Motorola lands major 3G deal

Motorola has landed a contract worth around £500m ($700m) to supply GPRS and third-generation (3G) handsets for Hutchinson Telecom's 'key' markets, initially until the end of 2003.

Motorola expects to begin delivering handsets for sale in the UK, Italy, Sweden, Austria and other markets by the autumn of next year.

The company said the devices will support multimedia capabilities - the applications that provide the forerunner for 3G - and will eventually offer services such as live news broadcasts, music on demand, multimedia messaging, games, location searches and mobile ecommerce.

Canning Fok, group managing director at Hutchinson, commented: "This agreement ensures we will have customised devices to launch 3G services in 2002 in all our markets, as planned. Once there are mass volumes of devices in the market, 3G will become a reality."

Separately, City institutions have expressed fears that Vodafone chief executive Chris Gent is being too well rewarded and has become too high profile.

Gent, who last week received eight million share options, is in danger of being seen as the company, not its chief, according to a report in The Guardian, which investors believe is dangerous for Vodafone's long-term viability as it suggests a lack of management depth at the firm.

Last year, Gent was much fêted for his success in merging Vodafone with Germany's Mannesmann, but shares in Vodafone are now less than half the price of 12 months ago.

This comes despite the company installing a team of regional chief executives earlier this year to act as an extra layer of management below Gent.

See also:

Hutchison admits problems over 3G launch

Dropped calls and trouble with handset testing  30 Jul 2002

Motorola woes worsen, job losses hit 32,000

Cuts blamed on slow growth in the wireless market  07 Sep 2001

Motorola makes historic breakthrough

New chip will run 40 times faster  04 Sep 2001

Motorola axes another 4000 jobs

Motorola bumps up axed job numbers to 30,000 by the end of 2001.  13 Jul 2001

3G: Beyond the hype

The third-generation (3G) licence frenzy has left mobile operators with empty pockets and a head full of hype, wondering whether they can find a killer app to justify the billions spent on the licences.  01 May 2001

3G - seeing through the hype

Not so long ago third-generation (3G) was touted as the mobile technology to end all others. The hype machine from the mobile phone companies went into overdrive, all of which cited that 3G networks were going to deliver blockbuster movies to our videophones, tell us where the nearest curry house was and turn the modest mobile into a multimedia marvel.  17 Apr 2001

News Wrap: AMD, Intel, Hutchinson 3G, IBM, Broadvision

AMD releases 900Mhz Duron; Hutchinson UK raises £3.6bn to pay for 3G services; IBM merges laptop and desktop units to form Personal Computing Devices; Intel makes first chips on 300mm wafers; Broadvison cuts 15 per cent of staff.  03 Apr 2001

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