Sprint bullish
on wireless

Consumers will get attached
to mobile Internet, says exec

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By Lyn Danninger
ldanninger@starbulletin.com

Cell phones used to be a luxury. And they used to be only for talking.

Now they're a ubiquitous part of the landscape, blasting out the "Mission Impossible" theme in offices, malls and restaurants.

PHOTO COURTESY SPRINT PCS The Sprint PCS Vision phone, by Samsung, which will display color Web pages and play games.

Sprint PCS executive Bill Esrey Jr. is also banking on convincing consumers they're no longer not just phones anymore.

"It's all about educating customers," said Esrey, Sprint PCS vice president and son of Sprint Corp.'s chairman and chief executive officer, William Esrey.

Esrey is in Honolulu to promote Sprint's next generation of wireless service, known as third generation, or 3G.

Sprint's PCS division is the nation's fourth-largest wireless carrier.

Esrey hopes to change that ranking with the nationwide introduction of the 3G network and new range of wireless capabilities, which includes wireless phone service plus access to the Internet and e-mail.

Before you know it, Americans will be just as hooked on the technology and vision phones as their European and Asian counterparts, where such technology has been in place for more than a year, Esrey said.

"We are seeing a shift," he said. "Individuals there now look at a wireless device as part of their persona," he said.

The delay in bringing the technology to market here has been worth it, Esrey said.

"Here in the U.S. things may have lagged in terms of Asia and Europe but very quickly we've learned a lot from what they've done," he said.

Only recently have companies such as Sprint, Verizon and AT&T added higher-speed data networks that allow customers to wirelessly get onto the Internet. Part of the challenge for Sprint, and any company offering wireless Internet service, is shifting customers away from high-speed connections they've become accustomed to.

While the 3G technology is a considerable improvement on current wireless service, the companies have yet to perfect true 3G speeds, defined as downloading a minimum of 144 kilobits per second, or almost three times as fast as a dial-up modem.

Sprint says the speed on its 3G network averages 50 to 70 kbs per second with peak speeds of up to 144 kbs -- still a big improvement on the slow 9kbs to 14 kbs now available.

Esrey believes speeds will probably double in the next year, he said.

Sprint's advantage over other wireless services, according to Esrey, is its ability to offer nationwide service.

"No other carriers who launched high-speed networks can say they have national coverage," he said. "It will work the same on the Sprint PCS network, no matter where you are."

Prices for Sprint's PCS Vision plan vary, depending upon the type of plan and which services are used, Esrey said.

The plan may require a shift in thinking for some who are used to charges based on the amount of time spent on the phone, not amount of data downloaded.

For example, Sprint's Free and Clear plan with PCS Vision costs $49.99 a month. The plan includes 350 anytime minutes, plus night and weekend minutes. But with PCS Vision, it will also include about two megabytes worth of data.

"That data would include 100 or so instant messages, 150 e-mails, 100 Web pages, four ringers, four screen savers, four games and four pictures," Esrey said.

Similar to exceeding the minutes in a cellphone plan, additional downloads would cost about $20 a megabyte, according to Sprint sales information.