Aug 3, 2001 12:00 PM,

Deployment of base stations a Cingular achievement

Mary Corcoran, Staff Writer

Cingular Interactive, (www.cingularinteractive.com ), the business unit of Cingular Wireless, (www.cingular.com ) is more than half way to its goal of deploying nearly a base station a day.

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Wednesday, Cingular Interactive announced that it had commissioned 158 new base stations this year. That means the company is on pace to deploy more than 300 base stations by the end of 2001.

“We’ve been aggressive in deploying base stations now for the last several years,” said John Kampfe, Cingular Interactive spokesman. “This fits into the whole Operation Platinum Standard, which is designed to grow coverage in the metropolitan areas we already serve.”

Cingular now has more than 2,230 base stations nationwide, which Kampfe said would help with the company’s goal of adding subscribers while maintaining good coverage in crowded metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco.

Additional base stations go a long way when adding capacity to a network.

“Base stations don’t have infinite capacity,” Kampfe said. “At some point, you reach a limit. In some cities, we have concentrated areas where we have a lot of users. We’re adding base stations in those areas so there is more capacity. In other words, we’re spreading the subscribers out onto a couple of base stations instead of being concentrated and focused on one.”

Kampfe said his company would continue to work on increasing capacity, because subscriber numbers keep going up. Cingular Interactive ended last year with 570,000 subscribers and Kampfe said that, despite the slowing economy, that number has increased to about 690,000 after the first half of this year.

Kampfe said his company had shifted coverage tactics recently. “The deployment strategy has changed somewhat over the last few years,” he said. “We’re at a point where we’ve got the markets covered that we need to cover. Now we’re focusing within those markets to strengthen, enhance and broaden coverage. It’s a change in the coverage strategy.”