Cingular will be building WCDMA with HSDPA networks in a number of major urban and suburban markets, beginning in 2005. Kris Rinne, chief technical officer for Cingular Wireless, says Ericsson has the expertise required to help the operator deliver true 3G services to a large number of its customers.
"Ericsson's experience in deploying 3G networks throughout the world makes them an invaluable partner as we begin to deliver similar services across America," Rinne says.
Cingular Wireless will also benefit from Ericsson networks and services obtained through its recent acquisition of AT&T Wireless, which rolled out Ericsson WCDMA equipment in several US markets earlier this year.
Angel Ruiz, head of Ericsson in the US, says Ericsson was able to demonstrate that it could provide an end-to-end solution. "We brought Ericsson Mobile Platforms, Sony Ericsson and Sony to the table," he says. "For Cingular this is important because it allows them to differentiate themselves in the US market."
Ericsson's key account manager for Cingular Toby Seay, stressed the importance of Ericsson's close working relationship with Cingular. "Ericsson understood what Cingular was trying to achieve," he says. "They wanted to put themselves in a leadership position in WCDMA/HSPDA and Ericsson proved that we could provide a timely solution to place them in a competitive position in the market."
Ericsson HSDPA represents a natural, fully standardized evolution of WCDMA that will improve the peak data downlink rate to as high as 14 Mbps and offer operators more than twice the system capacity within the current radio spectrum.
HSDPA will enable operators to deliver more advanced mobile broadband services, such as internet and corporate access. Its unprecedented data rates will allow users to download audio, video and large files or attachments significantly faster than with traditional WCDMA.
