LG and Kineto announce UMA-enabled cellular/WI-FI mobile phone

The CL400 is a camera/MP3 phone that offers GSM/GPRS and tri-band (850/1800/1900) capabilities for global operation with Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) connectivity. In the future, the CL400 will also support Voice over IP (VoIP), based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) standards.

The two companies first announced a joint collaboration effort to develop dual-mode UMA-enabled handsets in July 2005. LGE is now a Kineto licensee and has included Kineto's UMA-compliant handset client software in the release of the CL400. LGE has confirmed the worldwide availability of the CL400 for testing and trials with major carriers in the fourth quarter of 2005.

"We continue to recognize Kineto as the market leader in providing best-of-breed UMA client solutions for handsets," said Skott Ahn, executive vice president of the Mobile Handset Research and Development Center at LGE. "By collaborating with Kineto, LGE has been able to accelerate the delivery of our new UMA-enabled dual-mode phone, designed specifically to meet the growing demand from mobile operators worldwide."

"LGE continues to dominate the industry through the introduction of innovative, next-generation cellular handsets," said Mark Powell, vice president and co-founder of Kineto Wireless. "As the demand for cellular/WiFi convergence solutions grows, Kineto sees leading companies such as LGE driving the rapid market adoption of UMA-based services."

UMA, a 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Program) standard, is an access technology that allows a seamless handoff of mobile voice and data from a wide area cellular network to a wireless local area network (WLAN). The UMA standard defines how mobile operators can turn home, office, and public wireless LANs into seamless extensions of their cellular networks. With UMA, operators can deliver high-performance, low-cost mobile voice, data, and IMS services to subscribers over broadband Wi-Fi access networks, dramatically increasing mobile service usage while decreasing costs for operators.