Motorola hits 3G equipment milestone

Susan Rush
From the October 8 edition of CED Broadband Direct

Motorola's Global Telecom Solution Sector has marked a milestone in the next-generation wireless sector. The company has shipped its 30,000th code division multiple access (CDMA) 2000 1X 3G base station.

CDMA 2000 1X technology is designed to nearly double the voice capacity on the network. Data can be transmitted as fast as 153 kilobits per second.

Japan's second-largest telecommunications operator KDDI Corp. has signed up more than 2.6 million subscribers since launching its CDMA 2000 1X service six months ago.

KDDI is trying to compete with NTT DoCoMo for 3G subscribers in Japan. In October 2001, DoCoMo became the first wireless service provider to commercially launch 3G services.

Motorola is the sole supplier for KDDI's 1X radio access network, and has supply contracts with 11 other wireless operators.