IDG News Service - Cingular Wireless LLC, the No. 2 mobile phone carrier in the U.S., has tapped Nokia Corp., the world's largest mobile phone maker, to be the main infrastructure equipment supplier for its upcoming third-generation (3G) network, the companies said today.
Espoo, Finland-based Nokia said in a statement that the deal, worth more than $1 billion, is the largest ever for its network equipment division.
In October, Atlanta-based Cingular announced it was moving from its Time Division Multiple Access network to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technology to offer customers fast wireless data connections (see story).
At the time, Cingular said that it would spend $3 billion on upgrading its networks and that it was hammering out deals with Nokia, LM Ericsson Telephone Co. and Siemens AG to provide the network, services and handsets.
Stockholm-based Ericsson on Monday also announced that it had signed a contract with Cingular, but it wouldn't release terms of the deal.
"We are not in a position to give any dollar figure, but of the three players named as part of the build-out, we are significantly the largest," said Ericsson spokesman James Borup. "We got about 60% of the core network and just less than half of the radio part."
Cingular wasn't immediately available for comment on the Ericsson deal.
Nokia said that it's expected to supply the equipment for Cingular's GSM network, GSM/EDGE (Enhanced Data GSM Environment), by early next year.
As part of the contract, Nokia will supply the technology for a dual-band (850/1,900-MHz) mobile service with such products as its UltraSite triple-mode (GSM/EDGE/Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) base stations, DX 200 circuit-switching platform and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) packet-core network product, the company said.
Cingular, like other wireless telecommunications companies, plans to build out its next-generation networks in phases: from GSM to GPRS to 3G. The company plans to have 50% of its current network served by GSM by the end of next year, with its GPRS network available across the U.S. by 2004.
Cingular rival AT&T Wireless Services Inc. in Redmond, Wash., announced a move to GSM and GPRS last year and also has contracts with Nokia and Ericsson for similar infrastructure equipment (see story).
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