Roberts Wireless Communications Awards Lucent $32 Million Contract for Network Buildout

In a move that will bring digital voice and wireless data services to the rural Midwest, Roberts Wireless Communications (St. Louis, MO) and N/A (Murray Hill, NJ) entered into a three-year, $32 million supply contract to enable the wireless carrier to build and operate a PCS network throughout Missouri as a Sprint PCS affiliate.

The Sprint PCS service area managed locally by Roberts Wireless encompasses 14 Basic Trading Areas (BTAs), including the entire state of Missouri—except the St. Louis and Kansas City metropolitan areas—and the southern tip of Illinois, the southeast corner of Kansas, and the northeast corner of Oklahoma.

Roberts Wireless will build out and manage service in the Missouri cities of Columbia, Jefferson City, Joplin, Lake of the Ozarks, St. Joseph, Sedalia, and Springfield; Pittsburgh, KS; and Miami, OK, with service launch expected in early 2000. By mid-2000, Roberts Wireless will offer service to Cape Girardeau, Hannibal, Kirksville, Poplar Bluff, Rolla, and Sikeston, MO, as well as Carbondale and Quincy, IL.

Under the contract, Lucent will provide the switching hardware and software, as well as radio hardware and software needed to build the CDMA-based wireless network.