3G Is Dead To Marty Cooper
Tracking the wireless industry can lead to manic depression. One day it’s all great, the next it’s all crap. Just a couple of days back things were looking good. Today it’s back to crap as mobile phone inventor Marty Cooper proclaimed that 3G is dead at a conference in Berlin. Cooper pointed out that UMTS, the 3G upgrade to GSM/GPRS networks, won’t deliver much of a tangible performace boost over GPRS and it will cost a lot more. No one is disagreeing with him, including ETSI, the standards body in charge of UMTS. The reality of the situation is, and we’ve said this many times, there are clearly problems with UMTS which will result in problems, delays and many I-told-you-so’s. Despite all of the problems, it has the most worldwide momentum and that will be hard to change. The best technology rarely wins, the one with the most momentum does.
Filed Under: 3g
