Q News.
Thursday June 3, 11:40 am Eastern Time
Nokia backs ITU plans for 3G worldphone standard
HELSINKI, June 3 (Reuters) - Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia said on Thursday it
supported International Telecommunications Union (ITU) proposals for a harmonised global
third generation mobile phone standard.
Without such a standard, Europe and Japan would at least initially have different third
generation mobile phone standards than the United States when they are introduced early next decade, and thus 3G phones
would not work globally.
Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, said a framework proposed at the ITU meeting in Beijing would provide a
single Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) standard, harmonising the current Wideband CDMA and
cdma2000 systems.
''The new specifications will enable a smooth and compatible evolutionary path to wideband services globally,'' it said in a
statement.
It said that the proposed WCDMA third generation standard would have three modes: Direct Spread (DS), Time Division
Duplex (TDD), and Multi-Carrier (MC).
The DS and TDD modes would be based on the WCDMA standard being developed by a group including Nokia, Ericsson
and others, while the MC mode will be based on cdma2000 standards and help many of the operators in the United States,
Nokia said.
In late March Ericsson and American Qualcomm (Nasdaq:QCOM - news) signed an intellectual property rights agreement that
ended the conflict between the two over the competing WCDMA and cdma2000 technologies and paved the way towards a
single global standard.
Third generation mobile phone networks will provide advanced capabilities such as two-way text messaging, video images and
easier Internet access.
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