FREMONT, Ca.-Verizon Wireless is shutting down its low-speed CDPD wireless data network, according to mobile resource management company @Road.
“Based on recent communications with Verizon Wireless and observations of service availability on the Verizon Wireless CDPD network, the company believes that Verizon Wireless is in the process of shutting down its CDPD network,” @Road said in a statement.
@Road said it expected the process to take several days, and that Verizon Wireless parent company Verizon Communications Inc. had asked @Road to “discontinue providing services to substantially all of the Verizon Communications MRM subscribers effective January 31, 2006.”
Verizon Wireless officials could not immediately be reached to confirm the shutdown, but have previously said the carrier intended to shut down its CDPD operations on Dec. 31, 2005 except for a handful of regional contracts. The carrier has actively been moving CDPD customers to its higher-speed CDMA2000 1x-based data network.
Other carriers have already made moves to shutter low-speed data services. Cingular Wireless L.L.C. sold its Mobitex-based data services subsidiary in 2004 to Cerberus Capital Management L.P., and shut down the former AT&T Wireless Services Inc.’s CDPD operations last June.
CDPD networks were installed by a number of wireless operators in the mid-1990s as a way to provide data transmission over analog networks. The technology, which gave one of the first glimpses at the future of wireless data service, enabled data speeds up to 19.2 kilobits per second. Next-generation networks provide substantially higher speeds, as well as greater spectral efficiency.
