NEW YORK-With plans to deliberately blur the distinction between cellular and personal communications services, AT&T Corp. launched an advanced digital cellular communications network covering a population of 70 million in 40 major markets where it now offers cellular service.
The new offering has been dubbed AT&T Digital PCS, and uses Interim Standard-136 Time Division Multiple Access technology to provide voice, messaging and paging in a single handset.
The service won’t be available in certain markets in Colorado until mid-October, according to Ken Woo, a spokesman for AT&T Wireless Services Inc. In Los Angeles and San Francisco, which are joint-venture markets for AT&T, and in Anchorage, Alaska, the service will be available by the end of the year, he said.
By the end of 1997, when the company expects complete buildout of its nationwide PCS network, AT&T Digital PCS service will be available to 212 million potential customers via 800 MHz and 1.9 GHz systems, said Robert E. Allen, AT&T chairman. According to Woo, this 1997 rollout tally also comprises several dozen smaller cities like Shreveport, La., where AT&T’s cellular service still uses the IS-54 TDMA standard, and two or three smaller cities, like Spokane, Wash., which still operates on an AT&T analog cellular system.
Blurring the distinction between PCS and cellular service in the new name is deliberate, noted Allen. “Our customers don’t care what frequency it’s on, only what services are offered.”
The purchase price range is $150 to $229 for the communications devices, which are manufactured by Ericsson Inc., Lucent Technologies Inc. and Nokia Corp., said Ruthlyn Newell, a spokeswoman for AT&T Corp.
The ability of these devices to offer multiple wireless communications is inherent not only in the units themselves but also in the ability of IS-136, “which gives us a digital control channel,” Woo said. IS-136 also affords three to six times more network carrying capacity than the earlier incarnation of TDMA. However, the capacity enhancement feature hasn’t been tapped since it isn’t yet needed, he said. By comparison, AT&T switched to IS-54 TDMA several years ago because the capacity enhancement it afforded compared with analog enabled the company to reduce customer rates by saving AT&T the need to build more cell sites, he said.
Asked about Code Division Multiple Access vs. TDMA, AT&T executives said they are “agnostic” about technology choices in the future.
Monthly service rates for the new AT&T PCS digital cellular service start at $25, and national roaming rates anywhere in the United States will cost 60 cents per minute. Caller ID is included in all packages at no extra charge, and a “message waiting” indicator light eliminates the need to check voice mail.
The batteries in the new communications devices have a standby life of 20 hours to 60 hours on average, with as many as 100 hours demonstrated in product testing, said Maggie Wilderotter, executive vice president of national operations for AT&T Wireless Services. Available talk time ranges from 72 minutes to 150 minutes.
She said AT&T “is in the process of developing dual-mode, dual-band phones” in conjunction with its PCS rollout to serve high-use customers who want to use their multipurpose handsets to roam. Trade-in allowances on other phones are envisioned, she said.
Wilderotter said, “at some point, we would encourage customers to use (the wireless handsets) at home.”
For now, AT&T is working with large institutions like hospitals and schools to introduce the fixed and mobile use of the multifunctional personal communications devices, she said. Such adaptive use requires special links to internal PBX systems, and they permit dialing using far fewer digits, Wilderotter added.
