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A week ago, Congressman Darrell Issa (R.-Calif) introduced H.R. 1441, requiring that the US Agency for International Development and the Department of Defense use American CDMA technology instead of the "outdated French standard" GSM (which he called "Groupe Speciale Mobile") in "any such contract for the provision of commercial mobile wireless communication service."
Issa released an open letter to USAID on his website under the heading "Parlez-vous francais?" explaining why CDMA should be used:
If European GSM technology is deployed in Iraq, much of the equipment used to build the cell phone system would be manufactured in France, Germany, and elsewhere in western and northern Europe. Furthermore, royalties paid on the technology would flow to French and European sources, not U.S. patent holders.
... Finally, we understand that there are already quickly deployable U.S. commercial proposals to commence immediately with the installation of U.S. CDMA technology in Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of American jobs depend on the success of U.S.-developed wireless technologies like CDMA. If the U.S. government deploys U.S- developed CDMA in Iraq, then American companies will manufacture most of the necessary equipment here in the United States and benefit from the associated royalties.
In another press release on Issa's website:
"If U.S. taxpayers are going to be gifting billions of dollars in technology and infrastructure to the Iraqi people we ought to make sure, to the greatest extent possible, that those expenditures also benefit the American people and the American economy," Issa said. "If we build a system based on European technology the Europeans will receive the royalties, not U.S. patent holders. From an investment standpoint, that is a bad decision."
Rep. Issa received much media attention for these statements (Salon, CNet, ZDNet UK, Guardian, AP, The Register, Washington Post).
On Monday, the GSM Association issued a response to Rep. Issa's claims, pointing out that:
- "GSM stands for `Global System for Mobile Communications' and its users can roam throughout the world on the same phone with the same number.
- GSM is a worldwide standard accounting for 72 per cent of the digital wireless market today.
- GSM is an `open standard', which means any manufacturer from any country can make GSM equipment on a `level playing field' - including North American companies such as Motorola, Lucent and Nortel. Global manufacturers supporting this open standard include Samsung, Panasonic, NEC, Toshiba, Nokia, Ericsson, Mitsubishi, Siemens and many more.
- GSM is already deployed in every country in the Arab World - CDMA is not deployed in any.
- GSM was installed in Afghanistan post-war by an American company (TSI of New York) after a full tender process."
CDMA is a wireless technology patented by Qualcomm, Inc. CDMA has better spectral efficiency and allows for higher data rates than GSM, but has not yet been widely adopted and offers little international roaming capabilities. As has been well-reported, Qualcomm is based in San Diego, and is covered by Rep. Issa's congressional district. Qualcomm is also one of Issa's top campaign contributors.
But one link that has not been mentioned in any of the media reports (a K5 exclusive!) is the one between the company Issa founded, Directed Electronics, Inc. and Qualcomm, Inc. Before winning his seat in the House in 2000, Issa was for 14 years founder and CEO of Directed, an "industry-leading manufacturer of automobile security systems." In 2000, while campaigning for the Congressional seat, the car alarm tycoon sold 80 percent of Directed to private investment firm Trivest, Inc. A new CEO took over when Issa won, but Issa stayed on at Directed as a "valued member" of the Board of Directors. Issa's 2001 financial disclosure lists his position at Directed.
It's not surprising that Issa knows so much about CDMA, given his company's recent business dealings with Wingcast, LLC. Wingcast is a San Diego-based joint venture created by Qualcomm and Ford Motors to develop automobile telematics. In January 2002, Directed announced it would be working with Wingcast to co-develop a GPS-enabled vehicle locator using ... you guessed it, Qualcomm's CDMA technology.
Exploiting wartime anti-European sentiment for the benefit of a large company in your Congressional district may raise eyebrows, but proposing legislation that directly benefits your closest business partners, as Issa seems to have done here, is inappropriate and unethical.
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