Lucent and Cingular turn on HSDPA in Seattle and Phoenix

October 18, 2005

Lucent Technologies announced that it has completed upgrades of Cingular Wireless' 3G UMTS networks in Seattle and Phoenix to support HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology. Cingular is now using the HSDPA networks to provide simultaneous voice and mobile high-speed data service for customers currently subscribed to its UMTS service in those markets.

Lucent also is upgrading additional key markets across the United States and is poised to support Cingular's initial rollout of this advanced network, which supports a wide variety of high-bandwidth multimedia services including high-quality streaming video, fast downloads of high-resolution images and other large files, and interactive services and applications such as advanced gaming in the mobile environment. When used with HSDPA capable devices, Cingular customers will receive average data connection speeds between 400-700 kilobits per second with bursts over a Megabit.

"The successful upgrade of the Seattle market is just an indication of what Cingular plans to deliver to its mobile customers around the country," said Joe McCarthy, vice president of sales for Lucent Technologies. "We're working hard to ensure that Cingular Wireless will deliver new, powerful revenue-generating multimedia services in all of the markets Lucent supports in a timely fashion."

As part of Cingular's UMTS/HSDPA network deployment, Lucent is providing its end-to-end commercial UMTS solution, including Lucent's OneBTS base stations (Node Bs) -- which support HSDPA -- Radio Network Controller (RNC), Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN), and 3G Mobile Switching Center based on the Lucent Network Controller and Lucent Network Gateway.