Mexico's Pegaso to begin 3G tests this year
embedded.com
By John Mason
EDTN Europe
(05/17/01, 04:53:13 AM EDT)
Guadalajara, México -- Mexican telecommunications company Pegaso PCS will begin 3G tests at the end of this year, reported Roberta López Negrete, the company's director of communications.
?Pegaso's present digital network is capable of transmitting data, voice, Internet and video,? Lopez-Negrete said, adding, ?The most difficult is voice, which requires more bandwidth than data, but it is the most widely used in Mexico.?
Pegaso has confidence in good results of the upcoming tests, as well as in the evolving market. ?The company's telephones will become personal communications terminals.?
To facilitate the change from a CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) network to 3G, Pegaso will utilize a transition standard known as 1XRTT that enables the existing network to be used for voice transmissions at speeds of 144 kbits/s in a cell phone environment. Besides enhancing the capacity for voice and data transmission, 1XRTT prolongs battery life.
The company's prospects for the future are good, Lopez-Negrete believes, having met all goals by the beginning of this year, including a 15% increase in clients.
The company currently has 700,000 users, of which 100,000 are in Guadalajara. The goal is to increase this total to 1 million by year's end, which would give Pegaso 20% of the total cellular market in Mexico. ?Of every five cell phones sold, one would be ours,? Lopez-Negrete said.
Since the company's inception through the end of 2000, total investment for network installation and modifications had reached $300 million. For further expansion this year, Pegaso plans to spend $500 million more.
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