MUNICH -- Austria's mobile phone users are now able to utilize the new UMTS services from two mobile operators: Austrian mobile operator mobilkom austria is offering UMTS mobiles - Type Siemens U10 - for sale to consumers at its shops and Hutchison 3G Austria, a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., is now providing video telephony on a commercial basis as Austria's only mobile multi-media supplier. Siemens is a part of these two commercial starts of the new generation of mobile communication: With the U10 UMTS mobile phones in shops on the one hand, and Siemens' UMTS infrastructure forming the basis for the multimedia services from Hutchison 3G Austria on the other hand. In partnership with NEC, Siemens had previously installed Hutchison's UMTS networks in Great Britain and Italy, which have also already gone live.
mobilkom austria is offering the Siemens U10 UMTS mobile phone at a price of EUR 799.00 in selected A1 Shops in Austria. Through the early availability of the U10, Siemens is supporting the market leader among Austrian mobile operators in launching its commercial UMTS network in Austria.
With its 95 participating partners, mobilkom austria is assuring a comprehensive information offering: With the U10, it's possible to utilize multimedia video services like the ORF Newsflash service, brief broadcasts from the world of sports, as well as live video feeds from traffic cameras. The integrated camera in the U10 allows users to take videos and photos and send them to other devices.
Siemens is supplying the underlying network infrastructure in Austria for UMTS operator Hutchison 3G Austria: In April 2002, Siemens and Hutchison 3G Austria signed a framework agreement for supplying a core UMTS network. After only twelve months, the network was ready to go live: Since early May 2003, Hutchison 3G Austria has been offering its multimedia services to consumers. The network presently provides coverage for five Austrian state capitals, and UMTS will be available throughout at least 25 percent of the country by year-end 2003.
With transfer speeds of up to 384 kilobits per second, UMTS enables transmission of video phone calls and multimedia news services, like 3News, 3Sport or 3Geo, a location based navigation system. As a systems integrator, Siemens is supporting mobile operator Hutchison 3G Austria in quickly and flexibly integrating further new applications into its own mobile network in order to be able to swiftly bring them to market.
Siemens AG