Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/18/cingular_lg_cu500_hspda/
Cingular claims US first with HSDPA handset
Data-tastic
Posted in Mobile, 18th July 2006 11:13 GMT
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Cingular yesterday claimed a US first for its new HSDPA phone, a skinny black clamshell from LG, dubbed the CU500.
Cingular boasts that its new phone breaks the speed barrier, but given Joe Public's indifference, nay hostility [1], to mobile data, few people will be aware that there is a speed barrier to break. Still customers can always talk faster on their shiny new phones.
HSDPA is often known as "Super 3G", or "3.5G" - it's up to five times faster than vanilla 3G networks. This means that watching video and browsing the internet by phone becomes much less of a chore - even if the costs are hugely inflated compared with, say, watching video on your laptop by Wi-Fi.
The LG CU500 comes preloaded with AOL, Yahoo! and MSN messenger clients, a "full featured" music player - and optional Bluetooth stereo headset - and a 1.3 megapixel camera. It is available in 18 major markets - Cingular expects to roll out its 3G network to most major markets by the end of the year. It costs $99 with a two-year contract. Choose the most expensive plan and you can get a $50 mail-in rebate.
Cingular has been selling HSDPA laptop cards for a year or so - road warriors on expense accounts will be a ready, if limited, market. But is HSPDA technology ready to make its way into the mainstream? The CU500 has an attractive spec and is attractively priced, so Cingular should sell units by the lorry-load. Question is, will customers avail themselves fully of the data-tastic features? The answer will be a long time coming. ®