November 2005 Wire On-Tap Mergers and an expansion of features are redefining what customers can expect from their wireless services By Candace Moonshower
Neil Harty, associate director of enterprise sales with Verizon, is happy to report that according to the Federal Communications Commission, wireless subscribers in Tennessee now outnumber wireline (or landline) subscribers. While it has become obvious in the last few years that fewer people are tethered by wire to their telephones, the latest numbers speak for themselves: as of December 2004, there were 3.53 million Tennesseans subscribing to wireless providers for their telephone service, while only 3.26 million people still maintained landlines.
Another sign of changing times? Billboard Magazine, the music entertainment industry’s source for music business news, is now publishing the lists of top-selling ringtones available to mobile phone users.
But it’s not just talking taking place anymore. “There has been a change in focus because the future growth in the wireless market is going to come from data—being able to send information via Internet access, wireless e-mail or text messaging to people’s mobile phones at the same speed as most home computers,” Harty says. High-speed data networks change voice to information at about 400 to 700 kilobytes per second, a good speed for about any interaction, Harty says. Verizon’s high-speed data network is available now in Knoxville and is coming soon to Memphis and Nashville. Nationwide, it is available in about 60 cities and is expanding.
Text messaging took off primarily among young people first, as a conversation tool. According to CTIA–The Wireless Association, text messages in the United States have increased in one year from 2.8 million sent each month to five billion sent each month. One reason for the uptick is that text messaging is no longer the sole realm of the young and is now used by many small businesses for dispatch and as a quick and discreet way for businesses to communicate without using voice minutes.
“‘Push-to-talk’ was Nextel’s domain for a long time, but most carriers are addressing that segment of the market through their own mobile-to-mobile devices now,” Harty says. For Verizon, the questions is “Are you IN?” and the IN network is about calling other Verizon subscribers, addressing the push-to-talk question without using a walkie-talkie device.
Coverage is still the big question, though, and all the major carriers are hustling to address it. Harty says that for Verizon, coverage evolves every day. Since 2002, Verizon has spent $600 million to expand coverage; in 2005 alone, the company spent $150 million of that total to expand coverage and build it out, resulting in coverage of 5.811 million of the state of Tennessee’s total population of 5.845 million. “People in rural areas are our big concern,” Harty says, “and we’re working to increase coverage in those areas. Where it is not feasible, we partner with other carriers to share networks.”
Cingular’s merger with AT&T in October of 2004 made big news and succeeded in making Cingular the nation’s largest wireless carrier, serving 51.6 million customers. “From the customer’s perspective, our merge with AT&T allows us to take the best site locations and combine those to provide the best coverage,” says Jim Thorpe, vice president and general manager for Cingular’s Tennessee and Kentucky markets. “We are now combining into a “Gold Network” for high standards—a state-of-the-art network with significantly improved coverage.” With the merger, customers of both companies will be able to use the new, combined network without roaming charges, and also will have the ability to make unlimited mobile-to-mobile calls to any Cingular or AT&T wireless customer.
In simple terms, before the merger, an AT&T customer might have been close to a Cingular site, but couldn’t get on it. By the end of 2005, most sites will be combined, and the projected release for all sites is July of 2006. But while it sounds like a simple process, it is not. “To combine two individual networks into one that will provide state-of-the-art service with coverage and improved quality is a difficult task,” Thorpe says. “Our service quality was already one of the best, and by the end of the integration, it will certainly be the best. We know that our competitors are building out their own networks, but speaking for Cingular, we have undertaken a multi-million dollar build-out program. We spent $41 billion to acquire AT&T, and for next year, we have asked for even more capital to build out our network.”
For customers worried about the transition, Cingular is promising no service interruption for customers of either company. Customers can continue to use their own phones and their existing rate plans, but with access to the largest digital voice and data network in the country.
A few of the new products that Cingular has launched recently include the Cingular i-Tunes phone, the world’s first mobile phone with i-Tunes, allowing customers to download up to 100 songs on their phone; the black RAZR handset; a prepaid wireless service called GoPhone; and RAZRWIRE, the latest in wearable eye technology—a pair of Oakley sunglasses with a Bluetooth headset on one of the arms of the glasses.
Sprint and Nextel also have merged recently, and according to Hank Taylor, the newly named area vice president for Sprint Nextel for Tennessee and the Carolinas, the merger gives both Sprint and Nextel customers what they want—and need. “The people of Tennessee are very important to Sprint,” Taylor says, “not only as wireless phone users but also as data and multi-media users. People are demanding mobile access for businesses and entertainment options for personal use. Sprint will continue to enhance coverage and to provide the best and latest technologies for our Tennessee customers.”
There are proprietary issues that entail the companies operating as two separate entities for the moment, but engineers are working to combine the technology that will allow Sprint Nextel to build out its cellular phone, wireless Internet access, music storage, live video, games and ringtones availability.
With the merger, Sprint Nextel is now the third largest mobile phone company, but company executives are especially proud of the innovative technologies they offer their customers, including two wireless networks providing industry leading mobile data services, and instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities. “The whole point is to make people in business more productive—the ability to have a completely mobile office,” says Norma Tharp, manager of public and community relations and corporate communications for Sprint Nextel. “Sprint business customers will enjoy the merger,” Tharp says. “Our choice and flexibility is amazing.”
One product result of the recent merger is the Sprint Precision Locator, a powerful tool for dispatchers monitoring a mobile work force. The technology provides access to interactive maps to easily locate a worker or group of workers, and it allows a dispatcher to use text messaging to reach its mobile workforce. Coming soon is the Baracoda Roadrunners Scanner and the mobile-based Smartphone. Teen Arrive Alive uses Nextel technology to track where and how teenagers are driving.
What about Sprint’s retail customers? Meredith Hammons, manager of the Sprint Express store on West End in Nashville, an independently owned Sprint retail store, says that her store caters primarily to personal consumers, but will benefit from the merger through an increase in available products and expanded coverage for existing Sprint customers. “Sprint already offered great coverage and great products,” Hammons says, “and with the merger, all our customers will benefit.” She notes that consumers visit her store to purchase mobile telephones and accessories and hand-held devices such as the TREO-650 for their personal use.
Will there ever be a time that even the most remote areas of Tennessee will have wireless telephone service? From the perspective of Cingular, all rural areas that currently have wireless service will soon be on one network, providing improved service, but it may be years before some areas will get service. “Work is going on all over the United States and across Tennessee,” Jim Thorpe says. “We are trying to address the wireless needs of customers in remote areas.” Verizon’s Neil Harty concurs, saying, “Rural areas are our big concern. I think there are still going to be mountain peaks and remote valleys where it’s not feasible to build a cell site for some time. An area has to have the projected traffic and growth for that kind of build out to be financially justifiable.”
According to the FCC, 60% of the human population in Tennessee, from elementary-aged youngsters to the most advanced in age, has and uses a wireless phone in their day-to-day lives. The national average is 61%, meaning Tennesseans have embraced the new age of voice and data communication with gusto. “The future of wireless is getting information to people when they’re anywhere, without having to be hooked up to something,” Harty says. “The industry is changing rapidly, but no more rapidly than people can and will adapt to it.”
Email to a Friend
Print-Friendly Format