Cellular Service Alaska Style
By Kent L. Colby
That wireless device known as a cell phone (poking out
from the user’s pocket or purse, clipped to a belt, or likely held to his or her
ear) is changing. And no place are the changes more evident than in Alaska.
Cellular service in the state, not even two decades old now, has grown like none
other before it: ownership just made a big switch; the phone number you keep
will conform; and the technology is fast evolving.
The cell phone, oft described as the Swiss Army knife of
information and features, is becoming indispensable and has gained a high level
of market acceptance and penetration in Alaska. Costs are lower and usage is
higher. Companies want their employees to be reachable at all times. New phones,
expanded coverage, lower rates and improved technology all contribute to making
the cell phone an essential personal belonging and a tool most businesses cannot
do without. It is not uncommon to have one phone for personal and another for
business use.
It’s My Number and I Want to Keep It
Hold that phone. The Federal Communications Commission is
forcing Local Number Portability. That is, you’ll be able to take your telephone
number with you if you choose to transfer from one cellular carrier to another.
The regulation went into affect back in November. No city in Alaska is in the
nation’s top 100 Metropolitan Statistical Areas. Thus, providers in state do not
have to meet the requirement until May 24 of this year.
Some pundits that monitor the industry proclaim number
portability as one of the–if not the–most important issues in the coming year.
The ruling means a cellular customer can now safely print a cell phone number on
a business card and confidently shop for better rates or service from a
competing company. While telephone numbers are a personal thing, the ruling more
likely offers the biggest advantage to Alaska corporations. Companies with a lot
of cellular numbers now have the leverage of portability in negotiating better
deals. “In addition, you will be able to switch from a wireline carrier to a
wireless carrier or vise versa,” says Mary Ann Pease, vice president of
corporate communications for Alaska Communications Systems. Until now, companies
with large numbers of cellular phones were essentially held hostage by their
cellular provider. Number portability will give businesses and individuals,
alike, the power to negotiate the best rate plan for their operation. Not to
mention listing cellular phone numbers on company printed material, Web sites,
business cards and directories.
Alaska’s two largest cellular companies, Cellular One from
Dobson and Alaska Communications Systems, say they will meet the May deadline.
And Then There Were Two
As of last November, the number of major cellular providers
in the state decreased. AT&T Wireless and Cellular One from Dobson Cellular
Systems inked a deal swapping systems in California and Alaska. The pact sees
AT&T Wireless leaving the state and Cellular One (http://www.celloneusa.com/)
moving into Alaska’s Southcentral market. Craig Davis, that company’s public
relations manager, says, “The acquisition of the Southcentral market, coupled
with Cellular One’s current Alaska markets in Fairbanks, North Pole, Juneau,
Sitka and Ketchikan, make Cellular One the largest wireless provider in the
state.”
Cellular One’s parent company, Dobson Cellular Systems, is
the ninth-largest cellular company in the country. From modest beginnings some
65 years ago, the Dobson family moved into the telephone business in the dust
bowl of Oklahoma and expanded into wireless or cellular in 1990. They now boast
service to a population base of 11 million and more than 1.6 million subscribers
in mostly rural markets, more than 60 markets in 16 states. Anchorage is now one
of the bigger markets they serve.
Cellular One is a licensed trade name and Dobson is the
second-largest user of the name.
Dobson Cellular first moved into Alaska less than 10 years ago and its expansion
saw improved coverage, upgrade to fully digital network, and a major effort to
improve service. The company’s vision is to provide quality service to rural
markets, says Davis. Last year alone it invested more than $10 million in
network enhancements in its existing Alaska markets.
If Cellular One is Alaska’s largest cellular provider now,
with over 150,000 subscribers, ACS (www.acsalaska.com) is a strong No. 2, with
85,000 subscribers on a fully digital platform. ACS also has the largest
“footprint,” or coverage, in the state. That is, they provide service to more of
the state than any other carrier.
How it All Works
The two major providers of wireless telephone boast
“all-digital” coverage. It is worth noting that analog service coverage pretty
much parallels their digital coverage. This keeps older, analog phones
compatible as the systems grow.
Digital is not universal when it comes to your cell phone,
however. These two providers have, and are choosing, different standards in the
service they supply. The argument for digital over analog is primarily call
clarity. Generally digital offers enhanced privacy because of its encryption and
the ability to exchange text messages. Digital also uses the bandwidth more
efficiently. This benefits both the subscriber and the provider.
