Nortel, Ericsson win wireless contract for first W-CDMA network in U.S.

Nortel, Ericsson win wireless contract for first W-CDMA network in U.S.
MANHASSET, N.Y. — AT&T Wireless has selected Nortel Networks and Ericsson as equipment vendors for what is expected to be the first W-CDMA-based 3G wireless network in North America. The rollout follows AT&T's agreement with NTT DoCoMo to launch a W-CDMA in four U.S. cities by the end of 2004.

The W-CDMA deployment follows the overlay of AT&T's original AMPS/TDMA network with GSM, GPRS and Edge techologies announced in October 2000. "We've completed the GSM/GPRS overlay and we're on track to finish Edge by year's end, at which point it will be ready for commercial use," an AT&T spokesman said.

"This is the first UMTS announcement in [North America] for a major carrier," said Mark Morell, director of wireless strategic marketing at Nortel, which is currently supplying W-CDMA equipment to six of the top European carriers, including MMO2, Telefonica, Vodaphone and T-Mobile.

Though AT&T Wireless had originally planned to deploy W-CDMA in 13 markets, it reduced the number to four early this year when it realized that "the Edge service will probably meet the needs of the market for the next couple of years, with speeds of at least three times that of a dial-up modem," a spokesman said. W-CDMA will now complement Edge services.

Two of the four intended markets are definite — Seattle and San Francisco — as listed in the original agreement with NTT DoCoMo. Dallas and San Diego are candidates.

Though terms of the deal with Nortel and Ericsson were not disclosed, the spokesman said upgrade costs would be at least $60,000 per cell site.

With no assigned 3G spectrum in the U.S., AT&T Wireless will deploy W-CDMA in the 1900-MHz band with a bandwidth of 5 MHz. Morell said it expects to achieve rates of up to 2 Mbits/s, depending on traffic.

Though spectrum is limited, AT&T Wireless is stressing the breadth of its spectrum holdings. "We have the richest portofolio of any carrier in the country and can roll out W-CDMA in 70 of the top 100 markets," the spokesman said, adding that it decided to to leverage the low cost of migration to Edge."