AT&T Wireless debuts plan

High-speed data service is bid to keep customers

By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff, 11/19/2003

AT&T Wireless Services Inc. yesterday launched an improved high-speed wireless data service across New England and the United States, the latest carrier to deploy a new service in hopes of keeping and attracting customers before a federal policy takes effect Monday making it easier for consumers to switch phone companies.

AT&T's "EDGE" data service claims download speeds of 100 to 130 kilobits per second, more than twice the speed of a conventional dial-up modem, with maximum potential speeds of 200 kilobits. That is about double the speed of AT&T's current main data service, Sprint's PCS Vision, and Verizon Wireless's Broadband Access. Verizon does offer a 400-kilobit service in San Diego and Washington and may expand it to more markets.

Aimed mainly at business customers, the EDGE service, at $80 a month, can be used by buying a $150 "air card" transmitter-receiver that fits in a laptop computer and has unlimited data usage. AT&T is also offering, initially, a single model of Nokia phone that works on EDGE, costing $25 after rebates, that can be used to send and download e-mail and visit about 400 specialized wireless websites. More phones that work on the service will be offered in the next two months, with data plans starting at $33 a month for 200 national minutes of peak calling time.

AT&T's move came as carriers brace for Monday's arrival of a new Federal Communications Commission policy called wireless number portability, which will let the 151 million US cellphone subscribers keep their current phone numbers when switching to another carrier. The FCC move is expected to unleash a wave of consumer defections by unhappy subscribers who stayed with an unsatisfactory carrier only because of the hassle of having to get a new phone number if they switched.

Looking to bolster their competitive positions, carriers have responded with lower prices and new offers. Sprint PCS offered a walkie-talkie service on Monday and T-Mobile recently expanded its "unlimited weekend" calling plan to include free Fridays.

Phillip Redman, a Gartner Inc. wireless analyst, said that in tests Gartner found the AT&T EDGE service "on average, at best will offer 100 kilobits" per second. Redman said consumers may be confused by a profusion of voice and data plans now being offered by AT&T, including two separate voice networks.

"It's getting very complicated for them" to explain the range of services they offer, Redman said.

Peter J. Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com.

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