3G / UMTS Wireless Facility Opens in Germany

Alcatel officially inaugurated its 3G Reality Centre in Stuttgart, Germany today. This facility, which has been operational since June of this year, is the first end-to-end, fully open 3G/UMTS mobile facility in Germany and a new member to Alcatel's worldwide 3G Reality Centre program. This global network of state-of-the-art 3G Reality Centres is offering its partners a unique live and comprehensive 2.5G/GPRS and 3G/UMTS end-to-end environment for the development, testing, validation and promotion of advanced mobile data applications and services.

Dr. Walter Döring, Minister of Economic Affairs in Baden-Wurtenberg, officiating at the launch ceremony, has personally experienced 3G mobile telephony and discovered the difference broadband makes. A live mobile videophony call established between Kuala Lumpur and Stuttgart has given him, in particular, the unique opportunity to see in real time the Malaysian person he was speaking to as well as the Petronas towers in the background, the world's tallest buildings.

"The Alcatel initiative is a key step to help further strengthen the position of Baden-Wurtemberg as a main Telecommunication and IT region," says Dr. Walter Döring, Minister of Economic Affairs in Baden-Wurtenberg. "Broadband technologies - whether wireline or wireless - play a key role for the future development."

At today's opening, visitors were also able to experience mobile applications and services such as web browsing, access to online information, images and video transfer or downloading, TV streaming, interactive online game, and even a live video call between two cars — all while on the move.

The Alcatel 3G Reality Centre in Stuttgart is intended to foster the development and testing of some of the most exciting mobile applications and services. It enables the mobile community in Germany and in Europe to investigate the potential of such next generation mobile multimedia and data solutions from GPRS to UMTS. This is a key factor to support the successful commercial roll out of 3G.

This live and comprehensive environment is already attracting partners, big and small, from the fields of application development, content creation and handset design.
In Germany, amongst others, PTV AG, a company providing software, consulting and research for travel, traffic and transportation planning in the B2B field, is testing its NaviGuide application already available via GSM or GPRS. With 3G/UMTS, it will become in the near future even more powerful and colourful. To achieve that, PTV is able to capitalise on the high quality and coverage of the 3G/UMTS network Alcatel has set up in Stuttgart. It allows testing of the new mobile applications in an area of roughly 10 square kilometres. In addition the network features highly stable voice and data connections with data rates reaching 384 kbps and speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour

"We are making progress every day and achieving significant milestones with 3G technology, applications and services," declared Marc Rouanne, President of Alcatel's Mobile Networks activities. "The 3G Reality Centre in Stuttgart is providing Alcatel and the German wireless community with invaluable experience and learning opportunities that are paving the way to successfully roll out 3G services in Europe and in the World."

Heinrich W. Kreutzer, CTO of Alcatel SEL, added, "The 3G Reality Centre in Stuttgart shows the importance Alcatel places in the German market. In Addition to our investments in R&D and the Joint Venture with Fujitsu it clearly shows that we will continue to shape the future of mobile communications. The 3GRC will be an important part of that development."

PTV board spokesman Dr. Hans Hubschneider said, "It's fascinating to experience UMTS live after such long discussions. As a result, we are in a much better position to adapt our mobile services to the mobile communications bandwidths of the future. For the telecommunications industry, we will retain our position as the innovation leader for location-based applications and telematics services".

The 3G Reality Centre in Stuttgart is running on the latest Alcatel Evolium™ solutions including the UTRAN (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) radio systems, the Core network, as well as the associated Radio Network Controller (RNC) and a dedicated Application Service platform. The radio systems, which include the UMTS base stations (Node B) are developed and produced by Evolium SAS, the joint venture between Alcatel and Fujitsu, in full compliance with UMTS 3GPP standards.

3G Reality Centres are already operational in Kuala Lumpur, Lisbon, Malmö , Paris, Shanghai, Taipei, Rijswijk and now in Stuttgart. Additional 3G Reality Centres will be operational by the end of 2002, especially in Vimercate (Italy), and by first quarter of 2003 in Australia, Japan and Korea, thanks to 3G UMTS pilot networks installed by Alcatel.

TODAY'S PRESS RELEASES

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that sales of i-shot™ handsets have topped the 3 million mark, less than six months

Hutchison Whampoa's growing debt and the cash flow drag from its third-generation mobile telecom business (3G) put it in danger of a ratings downgrade next year, UBS Warburg has warned.

