Microsoft calls on CDMA

Microsoft will step up its fight with Nokia on Monday with plans to unveil software that powers cell phones based on Code Division Multiple Access technology.

The Redmond, Wash., software giant has been competing in the cell phone operating system market with what amounts to one hand tied behind its back; the company's cell phone operating system worked with only one major cell phone standard, GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), which is more popular in Europe.

Nokia, on the other hand, is a backer of Symbian, an operating system capable of making cell phones that use both major cell phone standards, GSM and CDMA.

Hitachi's Multimedia Communicator and Samsung's i700, to be announced Monday, are among the first phones to use a version of Microsoft's phone software for CDMA networks. They will both be demonstrated Wednesday at the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The phones are meant for the North American market, the world's largest concentration of CDMA phone users, said Ed Suwanjindar, a Microsoft spokesman.

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