Nokia presents new handset for GSM and WLAN use

New mid-range models to accompany it in the spring

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Later in the spring, Nokia is to launch a new mobile handset, the Nokia 6136, that will bridge two of the most common wireless standards, GSM and WLAN. This will allow the user to switch seamlessly between GSM cellular and WLAN networks, whether for voice communication or data.
      For consumers at home or in the office, this will permit voice calls over the Net using WLAN access. The phone incorporates for the first time UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) technology to oversee the handover between the two networks.
      Speaking at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, the Nokia Chairman and CEO Jorma Ollila explained that the user could, for instance, call on a mobile from home via a WLAN connection to a friend in an Internet café, and the call would be made entirely via the Net.
     
Outside WLAN reception areas, the phone would automatically search for and make use of the conventional mobile networks.
      The 6136 phone also features an mp3 player and a 1.3 megapixel digital camera with a 8x digital zoom.
     
Nokia stole a march on their competitors, in particular the Korean manufacturer Samsung, with the announcement.
      It is believed that operators - who were previously concerned lest phone-users would switch over to the "free" Internet - are now eager to take up the opportunities that the new dual-use phone might offer.
      The belief is that operators would put together competitively-priced GSM/WLAN packages to ward off the perceived threat of Internet-phone operators such as Skype. Skype is a proprietary peer-to-peer Internet telephony (VoIP) network that allows users at their computers to speak to other Skype subscribers for free, to call "traditional" numbers for a fee, receive calls from such phones for a fee, and to receive voicemail messages for a fee.
      As Ollila jokingly pointed out, it is probably easier to keep a mobile phone to one's ear than a laptop computer.
     
Nokia also released details of two other new mid-range models in Barcelona. These are the tri-band 6070, with stereo FM radio, and a new clamshell model, the 6131. The 6070 is anticipated in 2Q/2006, and will retail at around EUR 135.
      The 6136, which also has a 1.3 megapixel camera on board, is expected at around the same time and will cost in the region of EUR 275.


Links:
  Nokia Press Release: New Mid-Range Phones
  Nokia Press Release: GSM and WLAN come together (6136)
  3GSM World Congress, Barcelona

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