When we talk about high-speed wireless access on a CDMA network, we’re usually talking about EV-DO – most likely EV-DO Rev. A. Well, that’s all about to change – the EV-DO Revision C (known as Ultra Mobile Broadband) protocol’s specifications have just been finalized. Slated to become globally available in the first half of 2009, Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) is poised to take CDMA broadband to a whole new level. Forget pokey 3G speeds, UMB promises 288Mbps downlink speeds on a 20Mhz swath of frequency spectrum- all while “leverage the existing 3G CDMA device selection to preserve economies of scale.”
The newly minted UMB spec should see global standardization by the 3GPP2 organization in short order, and offers a CDMA-based 4G alternative to the W-CDMA-based Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. It should be interesting to see how this plays out, seeing as how Verizon Wireless(the largest CDMA carrier in the US) has been reported to be eyeing the WCDMA-based LTE standard for their next-gen network.
With LTE touting 100Mbps and UMB boasting 288Mbps on the downstream, we’re hoping Verizon Wireless decides to give UMB a chance. In the high-speed wireless game, it’s all about speed.
[Via: RCR News]