GSM Alliance Members, Nortel Demonstrate 3G Wireless Services

What is the market for third-generation (3G) wireless services? What will consumers want, and how much will they be willing to spend? Can wireless operators build successful business cases around these new services?

Nortel Networks, Microcell, and other members of the GSM Alliance will try and answer these questions by deploying an experimental wideband CDMA (W-CDMA) network in Montreal, Canada.

Microcell, a Canadian PCS operator, will host the trial beginning early next year. Participants in this trial will be able to test a variety of advanced services, such as high-bandwidth Internet access, data, video, image, and multimedia, using personal phones, wireless modems, digital cameras, and other consumer devices from Panasonic. A backbone network from Nortel will deliver these applications and services at speeds up to 384 kb/s.