Wireless Providers Mount New Round of Expansion
By ANDREW SIMONS
Wireless phone service companies are expanding their networks again in Orange County.
Atlanta-based Cingular Wireless has boosted the coverage area and capacity of its OC network by a third in the past six months, a company official said.
Cingular, a venture of SBC Communications Corp. and BellSouth Corp., has expanded coverage by adding wireless towers or improving existing lines around Irvine, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Garden Grove and other areas, including near the University of California, Irvine, the toll roads and several South County cities.
The upgrades are part of a $1 billion investment in Cingular’s Western regional network, according to Dave Garver, the company’s regional vice president of marketing.
“It’s an ongoing investment,” Garver said. “We want to go into areas where the network has not been.”
Cingular and other wireless service providers are upping the ante in what is a solid market for them, despite a national slowdown in the growth rate of wireless phone users. The wireless industry, which saw subscriber growth rates of 50% nationally in the 1990s, now expects growth of about 20% in 2002 and the same for 2003.
OC remains strong though, wireless officials say. They point to the county’s growing population and sprawling size, which encourages phone use while driving. OC’s economy also lends itself to big companywide wireless deals, they say. And then there’s the county’s affluence, which means people here have money to spend on wireless service plans.
Bedminster, N.J.-based Verizon Wireless Inc., a venture of Vodafone Group PLC and Verizon Communications Inc., said it plans to spend $1 billion this year upgrading its Western U.S. network. A big chunk of that is set to go to Southern California, said Daniel Jaurigue, director of Verizon Wireless’ Southern California network.
Overland Park, Kan.-based Sprint PCS Group also said it plans to expand coverage into Laguna Niguel and Aliso Viejo. Redmond, Wash.-based AT & T; Wireless Service Inc.’s network expansion plans include Coto de Caza and Laguna Niguel. Neither Sprint nor AT & T; would say how much they plan to spend.
As business has slowed in other areas, OC has become a battleground for wireless service providers, complete with competitive bravado.
Verizon argues that Cingular’s recent upgrade shows the company is trying to catch up with its competitors.
“If you talk to the Cingular folks, you’d see they’ve had capacity issues,” Verizon’s Jaurigue said.
In another sign of the competitive times, Verizon has tapped Irvine-based wireless network monitor Comarco Inc. to drive around with a phone using a rival’s network to find areas where it doesn’t work. Verizon then improves its network in those areas, Jaurigue said.
The company is spoofing this strategy in an advertising campaign that features a worker driving around testing its own network.
Cingular dismisses the notion that it is playing catch-up. The company says it’s expanding its network for customers it is counting on acquiring this year.
“I’m surprised (Verizon) would comment on what their competitors are doing,” Garver said.
Cingular calls its Western network its “showcase” since it is based on the global system for mobile communications, a wireless network system used in Europe and other global markets.
The OC expansions come as wireless service providers are switching their networks to third-generation wireless, or 3G. The providers have been working with phone makers to upgrade to 3G, which promises clearer voice calling, global roaming and high-speed multimedia data via the Internet.
