Rogers adds GSM-GPRS flavour to network mix as it evolves to UMTS and 3G services

Rogers AT&T Wireless Inc customers will soon have more choice when buying handsets and other services following a move by the national wireless service provider to implement a GSM-GPRS architecture over its existing TDMA network. The move should also help improve Rogers’ competitive position and speed its entry into next generation services by about a year. "We’ve now launched (GSM-GPRS) earlier than we would have with the previous strategy," Bob Berner, CTO at Rogers told Report on Wireless. The company’s American equity partner, AT&T Wireless, decided to implement a similar network overlay following Japanese wireless provider DoCoMo’s US$9.6-billion investment in AT&T in exchange for a 16 per cent equity stake in the company. "Clearly this decision was taken in conjunction (with them) based on the same trends that we have been observing," says Berner. There are about 400 GSM providers operating in more than 150 countries. According to recent estimates by UBS Warburg LLC, by the end of the year 86 per cent of digital wireless subscribers will be on networks supported by either GSM, TDMA or PDC – the Japanese digital cellular network. All those standards are evolving towards UMTS utilizing GPRS as the data protocol, says Berner. Rather than going with a TDMA-EDGE philosophy evolving to 3G, the company would have greater economies of scale with a GSM-GPRS-EDGE moving towards UMTS, he adds. From a development standpoint, handset and network manufacturers are addressing a much broader market. "The capabilities of (a GSM-GPRS) network infrastructure will likely outpace what we could have achieved by staying only with the (previous) plan of record," Berner explains. With the majority of global handset and network development concentrating on GSM and GPRS, and with about 400 million subscribers globally on a GSM network, he says it made sense to move in this direction. Rogers AT&T plans to launch the new network next year, with 83 per cent of its operating area covered by next July, expanding to 93 per cent coverage by the end of next year. Over the following two years, GPRS and EDGE capabilities will be added to increase peak data rate speeds in a mobile environment to 115 kbs and 384 kbs, respectively. Canada’s largest wireless service provider will maintain its TDMA-based network to serve existing customers. Berner explains that traditional voice-heavy users will opt for the existing TDMA services, while the new network will provide those heavy-data and messaging customers with the types of handsets or other devices and services they demand. Enough spectrum resources to run two networks isn’t an issue Finding enough capacity to run a concurrent GSM/GPRS-based network isn’t expected to be a problem, says Berner. Rogers is well positioned to win more frequencies in nearly all regions of the country in next year’s PCS spectrum auction. "Certainly, the GSM-GPRS-EDGE (overlay) can be deployed in the existing spectrum," Berner told Report on Wireless. "We would like to get additional spectrum and we will do that assuming that it can be obtained at a price which is appropriate for our business model." Berner declined to give an exact figure for the network upgrade, but indicated that it would cost well below what a new entrant would have to pay to build out a network. "The exact numbers aren’t fully cooked yet, because we’re still in negotiations with (equipment) suppliers," he told RoW. The real numbers will begin to emerge once the supplier agreements are finalized in a couple of weeks, he adds. "We have the advantage of incumbency here (…) so therefore we can re-utilize towers, civil improvement, backhaul transmission facilities, switch locations and power systems, which normally represent by far the majority of the infrastructure investment costs," he says.

Rogers adds GSM-GPRS flavour to network mix as it evolves to UMTS and 3G services

News | December 11, 2000

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