Cingular Wireless Nears Completion of $33 Million Network Expansion in South Florida

[jones]

Cingular Wireless Nears Completion of $33 Million Network Expansion in South Florida
Wednesday December 22, 11:55 am ET
Build-out is part of $200 million-plus statewide network investment in 2004


BOCA RATON, Fla., Dec. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Cingular Wireless, the nation's largest wireless provider, today announced it is nearing completion of its $33 million South Florida network build-out for 2004. The expansion has resulted in greater coverage and enhanced service for Cingular's growing South Florida customer base.
Since the beginning of 2004, Cingular has added 25 cell sites to improve coverage in Monroe, Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River, and Okeechobee counties. This local network expansion is part of a $200 million-plus investment throughout Florida this year to improve call quality, increase capacity and extend the network's reach through the addition of 107 new cell sites and enhancements to existing sites.

"Superior call quality and extensive wireless coverage are two of the most critical factors that determine customer satisfaction," said Rich Guidotti, vice president and general manager of Cingular Wireless - South Florida. "The completion of our 2004 network investment campaign will set the stage for even more network enhancements next year. In addition, the combination of Cingular and AT&T Wireless means the new Cingular offers the largest digital voice and data network in the U.S., and Florida is an important part of that network."

Guidotti said Cingular's nationwide network covers more than 268 million people and is growing. Cingular also offers the largest mobile-to-mobile calling community with more than 46 million people.

Cingular has invested nearly $400 million in Florida since 2002, deploying and enhancing a next-generation network and providing advanced new services, according to Guidotti. "This year we focused our resources on increasing coverage, particularly in residential areas and in-building locations throughout the state," Guidotti said. "These additional improvements will enhance data services and add coverage to make a great network even better."

Cingular's 2004 investment comes on the heels of a two-year effort implementing a GSM/EDGE voice and data network throughout South Florida. GSM is the Global System for Mobile Communications, the world standard for wireless communication, used by more than a billion people in 200-plus countries. In fact, more than 70 percent of the world's total wireless market is GSM.

What GSM delivers for voice, EDGE technology delivers for data. EDGE is a high-speed wireless data service which gives customers "third generation" (3G) wireless data services with speeds typically three times faster than what was available on GPRS.

With the acquisition of AT&T Wireless, Cingular offers even faster network speeds with AT&T Wireless' UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) data network, which was implemented earlier this year in selected cities. Cingular will build on that deployment, and in November, announced plans to deploy the nation's fastest high-speed wireless data network based on international standards. Called UMTS with HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), this 3G technology will offer average data speeds between 400-700 kilobits per second and bursts to several megabits per second on capable devices.

For more information about Cingular, please contact 1-866-CINGULAR or visit http://www.cingular.com .

[Andy]

Very surprising how they have that much money and how they can do all this while trying to integrate the old AWS network with their own.

[bobolito]

Trust me...SBC and Bellsouth are cash cows!

[agentHibby]

For the most part I think Cingular is bringing the heat on for Verizon.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by agentHibby

For the most part I think Cingular is bringing the heat on for Verizon.

agreed.

[RobCom]

well, i think verizon is going to merge w/ Vodafone and DoMoCo and take over the world....hahhahaha j/k

peace

ROb

[Gamer03]

No improvements mentioned for my county in the article.

I know T-Mobile works well at Circuit City where there is a test phone set up.