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EDGE and UMTS

Craftabc

Aug 4, 2004, 1:40 PM
Is it possible to implement UMTS without having EDGE first. What I am asking is if WCDMA can be put in place over GPRS. Or would NC have to have EDGE first? i doubt this is possible. But that would be great if it were possible. Pimp, I know you got an answer for me.
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Rich Brome

Aug 5, 2004, 3:18 PM
Absolutely. In fact, it's possible to implement a WCDMA network without any kind of GSM at all. WCDMA is a whole new kind of network.

In that way, it's kind of like the transition from TDMA to GSM.

You can call WCDMA an "upgrade" for GSM, but really it's not. WCDMA requires a whole new network that can only share infrastructure with the GSM network at a few levels. Most of it is all-new.

But anyway, yes, WCDMA is 100% independent of EDGE.
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phonepimp3376

Aug 5, 2004, 3:34 PM
Begging to differ, but WCDMA requires an upgrade to the air interface, not a complete network change.
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Rich Brome

Aug 5, 2004, 3:47 PM
I did say that WCDMA can "share infrastructure with the GSM network at a few levels", but it's really only at the very core, and the higher data rates usually require upgrades to the core as well.

It's just not as simple as an "upgrade to the air interface". Practically everything at the base-station level needs to be upgraded or duplicated for WCDMA.

In other words, this is a much bigger, vastly more expensive upgrade than GPRS or EDGE. You can't just add a card to the base station and have WCDMA like you can with the smaller upgrades. That was my point.
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phonepimp3376

Aug 5, 2004, 4:28 PM
Okay, thanks for the clarification.
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