NEW YORK-TeleCorp PCS Inc., an AT&T Wireless Services Inc. affiliate, Tuesday plans to debut
its first commercial market, from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, La., at Wireless ’99.
Later in the quarter, TeleCorp,
an F-block personal communications services carrier, expects to roll out commercially its Memphis, Tenn., and Little
Rock, Ark., markets, said Russell Wilkerson, director of corporate affairs. During the second quarter of this year, the
carrier expects to launch commercially in its New England markets surrounding Boston.
Doing business as
SunCom, TeleCorp will become the third PCS entrant in the New Orleans-Baton Rouge market, following PrimeCo
PCS and Sprint Spectrum L.P., the latter marketed under the Sprint PCS brand name.
“We’re not just another
struggling PCS carrier,” said Julie Dobson, chief operating officer of TeleCorp and formerly president of Bell
Atlantic Mobile’s New York region.
“A lot of reputations have been ruined by entering too soon, but we have
a very well laid out plan, which is the great luxury when you’re not first to market.”
Without revealing the
exact number of cell sites in operation at launch, Jerry Vento, chief executive officer of TeleCorp and former CEO of
Sprint PCS, said the new carrier’s network “will have a robust footprint everywhere people live, work and
play.”
Vento said PrimeCo launched commercial service in the same area with about 35 cell sites and Sprint
PCS with about 43, while TeleCorp’s numbers “will be well north of that.”
TeleCorp’s southern
Louisiana Time Division Multiple Access network has logged more than 1.3 million minutes of use since it was
“soft launched during the Sugar Bowl, and we are delighted with its performance,” Vento
said.
“We’ve had the AT&T folks making their own value judgments, and we will be launching
(commercially) under the eyes of tens of thousands of wireless professionals, all additional critics.”
At launch,
there will be four SunCom stores open for business, Wilkerson said. Agreements also have been reached with national
chain stores, including Office Depot, Staples and Best Buy and with “key local outlets,” he said.
The
SunCom name will be carried by TeleCorp, which is based in Arlington, Va., and two other AT&T PCS affiliates,
Triton PCS, headquartered in Malverne, Pa., and Tritel Communications, based in Jackson, Miss. The SunCom
footprint extends from Beaumont, Texas, to Richmond, Va., and covers a population of about 45 million.
The
corporate names of the three PCS affiliates will be retained, but they will not be used for selling SunCom services,
which will be marketed as part of the AT&T Wireless network, Wilkerson said.
TeleCorp’s SunCom service will be
sold with a variety of dual-band, tri-mode handsets from Ericsson Inc. and Nokia Corp.
“We’ll be offering
SunDial, our prepaid service, at launch because prepaid is in big demand,” Wilkerson said.
“As an
AT&T partner, we have pricing flexibility, and we will offer a variety of price plans from entry level to SunRate, our
version of Digital One Rate.”
Neither Vento nor Wilkerson revealed specific rate plans. However, Vento said
local calling rates will apply within and between the Baton Rouge and New Orleans metropolitan areas. For some
customers, the first incoming minute will be free within this zone.
Some 12 million AT&T Wireless Services
customers enter this area yearly, Vento said. They promise a hefty source of revenue for TeleCorp, which has wrested
the AT&T roaming agreement from B-band analog cellular carrier Radiofone Inc., Metairie, La., Vento said.
Asked
whether TeleCorp is considering hopping on board AT&T Corp.’s recently announced bandwagon to extend Digital
One Rate to wireline services, Wilkerson offered a carefully worded response.
“As far as landline is
concerned, we are interested in looking at all opportunities with AT&T, but first we are dedicated to delivering wireless
services because there is a great need for them,” he said.
