No big surprise, AT&T Wireless Services Inc.’s cellular equipment vendors Lucent Technologies Inc. and L.M. Ericsson were named suppliers for the company’s Time Division Multiple Access personal communications services networks, marking Lucent’s seventh end-to-end U.S. PCS contract and one of Ericsson’s largest U.S. contracts.
Orders for the first phase of network construction, in AT&T Wireless’ top 10 of 21 total markets, is valued at more than $550 million, split about evenly between Lucent and Ericsson, said AT&T Wireless spokesman Todd Wolfenbarger. AT&T Wireless plans to start service in the first quarter of 1997.
Lucent, formerly part of AT&T Corp., is living up to its heritage as a stalwart contender. The Murray Hill, N.J., company now has the PCS big three-AT&T Wireless, Sprint Spectrum and PrimeCo Personal Communications L.P.-in its hip pocket. Sprint and PrimeCo are building their networks using Code Division Multiple Access technology.
AT&T Wireless plans to build in 18 months as many cell sites as it has in the past 12 years, said Nick Kauser, the company’s executive vice president and chief technology officer. He said site selection includes many utility companies and restaurant, hotel and gas station chains.
The company’s cellular and PCS properties together will cover more than 80 percent of the U.S. population, or 200 million people, said the company. AT&T Wireless is using Interim Standard-136, an upbanded TDMA digital technology and cellular and PCS customers alike will gain access and can travel between both networks, seamlessly, said the company. In the areas AT&T does not cover, it plans to provide service through roaming agreements.
The same feature set will be offered across all of AT&T Wireless’ TDMA networks, in place on AT&T’s cellular networks by year-end and included in PCS networks as they launch, said the company. AT&T Wireless’ TDMA networks will offer dual-mode, analog and digital, and dual-frequency, 800 MHz and 1.9 GHz capability, said the company. When a customer is roaming, the phones can switch frequencies seamlessly, said Steve Hooper, AT&T Wireless president and chief executive officer. “The technology is not the main driver [for the company]; it’s what the customers want,” added Hooper.
Other features include advanced messaging and paging services via digital control channels; personal one number services; wireless campus, building or home area calling features and handset sleep mode for extended battery life. A subscriber will be able to receive a text message while his or her phone is in sleep mode, then return the call with the touch of a button, said the company.
The digital networks will be authentication capable, embedded with the industry standard cryptographic technology to fight cloning fraud.
Both Ericsson and Lucent will provide base station and switching equipment, Ericsson in the Southeast, Northeast and Western and Lucent in the Southwest and central portions of the nation. Lucent said it is providing AT&T Wireless with handsets and other services, too.
Wayne Perry, vice chairman of AT&T Wireless, said he believes the areas not included in his company’s initial footprint leave opportunity for partnerships with C-block winners that adopt TDMA. Other players “have potential for roaming and real business by adopting that technology,” added Perry. Kauser said AT&T Wireless also has agreements in Canada that will allow for cross-border coverage.
Atlanta is likely to be the first market where AT&T Wireless will begin services, followed by Phoenix, St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Charlotte, N.C.
AT&T Wireless has conducted TDMA PCS system trials with Lucent in Chicago since last summer, and equipment tests with Ericsson started at the beginning of the year in Atlanta.
Jan-Alders Dalenstam, executive vice president and general manager for Ericsson Radio Systems, said the AT&T Wireless deal represents the company’s largest TDMA contract worldwide. TDMA operations across the globe claim about 2 million subscribers, added Dalenstam. Ericsson has secured a number of other U.S. PCS contracts, mostly for Global System for Mobile communications systems.
For the first quarter 1996, AT&T Wireless showed 37 percent year-over-year subscriber growth and 27 percent in revenue growth during the same period.
