December 15, 1999 Web posted at: 1:10 p.m. EST (1810 GMT) by Douglas F. Gray

From...

LONDON (IDG) -- U.K. mobile phone company Orange will release its "videophone" to customers in the second quarter of next year, and it will be mainly built with technology from homegrown companies, Orange has announced.

The videophone, a palm-held device that will run on Microsoft's Windows CE operating system, is designed to provide full video and audio communication capabilities, as well as complete PDA (personal digital assistant) capabilities, including e-mail, Web browsing, Microsoft's Pocket Office applications and handwriting recognition, the company said.

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The commercial name for the product will be announced at the time of launch.

The videophone will have a touch-sensitive screen. Users will be able to initiate and receive video and standard audio calls via the phone, which will also provide voice recordings, voice mail, and voice recognition.

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The phone will be dual band, with the capability of switching between GSM1800 (global system for mobile communication 1800) and GSM900. It will have data transfer speeds of between 28.8Kbps and 64Kbps, according to Orange.

Cambridge Consultants will be leading the design team, Celestica will manufacture the physical handset, Motion Media Technology will develop the video application software and implementation, and NMI Electronics will integrate Windows CE with the applications and services, Orange said.

The University of Strathclyde, in Scotland, will provide the video compression software which will allow the images to be transmitted at 12 frames per second.