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Nokia suffers standards body rejection

Threat of further delays for GPRS handsets...
Written by Ben King, Contributor

Threat of further delays for GPRS handsets...

Nokia's GPRS service faces a further delay as the industry's standards body says no to its requests to have the standards of the service changed. The mobile manufacturer asked for a new technology to be incorporated into the specifications for the high-speed GPRS service and was turned down. The news threatens further delay of the release of Nokia's GPRS handset. Rivals Ericsson and Motorola have already released theirs. An article in the September issue of the industry newsletter Nonvoice News claims: "Nokia's problems with the 3GPP [standards body] could lead to even greater delays in the launch of their long-awaited GPRS handsets, which will surely cost them dearly in terms of market share." The company issued a hasty statement last week insisting that their GPRS handsets were still on schedule. It claims: "The first units of the [GPRS-enabled] Nokia 8310 will become available in September, while the Nokia 6310 will start selling in the fourth quarter, and the Nokia 8390 at the end of 2001." Nokia needs to make standards-compliant handsets that operate with equipment from other vendors. Other handset makers have had their contracts cancelled because their equipment wasn't standards-compliant, according to Nonvoice News. However, the company needed the controversial software, called PBCCH, to help its handsets interoperate with its own network equipment.
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