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To: marginmike who wrote (21519)	1/18/1999 2:31:00 PM
From: Sawtooth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

BRUSSELS, Jan 18 (Reuters) - The European Union on Monday disputed charges it was trying to shut out U.S. producers from its lucrative mobile communications market. "We have not and will not intervene in this," Paul Verhoef, an aide to EU Telecommunications Commissioner Martin Bangemann,told reporters. Bangemann released a letter he had sent to U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and three other U.S. officials who raised concerns in December about EU policy toward "third generation" (3G) mobile communications -- which will give consumers advanced features such as multimedia services andInternet access. Albright, U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, Commerce Secretary William Daley and Federal Communications Chairman William Kennard said in a letter they were concerned about signs the EU might adopt a "single, mandatory standard." Bangemann said the EU had adopted legislation to promote the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), an effort to unify Europe's market and ensure consumers can use their 3G phones across Europe. However, he said it did not specify a technology nor establish UMTS as an exclusive standard. He added that industry players were developing standards for 3G services within the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), based in Nice, France. "The Commission does not and will not interfere in this industry-led standardisation process," the letter said. EU-U.S. tensions over mobile communications have been growing since ETSI backed a technology last year for a "radio interface" developed by European companies including Finnish cellular phone maker Nokia NOKSa.H and its Swedish rivalEricsson LMEb.S. U.S. high-technology company Qualcomm Inc QCOM.O has complained that the ETSI standard is incompatible with a competing standard that it supports -- and has refused to license key technologies needed to get it off the ground. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a United Nations body, has set a March 31 deadline for deciding on key characteristics of global 3G standards. U.S. officials are under pressure from congressional leaders to take action against what they view as EU efforts to promote European manufacturers at the expense of their U.S. rivals and set up the European standard as a de facto world standard. Bangemann said in the letter the ITU was expected to endorse a family of options, rather than one system that would apply globally. He said the EU preferred to allow different systems to coexist while ensuring they could work together. "What is now required, in my view, is a dialogue among the industrial players to explore the options to reduce the differences between system proposals and to work out practical methods to ensure interoperability," he said. An Ericsson spokesman declined to comment on the EU-U.S. discord, but said he agreed the world was likely to see a "family" of 3G standards. "In a way, it'd be very nice if we had a same standard all over the world," said communications director Eric Osterberg. "It would be easiest for the user. But this is perhaps too far-fetched." He said the dispute with Qualcomm over intellectual property rights would probably have to be resolved in court, though Ericsson argues that Qualcomm's patents are not essential to the ETSI-backed technology. REUTERSRtr 13:04 01-18-99