Carolina West Wireless is in the process of upgrading its wireless network.

The company says it will deploy an overlay solution from Superconductor Technologies Inc. (STI), a provider of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) in Santa Barbara, CA.

Carolina West will begin installing the SuperLink Rx cryogenic receiver front-ends and accompanying HTS-Ready Duplexers across its existing 56 base stations as part of the company’s planned CDMA overlay beginning this fall.

CDMA stands for Code Division Multiple Access and incorporates spread spectrum works by digitizing multiple conversations, attaching a code known only to the sender and receiver, and then dicing the signals into bits and re-assembling them.

The overlay approach using STI products enabled Carolina West to use its existing network of TDMA antennas and cables. TDMA stands for Time Division Multiple Access and is a digital technology that allows multiple users to share the same voice channel by having each conversation transmitted alternately over short lengths of time.

Carolina West also plans to install SuperLink Solutions in new base stations that are planned or under construction. The cost of the order, which was delivered in the second quarter of 2003, was not disclosed.

By installing SuperLink products, Carolina West was able to set up an antenna-sharing configuration for CDMA technology without installing any new antennas on the network.

“This will be the first time that a wireless carrier has integrated STI’s overlay products over an entire existing network,” said Peter Thomas, STI’s president and chief executive officer. “Carolina West was one of STI’s first customers and we are pleased that they came back to us for repeat business.”

STI’s products are expected to be included in all of Carolina West’s future CDMA sites as it expands its network. Its existing base stations, which are manufactured by Nortel Networks, are being retrofitted with STI products.

Located in Wilkesboro, Carolina West provides wireless telephone and pager service to a six-county local service area in the northwestern corner of North Carolina. It is jointly owned by Skyline Telephone Membership Corp., Surry Telephone Membership Corp., and Wilkes Telephone Membership Corp.

Carolina West: www.carolinawest.com