ETSI Hears Last Minute 3G Compromise
By Sandy Hendry at Bloomberg News
27-JAN-98
Ericsson AB and Nokia Oyj made a compromise proposal for the European standard for the next generation of mobile phone systems, which allow high-speed wireless transfer of data like moving pictures.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ The Nordic companies' proposal, submitted to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute last Friday ahead of the second round of voting on Wednesday or Thursday, includes elements of a competing system backed by Germany's Siemens AG and France's Alcatel Alsthom SA.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ "We are trying to come up with something everyone can agree on," said Aake Persson, vice president of Ericsson's mobile systems division. "We're trying hard to get this ....concluded by the end of this week."
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ Persson wouldn't say what additions have been made to his company's proposal.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ Nokia and Ericsson are in the driving seat after winning 58 percent of the votes for their proposed Wideband Code Division Multiple Access system, known as WCDMA, in the first round of voting last month. They need a 71 percent majority to have WCDMA recognized as a standard, something analysts say would give them a head start in winning orders.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ "A lot of people have taken Nokia and Ericsson victory for granted, anything other than that would be a disappointment," said Johan Strandberg, an analyst at Deutsche Morgan Grenfell in Stockholm.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ Ericsson sees Internet users quadrupling to 400 million by 2001 as mobile phone users triple to 600 million. Some 30 million people will surf the Internet using mobile phones by then, it says.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ Swedish newspaper Dagens Industri reported today that Siemens and Italy's Italtel SpA had reached an agreement on a compromise standard, while no agreement has been reached with other members of the group competing with Nokia and Ericsson, Alcatel, Motorola Inc. of the U.S. and Northern Telecom of Canada.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ A Siemens spokesman declined to comment on the report. Persson said talks about a compromise standard have been going on for months. He wouldn't say how close the parties are to an agreement.
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