Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) and Huawei Technologies, Co., Ltd. (“Huawei”), a leader in providing next generation telecommunications network solutions for operators around the world, today announced a new collaboration to bring an enhanced and extensive portfolio of UMTS and HSPA infrastructure equipment to customers worldwide. By combining their expertise in UMTS, the companies will meet the needs of mobile operators today and in the future.

One of the keys to this UMTS venture is the creation of a joint research and development center in Shanghai, China, where employees from both companies will work on development of the architecture and portfolio of products and services.

This feature rich portfolio will offer mobile operators worldwide a compelling choice of UMTS solutions, including one of the broadest ranges of radio access, circuit and packet core products and high speed packet access (HSPA) over a wide range of new frequency bands. This relationship is expected to provide time-to-market advantages while enhancing the ability of both companies to rapidly evolve their UMTS portfolios for the global market.

Motorola will contribute to the collaboration its services expertise in network design, deployment and integration as well as providing value added services such as network performance, network security, network management and Operation Support Systems (OSS). Motorola’s services portfolio will provide operators with the tailored services offerings they need to address the markets they serve. To this collaboration, Huawei will also contribute its dramatically increasing expertise in technology innovation, research and development.

“Motorola is committed to being a global leader in next-generation networks and to supporting its customers with local in-country expertise. With this collaboration, we are better positioned to meet our customers’ 3G network infrastructure needs both today and in the future,” said Greg Brown, president, Networks & Enterprise, Motorola. “This agreement enhances our technological innovation while also creating cost savings for our business.”

“Due to its technology leadership, abundant experience in mobile and valuable relationships with customers around the world, Motorola is the perfect research and development partner for Huawei. Huawei and Motorola customers will benefit immediately from this collaboration with rapid availability of an innovative and extensive product portfolio, as well as our rich experience in mobile networks,” said Zhang Shunmao, president of Wireless Product Line of Huawei. “Today’s announcement will result in a highly competitive commercial product and extensive services portfolio, which will provide operators with immediate access and support for high quality, efficient UMTS and HSPA solutions for deployment worldwide, and help enhance their competitiveness in the market.”

The number of 3.5G mobile broadband subscribers worldwide will boom more than ten-fold from 2.5 million in 2006 to more than 300 million in 2011, but market growth in 2006-07 will be restrained by a lack of compelling devices, according to Future Mobile Broadband: HSPA, EV-DO, WiMAX & LTE, a new Strategic Report from Informa Telecoms & Media.

“A lack of compelling devices and content led to delayed launches and slow take-up of WCDMA and EV-DO services, and early HSDPA and EV-DO Revision A services are expected to suffer from the very same problems,” says Malik Saadi, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media and co-author of the Future Mobile Broadband Strategic Report.

Saadi notes that most HSDPA services are launching with only PC cards and notebooks, although a number of early handsets are also arriving. “However it is striking that as of June no major vendor has unveiled plans for EV-DO Rev. A handsets, although data cards are on the way.”

A lack of a wide range of compelling handsets will slow mass-market takeup of 3.5G mobile broadband services in 2006-07,but handsets will start to mature in 2008, leading to a sharp increase in 3.5G handset sales and subscribers in 2008-09. By 2011 85% of 3.5G devices sold will be handsets, and the remaining 15% will be notebooks and PC cards.

3.5G mobile broadband subscribers are defined as subscribersusing services based on HSDPA, HSUPA, EV-DO Revision A or EV-DO Revision B.

Mobile WiMAX will compete with HSPA and EV-DO Rev A/B in the mobile broadband market, but will suffer even more than those technologies from the slow arrival of compelling notebooks and handsets. “Mobile WiMAX will play a relatively minor role in the mobile broadband market through 2011, largely because Mobile WiMAX notebooks and tablets will not arrive in volume until 2008-09, and compelling Mobile WiMAX handsets won’t arrive until 2010,” says Mike Roberts, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media and co-author of the Future Mobile Broadband report. “By comparison HSDPA notebooks and handsets are already shipping, which means that the HSDPA device market is one to two years ahead of the Mobile WiMAX device market,” Roberts says.

However that should not obscure the fact that WiMAX will gain significant momentum in the fixed, nomadic and portable broadband segments in 2006-11, although many WiMAX subscribers will be using fixed indoor modems rather than mobile devices, Roberts adds.

Nokia’s HSDPA solution means STC can offer advanced mobile services to its customers

Nokia has won a radio and High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) network order from Saudi Telecommunication Company (STC), bolstering its recently-launched WCDMA 3G and HSDPA services in Saudi Arabia. With Nokia’s HSDPA solution, STC’s customers will be able to access new services such as fast Internet connection, video calls and music downloads.

“At STC, we are proud to offer 3G and HSDPA services to our customers. Nokia’s state-of-the-art solutions and invaluable support have enabled a smooth network and services rollout. We were delighted to see how easy the HSDPA upgrade was with Nokia’s solution,” says Dr. Zeyad Al Otaibi, President of ALJAWAL, STC.

“We’re pleased to extend our cooperation with STC. The Nokia HSPA solution for fast access provides STC with ample capacity to offer advanced services with minimal investment, low delivery costs and simple implementation,” says Dr. Walid Moneimne, Senior Vice President, Central Europe, Middle East and Africa region, Networks, Nokia.

Nokia supplies STC with radio network equipment, including its transmission solution, plus HSDPA software. The network continues to be supported by the Nokia NetAct(TM) network and service management system. Nokia is also providing STC with services including network planning, telecom implementation, project management, operations support, optimization, and care.

In WCDMA 3G, Nokia has 61 customers to date. Nokia’s high-performing HSDPA is a simple software upgrade to Nokia WCDMA networks, thus enabling a fast, cost-effective rollout. Nokia HSDPA offers almost 10-times faster data services than current 3G networks, meaning an enhanced service experience. Nokia is a leader in the HSDPA market, with a large number of HSDPA contracts. Many network operators have already opened their HSDPA networks with the Nokia solution.