BT experiments with mobile future

NEWS BT has teamed up with Nortel Networks and NEC to conduct research into how next-generation mobile technology will be used. Third-generation, or 3G, mobile licences will be sold off through a UK government auction this year. BT's director of Mobility, Sohail Qadri, said in the meantime the telco wants to "simulate as realistically as possible the way real customers will use third generation services as they become available& but more importantly also understand how content providers, wireless operators and customers will interact with each other as mobile multimedia services evolve". 3G will be based on wideband code division multiple access - a technology which NEC is already testing with Japan's NTT DoCoMo, the world's largest cellular operator. The next-generation technology will allow broadband transmission rates of up to 384Kbps - four times faster than standard rate ISDN. That raises the prospect of handheld Internet access and videophones - one of the applications Nortel will be trialling at BT's research labs in Martlesham, Suffolk.