Ericsson sees 3G phone sales in Japan in late 2001

date: 29 November 2000, source: www.stuff.co.nz

Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson has said it expects its third generation (3G) mobile phones to be sold in Japan in volume by Q3 of 2001.

"Ericsson will offer terminals in Japan when 3G rolls out during autumn of 2001," Program Manager for Strategic New Business Anna Hultman told a news briefing.

Japan is an important market for next generation telephony because of the huge popularity of its I-mode standard, a more sophisticated version of the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) used in Europe.

Ericsson, the world's biggest producer of networks that enable mobile phones to communicate with each other, will start installing a 3G network in Japan in May next year, Hultman said.

With data transmission speeds much higher than over fixed lines now, third generation mobile telephony (3G) will enable mobile phone users to stay permanently connected to the Internet and see live video and advanced graphics on handsets.

Ericsson is also the world's third biggest mobile handset maker after Nokia and Motorola, although unlike its rivals, the handset business is making a large loss and is not expected to return to profit until 2002.

Europe will have to wait until the beginning of 2002 for third generation handsets from Ericsson but when they come out, they will also work with the current popular second generation telephony GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), Hultman said.

Ericsson expects that in 2003 more people will surf the Internet with their mobile phones than through fixed line connections, and that by 2005 there will be one billion mobile Internet users.

top