Cingular stores nationwide have been notified to pull their supply of UMTS phones, provided they are not in an existing UMTS coverage area. Cingular, unlike AT&T Wireless, chose to retail their UMTS phones in markets regardless of if they had UMTS coverage of not. Because UMTS is Cingular’s future national network, and Cingular Video operate on both EDGE and UMTS, Cingular was confident in this strategy.
However, many users have complained that video quality over EDGE is extremely poor and not optimized for EDGE connections. As such, Cingular is offering all UMTS phone owners an extended return period through the end of the month. Cingular has informed stores to expect UMTS phones to be sold nationally, once again, in October. October marks the start of Phase Two of Cingular’s UMTS national deployment, multiplying the amount of coverage currently offered to most major metropolitan areas.
