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To: JohnG who wrote (19416)	4/8/2002 5:32:41 PM
From: JohnG	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 34857

Seybold on EDGE/Cingular It is good news for Cingular that Sony will provide a new chip set that will allow GSM handsets to be developed that operate on all of the existing GSM bands plus the 850 MHz band for Cingular's planned service in the U.S. This provides them another handset plus EDGE for data. However, there seems to be no solution for Cingular's other two problems: capacity and EDGE coverage. GSM is less spectral efficient that TDMA, Cingular's current technology in most of its markets. Cingular is at or near capacity in many markets. Moving to GSM will make the problem worst. Without increases in spectrum (very expensive) they will be able to handle fewer callers with GSM than with the current TDMA infrastructure. This is to say nothing of the problem they face during the transition period when they need to support both technologies. EDGE coverage is another big problem that they don't talk about. When EDGE is installed in a GSM voice cell site it will cover only about half of the area as the GSM voice system. This means Cingular will need to install three to four times more cell sites in most of the network to support EDGE data (in dense metro cores there are additional cell sites already in place to provide voice capacity so extra EDGE sites may not be needed in downtown areas). The cost to provide EDGE data coverage outside of the metro cores is substantial. It seems to me that this is Cingular's "little Enron secret".