In a move many industry analysts say eventually will level the wireless data playing field, Cingular Wireless L.L.C. launched commercial EDGE services in Indianapolis, allowing the carrier to offer data speeds it claims will range from 75 to 135 kilobits per second and peak speeds of up to 170 kbps, which are comparable to current speeds available from cdma2000 1x carriers Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS.
Cingular announced in early June that it was testing EDGE in its Indianapolis market using infrastructure software from L.M. Ericsson and that it planned to commercially launch the service within a couple of months. The carrier said it expects to continue to roll out EDGE services in additional markets throughout the year and plans to have its entire network EDGE-enabled by early next year.
“Our EDGE rollout demonstrates Cingular’s continuing progress and evolution in GSM deployment,” said Bill Clift, chief technical officer at Cingular.
Devices for the network initially will be limited to Nokia Corp.’s tri-band 6200 handset, which is expected to retail for $200 and includes a color screen, polyphonic ringtones, an integrated FM radio and support for Java technology. Cingular added that the device will also be available with a DataConnect kit allowing it to be used as a wireless modem and will fall back to the carrier’s GPRS network if it roams out of EDGE network coverage without disrupting a data session.
Pricing for EDGE services are expected to be the same as the carrier’s current GPRS service with data rate plans starting at $7 for one megabyte of data transmission. Cingular also said it expects to launch an EDGE-compatible PCMCIA card later this year similar to what it showed off at its WAVE Developers Conference in January.
In addition to providing Cingular with a “halo” wireless data service, Cingular also trumped fellow GSM carriers in rolling out a commercial EDGE network. AT&T Wireless Services Inc. said it still expects to launch EDGE technology on its current GSM/GPRS network during the fourth quarter and plans a networkwide launch instead of the market-by-market approach it took with its GSM/GPRS network.
“Their launch shows everyone is moving full-speed ahead on the technology,” said AT&T Wireless spokesman Ritch Blasi. “That’s important because a lot of people said it would never happen.”
T-Mobile USA Inc. said it has been deploying EDGE technology on its network since last year, but would not comment on a specific launch data for the service. Industry sources claim the carrier will begin commercial trials of the service in a handful of markets within the next couple of months.
The GSM Association noted that the EDGE launch could also pave the way for the adoption of the enhanced GPRS technology into other parts of the world.
“EDGE will not only be crucial in the U.S., where dedicated 3G spectrum has still to be released, but it will also be an important complement to the GSM family of standards in other regions including Asia, Latin America and Europe,” said Rob Conway, chief executive officer of the GSM Association.
Cingular’s EDGE launch is expected to provide the carrier, as well as other GSM operators once they launch EDGE service, with data service speeds comparable to what is currently available from 1x technology, though a far cry from what originally was expected from the enhanced GPRS technology.
When Cingular initially announced plans to launch EDGE technology onto its network in late 2001, the carrier said it expected the service to provide peak data rates up to 384 kbps. On its Web site, Cingular says EDGE will provide peak speeds up to 477 kbps and average throughput of between 100 and 150 kbps, which is about three times the 30- to 45-kbps Cingular claims for its GPRS service.
Some industry analysts have noted the discrepancy is due to a number of factors, including how carriers compute throughput speeds and how many time slots carriers allow for data services.
While Cingular did not return requests for an explanation on how it computes network speeds by press time, the GSM community has been accused of combining both the downlink and uplink speeds to come up with the total throughput capacity of GSM-based data technology.
Analysts note this way of measuring network speeds provides a false sense of what a technology is capable of providing.
“Generally speeds are measured on the downlink transmission,” said Peter Rysavy, president of Rysavy Research. “Speeds calculated by combining the uplink and downlink are completely misleading.”
The GSM community also has been accused of inflating its network speeds by reporting peak speeds that are only capable if all eight GSM time slots are allotted to data transmission, which while theoretically possible, would leave an operator with no voice capacity.
Most GSM operators have said they do not expect to provide more than three time slots for data services, while the Nokia 6200 handset is only set-up to transmit on two time slots for the downlink and one time slot for the uplink.
The GSM community is not alone in providing inflated data speed information. Independent tests have shown 1x network data services fall short of their claimed 153 kbps network speeds.
An RBC Capital Markets test of wireless data networks last year showed Sprint PCS’ 1x-based Vision service provided between 27 and 137 kbps of data throughput; Verizon Wireless’ 1x-based Express Network provided between 10 and 90 kbps of data throughput; and T-Mobile USA’s GPRS service provided between 31 and 35 kbps of throughput.
“While the speeds may not match a lot of the claims, they are still compelling for customers who see the speeds and realize they are faster than what they can get with a dial-up connection,” added Eddie Hold, vice president of telecom services at Current Analysis.
