CANNES, France-Nextel Communications Inc. last week announced plans at the GSM World
Congress to establish roaming between its iDEN-based networks and Global System for Mobile communications
systems in Europe and Asia.
The company is working with Motorola Inc. as it develops an integrated Digital
Enhanced Network 800 MHz/GSM 900 MHz Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card-based handset for the Nextel
Worldwide service, which it plans to launch “later this year,” according to Nextel. The handset is scheduled
to be commercially available in the third quarter.
Once launched, Nextel subscribers would be able to place or
receive calls using an i2000 phone while traveling abroad, and GSM 900 and GSM 1800 users would be able to access
Nextel’s network while traveling in the United States and, eventually, other Nextel networks, which primarily are in
Latin America.
The service will bridge Nextel’s U.S. network with other iDEN networks abroad, said Nextel, which
currently has operations in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil; Mexico; and Manila,
Philippines. The country is just about to turn up a system in Lima, Peru, according to Barry West, chief technical
officer. In addition, it has licenses in Indonesia and Japan, but hasn’t built them out, he said.
“The first step we
see in terms of worldwide roaming is through the iDEN network,” said Stephane Brisebois, director-wireless
services world marketing and product management for Teleglobe International Corp.
With 600 million pops
worldwide and licenses in eight countries, “we have the greatest potential of all new operators,” said
Nextel’s West.
Teleglobe announced in a press briefing it has won the roaming contract from Nextel to enable the
iDEN operator to offer the service. Teleglobe will provide Nextel with its GlobePCS-Borderless roaming signaling-
conversion service, developed in partnership with Swisscom Mobile.
“Thanks to Teleglobe’s assistance and
expertise in the field of C7 connectivity and protocol conversion and Nextel’s desire to meet this challenge, the two
companies are committed to establish roaming between two completely different wireless technologies,” said
Tom Kelly, Nextel’s chief marketing officer.
