E-EDGE May Generate Billions if Adopted: ABI

If operators and handset makers adopt the E-EDGE technology, it could give billions of dollars in return, according to ABI Research’s (News - Alert) new “Evolved EDGE” study.

 

The research firm says that this technology has been enhanced and the deployment of EDGE mobile networks can generate about $3.7 billion in CAPEX for cellular base station upgrades in 2015.

 

But this figure can be reached only if operators and handset makers adopt the technology. Also, this is only an assumption because no E-EDGE networks exist today even though the spectrally-efficient Evolved-EDGE includes data features and faster data speeds.

 

According to ABI, the existence of the required E-EDGE-enabled handsets is still just a rumor and their research analyst Xavier Ortiz notes E-EDGE to be a classic “chicken and egg” problem.

 

Handset vendors don’t want to take risk by manufacturing E-EDGE phones without a market guaranteed by E-EDGE networks. The operators are also cautious and will not upgrade their EDGE networks unless they are confident handsets will be available.

 

Research In Motion, or “RIM,” the company behind the award-winning BlackBerry (News - Alert) solution, has been a pioneer in establishing and promoting the standard. The company believes E-EDGE can bring mobile broadband to rural and suburban areas that are not properly covered by 3G and 4G networks.

 

E-EDGE’s popularity may go downhill as 3G networks have become quite prevalent in industrialized nations and 4G is expected to become big soon. All eyes are on decisions made by China Mobile (News - Alert) and operators in India and their move will be very crucial to the future of E-EDGE. This technology will be quickly adopted if operators in these two countries decide to adopt it.

 

Both China and India have relatively new cellular infrastructure and this may work in E-EDGE’s favor. ABI gives a reason for this: Older GPRS/GSM base stations will require a hardware upgrade but new stations can be upgraded in software as part of regular maintenance.