AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and GTE Mobilnet Inc. signed an agreement to interconnect their wireless data networks.
Both networks use Cellular Digital Packet Data technology and combined can provide data service to more than 65 million potential customers in 34 cellular markets, AT&T said. Account service, rate policy and billing will be administered by the customer’s home carrier.
“This agreement is significant for any consumer of information because two of the nation’s top wireless data carriers are linking their networks to provide a seamless service,” said Kendra VanderMeulen, vice president and general manager of AT&T Wireless Services, Wireless Data Division.
“We are a major step closer to a nationwide wireless data service that will give traveling professionals instant wireless access to Internet and intranet networks, e-mail and messaging services, and remote data sources that will help them close deals, enhance their competitiveness and improve their productivity. The ramifications are enormous,” she said.
Lack of a nationwide footprint for roaming has deterred corporate users from accepting the CDPD wireless data solution since it reduces the mobility of their applications.
“With the signing of this agreement, we are fulfilling one of the key commitments the carriers made to prospective users and the industry-the commitment to provide access to nationwide, open-standard wireless data services,” said Terry Lewis, vice president of marketing and product management for GTE Mobilnet.
AT&T said it expects to complete the interconnection by this October. The company launched intercarrier service with Ameritech Cellular Services last April.
“A sense of mission is growing among the carriers,” VanderMeulen said. “Together, we can definitely make wireless data technology a mainstream business productivity tool. By the end of the year, I expect to see nearly all [CDPD] markets interconnected so that customers can travel freely and depend on instant wireless access to information no matter whom their home provider may be.”
