December 18, 2001
Nokia has successfully upgraded its 3G WCDMA network to the commercial standard level known as 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Program) Release 99 June2001 version. This capability was shown by an end-to-end AMR voice call accomplished with commercial infrastructure, terminal and software release, all compatible to this commercial standard. The call set-up has been established in Nokia Networks' R&D laboratory in Finland.
"In August, when we successfully made the world's first-in-kind call with an earlier standard version, December 2000, we had reached a point in our development where network infrastructure was proven ready for volume deliveries," says Dr. J T Bergqvist, Senior Vice President, Nokia Networks. "Since then, we have delivered to our customers more than two dozen operational WCDMA networks and terminals with software compatible to that earlier standard version. The milestone of switching to the June 2001 version, which we in August anticipated would occur at the change of the year and which we have now achieved, makes it possible to upgrade the software releases of these networks to the commercial standard level," adds Bergqvist.
During Spring 2002, the Nokia commercial software release will be further enriched in features to enable network tuning and optimization and, in the second half of 2002, dual-mode WCDMA/GSM network launches in line with Nokia WCDMA/GSM terminal availability.
"3GPP has continued to fine-tune the Release 99 standard after publishing the June 2001 version," says Pertti Lukander, Director, Standards Strategy and Regulation of Nokia Networks. "However, most of the changes since then have been classified as only clarifications not affecting our development, and the few compulsory changes introduced will be promptly included in Nokia commercial software releases and remotely downloaded to customer networks. In practice this means that the June 2001 standard version validated today is fully applicable for commercial launches," Lukander confirms.
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