Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Operators Eye UMTS At 850 MHz-Vendors are asked to step up to the plate with UMTS equipment for the 850 MHz band.

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 04 Aug 2004 21:05:08 -0400

Operators Eye UMTS At 850 MHz-Vendors are asked to step up to the plate
with UMTS equipment for the 850 MHz band.
BY BRAD SMITH
AUGUST 1, 2004
WIRELESS WEEK
© 2004, REED BUSINESS INFORMATION, A DIVISION OF REED ELSEVIER INC. ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED.

AT&T Wireless has four cities up and running on UMTS and will have two
more by the end of the year. But what happens when AT&T Wireless merges
with Cingular Wireless and ceases to exist as a wireless network
operator?

Both AT&T Wireless and its betrothed, Cingular, have a lot of 850 MHz
spectrum across the United States. Both currently use the spectrum for
GSM, but if they can't use it for UMTS, the chances of a nationwide UMTS
network would be seriously affected.

Presently, no infrastructure vendor makes UMTS equipment for the 850 MHz
band. AT&T Wireless rolled out UMTS (aka W-CDMA) in Detroit, Phoenix,
San Francisco and Seattle July 20 using 1900 MHz equipment from Nortel
Networks. Dallas and San Diego are next.

Cingular, which hopes to complete its $41 billion acquisition of AT&T
Wireless by the end of the year, is confident that its vendors will
create a solution to the UMTS 850 MHz issue, according to Kris Rinne,
deputy chief technology officer.

Rinne says Cingular, which after the merger will become the nation's
largest carrier with some 50 million subscribers, has been "encouraging"
its vendors to provide 850 MHz equipment next year. "I might be
pleasantly surprised or I might be disappointed," she says, but she's
confident the vendors will come through.

Cingular also is encouraging its vendors to provide the high-speed
downlink packet access (HSDPA) technology for UMTS in both bands. UMTS
provides normal data rates of 220 kbps to 320 kbps, while HSDPA pumps
the downlink rate to 14.4 Mbps. HSDPA, which hasn't been finalized, is a
software upgrade.

Rinne says Cingular is studying the responses it received from an RFP it
put out in June for UMTS at 1900 and 850 MHz, as well as HSDPA. The
carrier likely will decide this fall which vendors to go with. Cingular,
which has been testing UMTS in Atlanta using Lucent Technologies'
equipment, has said it wants to launch the technology starting in 2005.
It also may launch HSDPA toward the end of 2005 if the vendors can
support it.

"We're absolutely there [in supporting Cingular's plans]," says Alan
Pritchard, marketing vice president for UMTS at Nortel Networks. "It's
something that Cingular needs and it's a clear element of our plan."

Another major vendor for Cingular, Ericsson, also will support
Cingular's requests, a spokeswoman says.

Pritchard says Nortel will have an 850 MHz offering in UMTS and will
push as fast as it can on HSDPA. Nortel provided the core network and
radio access infrastructure for all four cities in AT&T Wireless' UMTS
rollout. Nortel had provided the GSM/GPRS/EDGE core network equipment
for AT&T Wireless, but this was the first win for its radio access
infrastructure with the service provider.
Pritchard says vendors don't face any major technological hurdles in
providing UMTS at 850 MHz or in making it possible for subscribers to
roam between the two bands or roaming to the GSM network.

That said, it would appear a nationwide UMTS network is likely in the
next two or
three years
http://www.wirelessweek.com/article/CA440744?spacedesc=Departments&stt=000

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