CTIA merges 'enterprise' with 'entertainment'

The CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment trade show kicks off today in Los Angeles, an odd merging of devices and services that aim to appeal to the wireless IT guru in the enterprise, but with a lot of "entertainment" products aimed at the average hipster. Here's a roundup of some of the announcements:

Cingular and Nokia announced the Nokia E62 (pictured), a $149.99 wireless e-mail device with a full QWERTY keyboard, backlit keys and a high-resolution display (320 by 240 pixels, 16 million colors) aimed at business users and consumers. E-mail platform support includes Good Mobile Messaging, Cingular Xpress Mail, BlackBerry Connect and Mail for Exchange (direct push from Exchange servers), as well as Nokia's Intellisync Mobile Suite. The device will also support POP3, IMAP and SMTP mail protocols. The E62 includes a cell phone as well, offering speaker phone, six-way conference calling, voice dialing, voice commands and a voice recorder for taking notes. The device will be available through Cingular Wireless stores on Sept. 29, the companies say.

Cingular and Sierra Wireless announced a new LaptopConnect card, the AirCard 875, which supports the HSDPA 3.6Mbps network in North America, Cingular says. Available in October through Cingular's enterprise and retail sales channels for $99.99 (after rebates and two-year agreement), the card is upgradeable to support "theoretical peak data rates" of up to 7.2Mbps, Sierra Wireless says. The card supports HSDPA and UMTS on the 2100, 1900 and 850 MHz bands, as well as EDGE and GPRS on the 1900, 1800, 900 and 850 MHz bands.

Verizon Wireless and Research in Motion announced the BlackBerry 8703e device, which can access Verizon's EV-DO wireless network. The 8703e will be available on Sunday, Sept. 17, and includes a new handset with 35-key QWERTY keyboard, wireless push e-mail support, a high-resolution LCD screen and light sensing technology that "automatically adjusts LCD and keyboard lighting levels to provide optimized viewing in indoor, outdoor and dark environments," Verizon Wireless says. The 8703e will cost $349.99 with a two-year agreement, with BroadbandConnect data plans at $15 per month for those with a qualifying voice plan and unlimited data plan, or $30 per month in conjunction with an unlimited data plan (no voice).

In addition, Verizon Wireless and Motorola announced they will extend their supply agreement to expand and upgrade current CDMA 1x sites to EV-DO Rev. A, which offers faster downlink speeds and enhances uplink data speeds for wireless broadband data users.

Sprint announced two additional mobile broadband cards for its EV-DO Rev. A network, which is expected to launch by the end of the year. The Pantech PX-500 ($199.99, or free with two-year subscriber agreement and rebate) and Sierra Wireless AirCard 595 ($249.99, or $99.99 with two-year agreement) will run on Sprint's Power Vision network when it launches, but also supports the current network speeds, Sprint says. Sprint also supports the Novatel Wireless S720 card, which it announced last week.

UTStarcom was expected to show off its F3000 handset, a portable Wi-Fi phone that it announced in Europe last week in conjunction with Mobiboo, the U.K.'s first commercial VoIP Wi-Fi network operator. The F3000 handset offers users the ability to use a VoIP service without having to be "tethered to a fixed-line", UTStarcom says. The device includes a color 1.8-inch LCD screen, includes polyphonic ring tones, text messaging capabilities and talk time of up to 3 hours and about 75 hours of standby time. The phone includes support of the SIP, SDP, RTP/RTCP and RFC 2833/inband DTMF protocols, and supports an 802.11b/g wireless network. The company said the F3000 is currently being deployed by customers worldwide and can be purchased directly from UTStarcom or through regional distributors. This Web site has more details.