TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Cingular to Offer Faster Wireless Service

Cingular to Offer Faster Wireless Service

Monty Solomon (monty@roscom.com)
Tue, 30 Nov 2004 22:06:16 -0500

ATLANTA (AP) -- Cingular Wireless LLC will begin deploying a speedier
wireless Internet service next year, a move made possible by the
network capacity gained with the recent acquisition of AT&T Wireless
as Cingular tries to catch up with to catch up with rivals led by
Verizon Wireless.

The nation's biggest cell phone company provided few details with
Tuesday's announcement except to say it would launch the service in a
"substantial" number of markets by the end of 2005 and "most" major
markets by the end of 2006.

Cingular already offers the new service in six cities where it had
been launched by AT&T Wireless before its acquisition by Cingular in
late October _ Dallas, Detroit, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and
Seattle _ but had yet to move beyond trials itself due to capacity
constraints before the merger.

The Atlanta-based company said the wireless technology it is using,
known as third-generation or 3G, will offer average data speeds
between 400 kilobits per second to 700 kilobits per second _ on par
with entry-level DSL and cable broadband connections.

That speed would be a shade faster than the high-speed service which
Verizon already sells in 14 markets and which Sprint Corp. plans to
begin rolling out by the end of this year.

The Cingular-AT&T Wireless service is based on a technology known as
"UMTS," while Verizon and Sprint are using a platform called EV-DO.

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