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PAVING THE WAY FOR DECT’S SUCCESS
CT3. Together with Svenska Televerket and ESPA (European Selective Paging Association) we launched CT3 to CEPT as a counter candidate to CT2. During the following standardization battle, the UK continued to develop CT2, and Sweden/Ericsson developed CT3.
Finally, in 1987/88, CEPT decided that CT2 and CT3 would be allowed as interim systems in the 864-868 MHz band, but the future pan- European system would be DECT (based on the CT3 MC/TDMA/TDD concept and its unique dynamic channel selection) on 1800-1900 MHz.
DH: What was happening in Europe before DECT was introduced and how fragmented was the market?
DA: As mentioned above, the single-channel analog 47 MHz (CT0) came from the US and Japan in the beginning of the ‘80s. CEPT did not accept these for Europe (only the UK and France introduced them). Instead, in 1984 CEPT standardized a 40-channel, 900MHz FDD analog cordless phone, called CT1, for the European market. However as QoS was so important in fixed line telephony and the technology for something better was available, this started to drive the industry towards new generations of cordless phones.
CT1 was introduced in Europe, except in the UK and France. France supported the more novel UK CT2 initiative, which was also a 40 radio channel system, but with TDD and digital ADPCM modulation and cyphering. It was standardized in the UK in 1985. At that time only CEPT (European Conference for Post and Telecommunications) existed, ETSI had yet to be created.
The UK had started to address the needs of the home market with CT2 without waiting for CEPT. However, Svenska Televerket (later Telia) had started promoting the use of the Ericsson's TDMA technology, which had advantages over techniques employed by CT2 (FDMA). The ECTEL (European Telecommunications and Professional Electronics Industry Mobile Radio Specialists Group) started testing CT2 against the early Ericsson concept. This would become a prototype known as CT3.
A key turning point came when Philips Research Laboratories in the UK, which was a significant wireless research company and an early proponent of CT2, changed track, claiming CT3 would be the better way to go. A CT3 prototype was introduced in a CEPT conference in Lund in 1987 and it worked well. The CT3 technology became the base for the new pan-European system DECT.
DH: How did a single European Standard come about and what was your role?
DA: The single standard came about thanks to the creation of ETSI. ETSI was established in 1988 in an attempt to separate standards activities from regulatory and operative business. ETSI had a strong mandate from the European commission to achieve single European standards for Cordless Phones and Cellular phone systems. I had no role in that. It was already decided that Europe should have a common frequency band for one common standard for cordless telecommunications. My only role was that I helped promote selection of the technology, that later showed to be very successful.
The UK had a strong lobby in the standards at the time with CT2, and had many contracts with all major carriers in Europe. However, no pan European cordless frequency bands had been assigned by the late 1980's. In 1987, CT2 was recommended provisionally by CEPT as an interim solution; CEPT could never mandate, only recommend. In 1988, ETSI approved the TDMA approach from Ericsson and Telia and called it DECT for the 1880-1900 MHz band. The two camps would continue to fight for quite a while with lots of national interests at stake, however DECT established itself as the most significant cordless technology with a far greater market acceptance.
In 1989 Project Teram 10 (PT10) was the first project team established in Sophia Antipolis in ETSI, and was responsible for the DECT standard on which much of DECT's success has been built. The original core team included myself and Günter Kleindl, Siemens, and we relocated to ETSI's headquarters in Sophie Antipolis around that time. Other members were Rupert Gooding from Olivetti, Paul Morris from Philips research, Urs Grob from Autophone, and Rene Tanguy form TRT in France. Other important contributors to the work were Andrew Bud, Ollivetti, and Heinz Ochsner, Autophone.
After a short time over 100 people were working in various ETSI sub-groups, developing various aspects of the technology: Network, Radio, Services and Facilities, Security and Speech were among them. Most of the major telecoms players were on board with many grand plans for both in- and
outdoor DECT. In 1992 the first DECT standard was approved, and first products appeared on the market.
DH: Why do you believe DECT was so successful? What had to happen for this to come about?
DA: I believe it was a very fortunate coming together of several key things. Probably the most important was the fact that we had a superior technology, and the right people in PT10 in the right places were there to pave the way.
The key reasons were:
1. ETSI was founded at just at the right time, when national operators and regulators were one and the same, and each country promoted its own company’s standards. CEPT had not been willing (or able) to mandate common regulations. The European Commission could!
2. A pan-European standard was introduced that had previously been driven at national levels.
3. Unlicensed spectrum was granted to DECT
4. A really good group of engineers were thrown together from across the industry to draw up a standard, which was so solid, it still holds today and is regularly being updated.
5. Last, but not least, the DECT technology that our teams had driven into this solution was really leading edge, and paved the way for everything that came afterwards.
Although this was so advanced, it was also possible to achieve mass market price points for the TDMA radio, which helped to kick start the industry. On a technology level, the dynamic channel selection across 12 duplex channels in particular, makes it one of the most robust and safe radio solutions on the market.
It was an obvious choice for voice but its intelligence perseveres today and, with ULE now being integrated into smart homes and buildings, audio, healthcare and many other applications, we can expect continued good future opportunities for various DECT-based products and applications serving the public.
DH: It has been an absolute pleasure and an incredibly interesting part of
the journey in the relatively young history of radio communications. Certainly a milestone you and the whole industry can be very proud of.
Well done and thank you.
DECT Today - The Success Story Continues · www.dect.org
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