Going to the mat, BANM puts CDMA in the game

Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile is confident that its new digital service offering is good enough to go head to head with wireless network hotshots in three markets.

The cellular operator announced last week that service on its code division multiple access (CDMA) system is now available in Washington/Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Charlotte, N.C. American Personal Communications operates a PCS 1900 system in Washington, the colonial village for personal communication services. In Charlotte, BANM will go up against BellSouth Mobility DCS, which also selected GSM-based technology.

But the most interesting shootout is sure to be in Pittsburgh, where Sprint PCS recently launched its own CDMA system. Customers will now have the opportunity to evaluate any CDMA performance variances at different frequencies.

BANM, which broke ground last spring when it launched the first U.S. CDMA rollout in Trenton, N.J., insists that its deployment decisions were not driven by competitive pressures.

"We were looking for markets where we had the highest analog usage and where we thought there would be the highest customer demand," said Bill Stone, network staff director for digital implementation at BANM. "Within the markets, we focused on the highest traffic areas first.

An industry analyst who has also tested APC's system gave the BANM offering decent marks upon early examination. "The quality is comparable," said Jane Zweig, senior vice president for Herschel Shosteck Associates. "I did get some static on the CDMA phone, but I didn't drop any calls. "It does an excellent job of canceling background noise." She characterized the sound quality as "slightly tinny.

One of the advantages cellular operators such as BANM have over PCS providers is that in regions where CDMA coverage is not yet available, the BANM service will flop over to the analog system seamlessly. In PCS systems, the call would be dropped.

BANM plans to eventually introduce CDMA in all its markets.