Juniper Research interviewed over 40 industry leaders and concluded that MMS has the potential to generate revenues in excess of $8.3bn by 2004

lcatel announced it has signed a frame agreement and three supply contracts with Mobile Telesystems, a leading mobile operator of Eastern Europe.

Lucent Technologies today introduced a third-generation (3G) CDMA2000 base station that, because of its compact design and distributed architecture, offers the flexibility needed to meet a variety of deployment needs and coverage challenges for mobile operators

Alcatel announced that leading French mobile operator Cegetel/SFR Group has signed a multi-million Euro contract for Alcatel's flagship multiprotocol, platform family, network management and services.

igital Bridges announced it has launched its first i-mode title - Star Trek® First Duty - with German mobile operator E-Plus.

UTStarcom announced the signing of a strategic partnership with Datang Mobile ("Datang"), marking their joint effort to develop and promote the TD-SCDMA 3G standard.

Until recently, Li Ka-shing's business judgment seemed above reproach, thanks to his decades of virtually flawless maneuverings in everything from container ports to hotel management.

Implementation of third- generation (3G) communication systems, especially in Europe and Asia, and new automobile electrical accessory designs are powering the growth of the world lead acid batteries market.

The CDMA Development Group announced that already eight TDMA operators in Asia and the Americas have migrated to or are deploying CDMA2000 for 3G.

There are rumors in academic circles and in the media that 3G will lead to a dramatic increase in power consumption. This is not true.

Japan was first to launch a 3G network for mobile services. But South Korea has been by far the best in turning this network technology into a commercial success.

Samsung Electronics is scheduled to introduce multi-function intelligent terminals in CDAM2000 1x format.

Parker's Car Guides and Bango.net to give Vodafone, 02 and T-Mobile users the chance to check prices and get mini reviews through WAP-enabled handsets.

It is a positive sign for the industry to see vendors remaining profitable in challenging market conditions. Motorola even managed to turn its highest operating margin since 1997

Hutchison 3G, the new mobile operator aiming to launch a 3G service in the UK and Italy next month, is closer to deciding on what tariff plans it will offer consumers in the UK.

3, the Italian video mobile company of the Hutchison Whampoa Group, marks the beginning of the era of the mobile communications of third generation in Italy, opening its website to the reservations of the first UMTS offer of the Italian market.

France Telecom has signed a conditional transaction with MobilCom for an amicable termination of their agreements regarding the development of UMTS in Germany.

Dilithium Networks today announced the introduction of QuickReach DNA (Dilithium Network Analyzer) a protocol analysis platform for the mobile market. QuickReach DNA is a H324M/3GPP-324M protocol analysis tool

Wavecom SA announced the launch of the first WISMO-powered mobile phones with a colour LCD. After the success of its existing range of mobile phones, TCL Mobile Communication now responds to a strong demand in the Chinese market with its first models featuring colour LCDs

Samsung Electronics said on it will debut with a third generation mobile phone on the European market in the third quarter of 2003, using a Qualcomm chip that was announced last week.

Samsung Electronics, Vodafone and Nortel Networks has agreed to carry out a program to realize the first 3G UMTS trial test in Spain.

The Nordic IT and management consultant HiQ signs an agreement with the operator 3, former Hi3G. The agreement, which gives HiQ preferred supplier status, covers services like radio network and transmission design, telecoms strategy and specialist technical competence.

This will provide 2.5G and 3G module and terminal manufacturers with application-specific solutions. The partnership will speed up time-to-market for mobile multimedia devices and will allow reduced R&D investment

Fourth generation wireless will be rolled out by this time next year by forward-thinking wireless operators who are now working with 4G technology providers in an effort to leapfrog expensive and ineffective third generation wireless strategies.

South Korea's top mobile carrier SK Telecom said on Thursday it would launch a third-generation service based on W-CDMA technology

J-PHONE announced that as of December 1, 2002, customers using J-PHONE’s “Super Mail” (Movie Sha-mail-enabled) packet data service will be able to receive initial message notifications for free.

apan's mobile phone operators, NTT DoCoMo, Inc., KDDI Corporation, J-PHONE Co., Ltd. and TU-KA Cellular Tokyo, Inc., have agreed to conduct a joint study on the possible biological effects of exposure to radio waves from mobile phone systems.