All: couple of CDMA articles; 200k raduis base station coverage and Puerto Rico increase. (Thanks Phillips Telecom)
Nortel Develops CDMA Macrocell Optimized For
Maximum Coverage
Australia's Telstra Corp. [TLS] will put to use CDMA base stations supplied by Northern Telecom Ltd. [NT] (Nortel) that the
manufacturer said boast significantly wider radio coverage per cell.
Telstra is building out 800 MHz CDMA service that is scheduled to reach commercial status in the cities of Adelaide, Brisbane,
Melbourne, Perth and Sydney beginning around the middle of this year, followed by rural rollouts replacing the operator's analog
cellular service over the latter half of 1999. Last October, the company chose Nortel as its IS-95 CDMA equipment vendor under
a $200 million contract,
Nortel said yesterday (3/4) that tests conducted at its wireless solutions laboratories in Ontario, Canada, showed Metro Cell, the
company's CDMA base station, achieving a coverage radius of up to 200 kilometers at 800 MHz. This translates, according to
Nortel, into improvements of 10 times the range typically available and of up to five times the range demonstrated in previous
extended coverage trials.
Nortel's Metro Cell appears to indeed push the envelope on coverage per base station in areas of flat terrain, as a comparison with
M-Cell, the GSM base station product family developed by Motorola Inc. [MOT], illustrates.
When Motorola unveiled its synthesizer frequency-hopping software solution for M-Cell last year, the company said it extended
coverage to up to 122 kilometers per base station. (Peter Janecek, Northern Telecom, 905/863-6251, nortel.com.)
PCS Licensee Aligns With Telefonica On Puerto Rico
Rollout
A local subsidiary of Telefonica SA [TEF] will help PCS licensee ClearComm L.P. become the second CDMA operator in Puerto
Rico, under a 50-50 joint venture arrangement announced yesterday (3/4). A rollout is anticipated during the latter half of 1999,
with Lucent Technologies Inc. [LU] selected as the CDMA infrastructure vendor.
The deal between ClearComm and Telefonica Larga Distancia marks the Spanish telecommunications operator's latest move in
Puerto Rico's newly privatized telecom market, facilitated by the island government's elimination of a "no-competition" clause
between Telefonica Larga Distancia and the Puerto Rico Telephone Authority. Telefonica Larga Distancia currently provides long
distance and data transmission and Internet access in the market.
ClearComm, which bid as PCS 2000 L.P. in the FCC's C-block PCS auction, holds 15 MHz of spectrum for the San Juan and
Mayaguez basic trading areas. ClearComm has been making initial preparations for providing PCS, and Telefonica Larga
Distancia is providing estimated startup capital of $20 million.
"We have already begun work on the installation of our own network, using the latest generation of CDMA technology," noted
Jose Luis Fernandez, Telefonica Larga Distancia's general manager. Lucent's contract calls for the delivery of a turnkey network
in less than a year as well as the provision of operation and maintenance services for one year.
Telefonica and Lucent also are deploying CDMA is several major Brazilian markets where the Spanish company won A-block
cellular licenses in the Telebras SA [TBH] privatization last year.
ClearComm and Telefonica are entering a wireless market where three operators have achieved a combined penetration rate of
about 12.5 percent. Centennial Cellular Corp. [CYCL] was first to market with PCS in Puerto Rico, deploying a CDMA network
that also was supplied by Lucent.
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