Nokia goes VoIP crazy

TALK ABOUT embracing Wi-Fi. Nokia spelt out in great detail how it plans to sell total VoIP solutions to everyone. Significantly, it hinted that it was quite happy to sell to the big ‘Internet brands' as well as to its existing mobile operator customers.

And just in case you'd missed this message, Nokia spelt it out by naming Google, Skype, Vonage, Yahoo, Gismo and Wi-Fi Zone as the top players in VoIP. Plus it is also collaborating heavily with Cisco and Avaya to push VoIP in the enterprise environment.

In its portfolio, Nokia already has nine devices that support both cellular and Wi-Fi, so to rub it in the company announced the 6136 Wi-Fi enabled phone today at 3GSM Barcelona. This is a black clamshell device which supports 3G and will cost 275 Euros (without subsidy) when it ships in Q2 2006.

The technology which will enable a cellular handset to seamlessly hand over a voice call onto a Wi-Fi connexion is, of course, UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access). This is an open standard, too.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was when Jorma Ollila, current Nokia CEO, answered a question about WiMax. He told assembled hacks that Nokia has been working closely with Intel on this. So expect dual WiMax and cellular handsets in the future.

Other Nokia announcements which got buried in the VoIP love-in session were the fact that Nokia is working closely to push Series 60 handsets with Vodafone. Somewhat puzzlingly, Sony Ericsson has agreed to work closely with Nokia to promote DVB-H as the technology for broadcast mobile TV.

More about mobile TV later because the Beast is expected to announce tomorrow that it has got together with BT and Virgin to launch Virgin Mobile TV. And, instead of using DVB-H, this service will utilise T-DMB (which is a TV version of DAB radio).

This is bad news for Nokia which insisted DVB-H was the only way forward in Barcelona last November. (see Nokia puts its shirt on DVB-H). µ