This ambitious plan, which will see 3G arriving some six months to nine months before many experts believed possible, is said to be thanks to some forward thinking when Sprint PCS' network was designed in the mid-1990s.

"The design of our digital network, which was planned with 3G in mind, meant we only had to spend $280 million in the FCC wireless auctions for digital spectrum," said Dan Wilinsky, a spokesperson for the wireless carrier.

Wilinsky told Newsbytes that, using its existing network and building on a CDMA 2000 infrastructure, Sprint PCS will have enough digital wireless spectrum for at least the next 10 years.

By the end of this year, Sprint PCS users will have access to basic 3G facilities in several of markets across the US.

"At that stage, users in these markets will have access to 144,000 bits per second (bps) wireless data facilities and, by the summer of 2002, we will have 144,000 bps available in all of our US markets," said Wilinsky.

Like many 3G operators, Sprint PCS plans to phase in the various features of 3G on its network on a gradual basis. This will mean that, by the end of 2002, 3G users will be migrated up to 307,000 bps wireless data services.

"By the end of 2003, users will have access to 2.14 megabits per second (Mbps) on a wireless basis, rising to 3.5 Mbps in the years after that," said Wilinsky.

While many Sprint PCS customers will have access to a 3G network by the end of the year, there are now indications that the bottleneck for 3G rollout and usage will be on the handset front.

Sprint PCS says it is confident that 3G handsets will be available by the end of the year, but is not saying whether there will be volume shipments available.

The wireless carrier says, however, that it is working with its partners on the 3G network, and the handset suppliers - Lucent Technologies, Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group (CIG), Nortel Networks and Qualcomm - on meeting its targets.

Sprint PCS will formally announce its 3G plans at the CTIA Wireless 2001 conference in Las Vegas on Mar. 20, at which Charles Levine, the firm's president will outline the above timetable.

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