Sprint stirkes deal with Western Wireless in Montana!

Nice to see...

That leaves me wondering whether WWCA *sell* SPCS-branded service, or only sell local service as CellOne as they do now. One company selling both SPCS-branded and their "own" service in the same area isn't really a stretch, though -- US Unwired did the same sort of thing in SW Louisiana until they sold their 850 network/licenses to Cingular, Shentel did it in Virginia until they sold their 850 network/licenses to VZW, and Via Wireless did it for awhile in the Central Valley of California until UbiquiTel bought them out.

At any rate, WWCA seems to be putting a lot more emphasis on roaming revenue than most other rural carriers (save for Commnet Wireless, of course, for whom roaming traffic is 100% of their business.)

BTW, SPCS's statement regarding WWCA that they "provide service to [their] own customers using primarily AMPS and GSM technologies" is incorrect to say the least!

With this deal, WWCA will operate virtually everything in some areas: AMPS (for roamers and as fallback for local customers), IS-136 at 850 (for roamers and legacy local customers), CDMA at 850 (for roamers and current and new local customers), GSM at 1900 (for roamers), and CDMA at 1900 (for roamers and potentially local customers). I'm surprised they haven't tried to become a Nextel affiliate too to get iDEN roaming traffic -- oh, wait, Extend America did that, and Airtel Montana (who operates an iDEN-compatible "Harmony" network) has the potential to do that but doesn't seem interested in doing it.

-SC

 

I'm curious how a 1900MHz overlay will perform on their existing 850MHz infrastructure. Not well, I imagine--probably about the same as ATTWS GSM performs. Western Wireless will have some work to do in order to get the network up to snuff. I also wonder how these plans fit in with Sprint's acquisition of the former Qwest network in Montana. Have they abandoned those plans, or is this deal complementary?

I wonder whether they will be able to utilize some of the PCS spectrum they've obtained from Sprint for 1900MHz GSM roaming... that would help them pick up some additional revenue from folks with 1900-only handsets. Of course, Sprint might have something to say about that.

 

I'm tempted to go to Montana this weekend and find out.

 

I can't believe that I have never been to Montana even though I live in northern Utah!
Sprint needed to do something by 2005/2006 (10 year deadline)

 

TP, actually, WW has already done the same deal with T-Mobile. T-M 'sold' some 1900 MHz spectrum to WW, who in turn has put 1900 GSM at most of the northern sites to accomodate T-M 'roamers', and they are permitted to offer roaming to AT&T and Cingular roamers as well.

It is this deal w/T-M that inspired Sprint to do the same thing, especially to activate their MT licenses which they stand to lose if they don't get something on the air.

The bad news is WW is taking a looooong time to get GSM working at all their sites. I haven't found one in Colorado, yet.

My wife's from Montana, and I love to visit. Lotsa people miss the "Montanabahns", where the speed limit was, um, Unlimited. Now that it's only 90, the outsiders act a bit more civilized. Probably far more dangerous are those of us cruising at 85, staring at our phones!

 

If it's taking WW a long time because it's a quality-driven, rather than speed-driven, release, then I don't really mind the extra time. It makes sense that if they're retrofitting their network for 1900MHz for other carriers, this deal is a natural. It looks like they're taking it a step further though, since I'd be very surprised if this is for roaming only. Other Sprint affiliates market service under the Sprint brand throughout their area. Since Sprint and Cellular One generally serve different market segments, this makes a lot of sense. Of course, this could turn out to be like the Alaska DigiTel deal, where Alaska DigiTel operates and sells service under their own name using leased Sprint spectrum.

I assume you mean 90mph as the effective speed limit, not the posted speed limit in Montana (which is 75mph). 90 is too fast for me anyway; my car isn't built for speed. It handles forest service roads as well as most SUVs, though.