Slashdot Mirror
Sprint PCS Launches 3G Network
pdp1144 writes "Sprint PCS launched the first nationwide 3G wireless network today. Code named Vision it will allow wireless data speeds starting at an average of 50 to 70 kbps." The question is, how much? If the data plan is such that you can use up a month's allotment in five minutes of downloading... Simson Garfinkel had a good column on this recently.
it is called M-mode...
...And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." - Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984)
In a releated story from dc.internet.com:
Mobilepro Corp., with its subsidiary, Neoreach, Inc., a developer of semiconductor chips for third generation (3G) wireless communication services, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the RF Microelectronics Lab (RFIC) at the Information and Communications University in South Korea to co-develop a new semiconductor chip.
Under the agreement, engineering teams from Neoreach and RFIC will devote joint research and design expertise, staffing, facilities resources, project management, and testing for the development of an RF CMOS, a radio frequency chipset.
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
Finally catching up? In a way perhaps, but surpassing as well. Thank god for American capitalism and competition, even if it fragmented the market for a little while. CDMA technology is much better than GSM(w/TDMA), so Sprint should do very well with their nation wide network while all the GSM carriers around the world have to completely retrofit their systems for WCDMA 3/4G.
Sprint's network really is "3G" which is defined as something like a dataspeed of 144kb/s, although the real throughput will be less for a while. The most you'll get out of Europe's GPRS network is around 60kb/sec and thats the max, which is why it is "2.5G".
Sprint's CDMA2000 1xRTT network will be up to megabit speeds within a year or two, with only equipment upgrades. Almost all of the new handsets have color, Java, Midi ringtones, etc compared with the shitty Nokia and Ericsson phones. The USA is taking a major step over the heads of Europe, and getting up to speed with Asia.
About time!
PCS Free & Clear with Vision - Initially ranging in price from $44. 99 to $119.99, PCS Free & Clear with Vision plans will include megabytes for data usage along with varying amounts of voice minutes, depending on the individual plan. For a limited time, Sprint will offer special introductory rate plans that provide more Anytime Minutes than standard Free & Clear plans; allow customers to share minutes with another PCS phone for no additional charge and each phone will have two megabytes of data to use. An example of the introductory PCS Free & Clear with Vision plans include the $89.99 per month plan that features 2,000 Anytime Minutes that can be used by an individual or shared between two people.
If I recall correctly, 2000 anytime minutes right now is $149, so this could be a good initial deal! There's other pricing for laptops.
-DJ
Finally catching up? In a way perhaps, but surpassing as well. Thank god for American capitalism and competition, even if it fragmented the market for a little while. CDMA technology is much better than GSM(w/TDMA), so Sprint should do very well with their nation wide network while all the GSM carriers around the world have to completely retrofit their systems for WCDMA 3/4G.
Actually, no need to do a "complete retrofit". Or, any more retrofitting than Sprint has to do.
When doing the transition from GSM to GPRS, you need a new core network (SGSN, GGSN, et al), to process packet data. This is rather reasonable. There is no need to do any refitting on the radio interfaces, except a Packet Unit to each base station controller.
The next upgrade comes when 3G comes, that is, UMTS in Europe. Now there is no need to refit the core - SGSN and GGSN are the same as before (well, they need a software upgrade, but that is about it). The radio interface of course needs upgrading, but the same upgrades are necessary when transitioning from CDMA -> WCDMA.
At the moment, it is more of a marketing and business decision than anything else. The technology is there, there is just no market for it yet (GPRS seems to be enough for everybody for now). The upgrades would be relatively cheap.
The actual model that we'll see in Europe will be a mixture of UMTS and GPRS networks. UMTS will cover cities and population centres. Your phone will sign up to UMTS network and do a hard handover to GPRS network when you go to rural areas - only thing you notice is that data transfer speed goes down. There is no need to set up UMTS network everywhere. I would imagine this is also the thing with Sprint's network...
