Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Vodafone Group Plc, the world's largest mobile phone operator, will partner with Samsung Electronics Co. and Qualcomm Inc. to provide faster cellular phone services in Europe next year.
Vodafone will buy handsets from Samsung, Asia's largest mobile phone maker, Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung said in a statement today. Samsung will buy modem semiconductors from San Diego, California-based Qualcomm, the world's second-largest maker of chips used in cell phones, it said.
The phones will use the high-speed downlink packet access, or HSDPA, transmission standard that's fast enough to download a feature film in one or two minutes, according to the statement, which didn't disclose financial details.
Vodafone and its partners are betting customers will pay for mobile phone services that are fast enough to watch movies and conduct video conferences. The company's service will be similar to the one Cingular Wireless LLC starts this month in the U.S.
HSDPA services, which can transmit data at speeds seven times faster than current third-generation standards, will spark worldwide mobile phone shipments of 102 million units by 2009 from 6.3 million next year, the statement said, citing estimates by researcher Gartner Inc.
Cingular, the largest U.S. mobile-phone operator, became the world's first company to provide HSDPA services this month, initially targeting laptop computer users. Cingular said it plans to expand the network next year.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Young-Sam Cho in Seoul at ycho2@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: December 27, 2005 21:54 EST
Vodafone Grp. (New stock quotes
Vodafone Grp. (New stock charts
Follow this thread
