SK Telecom launches WCDMA automatic roaming services with England’s T-Mobile, Netherland and Sweden’s Vodafone, Denmark’s Hi3G in England, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark.

Automatic roaming services allow the user to take his/her mobile phone overseas for usage without changing handsets or being designated a separate number. WCDMA automatic roaming services even allow video calling (video calling not available in Denmark).

With four European countries added, WCDMA roaming services may be used in a total of 12 countries, including countries where previously available, such as Italy, France, Germany and Spain. SK Telecom has built a foundation for deployment of a WCDMA roaming belt in the European region, from Sweden in the North to Spain and Italy in the South.

SK Telecom revealed that it will continue to expand WCDMA automatic roaming services in the Europe region, in countries such as Portugal, Finland and Austria, and in Asia in countries such as Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines.

Lee Sung-Young, head of SK Telecom’s Global Roaming Division, remarked, “The availability of WCDMA roaming in the Western European region, where a great deal of foreign travel demand is concentrated, will contribute to the promotion of WCDMA.”

Globe Telecom, the leading telecommunications operator in the Philippines, and Nokia, the global leader in mobility, today announced that Globe is the first operator in the world to offer their customers a fully integrated mobile online sharing experience with the newest compatible Nokia Nseries multimedia computers.

Without the need to download or install any additional applications, Globe customers can now upload their photos and video clips directly from their compatible Nokia Nseries device to G-Blogs, Globe’s mobile blogging service. The first devices to support this feature are the Nokia N93 and Nokia N73 multimedia computers.

Moreover, Globe customers can also post entries to G-Blogs directly through Nokia Lifeblog. Nokia Lifeblog is a unique collection and storage solution for personal multimedia content, where, with the push of a button, content from a Nokia handset can conveniently be transferred to a compatible PC or to an online blog. Nokia Lifeblog is available in all Nokia Nseries devices and other Nokia devices such as the Nokia 3230, Nokia 7610, Nokia 6680, Nokia 6681, Nokia 6630 and Nokia 6260. More information on how to use Nokia Lifeblog with G-Blogs can be found at www.g-blogs.com.

“Online sharing is one of the hottest trends to hit the cyber scene,” said Mikko Pilkama, director, Multimedia, Nokia. “More and more people each day use blogging as a medium to share their thoughts and daily musings with the rest of the world, and we are thrilled that Globe has chosen Nokia’s integrated online sharing solution to make blogging as easy and convenient as possible for their customers.”

“G-Blogs is the service of choice for people who want to stay connected to and updated about their online communities,” quipped Rina Azcuna, head, Value-Added Services, Globe. “We are delighted to cooperate with Nokia in providing a mobile blogging experience like no other.”

Easy to Use

Nokia has enhanced the image Gallery on the device to enable photographers to share full size images that they have taken with their Nokia Nseries multimedia computers. This enhancement allows access to one or several online services, such as G-Blogs. The Nokia N72, Nokia N73 and Nokia N93 are the first Nokia devices to make use of this integration, which is found in the gallery and camera applications.

After the first High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) call in a live WCDMA network in the country, Philippines’ leading wireless service provider Smart Communications Inc. (SMART) launched their HSDPA network. The solution, provided by Nokia, allows Smart to operate its network more cost-efficiently and offer its customers data services at speeds of up to four times faster than current 3G speeds.

“Our aim is to revolutionize mobile communications by enabling our subscribers to access data-rich multimedia content and application right through their handset,” said Rolando PeГ±a, Network Services Division head at Smart Communications. “To accomplish this, our engineers are working round-the-clock to establish the widest 3G network in the country in the shortest possible time.”

To date, Smart has deployed more than 1,000 3G base station sites across the country. This allows more subscribers to enjoy Smart 3G services such as video calling, video streaming, high speed Internet browsing and downloading of data-rich content like full music tracks and video clips.

“Nokia is pleased to have met our rollout challenge with Smart. Deploying HSDPA is just a simple software upgrade to the Nokia supplied WCDMA network. It is for this reason why it was easy for us to make the first HSDPA call in the country which was just a month after 3G network was operational in February,” says Markku Nieminen, Account Director, Networks, Nokia.

In WCDMA 3G, Nokia has 59 customers to date. Nokia’s high-performing HSDPA is a simple software upgrade to Nokia WCDMA networks, thus enabling cost-effective and fast rollout. Nokia is a leader in the HSDPA market, with over 20 contracts globally. Many network operators have already opened their HSDPA networks with the Nokia HSDPA.

Nokia is supplying the HSDPA solution to Smart as part of the WCDMA 3G network contract announced in January 2006. Nokia has been the sole network supplier to Smart since 1998.