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Cingular Plans to Upgrade High-Speed Data Network

Posted on: Thursday, 2 December 2004, 12:00 CST

Cingular Wireless, the largest U.S. cellphone service provider, has announced plans to upgrade its high-speed data network, allowing faster downloads than are now available on many home broadband connections.

The upgrade will start at the end of 2005, and the network will be in place nationwide by 2006, Cingular said on Tuesday.

The move will allow Cingular to keep pace with Verizon Wireless, the second-largest U.S. wireless phone company, which has the fastest data network, industry analysts say.

Cingular did not say how much it would cost to upgrade its network. Industry executives said it could cost around $1 billion, though that figure does not include other enhancements to the underlying network that may cost the company significantly more.

The company said it had selected Ericsson, Lucent Technologies and Siemens to provide technology to upgrade the network.

In October, Cingular Wireless closed its acquisition of AT&T Wireless, to create the largest cellphone company in the United States with 47 million subscribers. Cingular said the purchase gave it the additional radio spectrum necessary to deploy the high-speed network.

There is already vibrant competition among wireless companies to offer the fastest data service, which allows people to send and receive information over mobile phones and with properly equipped laptop computers.

Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone, says its service allows customers to receive information at 300 to 500 kilobytes per second, though rates for sending information are significantly lower.

That service is available in around 15 cities and a handful of airports, said Roger Entner, an industry analyst with the Yankee Group, a market research firm.

High-speed access delivered to residences over telephone lines can be three times as fast, but in reality, the service is often slower than 200 kilobytes per second, depending on a number of factors.

The new Cingular service will offer service at 400 to 700 kilobytes per second, according to Clay Owen, a Cingular spokesman.

He said the Cingular service would eventually be faster than Verizon's.

"This leapfrogs anything Verizon is putting out," Owen said.

Source: International Herald Tribune

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