Finland's Nokia sees world mobile network
By Roland Moller
HELSINKI, Finland (Reuters) - Mobile phone makers will be able to build handsets that
will work almost anywhere in the world due to recent breakthroughs in standardization,
Nokia's head of research and development Yrjo Neuvo said Thursday.
Neuvo told Reuters in an interview that the planned third generation systems -- wideband
CDMA, UWC 136, which is based on TDMA, and CDMA 2000 -- would not be identical
but close enough.
''The variations will be so small that it will be easy to make phones that service all third
generation networks if market demands make it feasible to take the extra cost of
managing multiple frequencies,'' he said.
Last December, the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium (UWCC), which
groups mostly U.S. companies, agreed with the European Telecommunications Standards
Institute (ETSI) to seek a global standard and avoid technical duplication.
Neuvo said this was a little understood breakthrough for bringing the future GSM and
TDMA systems close enough to each other to making handsets work across different
networks.
Nokia possesses all the key know-how and technology for third generation phones and
infrastructure for the two main standards, wideband CDMA and UWC 136, although most
of its efforts are in wideband CDMA, Neuvo said.
Wideband CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) combines features of CDMA, which
is used in the United States with the European and Asian GSM (Global System for Mobile
Communication). UWC 136 is a wideband version of another U.S. system TDMA (Time
Division Multiple Access).
First generation mobile phones were analog systems and the second generation are digital
systems such as GSM.
Third generation systems will boost mobile data speeds to hundreds of kilobits per second
compared to the 9,600 bits per second on current GSM systems.
While the wideband 3G (third generation) technology will be key to very fast wireless data
transfer, GPRS (General Packet Radio System) will improve GSM and TDMA
substantially and make it possible to offer better value-added services, Neuvo said.
Nokia has said it will launch GPRS in 2000.
GPRS is a way to faster transfer speeds -- the top speed can rise to more than 100
kilobits per second -- by freeing more channels available for one user and by packaging
the signals.
GPRS will also make it possible to make phones receive electronic mail or messages from
databases without the recipient actively downloading them, much like short messages are
received today but much faster, Neuvo said.
GPRS will greatly improve Internet-based services for phones with Wireless Application
Protocol (WAP) functions, he said.
Some operators such as Finland's Sonera have already ordered GPRS system upgrades.
As they start providing new services, such as electronic mail for mobile phones, they will
be encouraging users to demand even more advanced services, Neuvo said.
While future third generation mobile phones will give users new services, the early third
generation models will also work on older networks as part of the changeover to the new
system, Neuvo said.
Mobile phone industry leaders Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola are in a particularly strong
position due to the high level of software in the value added services that will emphasize
the economies of scale, analysts said.
14:51 04-08-99
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