The end-to-end WCDMA call was made between Nokia laboratories in Oulu and Salo, Finland, by representatives of the Finnish operators Radiolinja and Sonera. It marks another 3G milestone for Nokia.
The 3G voice call demonstrates the compliancy of the commercial Nokia 3G network elements and the first version of a Nokia dual mode GSM/WCDMA terminal with the December 2000 version of the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Program) Release 99. It also validates the network elements necessary for volume deliveries and enables further development of functionality.
Although we have already demonstrated WCDMA calls and data transmission on experimental platforms as early as 1999, this is a crucial milestone in our commercial 3G platform end-to-end system capability development, said Dr J.T Bergqvist, senior vice president of Nokia Networks.
This opens the door to rapid progress in the coming months. Since all the network elements of our commercial 3G system have now been successfully connected, further development steps can be implemented and verified on real commercial equipment platforms. Further system development and testing activities will directly enhance our commercial infrastructure. We believe the first 3G networks will be launched for commercial use by a number of major operators during the second half of 2002, and this achievement paves the way for the timely ramp-up of 3G networks worldwide, he added, in a media release.
