3GSM Wrap-Up: Flarion's New Gambit

On Tuesday this week, Mike posted how Flarion said it would pursue becoming a standard. Mike correctly noted that as strange, since Flarion has previously tried hard, and unsuccessfully at becoming a standard, 802.20. Mike also pointed out that Flarion's efforts were largely trumped by spoilers like Qualcomm and talk of 802.16e (FUD). Anyway, today in Cannes, Flarion CEO Ray Dolan shocked an audience when, during a panel discussion, he clarified where he intended to become a standard: under the 3GPP! I think the 3GPP is a round hole, and Flash-OFDM is a square peg. I doubt this standardization effort will go very far...especially since UMTS TDD is already a 3GPP standard, and it is quite similar in functionality to Flash-OFDM. Flarion's technology is great stuff, no doubt about it. But they've had a good deal of trouble finding a fit for it. I still think it will enter the market, but it will be the Mac, not the Windows.

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