In the future, it may even be possible that WLAN techniques will be used as a possible access medium. UMTS standard is pretty free on what the access technology is - in revision 5 there are actually such possibilities as xDSL(!) listed. Wired access to a wireless network core - probably simplifies things for operators that act both as ISPs and mobile network providers.
Just my two (euro)cents...
I've been beta testing this for our Sprint Rep and comparing it to verizon's Express Network. It's essentially the same, Sprint's always seems to work IF there is a signal, however Verizon's sometimes has a strong signal and it does not work as well or at all. Notibly Verizon has had much better coverage. My pet peeve with all these is the latency, why is it still 300+ms ? I would like to know how the future of wireless be it spread-net, satilight(sp?), or some combination there of is going to overcome latency problems.
The bandwidth equals about or a little better than what you would expect from a modem, and it IS fairly reliable (unlike it's precessor CDPD). I've used VoIP and even put a webcam in my car's window so my father could whatch me drive around for a day... But performance would be 5x better if round trip were closer to 100ms).
My 2cents
I've had the opposite experience. Cingular seems
to give much better service nation-wide than
Sprint. Sprint seems to give good coverage
around big cities and interstates, but lousy
coverage anywhere else.
Just my own experience.
*sigh* back to work...
Sprint uses CDMA the last I heard. And no-one is deploying CDMA in a 3xRTT solution right now which was considered true 3G.
Also from my understanding Qualcomm, currently the major/only producer of 3G CDMA chips, is releasing their Rev A chip later this year. So I assume Sprint is using Rev 0 which isn't 3G.
IS-2000 (or CDMA 2000 depending on which marketers you talk to) was set up in phases. Initially Rev 0 and Rev A. Rev 0 was a stepping stone from IS-95B (which is only used in Korea), to 3G. Rev A was suppose to be the full 3G solution.
A few years ago 1xRTT (which Sprint uses) was called 2.5 G. But then came the nice licensing auction in Europe which nearly bankrupted the carriers there for W-CDMA licenses. W-CDMA and 3xRTT require nearly the same licensing because of how much bandwidth they use. 3xRTT uses slightly bit less, but still 3 times more the 1xRTT. 1xRTT can use the same licenses that the carriers in North America and Asia currently have for IS-95. The carriers in North America and Asia mostly scraped plans on going to 3xRTT after the European auction, but the didn't want their systems to be called 2.5G, thus 1xRTT is now called 3G.
So depending on who you talk to Sprint has (or has not) a true 3G system.
I don't think we'll see true 3G anywhere in the world for at least 5 years. W-CDMA which is the competitor to CDMA2000 is still having some technical issues to handle. GPRS is 2.5 G though alot of people call it 3G, its a stepping stone to true 3G.
FWIR 3G is suppose to have 2+ Mbps transfers for stationary wireless stations, and improvements in bandwiths for walking and driving speeds, though I don't remember the numbers. Improved battery time (WCDMA stations haven't fufilled this with stand by times of ~50 hours), and better capacity.
CDMA-2000 1xRTT fufills all these requirements appart from the bandwidth. Rev 0 of CDMA-2000 only allows a maximum of 153 kbps, and Rev A allows 307 kbps. New inititives for 1xRTT do allow for improved bandwidth. They tried 1xEVDO for the world cup, but from what I heard they couldn't pull it off properly and it still needs some work. 1xEVDO is suppose to offer 2.4 Mbps.
Software Engineer & Writer of Military Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog: petermwright.com Twitter: WrightPeterM
saw this posted over at the treocentral forums...its from Salomon Smith Barney discussing the 3G launch.
"We have been tracking the signs for Sprint's upcoming "3G" launch, regarding
the brand, launch date, price, and handset selection. Our checks have
indicated that Sprint's new brand for its "3G" wireless data service is PCS
Vision, which will be billed on bits and bytes, rather than minutes.
On timing, we believe there is substantial confusion over the "official" launch
date. Based on our channel checks, "3G" capable phones may go on sale in the
indirect channels in stores such as Best Buy and Circuit City, beginning on
August 8. The "official" launch in Sprint's direct stores may not occur until,
at least, August 12, and may extend to August 19.
