NEW YORK-Bosch Telecom Inc., Dallas, unveiled the World 718 phone, calling it the first phone that can operate worldwide on Global System for Mobile communications 1900 and 900 networks.
Audiovox Communications Corp., Hauppauge, N.Y., will distribute the new phones in the United States and Canada. Audiovox also will provide value-added services, including fulfillment, training, after-market product support and warranty and repair services.
The phones will be branded with Bosch’s name and, in some instances, co-branded with the name of the carrier, said Louis Antoniou, vice president of PCS wireless technologies for Audiovox. Promotional literature about Audiovox will be included on or in the packaging, he said.
“Having a world-capable phone is not just a boon for GSM carriers and customers in North America,” said George Schmitt, president of Omnipoint Communications Services Inc., Cedar Knolls, N.J. “GSM users around the world have been waiting for a simple way to roam here as well. For example, 22 million Europeans travel to the United States every year.”
The North American GSM Alliance L.L.C. applauded the introduction of the “world smart phone service” as representative of a “breakthrough in international wireless communications.” Although other North American GSM carriers are evaluating the new phone, Omnipoint is the first to sign up to sell the World 718 to its customers.
Schmitt said Omnipoint will set the retail unit priced at just under $300 to all its dealers. That amount will be a straightforward cost-recovery figure, without profit or loss built in, he said.
“If Audiovox wants to deal directly with our retailers, they can. We would be delighted to get out of the handset business,” he said.
Schmitt said he would be “disappointed” if at least 2 percent of the 100 million GSM customers expected worldwide by year-end didn’t buy a Bosch World 718 phone.
The handset already is being shipped in the United States and elsewhere, Audiovox and Bosch executives said. The North American allotment for 1998 is about 200,000 units, said Joe J. Pitman, director of sales for Bosch’s U.S. Cellular Business.
All handsets are produced in Bosch’s domicile country of Denmark. By September, Bosch expects to have in operation a higher-capacity, replacement manufacturing facility there capable of producing 2 million handsets yearly, said Michael Gaertner, senior vice president of Bosch Telecom. The company also expects to break ground for an additional manufacturing plant soon, he said.
The new dual-band phone uses Bosch’s “enhanced full rate” voice-coder technology, which the company said enables more accurate speech reproduction for better call quality.
The handset employs just three keys for easy access to all functions, and it automatically locates, locks onto and identifies the local carrier for roaming customers. Depending on the type of battery used, the Bosch World 718 offers talk times ranging from 2 hours and 15 minutes to 9 hours and 35 minutes, with standby times of 51 to 220 hours.
