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Cingular to Upgrade Services; $300 Million to Be Invested in Illinois, Wisconsin Call Systems

Posted on: Saturday, 27 August 2005, 15:00 CDT

Cingular Wireless will invest $300 million this year in network improvements in Illinois and Wisconsin, the company said Friday.

The improvements in the two states are part of a $6.2 billion plan to enhance the cell phone provider's system nationwide.

"The full figure ($6.2 billion) is pretty consistent with expectations at the time of the merger with AT&T Wireless," said Will Power, an analyst with Robert W. Baird in Dallas. "That's about how much they need to spend to maintain the network."

In a recent J.D. Power and Associates consumer survey, Cingular ranked last in wireless call quality performance in the North Central region, which includes Wisconsin, with a score of 97. Verizon ranked first with a score of 107, and U.S. Cellular was second with 106. The regional average was 102.

The J.D. Power survey, released this month, measured seven customer-reported problem areas. In order of importance, they are: static and interference; connection on the first try; voice distortion; no echoes; dropped and disconnected calls; no immediate voice mail notification; and no immediate text message notification.

This year, Cingular has put 22 cell sites in service to improve coverage in Columbia, Kenosha, Sheboygan, Walworth and Milwaukee counties and six counties in Illinois.

The improvements should result in fewer dropped calls, according to Terry Stenzel, Cingular's vice president and general manager for Illinois and Wisconsin.

A similar cellular service survey from Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, showed AT&T and Cingular with the highest number of consumer complaints, while U.S. Cellular had fewest complaints in 2004. AT&T/Cingular had a complaint rate of 288.9 per million customers. U.S. Cellular's rate was under 50 complaints per million.

As part of the 2005 investment, Cingular will deploy high-speed, third-generation service known as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System/High Speed Downlink Packet Access to customers in 15 to 20 markets. The service will offer data speeds between 499 and 700 kbps, and bursts to several megabits per second.

Cingular has not announced where the high-speed service will be available. Milwaukee customers are served now by technology that provides data speeds of 100 to 130 kbps per second, said Chris Comes, Cingular spokesman in Chicago.

Cingular, a joint venture of SBC Communications and BellSouth Corp., serves more than 50 million customers around the country. By the end of 2006, Cingular customers will have access to 45,000 cell sites nationally.

COMPANY RANKINGS

-- Cingular ranked last in wireless call quality performance in the North Central region with a score of 97

-- Verizon ranked first with a score of 107

-- U.S. Cellular was second with 106; the regional average was 102

Source: J.D. Power survey

Copyright 2005, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. (Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media.)

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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