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From the September 20, 1999, issue of Wireless Week
New York, N.Y.: Where Wireless Never Sleeps
By Monica Alleven
NEW YORK--No doubt about it. New York City is one-of-a-kind. Nowhere can you find attitudes as brazen, sidewalks as
congested, buildings as high.
It's a radio-frequency engineer's nightmare trying to provide adequate wireless service for the millions of people who expect only
the finest in America's biggest city. After all, this is the Big Apple, the center of the universe, the place where Wall Street can
make or break a business. You get the picture.
The troubles and complaints AT&T Wireless experienced in New York City this year were well publicized and, some would
argue, well deserved. After AWS launched the wildly popular Digital One Rate plan, irate customers sued the carrier, alleging
AWS' advertising didn't accurately represent the service, which had too many dropped calls, busy signals and other quality
problems.
AWS says it anticipated the demand to some degree, but earlier quality issues were due, in large part, to equipment supplier
Ericsson's inability to produce and ship gear fast enough. Ericsson, for its part, says there was no way it could have projected the
kind of massive orders it received after new rate plans were introduced by AWS and other service providers.
AWS President Dan Hesse also blames quality complaints on consumers' changing expectations for wireless. Customers who use
their wireless phones to talk, say, 600 minutes a month, will encounter more problems than if they talk for 30 minutes, which was
about as much as some folks talked under the old high-priced calling plans.
But even competitors admit New York City is no piece of cake. The sheer number of people using their wireless phones strains
the network, and "bending" signals around corners in urban canyons makes system layout especially trying even for the most
experienced engineers accustomed to the peculiarities of RF propagation.
What's The Big Deal?
In Manhattan alone, where AWS this year overlaid a system on its existing network equivalent to that of Denver or Seattle, more
than 1 million residents and scads of buildings are crammed into 23 square miles. Unlike Boston, where tall and historic buildings
sit in a relatively small area, or other cities where buildings are roughly the same size, Manhattan overflows with tall buildings
throughout. It's relatively easy to spot the downtown in most city skylines. In New York, all of Manhattan island is high-rise, and
engineers more accustomed to less complex designs must consider the added dimension of height. "The New York network is
really different than any other in the world," says Diane Saffioti, spokeswoman for AWS' New York market.
When looking at New York City, it's essential to consider what's around it. Many people think of Manhattan when they think of
New York. But the metro area includes the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. Beyond that, the topography varies, and
thousands upon thousands of commuters stream into work each day from surrounding areas. Engineers at their computer screens
can literally watch the network light up as people move into the city in the mornings and outward in the evenings, taxing different
parts of the system along the way.
Then there are bodies of water that surround the area. Bridges and tunnels present their own challenges, and commuters expect
their phones to work there as well. And subway coverage? Fuhgettaboutit, at least for now.
New York Prices
If you're going to NYC, take your Visa. And American Express. And vendor financing. Whether starting with nothing or adding
digital capacity, building out a network throughout pricey real estate is costly. AWS operates nine switches for its New York/New
Jersey markets, and more will be added, although the carrier wouldn't say exactly how many or when it expects to need them.
Each switch processes about 2 million to 2.5 million calls a day.
Antenna siting is a whole other matter. In Grand Central Station alone, AWS installed more than 24 tiny antennas so commuters
can use their phones inside the huge complex.
AWS won't say exactly how much it spent on the market, but overall, it allocated some $2 billion for equipment spending this
year--twice as much as last year. It's a safe bet that a good share of the money went into fixing problems in New York, where
AWS is now embarking on another costly endeavor: that of removing Ericsson equipment and replacing it with Lucent
Technologies gear.
Last month, Ericsson says its engineers were working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to meet New York demands, which will
ease as their competitor moves into the market. The phenomenal number of sign-ups for Digital One Rate--and other single-rate
plans for that matter--wasn't anticipated, and all that demand forced massive assembly line and other adjustments that could not be
made overnight, according to an Ericsson spokeswoman. Component shortages were part of the problem but not the single most
influential factor, she says.
Lucent is eager to enter the market, where last spring it started supplying switches under a broader four-year, $1 billion contract
with AWS. Since its spinoff from AT&T Corp., Lucent has had to prove itself to win AWS' business, despite the two companies'
shared heritage. "We have been anxious to serve AWS in the New York market," says Bill Wiberg, president of Lucent's AMPS
and PCS business. "It's the No. 1 wireless market in the U.S., and for that reason alone, it's an important place."
Today, AWS' service in New York is up to snuff, according to Hesse. Although the carrier as of last month had no immediate
plans to market its group calling or family calling plans in New York, its tests show network quality is back to the same level it was
before the launch of Digital One Rate.
Some argue AT&T should have planned a lot better and made sure the equipment was available before launching a bucket plan as
popular as Digital One Rate. In April 1998, consumers in New York City were paying up to 73 cents per minute for analog service
based on a 60-minute monthly plan. Digital One Rate offered 600 minutes for $90 a month, or about 15 cents a minute, a great
deal for a lot of New Yorkers, business travelers and tourists.
Now that usage is up, expectations are higher than ever before.
That's true in other cities as well. Believe it or not, New York City isn't the only place in the universe. More than 260 million
people in the United States live outside its boundaries, and they expect better service as well. Omnipoint spokesman Terry Phillips
puts a twist on an old saying: "Anybody who can build a wireless network in New York can do anything." It's hard to argue that
point.
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