CANNES, France-L.M. Ericsson flexed its muscles within and outside the 3GSM Congress with a series of announcements from interoperability testing to deals with carriers and content providers as well as a former semiconductor partner.
The Swedish vendor signed a contract to supply UMTS gear to Orange France and both companies expect the mobile services to roll out later this year. Ericsson said it is showcasing its UMTS system and terminal interoperability with handsets from leading vendors.
The company also agreed to collaborate with Sony Music Germany on a new digital music service, M-USE, to deliver music-related content to consumers. The service, which will begin in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, enables consumers to send and receive music clips together with messages that incorporate information about music, the artist and associated artwork in MMS format, according to the companies.
Ericsson also raised its stake in positioning with a deal with Bouygues Telecom to supply and integrate mobile positioning system platform for the consumer market.
“The Ericsson MPS solution, compatible with all handsets on the market and all SIM cards, represents for Bouygues Telecom a further asset in the development of value-added services, while i-mode is a major success since its commercial launch,” said Frederic Zimer, deputy director general, Bouygues Telecom.
On its relationship with Infineon Technologies Inc., the company said it will return much of the proceeds it received from the disposal of its microelectronics unit. The deal involves $322 million dollars, but the company will not confirm if it would pay up to $139 million in adjustments.
“We are in talks and want to settle it as partners,” said Infineon spokesman Guenter Gaugler
