LONDON: South Korean electronics company LG Electronics is learnt to have withstood competition from global mobile phone makers, including Nokia Corp and Motorola Inc., and won a contest to design a low-cost handset for 3G phone services organized by the GSM Association.
The result of the contest is to be formally announced at the 3GMS mobile communications trade show opening in Barcelona next week. The winner is expected to receive orders for several millions of handsets from mobile carriers as 3G service is readying for launch in several countries.
The 12 operators that decided on the winner of the competition, 3G for All, announced by the GSM Association in June 2006 were Cingular, Globe Telecom, Hutchison 3G, KTF, MTN, Orange, Smart, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telenor, T-Mobile and Vodafone.
The association had specified that the winning handset should be capable of some sophisticated applications like high speed internet browsing, mobile TV and instant messaging, while costing significantly less than low-end 3G handsets today. Several phone makers, including Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and a host of Chinese manufacturers participated in the competition.
These 12 operators are estimated to have around 620 million subscribers.
The handset will cost around $100. Currently 3G phones are very expensive and this has been hampering the use of 3G network services. Chinese equipment maker Huawei is one manufacturer, which now offers the cheapest 3G phones at around $140, which however, includes a subsidy in Britain.
The GSM Association had earlier organized an Emerging Market Handset program, which led to the reduction in the wholesale price of entry-level GSM handsets to less than $30. Motorola had won the competition in two rounds.
