Click to View

Long talked about, but rarely seen, the road to third generation or 3G cellular networks in the United States has been bumpy.

To be fair, though progress hasn't been steady, the movement towards 3G has been forward. Why just last month, AT&T Wirelesss rolled out the Nokia 6620, the first Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE)-capable smartphone in North America (see Nokia Smartphone Ushers in EDGE Era).

It appears AT&T Wireless' competitor Verizon Wireless may have hit some snags in the deployment of its 3G data service, called 1xEV-DO (evolution data only), for its CDMA network. As a result, the eagerly awaited XDA III Pocket PC Phone, which is supposed to be one of Verizon's first EV-DO-enabled mobile handsets, may be the unintended victim of a delay that could last until the middle of next year.

San Francisco, Tampa, and New York City are the three cities slated to get EV-DO service after San Diego and Washington, D.C., where trials have been taking place since the fall of 2003.

Verizon told internetnews.com in March 2004 that its EV-DO technology boasted data transmission speeds of up to 300 kilobits per second, with bursts of up to two megabits per second. We presume these impressive results took place in the two test cities. EV-DO can theoretically hit data transmission rates of 2.4 megabits per second (MBps).

Battle of the 3G Giants
Verizon rival Sprint, which also has a CDMA network, is going with a different standard for its 3G deployment. According to the mobile operator, its support for EV-DV (evolution data voice) should pump data at rates as high as 1.5 MBps, with nationwide service roll out taking place over the next two to three years.

To Sprint, Verizon's EV-DO solution fills only one part of the 3G puzzle, data. Whereas its EV-DV solution delivers both the voice and data components of 3G. So Sprint claims Verizon's EV-DO is really only one step towards its more complete EV-DV implementation fo 3G.

Both companies agree their CDMA 3G offerings will be as good, if not better, than GSM's EDGE 3G solution, such as what we're seeing from AT&T Wireless and Cingular, the company who won the right to buy AT&T Wireless earlier this year with a bid of $41 billion in cash.

EDGE delivers data up to three times faster than GPRS, the current data-exchange standard for GSM. As a result, instead of streaming audio and video, for example, at 115 kilobytes per second (Kbps), the Nokia 6620, for example, should perform at 384 Kbps for AT&T Wireless.

XDA III
The XDA III, developed by Tawain's High Tech Computer (HTC), is nearly the same as the MDA III (see image), a smartphone due to ship in Europe later this year.

Although it has the MDA III's 400MHZ CPU, integrated VGA camera, 128MB of RAM, Bluetooth and SDIO Secure Digital slot, the XDA III is supposed to nix that other mobile handset's Wi-Fi feature.

As with the MDA III, the most interesting feature of the XDA III is a retractable keyboard. While the smartphones measures a not inconsiderable 4.92 x 2.83 x 0.75 inches when the keyboard is put away, just imagine how large they are with the keyboard out.

Verizon may choose to release the XDA III even with its EV-DO network delays. All the carrier would have to do is disable that feature of the smartphone's CDMA network radio. We'll keep you posted.