First 3G phones on the way

All will be revealed next week...

NTT DoCoMo will be the first telco to produce 3G mobile phones, to be unveiled next week. The long awaited devices will take the form of three models: a folding camera-equipped phone that offers video conferencing, a regular style phone that features i-mode internet access and a data card designed so notebook computers can link into the net. The DoCoMo name for the 3G service is FOMA (Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access). The FOMA P2101V is a Panasonic video mobile phone made by Matsushita Communication Industrial and is expected to retail at $501. It features a colour screen, i-mode, TV conference calling, email and short messaging. With continuous use the battery life on the P2101V is 100 minutes for voice or 70 minutes for video, with a standby battery life of 55 minutes. It's packet transmission rate stands at 384 kilobytes per second downstream and 64 kbps upstream. The circuit switched data transfer rate is 64kbps. The FOMA N2001 is the NEC Corp standard model phone with dual i-mode access for simultaneous net browsing and i-mode access. It will retail at $344 (40,000 yen) and has a battery life of 90 minutes for voice plus a standard battery life of 55 minutes. Finally, the FOMA P2401 is a data type mobile terminal that fits into a PC Card Standard Type II slot, made by Matsushita Communication. It is expected to retail at $250 (30,000 yen). It is compatible with Windows 98, ME and 2000 Professional, according to Reuters.