Nokia Snatching the UMTS Deal

As UMTS has pushed the limits for technological developments in the mobile telecom sector it has also brought a healthy competition for the big mobile players to capture this new market. Although fixed-line Internet services are already familiar, introducing them to mobile consumers creates new opportunities for businesses and application developers. Nokia is all geared up to face this challenge .Realizing the market potential in UMTS based services Nokia has planned in time and has already signed more than 32 public deals with leading mobile operators worldwide before 2002 claiming up to 30% of 3G market share. The long list of accomplishments include,

• More than 32 public deals with mobile operators’ world wide.
• 26 roll outs in 14 countries.
• 42 trials in 42 countries.

In addition to these agreements has also announced frame agreements with Orange/France Telecom, T-Mobile International, and Telia Nordic.

Nokia Partners

Nokia partners include; Hutchison 3G Austria, BT Cellnet, Digifone, E-Plus Mobilfunk, Proximus Belgacom Mobile, 3G frastructure Services, Hong Kong CSL, Europolitan Vodafone, Omnitel Vodafone, VIAG Interkom, Radiolinja, Orange, OrangeFrance (Itineris), MobilCom, Hutchison 3G, Cable & Wireless Optus, Telia Mobile, One, NetCom, Cegetel, Telenor, One-2-One, T-Mobil, Sonera, AT&T Wireless, Mobile One, WIND, J-Phone, StarHub, Viag EuroPlattform AG, Suomen 2G and 3G.

New Deals

Mobile operator M1 of Singapore has awarded Nokia a contract to supply equipment and services for the second phase of its WCDMA 3G network rollout. In addition, the deal includes GSM/GPRS equipment to enhance GSM coverage and GPRS capacity.

Nokia has signed an agreement with leading Indonesian operator Telkomsel to expand its packet core network in Indonesia. With this deal Telkomsel will be able to address the strong demand for mobile voice and data services from its rapidly increasing subscriber base, which currently stands at more than 17.5 million

Market Trend

The start of 2004 has seen a sudden increase in the mobile hand set sales but Nokia has failed to capitalize this trend and instead suffered a decrease in its expected profits. Several other companies have cut into Nokia’s market share and showed some profits. But Nokia is not threatened by this development and is sure to stage a recovery.

Analysis of this situation reveals that the reluctance of Nokia to produce low priced camera hand sets is solely responsible for the trend. According to a survey the consumer choice of a mobile phone is based on three factors brand name, handset performance and network performance and less on the price of the hand ser or service charges of a network operator. So, despite the fact that Nokia handsets are expensive than the rest still its market economics are not in danger. Further more Nokia has announced the most waited lowering of prices for most of handsets and on some handsets up to as much as 25%.But some analysts have dubbed these measures as short term and stressed the need for more bold and effective measures.

Nokia UMTS Phones

Nokia has planned in time to introduce devices which are compatible to both 2G and 3G setups enabling the network operators to make the 3G switch over smooth and with a significant drop in costs. Keeping this in mind AT&T Wireless and Nokia have announced the immediate availability of the Nokia 6651 UMTS imaging phone (GSM/GPRS/UMTS 1900MHz) which is targeted for the American market. Other such devices function of both GSM and UMTS standards include the handsets like Nokia N90 GSM/UMTS Smart Phone, Nokia 6280 (UMTS/EDGE) and many more.

Conclusion

Nokia is the major player in the mobile phone industry, over the time it has contributed greatly in revolutionizing the way we see the mobile .Nokia has not shied away from its responsibilities in making way for the technological development on the road towards 3G.It has welcomed UMTS with great enthusiasm and solved many hardware based problems hindering the realization of UMTS dream. With easy to use and power packed with advanced features Nokia is welcome every where .By producing a large arsenal of UMTS based handsets Nokia has made its intensions clear that it is still ruling the mobile market and would continue to do so despite the recent setbacks.