Nokia to produce own 3G dongles

 

Gallery

By Barry Collins and Reuters

Posted on 12 Dec 2008 at 11:13

Nokia plans to tap the surging mobile broadband market by manufacturing its own 3G dongles.

Nokia will ship its first internet stick in early 2009, aiming to benefit from its know-how and experience in developing 3G technologies, according to Tapio Markki, vice president for hardware platform components at Nokia.

"Leveraging these capabilities, we believe we are well-positioned to become one of the winning providers for HSPA modem solutions," Markki says. "The market for HSPA modems is expected to grow very rapidly during the coming years."

The vast majority of USB mobile broadband dongles supplied by the UK phone networks are manufactured by just one company - Huawei - with O2 and Vodafone also offering models from Ovation.

Nokia declined to comment on the price of the device, saying it would be sold mostly through operators and bundled with services.

Strategy Analytics said it expects the global market for mobile broadband dongles - external USB modems and PC cards - to grow to 26 million units next year from 20 million this year.

"In particular European operators, such as Vodafone, are aggressively promoting and subsidising dongles right now, because they are seen as a secondary device that provides additional revenues for carriers beyond a traditional handset," says Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics.

Nokia tried to enter into the business of connecting laptops to wireless networks in late 2006 when it said it had developed an embedded 3G module for laptops, that Intel agreed to sell as part of its next-generation Centrino Duo mobile technology platform.

But in early 2007, Nokia and Intel made a joint decision to cease co-operation on the connectivity module.