NTT DoCoMo and Nokia are to jointly develop an open mobile
architecture for wideband code-division multiple access (W-CDMA) 3G
services.
The agreement is part of an open mobile architecture initiative
unveiled at the Comdex trade show earlier this week by Nokia
chairman and chief executive Jorma Ollila. A total of 20 companies,
including Vodafone, Motorola and NEC, have so far joined the
initiative.
DoCoMo and Nokia aim to standardise, promote and accelerate
W-CDMA-based 3G services across the world. "For Nokia, Comdex was
all about the global open mobile architecture," Ollila said.
The companies said they would work on browsing, messaging and the
application execution environment.
For browsing, they will jointly develop a platform based on the WAP
2.0 global standard, and adopt the XHTML/CSS description language.
The companies plan to complete the architecture by the end of this
year, said Keiji Tachikawa, DoCoMo's president and chief
executive.
Multimedia messaging service (MMS), which DoCoMo and Nokia hope to
develop by 2003, would allow users with any mobile device to
download multimedia content, and send and receive e-mail
messages.
The two companies will also develop Java technology to offer an
execution environment where more user-friendly applications can be
created. This should be completed by next year.
"We have reached an agreement on [browsing, messaging and the
application execution environment], but there are still others,
such as security, downloading, authentication and billing, that
need to be worked on," said Tachikawa, who added that this is "not
an exclusive co-operation; other developers are welcome to
join".
DoCoMo, which provides the world's first 3G service, said the
initiative shows that it intends to work with other companies on 3G
services. "We believe that using the same architecture will spread
and promote 3G services globally," said Tachikawa.
Nokia said it hopes to roll out its 3G handsets for DoCoMo's FOMA
3G service in the third quarter of next year.
Further information
Nokia:
www.nokia.com
NTT DoCoMo:
www.nttdocomo.co.jp