Nokia gets aggressive on Wi-Fi

Nokia has said that all its enterprise handsets will be wireless Lan equipped

Nokia has confirmed that it will no longer release business phones without Wi-Fi capability.

All handsets using the Series 80 operating system, and a growing number of Series 60 phones, will have wireless Lan capability built in as Nokia moves beyond concentrating solely on cellular GSM or CDMA technology.

"We have the most aggressive wireless Lan roadmap of any manufacturer," said Jarkko Sairanen, vice president for strategy and planning at Nokia Technology Platforms.

"All enterprise devices will be wireless Lan equipped on both Series 60 and Series 80 handsets."

Sairanen explained that the high data speeds offered by Wi-Fi are crucial to business users, who also need the flexibility to use cellular networks for voice calls.

The low cost of Wi-Fi, and the growing installed base of wireless networks in offices, will also drive future demand.

Nokia is also looking to integrate WiMax technology into mobile phones, but is less sure of the timescale.

The company anticipates large-scale WiMax deployments by 2008, but widespread use may take longer since networks will have to be upgraded to deal with the signal.

Cellular data speeds will stay lower than for Wi-Fi for the foreseeable future, but Nokia hopes to have 100Mb download speeds by 2010 using enhanced high speed packet access technology.