Nokia E 61 Hits Business Handsets Market

Nokia, the world's largest handset maker, announced today that it has started delivering its E61 business phone, the challenger of RIM's BlackBerry device, informs Reuters. "First deliveries started late last week.

It's gradually becoming available across the globe," said Pekka Isosomppi, spokesman for Nokia's Enterprise division. Nokia E61 includes the same advanced business call features and IP-based telephony functions as the

Nokia E60 and Nokia E70, it has a 16 million colors LCD display with 320 x 240 pixel resolution, a full attachment reader (documents, spreadsheets, presentations, PDF viewer and ZIP manager) and an editing function (document, spreadsheet and presentation).

In addition, a four-way joystick and the full QWERTY keyboard make the mobile e-mail easier, enabling users to send and receive e-mails while talking on the phone.

"The E70 model, with a 2 megapixel camera, is expected to start shipping later in May", Isosomppi added. The first E-series phone, the E60, went on sale in April.

Several software related issues delayed shipping of the three E-series phones, having a business target, and the prestigious three multimedia N-series handsets.

Nokia Receives Three Prestigious Awards

Nokia overcame the competition at this year's Mobile News Awards, which took place in London, winning three awards for Manufacturer of the Year, Most Innovative Product and Most Technologically Advanced Product. The Manufacturer of the Year title was awarded to Nokia as a result of the bold moves made in 2005.

These include the launch of the Nokia Nseries sub-brand, the exploration of new territories through music and youth platforms, the re-claiming of its design leadership and the creation of new field sales force. Nokia N91 brought Nokia the award for Most Innovative Product. The device was considered to be a true mobile experience and is the flagship music device from Nokia's Nseries in terms of high performance multimedia. The N91 model is the first 3G phone to include a 4 GB hard disk - this being the largest storage capacity met on a handset - allowing users to store up to 3 000 songs and enjoy 12.5 hours of good sound quality. The Most Technologically Advanced Product award was given to Nokia for the N92 model.



The phone is the first integrated DVB-H mobile in the world and represents a big step forward for mobile and television industries. The DVB-H service which is to be launched globally in 2006 will allow people to watch live TV on the move. Mats Wolontis, Managing Director of Nokia UK, declared: "Everyone at Nokia worked very hard in 2005 to cement our position as the number one manufacturer and to produce cutting edge devices such as the Nokia N91 and Nokia N92. It's great to receive recognition for this hard work - especially when it originates from our colleagues in the mobile industry."

Nokia Wins GSM Expansion Deal with Sichuan Unicom in China

Nokia, a leading mobile networks supplier, announced that it has won a GSM network expansion deal with Sichuan Unicom, a subsidiary of China Unicom. The agreement is Nokia's first with Sichuan Unicom and marks a significant milestone for Nokia in entering the GSM market in Sichuan and West China. The deal also highlights Nokia's leading position in mobile softswitch systems deployment in the China area.

Under the agreement, Nokia will deploy its GSM radio and core networks, including the Nokia MSC Server mobile softswitch, in 4 cities in the Sichuan Province. Nokia also provides an extensive range of services, including network planning, optimization and rollout services.

Deliveries have started and the network expansion will be fully operational by August 2006. The agreement is another significant milestone for Nokia in Sichuan following the Chengdu R&D Center expansion, announced in April 2006. "We are extremely delighted with our progress in the GSM business and deepening cooperation with mobile operators in China," said Yuan Wei, Vice President, China Area, Networks, Nokia.

"The mobile market and the number of subscribers in China are growing fast and steadily. With our global experience and strong end-to-end localization commitment, we support mobile operators in bringing state-of-the-art mobile services to their customers." In addition to this breakthrough agreement, Nokia further points to its leadership in mobile softswitch deployment in China.

To date, the Nokia MSC Server System capacity of more than 20 million lines has been put into operation in the Chinese market. The 3GPP compliant Nokia MSC Server System is a cost-optimizing solution within Nokia core networks. It can reduce core networks operating expenditure by 30-70% and provides operators with higher capacity,

better transmission utilization, and an ability to offer their subscribers a smooth migration path to 3G and All-IP in the future. The Nokia MSC Server mobile softswitch is a circuit core network architecture fully compatible with GSM/EDGE and WCDMA 3G.

Nokia leads the global mobile softswitch market with over 90 customers for the Nokia MSC Server System, almost 40 of which are already in commercial use. Nokia is one of the first GSM/WCDMA mobile suppliers in the China area, where mobile subscribers are served by the capacity of more than 100 million lines, provided by Nokia's Mobile Switching Center (MSCi) and MSC Server mobile softswitch.