Cingular’s 3G Blueprint
The New Joint Venture Lays Out Next-gen Plans
By Brad Smith
Prime spectrum needed for third-generation services hasn’t yet been put on the market, but carriers are charging ahead with plans for building their 3G networks.
Not wanting to be left empty-handed, Cingular Wireless, the new joint venture of SBC Communications and BellSouth, joins the pack as it unveils the blueprints for its spanking new packetized network capabilities during the Comdex computing show in Las Vegas this week.
The demonstration will show off the general packet radio service capability–a so-called 2.5G technology–as well as the new R520 tri-mode handset from Ericsson. The phone can be used on GSM networks globally and also integrates the Bluetooth “wireless cable” function.
The launch of GPRS is a milestone for the wireless industry as carriers lay the foundation for a transition from current circuit-switched technology to an “always-on” packetized network that promises vast improvements in efficiency and much higher data rates. The transition will lead to 3G network implementation, which isn’t widely expected until at least 2002. But because high-speed access remains the driver behind 3G services, carriers are pushing forward even though the bandwidth pipe that would allow for transmitting things such as large files and streaming video has yet to be laid.
Cingular’s GPRS technology will be in place across the former Pacific Bell Wireless GSM properties in California and Nevada by the end of the year, with a commercial launch in March, according to the carrier’s vice president of strategic planning, Dave Williams. The technology then will be turned up in the GSM network in the Carolinas, Seattle and Spokane, Wash.
Williams says Cingular also is studying the possible use of GPRS in the spectrum it acquired two weeks ago from VoiceStream Wireless Corp. in New York City, Detroit and St. Louis.
If all goes according to plan, VoiceStream, the nation’s largest GSM carrier, will be the first U.S. network with GPRS. The carrier plans to launch the service commercially in seven cities before the end of the year. The first carrier globally to offer GPRS was British Telecom’s Cellnet subsidiary, which launched GPRS on a limited basis last summer.
Cingular’s implementation of GPRS, which initially provides data rates of about 28 kilobits per second, also sends it on the road to converging of its own diverse network technologies. Cingular’s network has 19 million customers in 38 states, and much of the network uses the TDMA air interface. The carrier still is in the process of putting its 11 different brands under the Cingular name.
Williams says Cingular will bring its TDMA and GSM networks together technologically once the standard called enhanced data rates for global evolution is implemented in its TDMA properties. The EDGE transition, also a 2.5G technology, will take place beginning in late 2001 with a full commercial introduction in 2002.
Because EDGE uses GPRS in its backbone, it will provide the TDMA/GSM convergence carriers need. The nation’s largest TDMA-only carrier, AT&T Wireless Services, plans to migrate to EDGE.
Of course, migrating to new technologies isn’t the only hurdle that carriers face. Handset availability is an essential part of the rollout of both GPRS and EDGE.
Williams says Cingular will use GPRS handsets such as the Ericsson R520, and is studying models from Mitsubishi, Motorola and Nokia. The R520 supports GSM networks at 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz as well as Bluetooth, which means it can be used in 120 countries. The handset is expected to be available in commercial quantities by March 2001.
Cingular and AT&T Wireless also are working with handset manufacturers on models that will provide voice interoperability for TDMA and GSM. The first handsets would provide GSM and TDMA digital interoperability, plus AMPS, and are expected to be available in about a year.
The blueprints have been spread out on the table–now it’s a matter of implementing them.
wirelessweek.com
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It's possible these boys can't afford to do anything other than follow this rutted road... Rather sad... EDGE by end of 2001 - oh my! |