ACS is upgrading to CDMA (common with Sprint and Verizon in
the Lower 48) or code division multiplex access. Part of 3G wireless
technologies, the standard significantly increases data rates. Pease points out
that with the company’s CDMA rollout, a customer using the ACS wireless PC card
with a laptop can connect to the Internet or corporate intranet while away from
the office and at high speed.
Cellular One, on the other hand, has announced it will roll
out GSM (Global Systems for Mobile Communications) service this year. Most
reports acknowledge that GSM is the world’s leading cell phone standard. First
adopted in Europe, it has spread to Asia, Africa and the Pacific Rim. GSM also
is spreading into the United States and the rest of the Americas. The big
selling point claims the same cell phone that works in Paris also works in
Auckland, Beijing and Sydney.
On The Road Again
One phone, one world. Well, not quite. Some phones are
“hybrid phones,” which means they operate on incompatible cell phone standards.
Others claim to be world phones, even though they operate on only two or three
standards, or bands of GSM. According to Telestial Wireless Solutions for
Travelers (www.telestial.com), “There is no single phone that works everywhere
except a satellite phone and although they are hand-held, they don’t work
indoors.”
Both Cellular One and ACS have roaming (how your phone
interacts with companies in other service areas, and the cost to use your phone
in those areas) agreements throughout the Lower 48 and Canada, but it pretty
much ends there. Neither company has currently or plans any immediate
international (except for Canada) roaming agreements. This seems odd in a state
with so many multi-national companies, not to mention the number of
International travelers from and to the state.
New Technology, More Features
Data communications, says Cellular One’s Davis, will
revolutionize the way we use our cellular phone. Our two largest companies both
say the new camera phones will be available this summer. Davis says his company
is offering increased data service, camera phones, video downloads and wireless
Internet via the cell phone. Pease points to similar services on ACS: text
messaging, caller ID, voicemail, One Place Online (enables the subscriber to
check voicemail via e-mail), call waiting, three-way calling and call
forwarding.
While the new camera phones are soon to become available in
Alaska, they will most likely take off as in the rest of the world. A report
released at the last Comdex by the research group IDC says cellular telephones
with the camera option have sold more than 80 million since their introduction
just three years ago. That makes the camphone the fastest selling consumer
technology ever, replacing the DVD. The report predicts camphones will outsell
digital still cameras this year.
There is no comparison between the quality of a “real”
digital camera and a camphone. As of this writing, the state providers haven’t
indicated pricing for the camphones or rate plans to include the cost of
actually sending pictures from a camphone. In all fairness, the camphone does
have many real and practical applications in the business world. Real estate
agents, contractors and the like are prime candidates. However, David Coursey,
executive editor of AnchorDesk, a popular online technology report, surmised the
camphones popularity as thus: “I’m not exactly calling the camera phones a fad,
but I’m not exactly not calling them a fad, either. My bet is there will be a
relatively small number of people who shoot lots of camphone pics–in the U.S.,
we have a special term for these people: ‘12- to 24-year-olds.’ A much larger
group will have a camphone but never click the shutter: we call those people
‘adults.’”
Text Service, Rate Plans
Currently Alaska business and consumer’s cellular phones
provide limited text service. Incoming text messaging, for example, on Cellular
One is free. Outgoing messages cost a dime and package plans are available.
ACS users are seeking polyphonic ring tones (there are Web sites dedicated to
new and evolving ring tones), color phone screens, picture phones, PDA phones
and Web access.
Pease says the most popular rate plan for her company is the
statewide plan that gives the user 300 minutes for $30. Over at Cellular One,
Davis reports its nationwide plans that gives customers the flexibility to call
anywhere in the United States ranks top on the list.
Other wireless providers include Matanuska Telephone
Association (http://www.mtasolutions.com), serving 12,000 wireless customers in
the Matanuska Valley and Southcentral Alaska with coverage agreements throughout
most of the state; and also Arctic Slope Telephone Association (http://astac.net),
with service across the North Slope.
This list is not intended to be a complete reporting of all
cellular providers in the state, but rather an overview of the technology.
Cellular or wireless is growing, and there are virtually no population centers
in the state where cellular telephone service is not available.
