Motorola leadership on spectrum management policy provides optimism
in 2001
New product offerings, alliance announcements underscore
strong CTIA and CeBIT showings
Schaumburg, Illinois (ots-PRNewswire) -
With a string of innovative new products on display, significant business alliances in hand and the leadership of its CEO evident in the industry-wide debate on spectrum, Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) emerged from the recent 2001 Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) trade show in Las Vegas (March 20-22), and CeBIT, the world's largest annual telecommunications and information technology show, in Hanover, Germany (March 22-28), with renewed optimism for the remainder of the year.
"We expected a strong showing at CTIA and CeBIT," said Christopher B. Galvin, Motorola Chairman and CEO, "but the overwhelming response to our new products and technologies surpassed anything we anticipated. The market knows that advanced GPRS, J2ME and 1xEV-DV technologies are on the horizon and that Motorola holds the key to many of these exciting opportunities. We continue to make smart products that will help people lead better lives."
Galvin Issues Call to Action for Spectrum Management Reform
In a keynote appearance at CTIA, Galvin called for a fundamental reexamination of the process used to award access to the airwaves for new telecommunications services. Assuming a leadership role on one of the key areas of public policy affecting the wireless industry, Galvin challenged carriers, manufacturers, governments and others, to establish an urgent and on-going dialogue on how existing policies on the licensing of spectrum for 3G and other wireless services, could be revamped to spur growth, innovation, and the proliferation of new services at affordable prices to consumers.
The current system requires telecom carriers to invest billions of dollars up front to gain access to vital markets. Galvin said diverting substantial capital in this manner is detrimental to the overall U.S. economy and stalls critical investment in innovation and new technologies. "When you estimate what the equipment and system sales would be for 3G over the next three years, what's been paid so far represents what could be imagined as a 100 percent tax on all of the equipment, estimated by Wall Street analysts on how much might be sold."
Galvin noted that spectrum auctions were created with good intentions -- solving certain problems and giving transparency to the system, but that now, "the net impact has not been totally optimal for all constituencies. Therefore, we need to go back and re-determine how we go about writing those rules and effecting them."
In his remarks, Galvin reasserted what the industry has long argued -- that the U.S. government has not allocated enough spectrum. "We have the need for significantly greater amounts of spectrum because of the opportunities that are going to take place to bring more telecommunications services, tailored to people in many different ways: at home, in the car, on the person, and among work teams." Galvin also pushed for a spectrum management policy that would ensure it is allocated to the kinds of services that will benefit society as well as the industry.
"Anytime there is the opportunity to innovate when new technologies are created, rules and regulations need to be modified," Galvin said. "Government, the industry, and experts and associations need to come together and find a modified plan that accomplishes a variety of goals ... lower the amounts paid for spectrum long term, allow investment to be robust, and give governments a potential of collecting enormous amounts of revenue for themselves."
Galvin emphasised that this must be a collective undertaking and must not prejudge the outcome. However, he noted there have been a number of ideas put forward in the U.S. and Europe for seeing that the proceeds from auctions are reinvested into telecom services and increasing the availability of spectrum.
New Products
Recognised as an innovator in telecommunications, Motorola was first to market with GPRS handsets in 2000, and among its cadre of important technologies on display at both shows, none shone more brightly than the company's complete portfolio of GPRS wireless devices. Motorola is the only company currently shipping GPRS handsets to customers. GPRS technology enables a rapid and constant connection to the Internet, providing the capability for "always on" access. In addition, it offers more efficient and cost-effective Internet access because data transmission is sent via packets and carriers can charge according to data sent or retrieved versus the airtime incurred. The Motorola models on display included the Timeport(TM) 7389i (Timeport 260 in EMEA), Timeport 280 and V.series(TM) 66, the Talkabout (R) 192g, the Accompli(TM) 008, a combined PDA and cell phone device, and the Talkabout (R) 192G.
At CTIA 2001, Motorola introduced a new category of customisable mobile phones that will change the way people use wireless devices by combining wireless communications and computing power via Java(TM) 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME)(TM) technology. New customisation is made possible by the J2ME standard, which has evolved from Java and is designed to work on small, low-powered handheld devices such as wireless phones, pagers and personal digital assistants.
A key attribute to incorporating J2ME into a wireless device is that it enables consumers to upgrade the applications on a device continually once it has been purchased. Since J2ME is an industry standard, the same software and applications can work on a variety of different devices. Motorola provided two J2ME technology-enabled multiple-communication handsets and a variety of software applications at the show.
Motorola offered the world a glimpse of a first-of-its-kind 3G-network demonstration through an interactive racing video game. Motorola's 1xEV-DV solution enables real-time voice, data and multimedia services on existing cdma2000 networks, allowing end users to browse the Internet from a personal computer or access e-mail while mobile. Though the standard for 1xEV-DV technology has not been agreed upon by infrastructure vendors and wireless operators for CDMA technology, the 1xEV-DV demonstration is a historic first step in showing the commercial viability of further refinements to CDMA specifications that are expected to yield significant increases in data throughput.
Alliances
In another J2ME initiative, Motorola and Sprint PCS (NYSE: PCS) announced a collaboration to conduct lab trials. Sprint PCS is the first nation-wide North American CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) carrier to perform an in-house lab trial, which will enable both companies to begin testing the ability of customers to download applications on a wireless phone.
Additionally, Motorola, Domino's Pizza and Verizon Wireless announced that they are participating in one of the first market trials of mobile commerce. The trial will enable all three companies to assess consumer adoption and usage of "mobile commerce," also known as mobile shopping or m-commerce. M-commerce provides consumers with the ability to order goods and services quickly and easily via the Internet using a wireless device. The two-month "Pizzacast" trial is currently taking place in Las Vegas with consumers ordering pizzas using their wireless phones.
Also at CTIA, Motorola announced an agreement with MSN and Arch Wireless to provide consumers access to MSN's popular MSN Hotmail and MSN Messenger communications services, as well as content from MSN Mobile on Motorola's wireless two-way messaging device, the Talkabout(TM) model T900 personal interactive communicator.
CeBIT
At the world's largest information technology and telecommunications trade show, CeBIT, in Hanover, Germany, applications for work and play were also on display -- ranging from a wireless application for the mobile office, to a wireless version of the globally popular "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" game.
In partnership with Ericsson and Siemens Information and Communication Mobile (IC Mobile), Motorola announced plans to develop an industry initiative that will define a universal, mobile games platform, using existing and emerging standards. With this initiative, the three companies aim to help mobile operators offer a broad selection of games content and provide developers with a standardised platform. Mobile consumers will benefit through a rich, interactive, multiplayer games experience.
Motorola also drew considerable interest through its range of concept products, designed by Motorola's engineers to incorporate new and unique ways to communicate and access data and information. These concepts showed how Motorola is bringing the future to life today by building smart solutions for our everyday lives.
About Motorola
Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) is a global leader in providing integrated communications solutions and embedded electronics solutions. Sales in 2000 were $37.6 billion. More information can be found at Motorola's company Web site: http://www.motorola.com
Internet: http://www.motorola.com
Contact:
Jennifer Weyrauch of Motorola, Inc., tel. +1 847 435 5320, or
e-mail: Jennifer.weyrauch@motorola.com, Internet: www.motorola.com.