Nokia Outlines Plans To Ship 2.5G, 3G Phones In Next Year
Staff -- TWICE, 9/17/2001
NEW YORK — Nokia outlined its 2.5G and 3G roadmap during an investors conference here, where the company said it's on target to reach its previously announced goal of shipping a GPRS/GSM phone in the U.S. by the end of the year.
Matti Alahuhta, Nokia Mobile Phones president, also told investors that the company's first 3G handsets will be available in the third quarter of 2002, with volumes rising into the millions by the fourth quarter. A spokesman later said the first 3G units would "mostly" be WCDMA handsets, but in a separate announcement, Nokia said it is moving ahead with CDMA2000-handset development. The company said it has completed voice calls and packet-data downloads on a prototype CDMA2000 handset powered by a Nokia CDMA chipset. That phone supports datarates up to 153.6kbps.
Nonetheless, the spokesman said the company hasn't announced a target ship date for CDMA2000 handsets.
The spokesman also said Nokia's first EDGE-equipped phone would be available in the Americas by the end of 2002. He said he didn't know whether it would be a GSM phone or a hybrid GSM/TDMA phone whose digital-network features would operate in both types of networks.
Alahuhta did say the company's first GSM/WCDMA phone would feature Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), which lets users send and receive messages with sound, pictures, and moving images. The company's first MMS phones will be available in the first half of 2002, but the company didn't say whether they would be available in the U.S. at that time. U.S. carriers haven't specified their MMS plans.
As previously reported (TWICE, July 9, p. 34), Nokia's first U.S. GPRS phone, the 8390, will be a 1.9GHz single-mode phone with a gross download datarate up to about 43kbps, a spokeswoman said. With one time slot equivalent to 14.4kbps, the 8390 offers one time slot up/three down or two up/two down.
The phone will feature a WAP 1.2.1 microbrowser, which will support push services, such as continuous news updates, and optional use of cookies.
It will be demonstrated during Fall Comdex.
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