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Motorola leadership on spectrum management policy provides optimism in 2001
New product offerings, alliance announcements underscore strong CTIA and CeBIT showings

Schaumburg, Illinois (ots-PRNewswire) -

With a string of
innovative new products on display, significant business alliances in
hand and the leadership of its CEO evident in the industry-wide
debate on spectrum, Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) emerged from the
recent 2001 Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association
(CTIA) trade show in Las Vegas (March 20-22), and CeBIT, the world's
largest annual telecommunications and information technology show, in
Hanover, Germany (March 22-28), with renewed optimism for the
remainder of the year.
"We expected a strong showing at CTIA and CeBIT," said Christopher
B. Galvin, Motorola Chairman and CEO, "but the overwhelming response
to our new products and technologies surpassed anything we
anticipated. The market knows that advanced GPRS, J2ME and 1xEV-DV
technologies are on the horizon and that Motorola holds the key to
many of these exciting opportunities. We continue to make smart
products that will help people lead better lives."
Galvin Issues Call to Action for Spectrum Management Reform
In a keynote appearance at CTIA, Galvin called for a fundamental
reexamination of the process used to award access to the airwaves for
new telecommunications services. Assuming a leadership role on one
of the key areas of public policy affecting the wireless industry,
Galvin challenged carriers, manufacturers, governments and others, to
establish an urgent and on-going dialogue on how existing policies on
the licensing of spectrum for 3G and other wireless services, could
be revamped to spur growth, innovation, and the proliferation of new
services at affordable prices to consumers.
The current system requires telecom carriers to invest billions of
dollars up front to gain access to vital markets.  Galvin said
diverting substantial capital in this manner is detrimental to the
overall U.S. economy and stalls critical investment in innovation and
new technologies. "When you estimate what the equipment and system
sales would be for 3G over the next three years, what's been paid so
far represents what could be imagined as a 100 percent tax on all of
the equipment, estimated by Wall Street analysts on how much might be
sold."
Galvin noted that spectrum auctions were created with good
intentions -- solving certain problems and giving transparency to the
system, but that now, "the net impact has not been totally optimal
for all constituencies. Therefore, we need to go back and
re-determine how we go about writing those rules and effecting them."
In his remarks, Galvin reasserted what the industry has long
argued -- that the U.S. government has not allocated enough spectrum.
"We have the need for significantly greater amounts of spectrum
because of the opportunities that are going to take place to bring
more telecommunications services, tailored to people in many
different ways: at home, in the car, on the person, and among work
teams." Galvin also pushed for a spectrum management policy that
would ensure it is allocated to the kinds of services that will
benefit society as well as the industry.
"Anytime there is the opportunity to innovate when new
technologies are created, rules and regulations need to be modified,"
Galvin said. "Government, the industry, and experts and associations
need to come together and find a modified plan that accomplishes a
variety of goals ... lower the amounts paid for spectrum long term,
allow investment to be robust, and give governments a potential of
collecting enormous amounts of revenue for themselves."
Galvin emphasised that this must be a collective undertaking and
must not prejudge the outcome. However, he noted there have been a
number of ideas put forward in the U.S. and Europe for seeing that
the proceeds from auctions are reinvested into telecom services and
increasing the availability of spectrum.
New Products
Recognised as an innovator in telecommunications, Motorola was
first to market with GPRS handsets in 2000, and among its cadre of
important technologies on display at both shows, none shone more
brightly than the company's complete portfolio of GPRS wireless
devices. Motorola is the only company currently shipping GPRS
handsets to customers. GPRS technology enables a rapid and constant
connection to the Internet, providing the capability for "always on"
access. In addition, it offers more efficient and cost-effective
Internet access because data transmission is sent via packets and
carriers can charge according to data sent or retrieved versus the
airtime incurred.  The Motorola models on display included the
Timeport(TM) 7389i (Timeport 260 in EMEA), Timeport 280 and
V.series(TM) 66, the Talkabout (R) 192g, the Accompli(TM) 008, a
combined PDA and cell phone device, and the Talkabout (R) 192G.
At CTIA 2001, Motorola introduced a new category of customisable
mobile phones that will change the way people use wireless devices by
combining wireless communications and computing power via Java(TM) 2
Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME)(TM) technology. New customisation is
made possible by the J2ME standard, which has evolved from Java and
is designed to work on small, low-powered handheld devices such as
wireless phones, pagers and personal digital assistants.
A key attribute to incorporating J2ME into a wireless device is
that it enables consumers to upgrade the applications on a device
continually once it has been purchased. Since J2ME is an industry
standard, the same software and applications can work on a variety of
different devices. Motorola provided two J2ME technology-enabled
multiple-communication handsets and a variety of software
applications at the show.
Motorola offered the world a glimpse of a first-of-its-kind
3G-network demonstration through an interactive racing video game. 
Motorola's 1xEV-DV solution enables real-time voice, data and
multimedia services on existing cdma2000 networks, allowing end users
to browse the Internet from a personal computer or access e-mail
while mobile. Though the standard for 1xEV-DV technology has not
been agreed upon by infrastructure vendors and wireless operators for
CDMA technology, the 1xEV-DV demonstration is a historic first step
in showing the commercial viability of further refinements to CDMA
specifications that are expected to yield significant increases in
data throughput.
Alliances
In another J2ME initiative, Motorola and Sprint PCS (NYSE: PCS)
announced  a collaboration to conduct lab trials. Sprint PCS is the
first nation-wide North American CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)
carrier to perform an in-house lab trial, which will enable both
companies to begin testing the ability of customers to download
applications on a wireless phone.
Additionally, Motorola, Domino's Pizza and Verizon Wireless
announced that they are participating in one of the first market
trials of mobile commerce. The trial will enable all three companies
to assess consumer adoption and usage of "mobile commerce," also
known as mobile shopping or m-commerce. M-commerce provides
consumers with the ability to order goods and services quickly and
easily via the Internet using a wireless device. The two-month
"Pizzacast" trial is currently taking place in Las Vegas with
consumers ordering pizzas using their wireless phones.
Also at CTIA, Motorola announced an agreement with MSN and Arch
Wireless to provide consumers access to MSN's popular MSN Hotmail and
MSN Messenger communications services, as well as content from MSN
Mobile on Motorola's wireless two-way messaging device, the
Talkabout(TM) model T900 personal interactive communicator.
CeBIT
At the world's largest information technology and
telecommunications trade show, CeBIT, in Hanover, Germany,
applications for work and play were also on display -- ranging from a
wireless application for the mobile office, to a wireless version of
the globally popular "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" game.
In partnership with Ericsson and Siemens Information and
Communication Mobile (IC Mobile), Motorola announced plans to develop
an industry initiative that will define a universal, mobile games
platform, using existing and emerging standards. With this
initiative, the three companies aim to help mobile operators offer a
broad selection of games content and provide developers with a
standardised platform. Mobile consumers will benefit through a rich,
interactive, multiplayer games experience.
Motorola also drew considerable interest through its range of
concept products, designed by Motorola's engineers to incorporate new
and unique ways to communicate and access data and information. 
These concepts showed how Motorola is bringing the future to life
today by building smart solutions for our everyday lives.
About Motorola
Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) is a global leader in providing
integrated communications solutions and embedded electronics
solutions. Sales in 2000 were $37.6 billion. More information can
be found at Motorola's company Web site: http://www.motorola.com
Internet:  http://www.motorola.com

Contact:

Jennifer Weyrauch of Motorola, Inc., tel. +1 847 435 5320, or
e-mail: Jennifer.weyrauch@motorola.com, Internet: www.motorola.com.