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Ericsson Equips Cingular Wireless for Industry's First Commercial EDGE Launch

Posted on: Monday, 30 June 2003, 06:00 CDT

STOCKHOLM, Sweden--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 30, 2003--Powered by Ericsson's (NASDAQ: ERICY) mobile network technology, Cingular Wireless has launched the industry's first commercial mobile service using Enhanced Data rate for Global Evolution (EDGE), a third generation (3G) wireless technology.

"Cingular Wireless' accomplishment moves the whole industry forward and drives momentum in the evolution to 3G," said Angel Ruiz, president and CEO of Ericsson North America. "Ericsson is proud to be a key technology and business partner to Cingular Wireless as they roll out 3G services and bring more powerful and exciting wireless capabilities to U.S. consumers."

"Ericsson's EDGE network infrastructure, now delivering commercial service in Indianapolis, triples the speeds at which Cingular customers can access mobile data," said Cingular Wireless chief technical officer Bill Clift. "We rely on vendors like Ericsson to deliver the technology that drives our business, and we look forward to continuing our 3G rollout with Ericsson at our side."

EDGE is a 3G technology that delivers broadband-like data speeds to mobile devices. It allows consumers to connect to the Internet and send and receive data, including digital images, web pages and photographs, three times faster than with a GSM/GPRS network. With EDGE technology, Cingular Wireless can offer higher-speed mobile data access, serve more mobile data customers, and free up GSM network capacity to accommodate additional voice traffic. Cingular Wireless' EDGE network will support peak data rates up to 170 kilobits per second with average data rates of 75-135 Kbps.

Ericsson has played a key role in building out Cingular Wireless' existing GSM/GPRS network with EDGE-ready equipment, supplying core network and radio access infrastructure, operation and maintenance systems, and installation and integration services. Ericsson will continue to support Cingular Wireless as it introduces EDGE throughout its network.

Ericsson's EDGE-capable GSM/GPRS infrastructure, which has been deployed extensively throughout the world, offers operators a simple upgrade path to EDGE. As the first vendor to supply commercial EDGE infrastructure, Ericsson offers a unique combination of market expertise and cutting-edge technology to operators as they migrate to 3G.

Ericsson is shaping the future of Mobile and Broadband Internet communications through its continuous technology leadership. Providing innovative solutions in more than 140 countries, Ericsson is helping to create the most powerful communication companies in the world.

Read more at www.ericsson.com/press.

About EDGE

EDGE is a 3G-compliant wireless technology that enables high-speed (384 kilobits per second) transmission of large amounts of data. EDGE can be deployed in existing GSM 800, 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz frequency bands and complements UMTS (WCDMA) technology. EDGE uses the same TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) frame structure, logic channel and 200kHz carrier bandwidth as today's GSM networks, which allows existing cell plans to remain intact. This means that operators can offer high-speed multi-media services with total protection of their initial network investment. To learn more about Ericsson's EDGE solution, please visit http://www.ericsson.com.

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