EV-DO vs. WCDMA: Who's Ahead?
Broadband is in the air. It has been an evolving year for wireless broadband in the U.S. It moved from test-beds to real markets nationwide; both EV-DO and WCDMA have made progress, but which technology is likely to be more pervasive in the coming years?
There are 3 critical things that matter the most in the evolution cycle of any wireless technology, namely--the network coverage, the device choices and the devices and the services cost to the consumer.
In terms of network coverage, even though Cingular (then AT&T Wireless) got a head start with its ceremonial UMTS deployment in four markets, Verizon and Sprint Nextel have jumped much further ahead in terms of national coverage. While Cingular has only covered 52 major markets in 28 states (just over 50 percent market) thus far, both Verizon and Sprint are nearing complete nation-wide coverage. T-Mobile won't get into the picture until well into 2007. Alltel, the number 5 carrier in the U.S. has been spreading its EV-DO coverage as well.
In the critical area of handsets, EV-DO is ahead by a mile. As of Sept. 2006, there were 15 3G handsets available in the market (representing approximately 20 percent of the available handsets from big four), 14 EV-DO (10 from Verizon, 4 from Sprint Nextel) vs. 1 UMTS/HSDPA handset from Cingular.
Average Selling Price (ASP) is approximately $130 on the low-end phones and $250 on the high-end. To its credit, Cingular's LG CU 500 is available at sub-$100 to make it attractive for mass-market; however, it needs much better market coverage and broad range of devices before it can start catching up with its CDMA buddies. The pricing for broadband-friendly services are still in a state of flux but becoming attractive by the day. Starting this Christmas season, we should expect the gap between the two technologies start to narrow as Cingular plays catch-up.
As of 2Q 2006, CDMA carriers had 93 percent of the 3G subscribers in the US with Verizon leading the pack with over 80 percent of the 3G subscribers. 2007 will see the introduction of HSDPA/HSUPA and the evolution is expected to continue with HSPA and LTE by 2009. On the CDMA track, Sprint Nextel and Verizon are already testing and introducing Rev A devices. EV-DO Rev B and Rev C are likely to be introduced in 2008 and 2009 respectively.
So, what can we expect in the next few years? In a way, this match of EV-DO vs. HSDPA in the U.S. is akin to GSM vs. CDMA tussle 5-6 years ago. By the time AT&T Wireless finally decided to abandon TDMA in favor of the GSM evolution, CDMA 1x RTT was well ahead of the game. EV-DO is clearly ahead in its 5 year maturation cycle in the U.S. and will continue to enjoy a dominant market-share until at least 2010 (though WCDMA will completely dominate EV-DO worldwide). By that time, 3G penetration will reach over 50 percent.
Read more analysis from Chetan Sharma over at his Fierce Favorites award-winning blog.