BellSouth Mobility has launched digital cellular service in Atlanta. After spending $77 million preparing the network for the Summer Olympic Games, the company said it was more than ready to roll out service.
The carrier previously announced it would turn off its Time Division Multiple Access network after the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games were over and activate full service during the first quarter of 1997.
BellSouth is offering new and existing customers a digital communications services package that includes the first minute free on every incoming call, caller ID, voice mail and message waiting alert. The digital phone and features cost $150. But the package price will increase to $200 starting Dec. 1.
BellSouth is offering dual-mode handsets that will default to an analog network once users leave the Atlanta area. Company spokesman Jeff Battcher said BellSouth has sold out of its Nokia Corp. 2168 handsets since service was launched Sept. 26. Ericsson Inc. phones are expected to be shipped soon.
The network uses Interim Standard 54, but BellSouth plans to upgrade to IS-136 technology by the first quarter in 1997. Atlanta’s A-side carrier, AirTouch Cellular, operates an analog network. AT&T Wireless PCS Inc. won the A-block major trading area personal communications services license, and GTE Mobilnet Inc. announced in March its intent to sell its B-block PCS license to Intercel Inc., which operates the Powertel PCS System.
With the exception of AT&T Wireless Inc., the introduction of cellular digital networks has been sparse nationwide. But several cellular carriers are planning to deploy digital networks late this year or early 1997.
“I think PCS is now getting close enough,” said Jonathan Foxman, director of strategic and business planning for BIA Consulting Inc. “This soon raises the hurdle for cellular carriers. They must present to the marketplace that they can offer just as good service (as PCS). They can’t do that with analog systems.”
Besides Atlanta, BellSouth operates IS-54 systems in Houston and Los Angeles.
Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems has IS-54 TDMA networks up in Chicago, Dallas, Washington, D.C./Baltimore and St. Louis. By the end of this year, it plans to deploy IS-136 TDMA networks in all of its major metropolitan markets.
In April, Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile deployed its CDMA network in Trenton, N.J., and Bucks County, Pa.
AirTouch began CDMA service in Los Angeles during May. AirTouch plans to have comprehensive coverage in Southern California by mid-1997, and switch from an 8-kilobit vocoder to 13-kilobits.
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