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Wednesday January 28, 2:37 pm Eastern Time
INTERVIEW-Siemens ON seeks standards deal
MUNICH, Germany, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Siemens AG (OTC BB:SMAWY - news; SIEG.F) said on Wednesday its ON public communications group will make
further efforts with two competing equipment suppliers to compromise on new mobile telephone standards.
''There are two proposals that are now closer together,'' said ON unit chief executive Roland Koch. ''We will make further efforts with the other side to find a
compromise.''
Previously, Siemens had proposed a standard that was incompatible with one developed jointly by Nokia Oy and Ericsson (LMEb.ST) LM.
''The Siemens alliance has worked out a compromise that is based on the Siemens proposal and combined elements from the other side,'' Koch told Reuters in an
interview before a news conference.
ON will put forward its proposal this week at a standards meeting in Paris, Koch said.
At the same time, Nokia and Ericsson have developed a proposal based on their original design that combines some elements of the Siemens offer, Koch said.
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute is meeting in Paris on Wednesday and Thursday to vote on a new standard. Until now, Siemens and the
Nokia-Ericsson tandem have proposed incompatible standards.
Koch said Siemens wanted to reach a compromise to ensure a single, worldwide standard.
''I think all participants think that a compromise is best,'' he said. ''Our proposal has certain advantages, but both are very good.''
Siemens' original proposal is compatible with the code division multiple access (CDMA) standard now used in the United States as well as the time division multiple
access (TDMA) standards used in Europe, Asia and other regions.
It has the support of Sony Corp [NYSE:SNE - news], Motorola Inc [NYSE:MOT - news], Alcatel SA, Italtel SpA and Northern Telecom Ltd [NYSE:NT - news].
Koch said the Siemens TD-CDMA would allow a smooth transition from the GSM digital mobile phone systems used now. ''We want to preserve the investment
in the GSM base.''
The original Nokia-Ericsson design was only compatible with CDMA.
Although the two sides said in the past week they were willing to compromise, Siemens declined to confirm reports the two sides were talking with each other. |