On price, we find that Sprint PCS will build upon its national pricing
schematic with its introduction of data, rather than become more aggressive for
national voice minute pricing. We would emphasize the data pricing described
in this report are indications and are still subject to change ahead of the
launch. We have received indications that Sprint will maintain its current
pricing for national voice minutes, which is constructive for the industry.
However, the decision may limit the company's ability to improve its share
relative to the aggressive pricing tactics of its competitors. We find the
data pricing indications to still be somewhat expensive with a minimum
increment of around $10/month on the existing national plans for 2 MB and
likely around $0.02/Kilobyte thereafter. All-in, pricing is not substantially
cheaper than current data plans in the market.
On the handset front, we believe Sprint will launch with several new color
phones by Samsung, Sanyo, and LG as well as with a PC Card, likely from
Novatel. Price points for the handsets should range between $179.99 and
$279.99."
"* Branding -- We expect Sprint PCS to launch a new brand name for its "3G"
service, "PCS Vision." The service will offer applications such as MMS
(multi-media messaging), games, downloadable ring-tones and screen savers,
and ISP-like access for laptops/PDAs.
* Timing -- We find a substantial level of noise within the channels, regarding
the launch date of Sprint's "3G" service. Based on our channel checks, we
believe "3G" capable phones may go on sale in the indirect channels in store
such as Best Buy and Circuit City, beginning on August 8. New displays may
not be constructed until the weekend. The "official" launch may not occur
until, at least, August 12, and may extend to August 19. Our conclusion is
that August 8 will begin somewhat of a soft launch, with the promotional
campaign set for, at least, 1-2 weeks later. We find few employees have been
trained on the service, based on our discussions. Some employees expected to
be trained within the next week. Also, several company stores expected to
receive their full "3G" displays from Sprint within the next 7-10 days. We
do not believe the direct PCS stores are stocking material levels of
inventory of the new phones, yet.
* Pricing -- We have learned that Sprint PCS is currently planning to maintain
its national voice pricing and charge a premium for data access by the
megabyte and kilobyte. Our data points on pricing are preliminary and are
subject to change ahead of the launch. We believe Sprint will begin offering
data packages at an access level of $49.99 with data plans going up to
$119.99. The company will offer these plans on several new color-screen
phones with data capabilities as well as a PC-card modem at launch. Services
will initially focus around multi-media messaging (including digital
pictures), gaming, and laptop connectivity.
Figure 1 highlights the preliminary pricing indications we have received from
our research. Sprint has essentially added a $10 charge for 2 MB of data to
its popular national price points at $39.99 and $49.99. For 8 MB of data,
Sprint has typically added $20-$25 to each of the access charges. We expect
the additional charge per KB to be around $0.02 if customers break their
buckets.
FIGURE 1. PRELIMINARY INDICATIONS ON 3G PRICING
Monthly Charge
$49.99 $59.99 $74.99 $84.99 $89.99 $99.99 $119.99
Peak Min. 350 500 750 750 1,000 1,000 1,300
Off-Peak Min. 3,650 4,500 5,750 5,750 7,000 7,000 8,700
MB Data 2 2 2 8 2 8 8
Source: SSB research and estimates.
To put the pricing into perspective, we return to our VEP, voice-equivalent
pricing model, that is far from perfect, but allows us to compare the price
for data services on an apples-to-apples basis with voice. The methodology
uses average throughput of the data network to convert data traffic into
voice minutes. This can give us a back of the envelope measurement to
compare with voice capacity and pricing. We calculate a voice equivalent
price (VEP) per minute for a given data plan as follows:
where VEM, or voice equivalent minutes, is defined by the following formula:
Using average throughput of 30 kbps (our average 1X experience on Verizon's
Express Network), we find Sprint is pricing these buckets at a healthy
implied voice equivalent price of $0.70 - $1.13/minute
FIGURE 2. VOICE-EQUIVALENT PRICE POINTS
VEP
Throughput 2 MB 8 MB
20 kb/sec $0.75 $0.47
30 kb/sec $1.13 $0.70
40 kb/sec $1.50 $0.94
Source: SSB Estimates.
