NEW YORK-As part of its evolutionary path, AT&T Wireless Services Inc. plans to offer EDGE services in the United States by mid- to late 2001, said Michael Bamburak, vice president of its technology development group.
The company has not yet decided whether to launch individual markets as EDGE networks are ready in each or wait until a “significant number” are prepared before engaging in a widespread rollout, he said.
“When we deployed CDPD in the mid-1990s, it took about three years for a nationwide rollout. We are looking for a national EDGE deployment in less than three years,” Bamburak said at a press conference held by AT&T Wireless, AT&T Labs and Ericsson Inc.
EDGE is a third-generation radio interface technology compatible with GSM and TDMA networks. It can support data and multimedia services at 384 kilobits per second in mobile, outdoor environments and faster in fixed, indoor areas. This is about eight times faster than today’s fixed-line dial-up modems and approximately five times faster than a single Integrated Services Digital Network, or ISDN, channel.
Ericsson and AT&T regard EDGE as a significant facilitator in access and service convergence between GSM and TDMA networks around the world.
To take advantage of the higher bandwidth and capacity of EDGE technology, wireless carriers will have to deploy an enhanced core network based on GPRS technology for handling data transport within the network. The GPRS core network follows a common standard for use in GSM, TDMA and wideband CDMA.
“The migration path for TDMA is easy. Could iDEN go to EDGE? It’s more complicated because anytime they do anything, it becomes dual mode, and there also are a limited number of manufacturers,” Bamburak said.
Ericsson is in the process of delivering trial EDGE systems to 11 TDMA carriers worldwide, including BellSouth Cellular Corp. and SBC Wireless, said John Giere, the company’s vice president of strategic marketing.
“GPRS already is rolled out in a (U.S.) GSM network, VoiceStream (Wireless Corp.), and radio modulation will take place next year,” he said.
To date, Ericsson has obtained 51 GPRS contracts, and it expects deployment of these systems between 2001 and 2003.
“We cannot comment yet on (EDGE) terminal prices because we are in the midst of handset platform development. … We are not yet predicting when we will have volume in handsets,” Giere said.
In most of its markets, AT&T Wireless owns both cellular and PCS licenses and therefore plans to use Classic EDGE, “which is more spectrum intensive but gives you greater data rates,” Bamburak said.
In about 5 percent of its territory, notably in the Florida cities of Tampa and Jacksonville, AT&T Wireless owns only cellular spectrum licenses. Here, it will deploy Compact EDGE, “the American version of EDGE, which requires less spectrum,” he said.
Compact EDGE does not, however, support phones using Classic EDGE technology, which is “GSM-compatible and more tailored to the European markets,” Bamburak added. Consequently, AT&T Wireless plans to convert all its markets to Classic EDGE once it gets “significant numbers of subscribers” in order to enhance service availability for EDGE roamers.
Wherever AT&T Wireless is able to acquire greenfield spectrum, “we are very much in favor of W-CDMA, which will be a leader in GSM evolution. We are looking for a global platform because of the economies of scale,” Bamburak said.
As one example of a greenfield deployment, AT&T Wireless, in partnership with British Telecommunications plc, will deploy W-CDMA for Japan Telecom.
“The EDGE choice for existing spectrum and W-CDMA for new spectrum are complementary because they work on core networks that are compatible,” Bamburak said.
A media gateway will be needed to build a cross-connect between EDGE and W-CDMA systems, Giere said. However, both can use the same operations support systems.
Gaining or freeing up additional spectrum for next-generation wireless services in the United States is a tricky business, Bamburak said.
“We can’t phase out AMPS because the FCC says we must provide it. The FCC doesn’t say how much, and we don’t ask because we don’t want them to tell us we need to provide more AMPS,” he said.
As for the often-delayed Federal Communications Commission auctions of the much-encumbered 700 MHz spectrum, Bamburak offered this assessment: “AT&T Wireless doesn’t want to be left out, but this will be hotly contested.”
Once spectrum allocation issues are resolved, however, 3G wireless services in the United States “could be deployed very rapidly because all the technologies are suitable for deployment in 700 MHz,” Ericsson’s Giere said.
