Overland Park ? Sprint PCS considers its rollout of “3G”  the technology touted to revolutionize the way consumers use wireless devices  nothing short of a relaunch of the 5-year-old company.

But that relaunch comes as the company is forecasting slower growth, while analysts question how and when Sprint will deliver the technology, how much consumers want it and what they can expect  or are willing  to pay.

Unveiled last month at the International Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, Sprint’s 3G effort attempts to grab what many consider the wireless industry’s Holy Grail: duplicating the high-speed, desktop PC experience on cell phones, personal digital assistants and laptop computers.

The standard does this through startling increases in the speeds of voice and data transmission. Much like home PCs with broadband DSL or cable modem connections, phones or other wireless devices could download large audio or video files or instantly send e-mails with large attachments  to or from remote locations.

So radical are the improvements that Sprint PCS spokesman Dan Wilinsky calls it a “relaunch of the company.”

This summer, Sprint will begin providing customers data transmission speeds of up to 144 kilobits per second  the first phase of its next-generation network and an upgrade costing the company $800 million.

Race for speed

Sprint calls its new level “3G,” but analysts say those speeds aren’t fast enough to warrant the label; they suggest “2.5G.”

Sprint has not said what it plans to charge for accessing such blazing speeds, but Wilinsky said the high-tech phones capable of handling all 3G has to offer would range from $100 to $200, while cards to enable laptops cost about $200 and PDA-phone hybrids would cost about $500. Some prices could go down as demand increases.

Within two years, the company says, users will be able to transmit data from their wireless phones, PDAs or laptops at speeds of more than 3 megabits per second  roughly double the speed of the high-speed T1 connections used often by corporations.

Many analysts say it’s at these speeds that wireless carriers will have reached 3G.

When it comes to deploying the technology, Sprint may have two advantages over its competitors: an abundance of airwaves and a network that uses a single standard  CDMA, or code division multiple access.

Other carriers’ networks are “cobbled together” from various standards, said Joe Laszlo, a broadband and wireless analyst for Jupiter Media Matrix, a New York-based Internet and new technology research firm.

Still, Laszlo said, because the economy is sluggish and the industry hasn’t produced any “killer applications”  software programs that turn gadgets into must-haves, in the way that e-mail and Web browsers drove PC sales  it could take longer than Sprint says before the company can offer super-high data transmission speeds.

Developing applications?

“Given the economy is slowing down and no one knows what the killer applications are going to be, I think we’re going to see a more incremental approach than what has been suggested,” Laszlo said.

The economy already has affected the wireless market, including PCS, which has never made money.

The company recently lowered expectations for the coming year, saying industry growth was expected to slow.

PCS cut its estimate for net subscriber additions in 2002 to about 3 million from its earlier prediction of 3.6 million to 3.7 million.

Those forecasts continued the flow of bad news out of Sprint, which announced in October the layoffs of 6,000 workers and another 1,500 outside contractors.

On Friday, Sprint announced the closure of the PCS Customer Solutions Center in Lawrence. About 500 workers will lose their jobs when the center closes May 31.

Company officials said the cuts would help Sprint focus on its high-growth areas, chiefly wireless communication.

But slumping growth shouldn’t be mistaken for sagging wireless demand, said Bill Blessing, PCS’ vice president of business development and strategy.

Chip Novick, vice president of PCS’ consumer business unit, likewise is certain consumers will be ready to take the leap with 3G.

“People will want to do what they can do today when tethered, without that cord restriction,” Novick said.

And cost? People will have to pay for it, he said, just as with anything else.

“They have to buy new shoes when they wear out,” Novick said. “It’s all about choices.”

While Sprint hasn’t decided about prices, Wilinsky said, customers will be able to access the faster speeds anywhere they currently plug into the digital network.

But that means customers won’t be able to use any “3G” features  like mapping their location  when they roam in rural areas or any place using an analog network.

Blazing a market

Laszlo said that while many businesses may see 3G’s benefits, he wasn’t sure the average consumer would want it  at least for a while.

After all, how often would people need, or even want, to download music away from home? What e-mails can’t wait a few minutes or even hours to be sent or read?

“There are very few things that are that time-sensitive that you wouldn’t wait to get them from a computer,” Laszlo said.

Still, Sprint and other U.S. carriers are racing to implement faster wireless connections:

l In Japan, NTT DoCoMo began offering the world’s first 3G service in some areas in October.

l AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless are upgrading their networks, and have started trials of “2.5G” technology.

Sprint’s Blessing admits it could be a few years before 3G catches on, but he believes it eventually will change the way people trade information  in the same fashion as PCs or contemporary wireless devices.

“It’s like another stage of the information age,” Blessing said.