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Los Angeles Cellular Telephone Co., a venture of BellSouth Cellular Corp. and AT&T Wireless Services Inc., introduced SmartDigital, a service offering to go along with the deployment of IS-136 time division multiple access technology throughout its network. The carrier also introduced new rate plans mirroring the analog plans, with the first minute of incoming calls free.
The service offers handsets from Ericsson and Nokia equipped with an answering machine, short messaging (storing up to 80 characters per message), caller identification, authentication, longer battery life, conversation privacy and message waiting indicator. The phones are dual-mode for roaming in analog-only markets. The handsets start at $249, but by signing contracts of varying lengths, customers can pay as little as $50 for the phones, said an LA Cellular spokeswoman. Ericsson also supplied the infrastructure.
The LA Cellular spokeswoman said that the carrier plans to introduce two low-end rate plans in...