Cingular, Sprint PCS, Verizon in cellular data arms race

Computerworld - Widespread national coverage for cellular high-speed data service edged closer to reality today as Cingular Wireless and Sprint PCS Group announced broadband deployments over the next two years. At the same time, Verizon Wireless reaffirmed its plans to offer high-speed data in a third of its networks by year's end (see story).
All three carriers are aiming their high-speed data offerings at enterprises to support an increasingly mobile workforce.
Sprint PCS, a division of Sprint Corp., announced plans to pump $1 billion into the emerging cellular arms race to roll out a data service with average speeds of between 300K and 500Kbit/sec. and peak speeds of 2.4Mbit/sec. "in select markets" in the second half of 2004.
Sprint also said it will extend the service, based on a cellular standard known as Code Division Multiple Access Evolution-Data Only, "in the majority of top metropolitan markets in the United States in 2005." Scott Stoffel, a Sprint spokesman, said the company would disclose which markets it plans to serve with EV-DO as its deployment proceeds.
Meanwhile, Atlanta-based Cingular Wireless today took a "significant first step" regarding its high-speed future, according to Hamish Caldwell, the company's executive director of product management for high-speed data, strategic enablers and devices. Cingular released a request for proposals to vendors for equipment to support its advanced data services, which are based on the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System standard.
UMTS has an average throughput of 384Kbit/sec. But Cingular also plans to deploy an enhanced version of UMTS called High Speed Downlink Packet Access, which offers data rates up to 14.4Mbit/sec. Caldwell said he expects to receive responses from equipment suppliers "in the next quarter or two" and hopes to start offering high-speed data service as soon as next year.
Cingular plans to test UMTS this summer in Atlanta, using equipment provided by Lucent Technologies Inc. in Murray Hill, N.J., Caldwell said.

Once Cingular completes its planned acquisition of AT&T Wireless Services Inc. later this year, it could take advantage of UMTS installations used by AT&T, Caldwell said. AT&T Wireless, based in Redmond, Wash., plans to offer high-speed wireless in San Francisco, Seattle and two other markets by the end of this year.
Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless in Bedminster, N.J., said his company expects to spend $9 billion on its network in 2004 and 2005, with $1 billion "dedicated specifically to EV-DO." Nelson said that after Verizon completes a rollout of EV-DO this year, it will extend the service to additional markets next year. He declined to