Friday January 23, 12:06 pm Eastern Time
Siemens -phone standard compromise possible
MUNICH, Germany, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Siemens AG (OTC BB:SMAWY - news;
SIEG.F) said on Friday it was willing to compromise with Nokia Oy (NOKSa.HE)and
Ericsson (LMEb.ST) LM on a new communications standard for mobile telephones.
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is scheduled to decide
next week whether to adopt a Nokia-Ericsson proposal or one backed by
Siemens'ON public communications group and several other companies.
Earlier this week, Ericsson reportedly said it was willing to change its proposal to reach
a compromise, and on Friday ON softened its stance.
''We are glad that Nokia and Ericsson are ready and willing to compromise on a single
standard,'' spokesman Reiner Schoenrock told Reuters. ''Siemens is also willing to
compromise.''
He would not say if the two sides had already begun talks.
The ETSI vote will take place in Paris on Wednesday, the same day ON details its
1997 results. ON chief Roland Koch would elaborate on the standards issue
then,Schoenrock said.
Siemens, with support from Alcatel SA, Italtel SpA, Sony Corp. [NYSE:SNE -
news], Lucent Technologies Inc. [NYSE:LU - news], Northern Telecom Ltd
[NYSE:NT - news] and Motorola Inc. [NYSE:MOT - news], backs a proposal that
combines elements of the TDMA standard used in Europe, Asia and other regions,
and the CDMA standard used in the united States.
The Nokia/Ericsson proposal is only compatible with CDMA.
A new standard would make it possible to send more data and multimedia as well as
voice over mobile phone systems.
ON was Siemens' most profitable division in 1996/97, reporting pre-tax income more
than doubled to 797 million marks. Sales rose 23 percent to 14.5 billion marks.
Bank Julius Baer forecast ON's pre-tax profit in the current business year, which ends
September 30, would rise 25 percent to about 900 million marks. Sales were seen
rising about eight percent to 16.7 billion marks.
|
