Verizon, Sprint Flip the Switch on "3G"

Posted 3/01/2002

Verizon, Sprint Flip the Switch on "3G"

By Paula Bernier

Verizon Wireless recently launched service on its new "3G" wireless data network, and Sprint PCS will do the same with a nationwide launch this summer.

Both networks are based on a technology known as 1XRRT, a derivative of the popular digital voice air interface known as CDMA. These new networks offer subscribers mobile always-on service at bidirectional rates as high as 144kbps initially. Average user speeds on the system are expected to be between 60 and 80kbps.

Verizon Wireless now offers service on its 1XRTT "Express Network" to customers in areas of the Northeast United States, from Norfolk, Va., Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, up to Boston and in Portland, Maine; in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bay areas of Northern California; and in Salt Lake City. By the close of 2002 Verizon Wireless says Express Network should be available in the majority of its nearly 222 million PoPs.

Beyond talking about a summer launch, Sprint PCS has not set a specific date.

Unlike early broadband purveyors using DSL, Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS are going beyond just offering high-speed access and are focusing on delivering applications. Verizon Wireless has partnered with Accenture to market and sell mobile enterprise applications offered by the Accenture Mobile Service Bureau. And Sprint PCS made a big splash with 3G at the January Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, when company chairman and CEO Bill Esrey outlined launch plans and demonstrated applications -- like file sharing and digital imaging -- slated to run over its network. "Most people aren't interested in simply replacing lower tech with high tech," Esrey told the crowd. "But they are vitally interested in useful innovations -- in new, easy-to-use technology that creates real value. That's been one of our guiding principles in developing Sprint's 3G network."

Sprint 3G has zeroed in on messaging for business and consumer users, secure remote access to corporate networks and consumer games as the key applications driving its 3G deployment, says Jason Guesman, Sprint PCS' director of business marketing.

Sprint PCS Business Connection is one of the company's key wireless mobile offerings. It allows users wireless mobile access to corporate e-mail, calendar, personal contacts and corporate contacts. Sprint is marketing a personal edition of the service, which is now 2G but can be upgraded to 3G, to individuals through retail channels, its website and its direct sales force. An enterprise addition, marketed to IT staff, will follow in the second quarter. An enterprise can host the network software within its corporate network and can use a Sprint-hosted version of the service, which creates a secure connection from the Sprint network to the corporate firewall and creates a secure port. Sprint will provide installation for the firewall version.

"Other solutions in the market create a second e-mail for you and your existing mail is forwarded to that," says Guesman. "So it's a shadow mailbox. From a user perspective it creates a hassle, because when you go to your PC it's not synchronized. From the corporate point of view, it's now stored outside the corporate firewall. And forwarding of e-mail to a shadow mailbox creates lots of additional traffic on the corporate server."

Guesman adds that other wireless e-mail applications, such as the GPRS-based Blackberry service offered by Research in Motion, also require the user's laptop to be running.

"We have connection-sharing so you can share connections with up to 10 coworkers," says Guesman. "So as long as their computers are running you can use your e-mail."

Sprint PCS is partnering with Sprint E/Solutions to development more customized solutions for such applications as CRM and ERP, says Guesman (see The XFACTOR). For example, it could reach out to industries like food service with mobile sales forces that need to place orders that night or the food doesn't get at a restaurant the next day.

Independent software vendors are expected to drive new 3G applications. For "a nominal fee" Sprint PCS is offering independent software developers access to its Wireless Application Manager Platform, a set of APIs and development tools. THQ, the fourth largest game publisher in the United States and Europe, is the first company to use the platform, which it's employing to adapt popular games such as WWF Mobile Madness for the new Sprint service.

As of late January, Sprint had not revealed pricing for its services, but Guesman says they will be billed on a megabytes vs. minute basis.

As for Verizon Wireless, it's offering customers with monthly digital voice calling plans of $35 or more service on the Express Network, which lets customers use any of their airtime allowance minutes for voice or data, for an additional $30 per month. Verizon Wireless also anticipates introducing plans based on kilobyte usage.

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