WOW!
Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia, Toshiba forge communications alliance
(Agence France-Presse; 05/20/98)
LONDON, May 20 (AFP) - Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia and Toshiba
electronics
groups on Wednesday unveiled an alliance to develop a new range of
high-tech
mobile communications equipment.
The system, dubbed "Bluetooth", transmits data and voice signals via a
shortwave radio device -- smaller than a postage stamp -- between mobile
phones, laptop computers, cameras and electronic notepads.
A user walking to work with his or her laptop in a briefcase will, for
example, be alerted on a mobile telephone if any urgent electronic mail
messages are sent. These messages can be accesssed over the phone.
Or a user can take a photograph and transmit the image directly via a
mobile
phone, no cable connection being necessary, to personal computers at a
friend's
house or office.
President of Ericsson Mobile Communications, Johan Siberg, told
journalists
that the technology would facilitate picture, voice and data communication
"any
place any time".
He said that the first "Bluetooth" products would be available on the
market
in the second half of 1999.
Each of the five members of the consortium will maarket their own goods,
which will be fully compatible over the short-range radio network.
The competitors agreed to work together to "come out with something
that can
be a common approach and a common standard," Siberg said.
While the micro-chip technology to transmit data between outlets will be
shared, the five companies will still have room to develop their own
"competitive" specifications, Siberg said.
Prices were not given, but the consortium said that the "Bluetooth"
connection technology would cost consumers about 10 dollars per set.
Mobile phones that do not have the circuitboard inbuilt will have a
small
attachment under the handset.
The five telecommunications and computer firms hope that the new
technology
will "significantly" boost the use of mobile phones around the world.
"Bluetooth" circuitboards would be able to transmit one million digital
signals a second, the companies said.
pip/sms/hd
(Copyright 1998)
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