Atlanta — The first third-generation W-CDMA handsets targeted to the U.S. market are on display here at Wireless 2004, along with a growing selection of phones equipped with EDGE and CDMA 1X EV-DO wireless-data technologies.
Attendees are also finding a greater selection of camera phones. Siemens, for example, unveiled its first four integrated camera phones for the U.S. market. Two also captures video clips.
NEC, meantime, showed off its first EDGE-equipped phone for the U.S., as well as a W-CDMA phone, the E808. The E808 is currently available in Europe and Japan, but NEC plans to support AT&T’s launch of W-CDMA service in four markets later this year.
For their part, Motorola and Nokia showed W-CDMA models that will support AT&T’s launch. W-CDMA phones offer two-way videocalling, if the service is available through a carrier. W-CDMA also promises to increase voice capacity by 10-fold over GSM and accelerate average data throughput to 200-300Kbps, up from EDGE’s 110-130Kbps, according to the 3G Americas trade group.
Also at the show, Flarion demonstrated voice and high-speed data applications over its Flash-OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) technology, positioned as a low-cost high-speed competitor to wireless 2.5G and 3G technologies.
Flarion’s technology allows for downloads in bursts up to 3MBps, with users typically experiencing 900kbps download throughout, the company said. Uploads rates are 900Kbps in bursts, with the typical average experience of 300-500Kbps.
With a less exotic application, Telular came to Wireless 2004 with a new fixed-wireless phone that replaces home landline service with cellular service.
With consumers now able to transfer their landline number to a wireless phone, Telular expects sales of fixed-wireless phones to get a boost.
Telular’s Phonecell SX5P is a CDMA2000 IX desktop and wall-mountable phone that replaces a current 1X model. The new model adds PC interface for typing SMS messages on a PC, gpsOne, an expanded phone book with 99 entries, USB interface for higher speed data transfer and advanced caller ID display. Other features include speakerphone and speed dialing.
It’s available in single-band 800MHz or 1900MHz versions or in a dual-band 800/1900MHz version. Expected retail pricing wasn’t disclosed.
The Vernon Hill, Ill.-based company said it signed deals with select carriers to offer the new product but won’t disclose the names until the carriers make their own announcements.
Telular already has network approval for products with AT&T Wireless for GSM and TDMA; Cingular for TDMA; and Western Wireless for CDMA, TDMA and AMPS. Telular can also activate products with T-Mobile.
In other show developments :
- Kyocera, LG InfoComm, Nokia, and Motorola showed their first U.S. megapixel camera phones.
- Sony Ericcson show its first EDGE phone.
- LG showed its first EV-DO phone, joining a previously announced EV-DO PDA phone from Audiovox.
suppliers unveiled a growing selection of push-to-talk (PTT) phones, with Kyocera showing its second CDMA model and Sony Ericsson showing its first two models, both for GSM networks.
