Verizon Wireless talks high-speed data rollout
Provider plans to make mobile data service available to one-third of customers this year
Follow @infoworldATLANTA - Verizon Wireless Inc. plans to make its BroadbandAccess mobile data service available to one-third of its U.S. wireless customers this year, the company announced Monday at the CTIA Wireless trade show in Atlanta.
BroadbandAccess will deliver between 300K bps (bits per second) and 500K bps to phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants) that will be introduced later this year as well as to already available PC Card radios for notebook computers. The service is already available in San Diego and the Washington, D.C., area. In those areas it costs US$79.99 per month with a one-year contract.
Enterprises are clamoring for this kind of service so they can make their existing applications available to employees on the move, according to Richard Lynch, executive vice president and chief technical officer for Verizon Wireless.
"They're breaking my door down," Lynch told reporters after a news conference at CTIA.
The service, which uses a CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology called EV-DO (Evolution-Data Only), will be deployed in a few more cities at first and later in the year will be rolled out in successive waves, he said.
CTIA continues through Wednesday.
