This week Southwestern Bell telephone company will be the first company to launch a Time Division Multiple Access network at 1900 MHz when it turns on service in Tulsa, Okla.
The nation’s other TDMA proponent, AT&T Wireless Services Inc., has not launched its 1900 MHz properties yet.
Southwestern Bell is the regional Bell operating company for Oklahoma and the landline telephone operator in Tulsa. It bought the Tulsa major trading area personal communications services license for $17.5 million at auction in 1995. Southwestern Bell also acquired eight more wireless properties at the D- and E-block auctions.
Sprint Spectrum L.P. owns the other MTA PCS license for Tulsa and already has launched 1900 MHz service there using Code Division Multiple Access technology.
The two cellular operators in Tulsa are AT&T Wireless and United States Cellular Corp.
Southwestern Bell will offer two models of Ericsson Inc. triple mode, dual-band phones for the Interim Standard 136 network. Model PD 328 and PD 398 transmit at 1900 MHz and 800 MHz using TDMA and default to 800 MHz analog if digital TDMA is not present. Ericsson calls this type of phone a triple-mode device.
