December 14, 1999 Web posted at: 10:26 a.m. EST (1526 GMT) by Mary Lisbeth D'Amico

From...

(IDG) -- The International Telecommunications Union has drawn up specifications covering the network aspects of International Mobile Telecommunications 2000 (IMT-2000), a set of global standards for third-generation (3G) mobile phones.

An ITU working group, chaired by Nippon Telegraph & Telephone's Sadahiko Kano, has agreed upon infrastructure standards that will allow mobile phones to "roam" across different networks and technologies. In addition, the standards will let users access the same services from fixed-line and mobile-phone networks, the ITU says.

The agreement is a major step forward in defining standards that carriers will need to deploy IMT-2000 compliant 3G networks and start offering services to their customers, the ITU says.

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Smart Cell Phones

Currently each country or region of the world has its own second-generation standard for mobile telephones. IMT-2000 is the ITU's effort to guide carriers toward global standards for the third generation of mobile phones. With their greater transmission speeds, 3G networks will let users access the Internet and conduct mobile videoconferencing, e-commerce, banking and downloading of music or videos.

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The specifications agreed upon on Friday include definitions for supporting networks, signaling protocols and security requirements relating to Universal Personal Telecommunication, a set of services that will be available to users whether they are at a fixed or a wireless terminal, the ITU says.

The recommendations should be approved in June, after the relevant ITU members give the working group the go ahead, the ITU says.