§ Lord Lester of Herne Hillasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the justification for requiring European wireless operators to provide 3G coverage using only W-CDMA handsets and network, rather than permitting them to use the 3G technology known as CDMA2000 that is becoming available in Asia and the United States. [HL5889]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville)W-CDMA was not mandated by Brussels nor any EU national government, including the UK. W-CDMA was the technology freely chosen from a range of IMT-2000 standards (including CDMA2000) by the companies that obtained licences for 3G in the UK auction of spring 2000.