AT&T to Sell Higher-Speed Nokia Phone With Microsoft Windows
January 11, 2012, 4:11 PM ESTBy Scott Moritz
(Updates with closing share prices in last paragraph.)
Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- AT&T Inc. plans to start selling a fast-speed smartphone made by Nokia Oyj, its first handset running Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone software that will work on the new LTE network technology.
Stephen Elop, Nokia’s chief executive officer, made the announcement today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, without giving pricing or availability details.
AT&T is expanding its LTE, or Long-Term Evolution, network and adding devices to catch up with larger rival Verizon Wireless, which has offered LTE devices for longer. The new device is also a step in Microsoft’s plan to fight Apple Inc. and Google Inc. in the mobile-phone market and may help Nokia to revive its smartphone business in the U.S.
Dallas-based AT&T also said it plans to start selling six new LTE smartphones running Google’s Android software, including the Galaxy Note from Samsung Electronics Co., which has a 5.3- inch (13.5-centimeter) screen. Two of the Android phones will cost less than $50 with a service contract.
AT&T fell 0.1 percent to $29.66 at the close in New York and Microsoft declined 1.3 percent to $27.74. Nokia dropped 2.8 percent to 4.04 euros in Helsinki.
--Editors: Ville Heiskanen, John Lear
To contact the reporter on this story: Scott Moritz in New York at smoritz6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net
