Nokia bags $30m Hong Kong new-tech deal

Nokia has bagged a $30m order for telecommunications equipment from Hong Kong mobile phone firm New World Mobility.

The Finnish phone firm has already started supplying equipment that supports EDGE, or Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution, and Push to Talk over Cellular (PoC) service to the Hong Kong firm.

New World Mobility, which has a subscriber base of 1.2 million, said it would launch the EDGE and PoC services later this year. Nokia has been New World Mobility's sole supplier of telecom hardware since 1996.

EDGE is a GSM radio technology that supports higher bit rate data services, such as video streaming, while PoC is an easy form of instant communication for groups, the companies said.

Nokia says it is supplying the equipment for 16 of 33 EDGE networks that are up and running, and has been trying to push the technology by releasing more handsets that support creating and emailing videos.