NEW YORK-AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and Cincinnati Bell Wireless plan to team up to provide personal communications services in two urban Ohio markets, according to a joint venture between their parent companies.
The agreement, subject to Federal Communications Commission approval, provides that Cincinnati Bell Wireless will pay more than $100 million to acquire from AT&T Wireless an 80 percent interest in a new regional Time Division Multiple Access Interim Standard-136 network.
“The partnership is acquiring a portion of AT&T’s A-band PCS license,” said Wayne Buckhout, manager of corporate communications for Cincinnati Bell Inc.
“AT&T Wireless has struck into a number of similar agreements, like the one with TeleCorp (Inc.). The difference is that, in our agreement, there is a fully constructed network.”
Under the Cincinnati Bell brand, with a tag line reference to AT&T Wireless, the joint venture expects to provide PCS during the second quarter of this year in Cincinnati and during the third quarter in Dayton.
The full array of Cincinnati Bell Wireless services will be available by year-end to customers within a region that stretches north to Springfield, Ohio, and south to northern Kentucky. AT&T Wireless, which already offers PCS-1900 TDMA in Cleveland, has licensed territories that surround the new Cincinnati Bell Wireless region, creating the potential for expanded coverage throughout much of Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.
“This relationship with AT&T means that Cincinnati Bell can deliver services that meet all its customers’ communications needs, including digital voice, data, Internet and wireless services,” said John LaMacchia, president and chief executive officer of Cincinnati Bell.
Cincinnati Bell Wireless will offer its customers only multimode phones, Buckhout said. In areas lacking a digital TDMA 850 MHz cellular signal, digital cellular or 1900 MHz PCS, handsets will default to analog cellular network. Cincinnati Bell Wireless customers also will be able to take advantage of AT&T Wireless’ roaming agreements.
