PARIS-France Telecom Mobiles and Nortel Networks announced France’s first trial of a third-generation mobile communications network based on proposed standards for Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service.
“By staging this trial in France, France Telecom Mobiles will gain expertise on the 3G air interface and perform some early testing of next-generation applications using actual terminals,” said Pierre Delmond, director, strategy and planning, France Telecom Mobiles.
Nortel Networks and Panasonic will provide the radio equipment, core data network and terminals for the trial. A high-speed Internet-protocol data backbone-featuring Nortel Network’s Multiservice Passport platform-will connect the trial equipment to a France Telecom intranet, allowing concurring multimedia data session at speeds up to 384 kilobits per second, said the companies.
