WiDEN
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Wideband Integrated Dispatch Enhanced Network, or WiDEN, is a software upgrade developed by Motorola for its iDEN enhanced specialised mobile radio (or ESMR) wireless telephony protocol. WiDEN allows compatible subscriber units to communicate across four 25 kHz channels combined, for up to 100 kbit/s of bandwidth. The protocol is generally considered a 2.5G wireless cellular technology.
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WiDEN History
iDEN, the platform which WiDEN upgrades, and the protocol on which it is based, was originally introduced by Motorola in 1993, and launched as a commercial network by Nextel in the United States in September 1996.
WiDEN was originally anticipated to be a major stepping stone for United States wireless telephone provider Nextel Communications and its affiliate, Nextel Partners. However, with the December 2004 announcement of the proposed Sprint Nextel merger, it has been speculated that the Nextel iDEN network will be quickly abandoned in favor of Sprint's CDMA network. Although a complete roadmap of the merger's impact on the combined company's wireless networks has not been released, Nextel and Motorola have agreed to continue to maintain and expand the iDEN (and WiDEN) network through, at least, 31 December 2007.
WiDEN Subscriber Units
The first WiDEN-compatible device to be released is the Motorola iM240 PCMCIA card which allows raw data speeds up to 90 kbit/s. The first WiDEN-compatible telephones are the Motorola i850 and i760, which were released mid-summer 2005. The recent i850/i760 Software Upgrade enables WiDen on both of these phones. The commercial launch of WiDen will come with the release of the Motorola i870 which was released on 31 October 2005. As of Early 2006, WiDEN is available in most places on Nextel's National Network.
iDEN Networks
Sixteen commercial iDEN networks exist in fourteen countries.
- Argentina - Nextel Comunicaciones and Movistar (Telefónica Móviles))
- Brazil - Nextel Telecomunicações
- Canada - Mike (Telus Mobility)
- China - Sinolink, (Fujian TrunkingRadio Telephone Co.)
- Colombia - Avantel
- Israel - Amigo, (MIRS Communications Ltd.)
- Japan - NEXNET
- Jordan - Xpress
- Mexico - Nextel de Mexico
- Peru - Nextel del Peru
- Philippines - IMX, (Next Mobile)
- Singapore - GRID, (DNA Communications Pte Ltd)
- South Korea - Korea Telecom Powertel
- United States - Nextel Communications and Nextel Partners, and SouthernLINC, (Southern Company)
Capitalization and Pronunciation
Motorola originally referred to the platform as wiDEN, choosing to capitalise only the letters representing "Dispatch Enhanced Network," as it had with iDEN. However, subsequent promotion from Motorola and Nextel has indicated that the preferred capitalization is WiDEN.
The term has been pronounced, commonly, as a close combination to the words "why" and "den", or simply as the word "widen". The former is closer to the original pronunciation of iDEN, as "eye" and "den".