Sprint operates in its own world
By Jon Van and Andrew Zajac
Tribune Staff Writers
July 26, 1999
Having already spent $5.5 billion on its wireless phone infrastructure with another $1.5 billion in the works, the folks at Sprint PCS aren't quite ready to trade it in on a new model.
That's why Kansas City-based Sprint has held firm against pressures from abroad to embrace international standards for so-called "third generation" wireless systems that would be incompatible with the system Sprint is still building.
"We don't mind adding some cards or a few cabinets to upgrade our system, but we're not going for something that requires a forklift to pull out what we already have and replace it with something new," said Keith Paglusch, Sprint's senior vice president for operations.
Of course many phone companies in Europe and Asia don't take the same view as Sprint, Paglusch said.
That's because of the several "flavors" that digital wireless phone systems come in these days. Most European wireless companies favor the so-called global system for mobile communications, or GSM, as do some in Asia.
Sprint owns one system in the Washington/Baltimore area that also uses GSM, but all of the rest of Sprint's national system uses a different digital technology known as code division multiple access, or CDMA, and Sprint is rapidly converting its lone GSM system to CDMA as well.
"We're very pleased with CDMA," said Paglusch. "It's the technology of the future."
When Sprint settled on CDMA as its system of choice about five years ago, it was a risky choice. While CDMA offers much more flexibility and capacity than other forms of digital service, it was brand new and still unproven. GSM was by far the safer bet, as was yet another digital technology called TDMA for time division multiple access.
Since Sprint made its choice, it became clear that CDMA provides an excellent platform for bringing new services -- especially data -- to wireless phone users, Paglusch said. Many foreign phone firms have decided, reluctantly, that they must phase out GSM and convert to CDMA to expand dwindling capacity.
"They'd like standards for the next generation that would make those of us who already have CDMA also replace our systems," said Paglusch. "That would put everyone on an equal footing. But we won't do that. We made the right choice and will soon have $7 billion invested in it. We insisted that the next generation be backward compatible with what we have now."
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