ATLANTA, United States—Cingular Wireless and AT&T Wireless said they will form a joint venture allowing both carriers to more quickly and cost effectively expand their buildout of GSM/General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network coverage along 3,000 miles on interstate highways in Midwestern and western states.
The states include Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah.
While financial details of the venture were not released, both companies will equally manage the joint venture, contributing both cash capital and spectrum and will buy network services from the venture, as well as offer roaming to third parties.
Cingular announced a similar agreement last year with VoiceStream Wireless to share networks in California, Nevada and New York.
The Cingular/AT&T Wireless deal also appears to have impacted rural operator Western Wireless’ stock price, which fell 25 percent after the deal was announced. Analysts’ noted the network-sharing arrangement could hurt Western Wireless’ roaming revenue, which accounted for 28 percent of its revenues last year.
