision B, due out commercially in 2008, pales in comparison. That technology is expected to deliver rates of up to 46.5Mbps, again in fixed situations.
The advantages of UMB are numerous: latency has been greatly reduced, and it uses spectrum much more efficiently than any previous CDMA technology. In addition, handsets would benefit from much better battery life and efficency due to these enhancements.
UMB would use MIMO and SDMA in order to provide greater capacity and coverage, CDG said. Unlike some technologies which degrade in throughput in fringe coverage areas, the group claims that the data rates would stay consistent throughout the entire footprint.
Proponents of the new standard say that the latest incarnation could be CDMA's ticket to finally breaking the stranglehold GSM has on mobile technology. While CDMA has seen gains with the advent of 1xRTT and EV-DO, the technologies do not offer much above what 3G GSM options such as HSDPA and UMTS provide.
More importantly, UMB would be able to handle inter-technology handoffs between itself and 1xRTT or EV-DO systems, allowing carriers to implement it without disruption in service. Since it is an evolutionary upgrade, CDG says it would also speed deployment times.
As of the most recent survey of 3G usage worldwide by 3GToday.com, 44.4 million users worldwide were subscribed to EV-DO based services, compared with 83.6 million using UMTS. However, adding 1X to the mix puts CDMA in the lead, as approximately 267.2 million were reported to be using the technology as of September 2006.
That's all fine and dandy, but they need to kind of implement EVDO in a fair percentage of their coverage area before "upgrading" to the next best thing. I'm in Ohio, no not the most populace state, but enough to warrant wanting to get many of the larger cities on something faster.
Really, though, EVDO does not communicate well with 1x. Every time switching from a 1x tower to EVDO towers, we drop calls. I don't know if this is from another provider or what, but I've never had this problem with Verizon before.
I do hope, however, that the Cingular devil in this country will be quenched b/c I loathe them to the nth degree. DOWN WITH CRAP SERVICE, SUPPORT, AND OBSOLETE COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY! (although their cellies *are* kinda nice)
Edit- P.S.- They also need to make their data plans (Verizon) so that the price to get online with their (semi-dialup speed) EVDO service doesn't dwarf your normal cell plan. Also would be nice is if they used a non-near-proprietary browser that'd work with more sites :)
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I get better service and support from Cingular than I ever did from Verizon, plus my phone isn't crippled so I'm forced to use the Verizon Pay Features...and I don't think you can call the BlackJack obsolete...
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280Mbps is pretty sppedy! Makes current FTTH offerings seem paltry, for those lucky enough to have them. I can only imagine that 280Mbps is maximum burst speed, which would be reduced dependent on the number of users in the area.
Nevertheless, this technology willr really take the fight to not only GSM data but also to WiMax, which *still* hasn't properly taken off.
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Great speed but I wouldn't hold my breath for commercial availability. Verizon launched EV-DO Rev 0 over 2 years ago and they still haven't upgraded their entire network. Rev A is still a work in progress. Even if EV-DO Rev C aka UMB were readily available at costs comparable to EV-DO Rev A equipment I doubt you would see a good implementation anytime soon. Think about the cost for setting up the data connections for thousands of towers each with 280+ Mbit/s pipes.
I wouldn't expect this technology or anything similar widely available anytime in the next 5 years.
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