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Cingular speeding up wireless Internet

By The Associated Press

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ATLANTA — Cingular Wireless will begin deploying a speedier wireless Internet service next year, a move made possible by the network capacity gained with the recent acquisition of Redmond-based AT&T Wireless.

The nation's biggest cellphone company provided few details yesterday, saying only that it would launch the service in a "substantial" number of markets by the end of 2005 and "most" major markets by the end of 2006.

Cingular offers the new service in six cities where it had been launched by AT&T Wireless before its acquisition by Cingular in late October — Dallas, Detroit, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle — but had yet to move beyond trials due to capacity constraints before the merger.

The Atlanta-based company said the wireless technology it is using, known as third-generation or 3G, will offer average data speeds between 400 kilobits per second to 700 kilobits per second, on par with entry-level DSL and cable broadband connections.

That speed would be a shade faster than the high-speed service that Verizon sells in 14 markets and that Sprint plans to begin rolling out by the end of this year.

The race to upgrade cellphone networks with broadband data capability is costing the nation's wireless companies billions of dollars.

Cingular, with 47.3 million customers, wants to provide the service as soon as possible to avoid losing customers as its rivals expand their high-speed wireless coverage nationally.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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