Cingular Wireless will invest $700 million in five Midwest states, including Ohio and Indiana, this year as it prepares to introduce the widely used Global System for Mobile Communications standard here in September, said Cliff Minor, general manager of Cingular's central and southern Ohio region.

        The investment, which will also improve existing call quality, includes more than $100 million for Ohio, he said.

        Cingular plans to introduce GSM, the wireless standard used by more than 170 countries, here about Sept. 15. Cingular will also introduce General Packet Radio Service, or GPRS, providing faster connections to wireless data, he said.

        With GPRS, a step toward so-called third generation or 3G wireless service, Cingular customers will be able to access data from their wireless phones at about the same speed as a typical 56K computer modem.

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