ESPOO, Finland -- Nokia and Telecom Italia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for wider cooperation in the area of WCDMA 3G, followed by separate agreements on end-to-end performance optimization, WCDMA 3G terminal cooperation, and supply of a WCDMA radio access network in Italy.

"One of Nokia's top five priorities is to bring an end-to-end advantage to our operator customers," says Pertti Korhonen, Chief Technology Officer, Nokia. "We are honored by Telecom Italia's acknowledgement of our progress in that area. At the same time, we are grateful for the trust placed in our WCDMA terminal and network products."

The two companies are co-operating in order to optimize performance for end-user services that utilize WCDMA 3G. Nokia will provide services for end-to-end optimization, from terminals through service platforms, middleware, and across the telecommunications network. Nokia also joins the build out of the TIM Italy WCDMA 3G network with the deployment of a state-of-the-art WCDMA radio access network in five Italian regions.

Nokia began the network deployment during the summer and has met all agreed roll-out and quality targets for the first phase of the deployment.

In the area of WCDMA 3G terminals, TIM and Nokia have expanded their co-operation in terms of design and development requirement sharing, as well as the introduction of new WCDMA/EDGE terminals to the market. Nokia's capability to deliver and optimize a solution end-to-end, from terminals to networks, plus innovative end-user services and new technologies is unique.

TIM and Nokia have also recently successfully trialed High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) technology, a natural evolution of 3G that offers mobile broadband access to services

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK)