Nokia preps two AWS-ready phones

Finland's Nokia has announced two new cellphones for North America, the 3606 and 1606. Built on CDMA, the phones are notable mainly for supporting Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) bands -- specifically, the 1,700 and 2,100MHz ranges. AWS is a spectrum opened up to American carriers in 2006, and owned primarily by T-Mobile, a GSM carrier. The 3606 is equipped with a 1.3-megapixel camera, and supports features such as music playback and Bluetooth 2.0, the latter allowing A2DP stereo. Media is kept primarily on microSD cards.

The 1606 is essentially a stripped-down version of its sibling, containing no camera or Bluetooth. Similarly, it is dependent exclusively on 8MB of internal memory, and lacks external music controls present on the 3606. Both phones are due in the third quarter of 2008.

3606