Obviously, the big news of the day is Cingular's 3G launch--not like we didn't see it coming. Cingular has a lot to preen about, having launched the world's first commercial HSDPA network.

Being a first mover is a new role for Cingular, to say the least. After playing catch-up for half a decade--following the rest of the world to GSM, following AT&T to UMTS and being the last mega-carrier to launch 3G service--it suddenly finds itself all alone at the head of the pack. It's a nice place to be certainly, but it's also a dangerous one. The only carrier whose mistakes it can learn from is itself. When NTT DoCoMo became the first to launch a wideband CDMA network in 2001, it definitely got a jump on the rest of the globe, but it also dealt with a slew of problems, from software glitches to network outages to the lack of handsets.

Luckily, HSDPA isn't a hugely disruptive technology. It's merely a software upgrade of UMTS, not a whole new network. Cingular, however, is tackling both HSDPA and UMTS simultaneously, which may come with its own set of headaches. Fortunately, the carrier has had more than a year to tinker with AT&T Wireless's old UMTS base stations, instead of just launching cold. But Cingular could face the specter of handset availability. Lack of UMTS handsets dogged Europe's 3G launches this year and last, despite DoCoMo paving the way for the technology, and it took Verizon Wireless more than a year from its trial launch date to offer its first EV-DO phone. In HSDPA's case, most of the new product announcements you hear about are coming from chipset vendors, not the handset guys a year further down in the manufacturing chain.

Cingular Chief Technology Officer Kris Rinne, however, insists Cingular has prepared for those contingencies. It's been dealing with its terminal vendors since it announced plans for HSDPA in 2004, securing commitments to have its first HSDPA-ready PC cards and the handsets by commercial launch in 2006. That might sound like posturing, but look at what Cingular has managed to wrest out of its vendors so far: It not only got Sierra Wireless and Novatel to deliver their HSDPA cards in time for launch, but also got them specifically to add in EDGE radios. While a dual-mode card isn't an absurd idea in Europe or Asia, it's certainly an afterthought, since few carriers besides Cingular have deployed both EDGE and UMTS networks.

So maybe Cingular does have all of its handset issues in a row. In any case, we only have to wait a few short months to find out.

E-mail me at KFitchard@primediabusiness.com.