The sensitivity analysis above shows that Sprint has flexibility to increase
the size of the data buckets, especially if the loaded 3G network offers
faster average throughput speeds. As the speed of the network improves,
Sprint is able to achieve better voice equivalent pricing per minute. Data
margins will be sensitive to the cost for content and subscriber acquisition
and education.
Sprint is clearly trying to hold the line on its national voice pricing,
which is constructive for the industry and the company's subscriber
economics. However, its national competitors have not broadly shared
Sprint's strategy. Thus, pricing is a double-edged sword for PCS as the
company is trying to improve subscriber economics at low access plans, but
may limit its marketshare in the process. We do appreciate Sprint's effort
to differentiate on its service offering, rather than on price, and view it
as a constructive signal that Sprint is focused on its subscriber
profitability. On the data pricing front, we believe Sprint's data pricing,
like its competitors, runs the risk of revenue cannibalization for customers
that use too much or too little data. We still believe material data revenue
is, at least, 12 months away given the pricing plans and level of customer
education required. We highlight the pricing of its competitors' 2.5G data
services below."
"* Handset Selection -- We are enthusiastic for the launch of Sprint's new line-
up of handsets that should begin with at least two color-screen phones at or
below $200 and a PC-card for laptops/PDAs. We expect Sprint's phones to
include the color Samsung N400 which should retail for $199.99 and likely a
color-screen Sanyo 4900 for $179.99. These phones should be 1X voice and
data capable. Sprint should also offer the Samsung A500 for around $279.99.
We also expect LG to launch a color-screen flip phone at or near the launch
date, but we could not ascertain the SRP (suggested retail price) from our
channel checks. We expect Sprint to deploy several PC-card modems that will
range in features and price. We expect PC-card modems to range from $249.99
- $399.99 at retail. The company should also shortly launch the Audiovox
Thera, an integrated phone/PDA using Pocket PC, as well as the color
Handspring Treo."
It's sad to see something so cool being sold so horribly. I called their sales department, only to find that they are metering this service (no unlimited data service)
They use sierra wireless aircards (no model numbers, i assume 555 series) and novatel C201s
They had two prices, one was around $40-$50, and the other as $70-$80. You're limited pretty much to 1M/1$.
I stopped paying attention after they told me that there was no unlimited service. I guess it's "helloooo verizon", cept $1200 a year + modem seems to be a wee much. anyone know of any other carriers (preferably in the sf/bay area) offering these services?
Most carriers who use CDMA now won't go to W-CDMA, they'll go to CDMA-2000 which is a different standard from W-CDMA.
:)
I think you are correct on this one. The terminology is rather confusing. Only real constant seems to me "IMT-2000" which in general means all the upcoming wideband CDMA technologies (cdma2000, UMTS, and the one the Japanese have). Even the term "3G" is no longer constant (some folks in the US refer to GPRS networks as "3G", in europe it is "2.5". I have actually heard the term "11.5G" (comes from GSM + GPRS + UMTS + WLAN, 2+2.5+3+4 = 11.5 - some visionaries are really into hyping the WLAN approach...))
I did actually mean to say that as "CDMA -> CDMA2000" and not WCDMA, but...see above
Yet another person spews out regurgitated Sprint PCS "The Clear Alternative to Ourselves" commercials.
Verizon may be a patchwork, but even their digital area is larger than Sprint's puny "nationwide" network.
Look at a coverage map of Verizon's America's Choice plan (These are the digital coverage areas - I don't think the analog towers have the advanced roaming features needed for such a plan). Then look at the coverage for Sprint's plans.
Sprint's "roaming" area is about 75% of the map. Verizon's "covered" area with America's Choice is 60%+ of the map.
