DENVER-In concert with the company’s previous digital cellular launches, AirTouch Cellular announced it is offering its high-end business users in Denver and Detroit Powerband service.
“In the past, we have launched new services to business and retail customers simultaneously,” said Julie Dexter Berg, executive vice president and general manager for AirTouch in the Northwest, Midwest and Rocky Mountain regions, of the Denver launch. “But with new competitors targeting our largest customers, it’s important that we focus our efforts on introducing Powerband service to our large business customers and then concentrate on a full retail launch later this quarter.”
The service in Denver, based on Code Division Multiple Access technology, is available from Fort Collins to south of Colorado Springs, and from Golden to the Denver International Airport, and is the largest CDMA system in Colorado, said the company. Berg said the company invested three years and $20 million in the network.
The dual-mode phone, which can be purchased for around $250, supports text messaging, voice mail with notification, call-back number and caller ID. In Denver, messages can be sent to a Powerband user via e-mail and the World Wide Web on the Internet. This is the first digital network to support e-mail and Internet messaging, said the company.
Customers in Detroit also use dual-mode phones, but do not yet have access to the voice mail, caller ID and short messaging features. AirTouch expects to launch those features later this year as part of its Powerband service offering. Detroit’s CDMA system uses network equipment provided by Northern Telecom Inc. that has been engineered and constructed to overlay an existing Ericsson Inc. analog network, said AirTouch. The system covers about 90 percent of the company’s analog traffic within the Detroit major service area.
Denver rates for Powerband service are comparable to existing analog rates, said AirTouch. The company will announce its retail pricing when it launches commercial service in June, said Virginia Mott, vice president and general manager of the Front Range Region.
Sprint PCS launched Denver’s first personal communications services system at the end of March. It is offering half-price monthly service charges for a year and a phone for around $200. The company’s 1900 MHz CDMA service is available in the Denver greater metropolitan area and Boulder. Parts of six counties are included, however Denver’s airport is not yet covered. AT&T Wireless Services Inc. launched service in Denver based on Time Division Multiple Access Interim Standard 136 during the middle of 1996.
Ameritech Cellular Services said it plans to launch digital cellular service based on Code Division Multiple Access in Detroit during the second half of this year.
In related news, AirTouch also confirmed it is in the process of converting its Los Angeles digital network to 13 kilobit per second vocoder technology. AirTouch launched that market using 8 kbps vocoder technology. The upgraded technology wasn’t available when the company launched the Powerband service in L.A. nearly a year ago, said the company.
