GSM association plans to embrace CDMA operators

Andi Haswidi, The Jakarta Post, Barcelona

The global association of GSM mobile technology operators, GSMA, is moving further away from considering CDMA technology operators as rivals and plans to embrace them fully into the mobile community next year.

Speaking at the Leadership Summit, held within the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday, chairman Craig Ehrlich said there was a need for a shared view on technologies and convergence models within mobile companies because the industry had become more services-oriented.

"Everyone would agree that we have a shared future, so let's start understanding each other and working with each other and make this organization more representative of the wider ecosystem," he said.

Earlier, the GSMA stated its support of continued mobile broadband development in the Long Term Evolution (LTE) project under a 3G partnership among various associations, to further improve the Universal Mobile Technology System (UMTS) -- which uses the W-CDMA as a base for GSM's 3G technology.

Ehrlich said that CDMA operators committed to an LTE future would have full GSMA representation next year, including non GSMA board member companies, on its various committees.

"GSMA needs to embrace the entire constituency including CDMA operators. Our ecosystem is already wide and complex but we need to welcome more players and actively encourage more involvement and collaboration," he said.

Responding to the chairman's statement, Bakrie Telecom deputy president director Erik Meijer told The Jakarta Post that GSM technology could not advance further without adopting CDMA-based technologies.

Bakrie Telecom's Esia is the fastest growing CDMA operator in Indonesia in terms of new subscribers.

"GSM has been around for a long time. It has been eclipsed by other technologies such as EDGE, UMTS, W-CDMA, HSDPA and soon UMB and LTE. All of the new ones are based in CDMA."

"If GSMA wants a continued existence, they have no choice but to embrace us. It is useless to divide the world with technology. The two technologies will continue on same path toward deeper convergence," said Meijer, who previously was a vice president at Telkomsel, the country's largest GSM player.

"We do not see the need to join the GSMA. Nevertheless, the congress is a good place for you to find new ideas. There is a lot of information here and also (the opportunity to) meet a lot of people from the industry."

With about 230 chief executives involved as speakers, this year's congress, held Monday to Thursday, heralds four main themes: ubiquitous networks, changing business models that challenge traditional operator roles, the mobile phone's social and economic value, and the digital content revolution.

In total, there are about 16,000 exhibitors participating.

The first congress was held in Cannes, France, in 2006 and the second in Barcelona last year.