I have complete digital coverage with all features over most of upstate New York (the boonies), including where I went to school in Ithaca. Sprint??? Syracuse, Buffalo, and recently Binghamton, that's it. Oh, Ithaca now has service as of a few months ago, but if you leave town with Sprint you're roaming. The entire region was digital for Frontier Cellular (now Verizon) customers over three years ago.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
1. It IS true 3G, according to The 3G Partnership Project. If I recall correctly, the System had to offer speeds of 144K minimum to qualify, and the Sprint System does that, at least in theory.
2. Sprint is not the first one. Not even in the U.S. 3G has already been deployed in Japan and in Korea. In the U.S., Verizon has been offering it since the beggining of '02. What Sprint has done is be the first to offer it NATIONWIDE (meaning, wherever Sprint offers service), whereas Verizon offers it only in select markets, and it's slowly being rolled out nationwide.
3. There is no surprise. Even a full year ago, Sprint kept saying that they would roll out 3G in the Fourth Quarter of '01, which we in the industry [full disclosure: yes, I work in the telecom industry, but no, I have no dealings/stock/insider information/business with Sprint other than using them as my mobile phone provider.] thought was bull, and sure enough, they delayed it first to July 4th, when they were supposed to have a big promotional tie in with MIB2, but in June they postponed even that date and just said they'd go live somewhere in the "summer of '02".
Watch the Teaser Trailer for "The Lightning Thief" Her
It depends. In an effort to save on capacity and on power CDMA2000 uses a state machine for its packet connections, determining which access mode the phone is in. Depending on which state the phone is in will determine what the latency will be.
It also depends on packet size. Most of these features come in the next rev of CDMA2000. But this is what happens for the most part:
- If you're using a circuit data mode then you're connected all the time, which costs the carriers and you a hefty chunk of money. This mode is used in all versions of CDMA before IS-2000 rev 0.
- If you're using Packet Data, you can be connected with a high speed channel downstream and a low speed channel upstream, or any combination. Depending on the size of the packet the latency can change, that's just standard networking.
- But if you're link has been idle for a while your phone may have dropped the channels and gone into another mode. When you send a packet, if its small enough it will go accross the common signalling channel which everyone uses to tell the base station its alive or it wants to make a call. And if the returning packet is small enough then it'll go back accross the the forward common signalling channel.
- But if you need to send or receive a large packet, or a stream of packets you need to set up the forward and reverse channels again, and this can take time. Depending on which state the phone is in when it needs to set up the channels this can take as little as half a second, or as much as 3 or 4 seconds before the packets start flowing again.
So depending on which mode you're in, depends on how large the latency is. It also depends on the radio environment. CDMA is fairly good in noisy environments, but if it gets into a really bad area packets will have to be retransmitted several times.
Software Engineer & Writer of Military Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog: petermwright.com Twitter: WrightPeterM
From reading the first few comments it seems that just about everyone is confused about this 3G launch. This *IS* 3G folks. 2.5G was GPRS which provides data services, but is slow as shit (it can be faster if you implement more channels, but no providers really support more than 3 at a time).
Also, as far as plans go, there are several. All of which include a few megabytes of transfer allowed per month (except for the cheapest which is 1 meg I think). The prices for overage are NOT $1 or $2/meg it's cheaper than that (though, I can't remember off the top of my head what it is).
What kind of speeds/latency can one expect from this network? About 127 kilobits/sec and ~400ms. While that isn't anywhere near your cable/DSL speeds, it's lightyears ahead of the 19.2 kilobits/sec that was previously the norm for cellular networks.
This is NOT meant to be a broadband replacement. It's meant to take cell phones to the next level of service. Using computers with them is just an afterthought.
-Riskable
"Those who choose proprietary software will pay for their decision!"
Ricochet is about 40-100Kb/s, so it's comparable to 3G. And it's flat-rate, at $44.95/month.
I had Ricochet service five years ago, and it was quite good. It was a viable alternative to dial-up at the time.
" For a limited time, customers can sign up for unlimited data usage plans for $49.99 for the first three months and $99.99 for the rest of the contract term" News.com story