CDMA Development Group becomes market representation partner for 3GPP

DENVER, USA: The CDMA Development Group (CDG) today announced that it has been accepted as a Market Representation Partner (MRP) by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). Under this strategic marketing partnership, the CDG agrees to facilitate the interworking of CDMA2000 and LTE technologies on behalf of the CDMA community to support future LTE deployments.

Likewise, the CDG's status as an MRP strengthens 3GPP's LTE advocacy amongst existing CDMA operators as they seek to expand their market leadership by complementing their 3G CDMA offerings with OFDM-based technologies.

At a signing ceremony, Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDG, said: "The CDG is pleased to accept this role as an MRP for 3GPP. CDMA2000 operators will be among the first to augment their 3G CDMA networks with LTE, and representing the interests of 3GPP to the CDMA community will help ensure that the technology succeeds commercially."

At least a dozen CDMA2000 operators are already making plans to deploy LTE for next-generation mobile broadband services. Verizon Wireless has set an aggressive timeline for its LTE deployment, planning to launch in two markets by the end of 2009 and 30-35 markets by the end of 2010.

These operators will continue to rely on their CDMA2000 1X networks for circuit-switched voice services and 1xEV-DO networks for ubiquitous mobile broadband as they supplement their current 3G services with LTE.

The CDG will draw upon a decade of experience as an MRP with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2), where it has helped define market requirements during the development of several CDMA-based standards.

The CDG brings a unique perspective to the standards development process for LTE and LTE Advanced, particularly for addressing interworking between OFDM and CDMA2000 technologies to meet the needs of these first-adopter CDMA operators.