re: Ericsson Sees 3G Phones (volume) Arriving H2 2002
* Handsets available at the end of this year or the start of 2002, but only for testing.
>> Ericsson Sees 3G Phones Arriving H2 2002 in Portugal
Elisabete Tavares
Reuters
26 July 2001
Swedish mobile phone maker Ericsson expects advanced Internet-ready handsets to be available for commercial launch in Portugal only in the second half of next year, an executive said on Wednesday.
Three holders of Portuguese licences for so-called third-generation (3G) services have said they would delay launches scheduled for the start of 2002 because they lacked handsets and other equipment.
Eduardo Restuccia, chairman of Ericsson in Portugal, said the company would have handsets available at the end of this year or the start of 2002, but only for testing.
"Ericsson will only have terminals (handsets) in volume in Portugal in the second half of 2002, the same as is happening with our competitors, as far as we know," he told reporters.
Restuccia said the infrastructure for the system would begin to be ready this summer.
Ericsson has contracts to supply 3G infrastructure equipment to TMN, the mobile arm of Portugal Telecom; Telecel, a unit of Britain's Vodafone; and with Optimus of Sonae.com.
It has also agreed to supply general packet radio services (GPRS) networks to Telecel and Optimus. GPRS is a stepping stone to the 3G mobile phones.
Third-generation phones will offer high-speed Internet, data and video services. European phone companies have spent hundreds of billions of euros on acquiring 3G licences.
However, companies have had to postpone launches as they work on technological glitches.
A fourth Portuguese mobile phone company, Oni Way, a unit of Electricidade de Portugal's Oni, still plans to launch its 3G service as scheduled in the first quarter of 2002. <<
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