While naysayers doubted that personal communications services networks could be built out in record time, the five systems now up and running prove them wrong.
Western Wireless Corp. last week turned on a PCS network in New Mexico, its third PCS launch in five months. The operator also has networks running in Honolulu and Salt Lake City.
Each of the nation’s five PCS networks use Global System for Mobile communications technology at 1900 MHz. Four of the five networks were built entirely with equipment manufactured in Raleigh, N.C., by Northern Telecom Inc.
While other manufacturers are busily building out A- and B-block PCS systems all over the country, Nortel is leading the race.
Network builders say two distinct things gave them the ability to build out quickly: early equipment manufacture and the availability of smaller, cabinet-size equipment.
Three or four years ago, Nortel redesigned the international version of PCS technology for North American frequencies. Then Nortel spent several million dollars renovating an area in its Raleigh switch manufacturing facility. Before the PCS auctions had even begun, Nortel began building GSM base stations dedicated to the U.S. market.
“We were ready and the auctions weren’t,” said Dave Twyver, president of wireless networks for Nortel. Equipment was built and tested in certain markets.
“It was a risk start. But when the winners of the A- and B-block auction were looking around for suppliers, we were able to commit. We had the GSM 1900 design ahead of everyone else, production ahead of our competitors and already had established our reputation,” Twyver said.
Nortel also had supplied cellular equipment to Western and BellSouth Mobility DCS, which in June launched PCS in the Carolinas, so those relationships already were established.
But that’s just half of what made rapid buildout possible for these companies. The firm that handled site management for Western Wireless’ Hawaii system said the configuration of the PCS 1900 equipment helped ease location problems.
“The cell site that once filled a room now fits into an outdoor cabinet,” said Damian Ameen, vice president of Ameen Communications Co. “That’s one big reason we were able to build as fast as we did.”
“We used to use 20-by-20 shelters with walls, air conditioning and steps, that required fire control. But with an outdoor utility cabinet, you don’t need fire control or the room. To a landlord, it looks like a big electrical or telephone cabinet, and they are used to those,” Ameen said.
Western wasn’t able to collocate many antennas on existing cellular towers, he said. One cellular operator flatly refused. The other was cooperative, but fewer than 2 percent of Western’s Hawaii sites are collocated with cellular sites.
However, additional PCS operators are entering the Hawaii market, which are expected to express an interest in Western’s sites, Ameen said. Soon cellular companies will need to swap a few sites with their PCS counterparts and the trading will begin, he said.
“Our strategy through this has been to move fast and quietly. Fortunately, Western has a very shallow management structure, so they were just a phone call away if there was a problem. A lot of it was just hard work and constant follow up,” Ameen said.
Nortel may be ahead, but the two other manufacturers building GSM for the U.S. markets are not far behind.
Ericsson Inc. was the primary builder of the network in Washington, D.C., which was the first U.S. network activated commercially last November. But no other Ericsson U.S. GSM systems have been commercially deployed.
Ericsson is constructing the GSM network for Pacific Bell Mobile Services in California and Nevada; the San Diego market may be deployed near year’s end, but the rest of the territory is expected to go commercial early next year.
Ericsson also is building the GSM system for Intercel Inc., which is licensed to cover a total of 16 million pops throughout the southern United States; those networks are scheduled to be launched early next year. Ericsson manufactures PCS equipment in Lynchburg, Va.
Nokia Telecommunications Inc. has the contract for the GSM networks for American Portable Telecom Inc., which has licenses covering 27 million people. Those networks are expected to launch commercially early next year. Nokia has a manufacturing facility in Westlake, Texas.
Neither Motorola Inc. nor Lucent Technologies Inc. have contracted to provide GSM equipment for the U.S. market. Motorola said its customers want Code Division Multiple Access technology; Lucent said it is building CDMA and Time Division Multiple Access equipment because those technologies more easily adapt to the North American networks.
