L and thread,
Don't believe this has been posted yet:
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Wednesday July 29, 8:00 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
U S WEST Selects Lucent Technologies to Provide Data Networking System for Soft Hand-off of Wireless Calls
DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 29, 1998--U S WEST has become the first company to use Lucent Technologies' PathStar(tm) Access Concentrator (AC) 120 to provide Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) soft hand-off of wireless calls.
The CDMA soft hand-off provides increased reliability and fewer dropped calls as users move from one service area to another. Rather than momentarily disconnecting a signal from one base station while transferring it to another in a ''hard'' hand-off, CDMA soft hand-off simultaneously connects callers with up to three base stations, making the hand-off virtually unnoticeable to callers. U S WEST is using soft hand-off technology between switches in Denver and Colorado Springs.
''Based on our evaluations, Lucent's AC120 offered us excellent features for manageability, scaleability and quality of service,'' said Joe Hannan, U S WEST Wireless engineering director.
Joan Stearns, wireless director for Lucent's U S WEST customer team, said U S WEST Wireless demonstrated its commitment to technological innovation by becoming the first company to use the Lucent AC 120 in a wireless switching application.
''By working with our Bell Labs engineers, we were able to come up with a configuration that allowed us to test the PathStar AC 120 in a controlled condition where we would not impact the existing functionality of the U S WEST wireless network in Denver and Colorado Springs,'' Stearns noted.
Hannan said the AC 120, which began handling wireless call traffic on March 20, has assured that U S WEST customers traveling between Denver and Colorado Springs do not notice when their wireless call is transferred from one switch to another.
''Based on the success we have had with our initial Lucent AC 120 application, we are expanding its use to other cities in our 14-state territory,'' Hannan said. ''The system is already operating in Minneapolis and installation is underway in Portland and Seattle.''
The Lucent PathStar AC 120 was developed by Yurie Systems -- a global leader in ATM access technology and equipment for data, voice and video networking, and -- and is part of Lucent's broad portfolio of data networking products. Lucent completed the acquisition of Yurie Systems on May 29.
The PathStar AC 120 is a high-capacity (1.2 Gbps) Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) access concentrator that provides universal connectivity to ATM Wide Area Networks (WANs). Its support for legacy protocols makes the AC 120 a natural gateway between networks.
By supporting a variety of standard user interfaces (including T1/E1, T3, OC-3c, V.35, RS232/V24), the AC 120 facilitates ATM access and concentration for various voice, video and data applications.
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"Thanks for your business, Uncle West!" -- Lucy
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