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Technology Stocks : Nokia (NOK) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tero kuittinen who wrote (1522)	2/24/1999 10:03:00 AM
From: H.A.M.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 34857

INTERVIEW-Nokia upbeat on Asia, Internet By Salomon Bekele CANNES, France, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia is optimistic about infrastructure demand in Asia and has high hopes for new technology to allow Internet access by mobile phones, a senior Nokia official said on Wednesday. Nokia vice president of systems marketing and sales Olli Oittinen told Reuters in an interview that overall demand for Nokia infrastructure had remained good in early 1999. ''I'm very positive about the development in all of Asia,'' Oittinen said. ''Some countries in South-east Asia will still be very slow this year, not much will happen. In others, lots of things are happening.'' He said demand was very good in China, but declined to comment on political risks or the possibility of a devaluation of the yuan. The Indonesian and Thai markets have yet to pick up, while the Philippines and Singapore were strong, he said. ''The Phillippines for instance is a very good market for us and operators are investing heavily. Singapore is a very good market as well, but Indonesia and Thailand are much slower.'' Oittinen said new Internet access phones due to hit the market this year -- with Nokia's 7110 series due in the second quarter and one Alcatel model already widely sold -- would be an engine for growth due to a boom in mobile Internet. ''The number of users will be very big,'' he said. ''I'm convinced that in five years, more people will access Internet using a smart phone like the Nokia 7110 or Communicator than using a fixed line-connection.'' The development is just starting with the launch of WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) phones and systems and higher transmission speed systems like HSCSD (high circuit switched data) and GPRS (general package radio system), Oittinen noted. WAP is a standard for browsing purpose-made websites with mobile devices, aiming to make it possible to access WAP Internet services with any WAP-compatible phone regardless of its make. ''WAP is one of the key ingredients in the whole picture. It provides an interface on which applications can be developed. There will be hundreds of thousands of small companies writing software for mobile Internet,'' said Oittinen. He said Nokia will stick to its strategy of making small to medium-sized acquisitions to gain competence in datacommunications and IP (Internet Protocol). This year, it has already bought Vienna systems, which makes IP applications; Diamond Lane, which makes equipment to boost Internet access speeds; and local area network access point company InTalk. All are U.S. companies. 08:53 02-24-99