NEC, Samsung show 3G terminals

NEC, Samsung show 3G terminals
GENEVA — NEC Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. are showing prototype third-generation (3G) cellular communications terminals at Telecom 99 in the form of mobile phones with additional video capabilities.

NEC has developed a two-part prototype wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA) mobile videophone. The mobile handset is similar in size and weight to 2G mobile phones, weighing 130 g and occupying 120 cc.

The unit's video viewer is a separate unit that comprises a charge coupled device camera, a microphone and a 2-inch diagonal color LCD screen that can show streaming video or host videophone conversations. The two units communicate using the Bluetooth short distance radio standard.

Yoshiaki Ohta, manager of engineering multimedia communications in the development department of NEC's mobile communications division, said that the each unit was based on an NEC V850 CPU and a DSP core developed by the company. NEC's 3G prototype includes support for MPEG-4 video, audio-compression technology and H.263 version 2 for video compression.

Samsung demonstrated live wireless videoconferencing here using a single unit CDMA2000 mobile phone with a small color LCD panel and built-in camera.

Kyong Joon Chan, executive vice president of the telecommunication R&D center of the information and communication business unit of Samsung Electronics, said the mobile phone was powered by a Samsung-developed baseband chip, the SCOM4000, which integrates an ARM7 core and an Oak DSP core and which meets the cdma2000 1X standard.

Samsung is to participate in 3G trials with cdma2000 equipment in the second quarter of 2000 in South Korea and with U.S. operator Sprint in the United States.

Ericsson, which did not have physical prototype 3G terminals at Telecom 99, was using the W-CDMA air interface operating in the 2-GHz spectrum to make video calls between virtual handsets modeled on computer terminals.