Philip,
I beleive the anticipation of this Ameritech release caused the surge. I hoped it would have been much better demonstration than Ameritech provided. The test was a sham in my opinion because Woodstock provided pristine conditions. It's about 40 miles away from Chicago and the heavy cellular traffic. The town itself is at least 10 miles away from any expressway. They promised CDMA in 11/94 to be up in 1995 and now we can wait till 1997. Why are they using Woodstock as a test bed or a test town ? Lucent who is building the system has had hundreds of technicians riding around for 15 months testing the CDMA system. Doesn't Ameritech know that Korea and Hong Kong have no problems ? Can't QCOM provide them with information on how great these other systems are running over seas ? BC of Canada system has passed all the tests so can't Ameritech see CDMA works ? There is definitely a lack of communications worldwide about what works and what don't. How could it work so well as reported in the heavily congested Hong Kong and not perform here ? Ameritech tested TDMA in the same way when it first came out. They said the customers didn,t like it and that was the truth. It sounded like you had your head in a bucket , dropped calls and no dial tone. Now these problems are corrected and they are still in a test stage with CDMA. I think they missed the boat. I thank QCOM though , they provided me with a good short term profit yesterday. Now I look for the stock to fall below 35 and I will buy.
Significant Testing On Its New Digital Cellular Service Now Complete
WOODSTOCK, Ill., Sept. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Test Towns" of Ameritech's popular television advertising campaign are real -- and one of them exists in Woodstock, Ill.
From Woodstock, Ameritech Cellular and Paging today introduced
ClearPath(SM) -- its new digital cellular service, scheduled for commercial launch in the first half of 1997. Actor Bill Richmond, a regular in Ameritech's Test Town television commercials, made the first digital cellular call on Ameritech's network to Woodstock Acting Mayor Joan Mansfield. In addition to naming the service, the successful completion of 15 months of testing was also announced. Next steps on the road to commercial deployment include thorough testing of ClearPath outside the engineering environment with
Ameritech customers. ClearPath is based on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), the most advanced digital cellular technology available. Over the last 15 months, Ameritech Cellular and Paging conducted extensive testing of ClearPath in a seven-cell test bed that reaches from the company's headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Ill., to Woodstock, Ill. (approximately 30 miles to the northwest).
This and future testing will help Ameritech ensure that the technology will work for customers and deliver the service that meets their needs. "We have just completed a significant milestone in our plan for bringing ClearPath technology to our customers -- we now know how to deploy this advanced technology to obtain optimum performance on our network," said Jay Ellison, regional vice president of Ameritech Cellular and Paging in Illinois. "In the coming months, we'll be listening to our customers' feedback in order to make sure ClearPath meets their expectations for quality and ease of use prior to making it available to all of our Chicago-area customers."
Benefits of the new service include enhanced call clarity, superior security and fraud protection, longer battery life and the capability to offer features such as Caller ID, a service that lets the user know who is calling before they answer the phone; message waiting indicator, a visual indicator on the phone's screen that lets the customer know when there are new messages; and short message service, which enables the ClearPath customer to receive numeric or text messages on the phone's screen. Ameritech customers and
residents of Woodstock were given the first opportunity today to try ClearPath using the Woodstock test bed and dual-mode CDMA handsets. The test bed will remain operable until year-end.
"Customers are at the core of everything we do. As with all of our products and services, we're committed to testing ClearPath thoroughly in the lab, in the field and with our customers. We're very pleased with the progress to date," said John E. Rooney, president, Ameritech Cellular and Paging.
A plaque thanking the town for its participation as an official Ameritech Test Town was presented by Rooney to Woodstock Acting Mayor Mansfield. Test Town is the Ameritech initiative featured in its television and print advertising that promotes the company's philosophy that technology only works if it works for people.
A worldwide leader in making communications easy, Ameritech serves
millions of customers in 50 states and more than 40 countries. Ameritech provides a full range of communications services, including local and long distance telephone, cellular, paging, security monitoring, cable TV, electronic commerce, on-line services and more. One of the world's 100 largest companies, Ameritech www.ameritech.com) has 67,000 employees,
1 million shareowners and $23 billion in assets. |
