Tuesday January 30, 7:44 am Eastern Time
Ericsson affirms GPRS target after Nokia delays
STOCKHOLM, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson confirmed on Tuesday it would launch its first next-generation GPRS telephone, the R520, as planned in the first quarter of 2001.
Its Finnish arch-rival Nokia said earlier on Tuesday it had delayed the launch of its own General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) phone until the third quarter from the first half, confirming industry worries that the success of GPRS will take longer than expected.
``We will launch the R520 commercially as planned at the end of the first quarter of this year,'' Ericsson Vice President for Marketing and Communications Jan Ahrenbring told Reuters.
Ericsson hopes demand for its GPRS phones, which offers constant Internet access, will grow as telecoms operators across Europe upgrade their networks to support the new technology, he said.
``We have delivered several thousand test-telephones to operators around Europe. We believe that demand will grow in step with build-out,'' he added.
Currently only Motorola (NYSE:MOT - news) of the United States has a GPRS phone on the market. A stepping-stone to third-generation mobile phone networks, GPRS supports high data transmission rates. |
