ASIA : Motorola, Inc. announced the launch of a new 3G Development Center in China. Based in Beijing, the center will play a crucial role in the development of Motorola's 3G network solutions globally, as well as provide direct support for 3G customers in China.

Inset is Simon Leung, regional president, Motorola Asia Pacific.

The center will focus on developing next-generation 3G technologies for Motorola's Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and Mobile Broadband via High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) solutions. Including this new center, Motorola has invested over US$450 million in China in 16 Research and Development centers. There are over 1800 personnel focusing on R&D activities alone.

Motorola's UMTS solutions present operators with a cost-effective 3G migration path to upgrade capacity, data speeds and new service capabilities from existing 2 and 2.5G generation mobile networks. Recent announcements include a commercial deployment in Portugal and trials with operators in Portugal and Kuwait.

HSDPA, the next evolution of 3G UMTS, will enhance UMTS networks and help provide significant performance benefits and reduced costs in the deployment of high-speed wireless data access. In January 2005, Motorola completed an outdoor HSDPA trial in Europe with five major operators on a UMTS network. The trial highlighted how HSDPA will ultimately provide a user applications experience between 3 and 10 times faster than traditional UMTS. Indeed, HSDPA data transmission speeds is expected to eventually be similar to today's fixed broadband services, where end-users will be able to download video and music files with ease.

"The 3G Development Center is key to strengthening Motorola's 3G position," said Simon Leung, regional president, Motorola Asia Pacific. "The investment in the 3G Development Center also further underlines our commitment to China. With this center, we are offering our customers in China quicker deployment of solutions and more direct access to Motorola's global 3G expertise."

Motorola has played a leading role in building China's network infrastructures. Its network customers in China include China Unicom and China Mobile. In addition, Motorola has worked closely with China's Ministry of Information Industry and operators to conduct successful 3G lab and field trials in both UMTS and CDMA2000 1XEV-DO.