AT&T/DoCoMo Deal For W-CDMA Deployment In U.S.

murky.waters writes "The specifics of several amendments to the original deal are spelled out in a news.com article: AT&T gets $6.2 billion from NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest telecom, for deploying a third generation wireless network in four of the top fifty cell phone markets by December 31, 2004. The chosen few are San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas and San Diego. However, there's a city-swap provision to possibly include either Miami or Detroit for Dallas, Phoenix or Houston for San Diego. Last, AT&T could get out of the deal if they chose an alternate third generation technology."

Comments

I just want my cell phone to work as a phone

[Powercntrl]

As I write this, my cell phone is chirping to inform me that it is switching in and out of roaming mode. The reception at my home is horrible.

Every time I read an article about "next generation network features", I'm curious as to when they'll make the first generation feature - voice communication work better.

Maybe it's different in other parts of the country, but here in Lake Mary, FL, Sprint PCS and their suppose-ed "next generation network" is a bunch of features and fluff surrounded by unusable service.

I think I'm going to make my New Year's resolution to switch cell phone providers.

Re:I just want my cell phone to work as a phone

[quistas]

The issue for the cell companies is this:
people don't care.

Seriously. AT&T Wireless, for instance, won JD Power awards for best wireless service in (I think) 18 or 19 of the 21 markets they were in last year. PacBell did really well in SF, Verizon won a couple.

The problem is that for each person, their usage is going to be different than every other person, so cell companies (or at least AT&T Wireless) has to play a game of triage, where they use trouble tickets to figure out where their network's dropping calls and then send engineers out to work on the switches/towers/etc. When people don't call, they have to rely on system diagnostics and no matter what they're going to tell you, that's not as good as having someone call up and say "my calls drop at the intersection of 124th and North Pine".

People are inclined to write dropped calls off (I have a friend in Texas, his Sprint calls drop every time he goes into Duncanville, and he's given up complaining) and not call in. They're also seemingly unwilling to reward providers who have better local coverage, probably because knowing that AT&T Wireless is the best carrier in your market doesn't guarantee you'll have signal in your apartment.

And the other problem is that since people don't seem to respond to the "our coverage is best" ads, providers are competing on gee-whiz gadgets like cameras that (really) no one's asking for, in an attempt to differentiate themselves.

It's a knotty problem. If everyone who was frustrated with their service canceled and found a better provider, Sprint PCS would be driven from the market in a month, AT&T Wireless, Verizon, and Cingular would buy out their towers to fill network gaps and the world would be a better place. Heh.

Docomo is spreading

[thogard]

One problem with the nice docomo phone in Japan is there are towers everywhere. The things have no power because they don't need much.

I met a guy in Perth who had just come from Japan. I showed him how to rechrge the phone using the shaver plug (the 240V ac would have fried the recharger) and when it was fully charged he tried to make a call. He got a voice in Japanese saying there was a problem with his account. I wonder if they are doing trials in Perth.

So what use is it?

[Captain Kirk]

I worked for a wireless Interent start-up. The problem was not the technology itself. Its that there are no real uses. I mean, who cares that you can stream video on your mobile phone? Who is dumb enough to pay for it?

IMO, Wi-fi has removed all the need for umts. The mobile phone operators should concentrate on making voice work better, especially in the US where coverage and incompatible networks are a joke.

Re:So what use is it?

[Yokaze]

> IMO, Wi-fi has removed all the need for umts

Really?
How do you do location based services with WiFi?
How do you realise payment, how identification?
How does roaming between different WiFi providers work?
How do you connect to the mobile partner, considering that IPv6 is still not widely deployed?
WiFi doesn't work when you move a little bit faster than walking.
How do you achieve a good WiFi coverage, especially in more rural areas. (Without prohibitive costs)
How many people are taking a notebook/laptop/pda with them and how many carry a mobile?

Once more, I'd say 3G and WiFi are orthogonal. They serve different needs.

Re:So what use is it?

[TheSync]

My wife uses Sprint PCS Vision to upload images for her webcam site. The "killer app" part of this is the form factor of a webcam in a cellphone, which you would carry anyway, and actually has a lot of battery time. Check out the images in her gallery to imagine how this might be used, especially by teenagers at parties!

She used to carry around a stylus-based computer in a purse-like fashion using CDPD, which was easier to use (just turn on and it snapped pictures every few minutes), but suffered from low battery time (a few hours) and was just too heavy and bulky.

Of course, using Web browsers on Sprint PCS Vision phones sucks. I haven't checked out a Treo on the network yet, but I know that my Palm V with AT&T CDPD (Omnisky) had much better web browsers that could handle frames and such.

We went Sprint PCS Vision because we needed a cellphone anyway, and paying for unlimited Verizon 1xRTT $100/month was just too much. With Sprint we pay the same we would just for voice service, and possibly $10/month more once the introductory period is over.

What it really means...

[Zigurd]

The article is all about scaling back the requirement to deploy WCDMA UMTS to, basically, trial deployment.

It also, very significantly, allows AT&T to choose a technology other than WCDMA. For example, they could choose TD-SCDMA.

Re:What it really means...

[Magnus Pym]

More likely, CDMA2000.

Unfortunately for the WCDMA camp, their vendors have not delivered on the technology so far. Handhelds are only available in limited quantities and are prohibitively expensive. Interop between different vendors is non-existent. In the meantime, CDMA2000 1x is charging ahead, and the economies of scale are driving down the costs.

In the US, Verizon is kicking the ass of GSM/TDMA -based providers; they can support much more users on the same spectrum and thus are more competitive. AT&T is on the run since their operating costs are higher and they cannot afford to wait till WCDMA is widely available.

Magnus.

no commintment for 3G

[fermion]

What this seems to mean is that there is no commitment for true 3G service. ATT is scaling back the agreement, from 4 to 13 cities. They apparently haven't completed the market research because they have not chosen all four of those cities. They leave a large loophole so that when they do get around to doing the market research, and find that there is no market, they can cite economic factors and pull out of the deal.

I have tried to do wireless data off and on for several years. In each case there were ill defined equipment costs, ill defined areas of operation, and convoluted 'data' plans. It shouldn't have been that hard. Hook the cell phone to the computer, dial the ISP, and be on the internet. Sure it would be slower, but it should have worked.

We now have these pseudo 3G services that claim internet connectivity. Of course to use such a service, you must subscribe to their content. I believe that even mail must be routed through their portal, at additional cost to the subscriber. It reminds me of the original bell attempt to make so much profit off modems that it threatened the BBS.

AT&T... always on top of the game

[rcs1000]

When AT&T Wireless first rolled out digital cellular they went with TDMA, the logical 3Gish extension to which is Rx1TT (as used in Korea).

Then, about two years ago they announced they were migrating their network (building an overlay) to GSM, the logical 3G extension to which is WCDMA (European version).

Now they look like they are going down the Japanese WCDMA route, which is based on an earlier standard tham European WCDMA (although it does actually work, which is a plus!)

It seems to me that they really need to sit down and decide exactly what system they want to use. There are numerous issues with cell planning, roaming, etc. affected by their choices. If they continue to mess around like this, who knows when a decent 3G service will be available to Americans.