Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Not the same old cellular: 3G service is now available

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 21:19:42 -0500

Not the same old cellular: 3G service is now available

By KELBY HARTSON
CARR
THE FREE LANCE-STAR

SunCom is the latest local provider to upgrade to the next
generation of wireless services for Fredericksburg-area cell
phone customers, a technology that allows users to send
pictures with their phones, download stock quotes and get
animated, full-color screen savers on their handsets.

“I just think that it looks so cool,” gushed SunCom
spokesperson Karen Roundtree. “Every time you turn
around, there’s something else out there.”

Fredericksburg was the first market to get the SunCom
launch on Feb. 3. SunCom provides wireless services
throughout the Southeast. Some other carriers, such as
Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless , already launched their
newest generation of wireless services last year. Cingular
plans to launch the service later this year.

Third-generation technology, called “3G,” allows data to be
transmitted at high speeds on cell phones. That means
cooler features for customers who own the new
3G-compatible phones and use a wireless provider that has
upgraded.

New phones have bigger screens with full color. The games
are in color and more sophisticated. Users can hook their
phones or wireless cards to laptops for phone-jack-free
Internet surfing. People will be able to send e-mail with
attachments, and-as the technology becomes more
commonplace-download and listen to songs and watch short
streams of video.

The first generation of wireless , “1G,” was analog, the
original cell-phone transmission method. Then came “2G,” or
digital, which can transmit more information and do it more
efficiently. That is what is commonplace today.

Even though many consumers know nothing or little about
3G wireless services, providers say the snazzy color-display
phones and promotions are luring them to the new services.

“All of our new phones are 3G phones, and they all have the
color screens, so that’s very attractive to customers,”
explained Sprint PCS spokesperson Lisa Ihde. “It’s a lot
more compelling than the black and white, text-only
previous phones that we had.”

Sprint PCS launched 3G services in August, and currently has
about 630,000 subscribers to its “Sprint Vision”
next-generation options, Ihde said. In the last quarter of
2002, about 20 percent of new customers signed up for the
service.

A lot of people still think a cell phone is just a phone, she
said. But many who get a three-month free trial of the Vision
options decide to keep them.

“The challenge is to explain to somebody who only has the
mind-set of using their wireless phone as a phone just how
these data services can make their lives easier,” she said.

Ihde had a stretch last fall when she attended five
weddings, all on busy sports-filled Saturdays. She could
check live sports scores with her phone, which made many
men there jealous. “It would not be appropriate to be
making a phone call to your buddy at the sports bar, but you
can be discreet with the phone,” she said with a chuckle.

And the technology is moving so fast. Even since the August
launch, things have progressed. Just this week, Sprint
added a new feature that allows customers to view slide
shows of sports events, including audio announcements.

Verizon Wireless was the first to introduce the
Fredericksburg area to 3G technology when it launched its
Express Network, which allows customers to plug a card or a
special phone into their laptop for wireless Internet access.
That launched just over a year ago.

In that short time, Verizon went from offering one phone
and one card to a wide array of devices today, including
phones, the “air card” and a personal digital assistant.
Customers can download from a vast selection of
enhancements, such as ring tones, games and Zagat’s city
guides.

Nextel has no plans to move to 3G services, according to
spokesman Sean Hughes. Instead, the company is investing
in expanding its voice capacity and promoting its exclusive
walkie-talkie feature.

Cingular plans to roll out its 3G services in this region later
this year, according to spokesperson Dawn Benton. By
spring, customers will be able to use their phones to send
photos and animation sequences.

Roundtree said SunCom is already seeing high interest in
the 3G services just in the week or so since it launched.

“We expect the next generation phones to have some high
appeal to younger people and the mobile professionals,”
she said. But, given time, she thinks everyone will discover
the usefulness of these new features.

“We think that it will enable people to use a host, a
potpourri of advanced features, that will allow consumers to
surf the Web, moms, anyone, not just the business
professional.”

Ihde, too, thinks the general public will embrace this new
technology once they are exposed to it.

“It takes a little stretch to think, ‘OK, wait a minute, this isn’t
just a voice. It’s not just a phone.’ There’s so much more
that’s out there.”

And in the future, people will probably snicker when they
think back to the old days when cell phones could be used
only to talk.

Date published: 2/24/2003

http://www.freelancestar.com/News/FLS/2003/022003/02152003/wireless

--
    "NEXTEL-1 IT'S NOT JUST NEXTEL"
  Note The New address
Subscribe to Nextel-1: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL-1

  "NEXTEL2 FOR iDEN SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS"
Subscribe to Nextel2: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/NEXTEL2

  "WIRELESS FORUM HOMELAND SECURITY GROUP"
     The Complete Resource for Wireless Homeland Security.
Subscribe to WFHSG:  http://www.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/WFHSG

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/