Cingular first in Las Vegas with new high-tech wireless phones

Kevin Ferguson

Wednesday, May 23, 2001 | 11:01 a.m.

In the race to bring Internet capabilities to the palm of your hand, Cingular Wireless says it's less than 30 days away from offering new mobile phones to Las Vegas customers that will allow them to send and receive e-mails and chat on the phone at the same time, Cingular's top official said.

This is part of an evolution of wireless technology that Cingular and its competitors are working on to eventually bring more data as well as movie-style graphics to handheld devices.

Most, if not all, mobile phones today are incapable of allowing voice and data services to be used simultaneously.

Cingular competitor AT&T Wireless said its new phones merging voice and data services will be released in the third quarter. Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS said their new mobile phones are scheduled to be out in select markets sometime in the fourth quarter.

None of those three companies would disclose if the Las Vegas market would be part of their initial release schedules.

The first Cingular phones to have the high-tech additions are being made by Motorola, Cingular Chief Executive Stephen Carter said in an interview last week at a wireless convention in Las Vegas.

"Las Vegas is an important market for us because it is capable of showing so much growth," Carter said.

These phones are not quite the long-touted 3G, or third-generation techno-gadgets, but a step before streaming video comes to mobile phones.

The company has not yet disclosed what customers will pay for these phones or their accompanying service plan.

He noted the first phones with these features will still be connected to the Internet at the snail-pace speed of 14.4K.

"But as we add new phone manufacturers (to the network), speeds will increase to eventually 128K," Carter said.

Carter said other mobile phone manufacturers to be added to the Cingular network include Nokia of Finland, Ericsson of Sweeden and Siemens of Germany.

Research firm Cahners In-Stat Group predicts that 1 billion wireless handsets (mobile phones, PDAs or personal digital assistants, etc.) will be sold worldwide in 2003, and global wireless data subscriptions will reach 1.3 billion that same year.

The Yankee Group forecasts that the U.S. wireless industry will grow from $60 billion in 2000 to $110 billion in 2005. In that year, $17 billion of those revenues are expected to come from wireless Internet services.

Sprint PCS spokeswoman Vicki Soares said its October roll out of similar high-tech phones will bring Internet speeds of 144K, which is 10 times faster than the current speed of its wireless phones.

Sprint PCS would not disclose if Las Vegas will be one of these select markets to get the high-speed wireless Internet service in October. If it's not, all Sprint PCS markets are expected to be online by summer 2002.

Most of these new high-tech phones will also offer twice the amount of voice capacity, which will dramatically improve the ability to make and accept calls during peak calling times.

Sprint PCS is the nation's fourth largest wireless carrier, behind Verizon, Cingular and AT&T Wireless.

Cingular, the second largest carrier, was formed in October through a joint venture between SBC Communications and BellSouth. The company is made up of 11 regional wireless brands, including the former Nevada Bell Wireless.

Cingular has spent a reported $200 million to rebrand the company nationwide.

"We've never confirmed the cost of rebranding the company, but that's the figure that's been reported," Carter said.

The abundance of technology trade shows in Las Vegas, like Comdex, gives Cingular and its competitors the opportunity to market not only to locals, but to national techies, Carter said.

"It's been a real asset, but it could be hard on your network," Carter said, noting that until recently most hotels in Las Vegas were not equipped well to prevent disruptions of mobile phone calls in the hotels.

Carter said that was to the benefit of casino owners.

"Not so long ago, hotel owners saw cell phones as a distraction, because they wanted their customers at the (gambling) tables instead of on their cell phones," Carter said.

But now, good cell phone reception is essential in these hotels, Carter said.

"Cell phones had always been associated with mobility -- when you are outside, and so they didn't focus on basements or meeting rooms, which were generally below grade," said Enrique Cuellar, vice president of marketing for LGC Wireless.

Cuellar's San Jose-based company has laid much of the wireless infrastructure in the Venetian and MGM MIRAGE properties in the past year to improve the mobile phone coverage in the hotels and convention centers.

"Cell phones are moving away from the idea of being a luxury and more towards a necessity," Cuellar said.