Things appear to be moving for the development of third generation (3G) mobile data networks. Nokia has just announced its 6650 3G phone, and mobile operators are beginning to talk about their UMTS infrastructure in terms that indicate they are almost ready for launch.
Nokia said its 6650 is the first handset to be approved for operation on both UMTS and GSM networks, with automatic handover between the two. The automatic handover is essential for 3G because it will take several years for 3G coverage to equal that of current GSM services.
Users should not notice much difference in service except that a handover to GSM will result in a reduction of data throughput until the call is transferred back to another 3G base station.
Early UMTS services will offer packet-mode data rates up to about 128kbit/s, but rates up to 384kbit/s will follow soon afterwards as coverage improves. The 6650 should be able to cope with these higher data speeds when they become available, according to Nokia.
The 6650 has similarities to the 2110, which Nokia launched many years ago, in that both devices offer a wide range of features.
The 2110 was very feature-rich for its day and allowed network operators and users to experiment with novel features before they became mainstream. Likewise, the 6650 has a very broad range of features, including support for Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and video clips, as well as Bluetooth wireless and infrared connectivity. It should prove a very useful tool, even at this stage of the game. Nokia is shipping test models to operators now and says it will ship models to users in the first half of 2003.
The 6650 implements the H.263 codec to handle video clips. H.263 is very processor-hungry but should prove useful in the 6650, combined with enough memory to store and play clips of up to 20 seconds.
This will allow experiments with many types of video and will increase confidence in the performance of future video phones when the networks evolve to support higher bit rates.
Videophones work best with a constant bit-rate but 3G networks are only likely to offer 57.6kbit/s initially. As those bit rates increase, mobiles and networks will move to the new H.264 codec, which offers twice the performance of H.263. This should result in the same picture quality being achieved at half the bit rate.
The Java programming language is becoming popular as a way of customising mobiles. The 6650 supports the Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) variant of Java. So far, games seem to be the main use but there is considerable scope for business applications. Many other current mobiles have similar capabilities and it is likely that Java will soon become the preferred programming mechanism.
The launch of the 6650 creates an early opportunity to create business applications and test them in both GSM and UMTS environments. Software development kits are already available for developers from the Nokia Web site below.
Even though Nokia is promoting the 6650 as a consumer device, it will be very useful for businesses, at least as a testbed for advanced mobile applications.
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