Nokia
Nokia’s press conference served as a farewell performance from outgoing ceo Jorma Ollila, as well as giving the operator the opportunity to announce its commitment to UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access), at with both handset and network server products in the pipeline. Other announcements included the Flexi WCDMA Base Station, the signing of a joint agreement with Sanyo for the production of CDMA phones, and a few handsets. It also said it thinks it will ship 40 million 3G handsets in 2006.
Of chief interest for the base station announcement was the amount of frequencies Nokia can now support. The Nokia Flexi WCDMA Base Station, “on track” for commercial delivery in the latter half of 2006 will be available for frequencies 2100 MHz, 1700 MHz, 1800 MHz and 1700/2100 MHz in the second half of 2006. In the first half of 2007, further frequencies, including 850 MHz, 900 MHz and 1900 MHz will be available, whereafter other frequencies will be added based on market need. the increased frequency support is intended to support 3G rollouts wherever they are in the world, and increase operators’ flexibility when it comes to spectrum deployment.
Nokia’s Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) offering combines network equipment and an UMA capable handset.. Nokia also launched its UMA capable phone, the 6136, and giving a live demonstration of UMA calls. The Nokia UMA solution will be available in the second quarter 2006.
Nokia is also launched a new release of its IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) elements, building on deployments of Nokia IMS applications such as Push to talk over Cellular and Video Sharing. Nokia IMS Release 2.0 now brings VoIP and real-time multimedia for fixed networks. It will be available in the second half 2006.
Two handset launches included the 6070 and the 6131. Both are camera phones, and expected to begin shipping in the second quarter of 2006 The quadband 6131 has a 1.3 megapixel camera, 16 million colour display, an 8x digital zoom and support for Visual Radio. The 6070 is a basic camera phone based on Nokia’s Series 40 user interface.
Nokia also announced the selection of Series 60 by Vodafone as its preferred platform and an agreement to co-operate with Sony Ericsson on DVB-H interoperability. Finally, the vendor said that Avaya had added extended its enterprise mobility portfolio to Nokia Series 80 products.