at&t launches 3g

It's 220Kps, 4 x's dialup speed, eighty bucks for road warriors and
coming to theatre near you:
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/07/21/att.wireless.ap/index.html


AT&T Wireless launches fast data networks

Wednesday, July 21, 2004 Posted: 1831 GMT (0231 HKT)






NEW YORK (AP) -- AT&T Wireless launched high-speed 3G data networks
Tuesday in Detroit, Phoenix, San Francisco and Seattle that will give
mobile users Internet broadband-type services.

The company has invested $200 million in 3G UMTS (Third Generation
Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service) networks, which it said it
also plans to introduce in Dallas and San Diego by the end of the year.

The networks will run at speeds of 220 kilobits per second to 320 kbps.
They may be a precursor to future technology upgrades by Cingular
Wireless, which is trying to buy AT&T Wireless for $41 billion in a deal
awaiting regulatory approval. John Zeglis, AT&T Wireless chairman and
CEO, said Tuesday that AT&T Wireless hopes the deal is "only a few
months from closing."

Access to the network, which will offer simultaneous voice and data
services, will cost consumers $24.99 a month for unlimited phone access,
plus an additional $5 for such streaming media as news and sports video
clips. The data service for laptop computers will cost $79 a month.

AT&T is selling 3G compatible handsets by Motorola Inc. and Nokia Corp.
and said it was also offering a UMTS modem jointly developed by Lucent
Technologies Inc. and Novatel Wireless Inc.

Japanese telecom company NTT DoCoMo Inc. invested $9.8 billion to buy 16
percent of AT&T Wireless in 2001. As part of the investment, AT&T
Wireless promised to launch next generation services in Dallas, San
Diego, San Francisco and Seattle or other agreed upon cities before
December 31, 2004, using NTT as a partner.

If AT&T Wireless hadn't built the networks, it would have been required,
under the deal, to buy back NTT's shares.

The new networks already have high-speed wireless competitors.

Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest wireless phone company, has
already launched a service in Washington, D.C. and San Diego using the
EV-DO (Evolution Data Only) and said one-third of its network will have
the service by the end of the year. The company has said it is spending
$1 billion on wireless broadband infrastructure this year and next year.