>Benjamin Kowarsch wrote:
>
>> If the Japanese hadn't been so utterly and incredibly s-t-u-p-i-d to
>> develop their own homebreed cellular standard, but would instead have
>> chosen either GSM or D-AMPS *as-is* (not using any different frequency band
>> or reverse the uplink/downlink direction or other silly non-standard
>> gimmicks like Japanese CDMA does), then those phones could be recycled
>> (www.recellular.com) and help countries like -say- Bangladesh to improve
>> their infrastructure.
>>
>
>Some would argue developing their own standard was a smart thing. Related
>industries at that time developed valuable technical skills and flowed much
>revenue into domestic companies instead of external vendors/suppliers.
Indeed some would and some did ...
And they have been proven wrong.
Both the Japanese and the Koreans had to learn the lesson the hard way.
Just that the Koreans where a bit smarter ...
- they figured out that they had effectively cut off their industry from
the rest of the world and diminished export chances
- they decided to abandon their homegrown standard swiftly and abruptly
- they replaced the entire country's cellular infrastructure with a
standard compliant one rapidly
Results:
- Korean manufacturers are the top suppliers for CDMA (IS-95) equipment and
handsets worldwide
- Korean business people can roam without having to resort to special
handsets when doing business in the Americas
- foreign visitors from CDMA countries to Korea can do business without
established communication links being cut off
The Japanese thought they were being smart (as per the above argument of
yours), they thought ...
- homegrown standards would protect the domestic industry
- homegrown standards might be adopted by the rest of the world
- homegrown standards would support Japanese businesses better
... but they were wrong ...
The results are ...
- Japanese manufacturers have been effectively cut off from foreign markets
with little or no chance for exports
- Nobody anywhere outside of Japan ever considered adopting PDC
- Japanese business people abroad are at a great disadvantage doing
business because they cannot roam
Today, not even the Japanese industry thinks that it was a good idea to
have a homegrown standard. The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications
actually carried out a study in 97/98 with the aim to convert the Japanese
cellular industry to GSM (the ministry's first choice) or CDMA One (the
ministry's second choice).
The outcome was that due to the way the PDC had been designed and how
frequencies were allocated, there was no way considered feasible to convert
any operator to GSM nor CDMA One. Instead a Japanese flavour of CDMA One
was developed to allow IDO (now KDDI) to convert to this new Japanese CDMA
(incompatible with international CDMA One).
The reason for this is mostly because
- Japanese uplink/downlink order is upside down
- Both the US 800 MHz *and* the European 900 MHz are occupied by PDC due to
unusual duplex separation of 130 MHz
- PDC frequency bands are a patchwork of 7 tiny to smaller sized bands with
various duplex separation schemes
The Japanese know that they made a mistake not going for standards, but by
the time they realised it they had grown a real mess that they were scared
to clean up, so they couldn't reform the cellular infrastructure.
Instead they banked on new developments and teamed up with the Europeans to
develop a joint proposal for UMTS.
Despite that, DoCoMo is again on the path to incompatibility with their
FOMA network.
History repeats itself.
regards
benjamin
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Received on Tue Jul 31 11:07:43 2001