Over 30 telecom operators deploying fixed wireless and mobile services across Africa, through the Coded Division Multiple Access technology known as the CDMA 2000, gathered in Cape Town, South Africa, last week, to discuss issues and benefits of deploying CDMA2000 wireless technology.

The forum discussed issues on the benefits and challenges in deploying CDMA2000 wireless technology, but concluded that countries stand greater chances of benefiting from the wireless technology, in spite of its major challenges that have to do with regulatory policies and frameworks.

Addressing the audience at the opening ceremony, Chairman, African CDMA 2009 Forum, Mr. Bill Hearmon said the future technology is wireless, while calling on more operators to embrace the CDMA2000 wireless technology that has all it takes to penetrate fast at affordable cost and most reliable services.

He said the CDMA2000 and the EVDO technologies have strong evolution paths for both voice and data, providing seamless user experience.

According to him, in today's highly competitive 3G marketplace, wireless broadband drives future growth, while voice remains an essential element. The trend, he said, is to evolve beyond mobile voice and offer instant and affordable to people, information, personal resources and media anywhere in the world.

This, according to the Director, South East Asia for CDMA Development Group (CDG), Tina Radford, will require a reliable and mature technology that offers a long-term evolutionary (LTE) path like the CDMA 2000, which she describes as the world's most widely used 3G technology with more than 463 million subscribers worldwide, 276 commercial networks and 24 more networks in deployment.

Speaking on some of the benefits of CDMA2000 at the 2009 forum, Radford said CDMA community continues to invest in enhancing CDMA2000 technology to further increase its value, performance and competitiveness. CDMA2000, she said, already leads all 3G voice and broadband technologies in terms of performance, affordability and adoption, adding that over the next two years, the voice of EVDO will increase tremendously.

"With the significant investments and enhancements, 3G will be able to deliver the performance and user experience that is expected of next generation technologies, referred to as the 4G," Radford said.

Speaking on the challenges, Director, African Government Affairs for Qualcomm, Elizabeth Migwalla, listed the obtaining of universal service licenses; consideration of mobile services; upcoming spectrum license opportunities among others as some of the challenges facing CDMA2000 rollout in Africa.

According to her, regulatory issues vary from countries to counties, but advised CDMA operators to speak with one voice and send useful regulatory suggestions to their regulatory authorities.

Qualcomm, one of the organisers of the CDMA 2009 Forum, says it is committed to the development of wireless technology across Africa, promising that wireless technology is the future technology that is fast cutting across the world.

Director, Business Development in charge of sub-Saharan Africa for Qualcomm, Mr. Sachin Bhatmuley, who gave Qualcomm's position towards its drive for the deployment of wireless technology in Africa, said Nigeria is a major market for CDMA technology in Africa and must be encouraged as such. He said growth in CDMA technology in Nigeria is on the high side and that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has helped in opening the market through the Unified License it granted Private Telecommunication Operators (PTOs) like Starcomms, Multilinks-Telcom, Visafone among others.

Bhatmuley said low cost of mobile phones, handset aggregation, introduction of handset chips, licensing and the Long Term Evolution Market (LTE) technology, are some major drivers of CDMA.

Qualcomm, he further assured, will use its new chips that have just been introduced to further reduce the cost of handsets that will further help drive the CDMA technology in Africa. Qualcomm chips, according to him, have the capability to combine the functions of several handset chips into one smaller chip, performing the same function and saving cost and space. With the single chip solution, Qualcomm will further reduce the cost of chips and thus allow for more demand of such handsets from the user end.

The CDG group noted that CDMA2000 is poised to enter its next phase of rapid growth in 2009, as operators in China and India begin to offer 3G fixed and wireless services.

According to Tina Radford CDMA2000 is already the most widely deployed 3G technology in the world, with 276 operators in 102 countries and territories, serving more than 463 million subscribers.

"With a combined population exceeding 2.5 billion people, the two Pan Asian countries represent an enormous addressable market for 3G wireless telephony, broadband Internet access and a myriad of compelling data applications such as email, personal navigation, FM radio and mobile broadcast services that will fuel the rapid growth of CDMA2000 over the next few years," Radford said. She added that the entrance of competitive 3G services into these two markets will fortify the CDMA2000 ecosystem, accelerate the global migration from 2G to 3G and further drive evolutionary enhancements to CDMA2000 1X and the EV-DO.

Economies of scale will drive devices costs down even further, with some entry level CDMA2000 devices expected to be priced at less than N2, 800, half the price of equivalent WCDMA devices.

Qualcomm has been in the forefront of driving wireless technology, using the CDMA2000 1X platform.

In 2005, Qualcomm launched the Wireless Reach Initiative as a pilot project and today it has grown into a global initiative with 37 projects in 22 countries, which empowers underserved communities through the use of 3G wireless technology. The objective, according to Qualcomm, is to use 3G to strengthen economic and social development, with a focus on education, entrepreneurship, health care, the environment and safety.

Over 30 CDMA operators from Sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, attended the three day forum that ended last week.