NEW YORK-AT&T Wireless Services Inc. said it will delay and scale back the planned rollout of its W-CDMA network, pushing back the date by six months to December 2004 and cutting the number of U.S. cities set to launch to four.
The carrier said it will offer W-CDMA services in San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle and Dallas by the end of 2004. AT&T said the moves will help it maintain a “prudent level of capital expenditures.”
“AT&T Wireless and our close partner NTT DoCoMo are firmly committed to introducing W-CDMA in the U.S.,” said John Zeglis, the carrier’s chairman and chief executive officer.
AT&T had previously planned to offer W-CDMA network coverage in 13 cities by the middle of 2004. The carrier’s delay follows similar moves from a variety of other operators across the world.
AT&T’s support for W-CDMA stems from its partnership with Japanese wireless data giant NTT DoCoMo, which launched the world’s first W-CDMA network in Japan in October 2001. DoCoMo invested $9.8 billion in AT&T in 2000, changing the U.S. carrier’s network upgrade plans. Before the investment, AT&T planned to upgrade to GSM/GPRS, then EDGE, then W-CDMA “if/when opportune,” according to Mike Bamburak, AT&T’s vice president of technology architecture and standards.
Through its investment, DoCoMo changed AT&T’s network upgrade plans to definitively include W-CDMA.
AT&T said that when it launches W-CDMA devices, they will also work on the carrier’s GSM/GPRS/EDGE network. The move acknowledges DoCoMo’s experiences with its W-CDMA network, which has so far attracted only one-fourth of the number of subscribers DoCoMo initially expected. Many have complained of the service’s bulky handsets, some of which cannot roam onto other networks.
AT&T also said DoCoMo will be able to nominate another representative to its board of directors. Nobuharu Ono, president and chief executive officer of NTT DoCoMo USA Inc., currently sits on the carrier’s board.
AT&T said its EDGE network rollout plans are still on schedule, with a commercial launch planned for the second half of 2003. The carrier said it is now in the process of upgrading its network to support EDGE technology, and that 50 percent of its network will be ready for EDGE services at the turn of the New Year.
Separately, AT&T said it reached an agreement with Dobson Communications Corp., under which Dobson will exchange its two remaining wireless properties in California for two AT&T properties in Alaska. AT&T will also transfer to Dobson all of the Dobson Series AA preferred stock that it currently holds. The announcement involves the same properties in an announcement made in October.
