Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Ofcom may allow 3G over 2G

Nokia has made what it claims was the world's first successful 3G call on a commercial network at a frequency of 900MHz — a band usually used for standard 2G voice calls.

As 3G currently operates around the 2GHz band, this lower-frequency call could open the way for vastly improved coverage and, crucially, better indoor 3G reception.

The call was made over the Finnish network Elisa, using Nokia's Flexi WCDMA technology to transmit 3G traffic through the previously GSM-only base station infrastructure.