Windows Phone Thoughts: CDMA2000 "Adds Operators And Expands To New Markets"

"The CDMA Development Group (CDG) (www.cdg.org) announced today that the number of CDMA2000® operators reached 143 at the end of the last year, and the technology is now deployed in 67 countries across 6 continents. Furthermore, the number of 1xEV-DO networks nearly doubled from 16 to 29 in 2005, highlighting the industry’s rapid transition to advanced broadband wireless services. CDMA2000 momentum will continue in 2006, with 30 new operators scheduled to deploy commercial networks (compared to 20 last year) and 21 additional trials underway. The number of 1xEV-DO networks will reach 70 in the coming months, and 1xEV-DO Rev A will enter the commercial phase."

No doubt this smells like (and is) a PR, and as such should be taken as shameless self-promotion. However, CDMA is indeed alive and doing well in North America and Asia. Control-freak carriers aside, I like the technology; my officemate has a Cardbus EVDO setup on his laptop and gets very solid download capacity using it. I've managed to get my hands on a 700w and will be testing its ability to do EVDO download, too, as part of a review. In short, you should expect CDMA2000/EVDO and UMTS/HSDPA to remain competitors for quite some time to come. (For the European wireless geeks amongst you: the article makes a reference to a European CDMA 450 deployment, but doesn't state where it is. Does anyone know?)