Cingular Wireless L.L.C. reported a deal with Lucent Technologies Inc. to deploy a UMTS-based trial network in Atlanta this summer supporting internal users who the carrier said it will use to evaluate mobile voice, high-speed data and multimedia services.
The network will operate in Cingular’s 1.9 GHz spectrum band and will use Merlin U520 UMTS Wireless PC Modem Cards jointly developed by Lucent and Novatel Wireless, which will support data connections of up to 384 kilobits per second. The network will also include testing of High Speed Downlink Packet Access technology, which is designed to ultimately support data speeds of up to 14.4 megabits per second, as well as support Voice over Internet Protocol services in the future.
“This trial offers us an ideal opportunity to evaluate the capabilities and range of services that we can offer to our customers using UMTS and HSDPA technology and overcome technical challenges before pursuing broader deployments,” said Kris Rinne, acting chief technical officer of Cingular.
Cingular is currently completing its networkwide EDGE deployment, which will provide network speeds in the range of 100 kbps. AT&T Wireless Services Inc., which Cingular is set to acquire early next year for $41 billion, has said it plans to begin offering UMTS services in four cities by the end of this year as part of a technology agreement with Japanese telecommunications giant NTT DoCoMo Inc.
Cingular recently noted in a government filing regarding its pending acquisition of AWS that it would likely need up to 30 megahertz of clean spectrum to eventually deploy UMTS services across the country on top of the 50 megahertz required to continue to offer slower-speed data and voice services to the more than 45 million customers it will serve following the AWS acquisition.
