LAS VEGAS—Cingular Wireless L.L.C. plans to shut off both its TDMA and analog networks by 2008, chief executive officer Stan Sigman told attendees during a keynote address earlier this week at the TelecomNext conference.
Cingular spokesman Ritch Blasi noted that about 95 percent of Cingular’s traffic currently is over its GSM network and that the carrier has seen a natural transition of customers from TDMA to GSM since its acquisition of the former AT&T Wireless Services Inc. in 2004.
“It’s basically through people realizing that you’re getting cooler phones and better service off the GSM network,” said Blasi. “The pricing on the devices is better, and you’ve got some good offers out there on the market now.”
Cingular’s plans to turn off its analog network are nothing new; most observers expect carriers still operating such spectrally-inefficient networks to shutter those operations in 2008, which the sunset for the federal government’s requirements for analog networks. However, Cingular’s TDMA plans are more significant and pressing as the carrier is thought to still have several million TDMA customers on its network.
Cingular noted in mid-2004 that it needed around 8 megahertz of spectrum to comply with the government’s analog service requirements. The carrier added that its TDMA network required around 22 megahertz of spectrum to continue supporting its customer base.
