Cingular To Hit Greater NY Area This Summer

[ComicalMoodyDan]

Cingular To Hit Greater NY Area This Summer

April 3, 2002
Cingular Wireless, the second-largest cellular carrier in the country, said that it plans to enter the greater New York market this summer.
The company plans to open 200 stores in the next two years and as many as possible by June, said Cingular spokeswoman Monica Mears.

The company has more than 60 brokers at six different real-estate firms looking for retail space on Long Island, New York City, New Jersey and Westchester County, she said.

Cingular, an Atlanta-based joint venture owned by telephone companies SBC Communications and BellSouth, currently operates in upstate New York in markets including Albany and Buffalo but has not been directly selling service in the New York City area. In October, Cingular reached an agreement to share VoiceStream Wireless' licenses.

Mears did not have pricing plans available for the metropolitan area market but in other parts of the country, Cingular offers local plans starting at about $ 20 a month and has just introduced a national plan that offers unlimited roaming and long distance starting at around $ 30 a month. The company, which currently has 21.6 million customers, will compete with several other wireless carriers in the New York market including Verizon Wireless, AT&T Wireless, Sprint PCS, Nextel and VoiceStream.

Cingular already faces a lot of competition here and in other parts of the country, notes Andy Fuertes, director of wireless research at Allied Business Intelligence, a research firm based in Oyster Bay. However, the company may have success in attracting corporate users, people who travel overseas and early technology adapters interested in receiving wireless Internet access, Fuertes said. Verizon Wireless has already introduced a faster version of wireless Internet access in New York, but Cingular may beat out Sprint PCS in its roll out, Fuertes said.


Cingular To Hit Greater NY Area This Summer