NEW YORK-Bell Mobility, Toronto, plans a series of initiatives this year to expand its data and Internet services and move toward third-generation wireless, Pierre Blouin, president and chief executive officer of the company, said Jan. 11 at a press conference.
Under an agreement valued at $67 million, Nortel Networks just began expanding the carrier’s CDMA infrastructure to areas outside the major cities in Ontario and Quebec. Today, CDMA service is available to about 70 percent of Bell Mobility’s territory in these provinces. When the expanded network coverage is completed, CDMA will be functional in 95 percent.
“After the spectrum auctions, we will discuss our plans for western Canada,” Blouin added.
Bell Mobility has about 300,000 customers for its Mobile Browser and Digital Data to Go services, which provide wireless access to the Internet, e-mail, corporate databases, mobile-commerce applications and personalized content. The customer base for these services is growing at a rate of 25 percent monthly, the chief executive said.
“E-mail, instant messaging and gaming, which we introduced very recently, have demonstrated popularity among youth, and there will be more youth-oriented services announced in 2001,” Blouin said.
As part of Bell Mobility’s goal to give customers wireless access via any device of their choice, the carrier also plans to begin selling by March what company officials called the first wireless CDMA PC card to become available in Canada.
Sierra Wireless, Vancouver, British Columbia, has signed an agreement to supply its AirCard 510. This is a Type II CDMA PC card modem, which allows laptops or handheld computers direct access to the Internet or corporate intranets without the need for a wireless or wireline phone connection.
As part of their agreement, Bell Mobility and Sierra Wireless will collaborate on future generations of AirCards based on cdma2000 technology, also known as 1xRTT. This is the first phase of third-generation wireless and allows data rates of up to 144 kilobits per second, about four or five times faster than typical dial-up modems.
Bell Mobility recently concluded a successful field trial of 1xRTT in a localized network in the cities of Kitchener and Waterloo in Ontario, Blouin said.
“CDMA allows a very cost-effective evolution via software upgrade, which will cost about 10 percent of the original PCS buildout,” Blouin said.
“We expect to begin a rollout in the fourth quarter of this first phase of 3G. It will double the call-carrying capacity of the network and double the battery life of wireless devices.”
Also this quarter, Bell Mobility plans a customer trial in an undisclosed market of the wireless multimedia technology developed by PacketVideo Corp., San Diego, Blouin said.
Although consumer services like checking up on children in day care are interesting opportunities, the carrier believes business applications, like remote monitoring of fleet vehicles, will be the first mover in this niche, he said.
