Those who follow our magazine would have noticed that we regularly review changes on the mobile phone market. Issue 3 acquainted you with L7089, a new Motorola model, the first phone using three frequency bands (900/1800/1900 MHz). No significant changes have taken place since the launch of the Motorola L7089, and Motorola still remains the only company producing three-band phones.

Since April 2000 MagtiCom has been providing a roaming service on the American continent and three-band phones have become even more useful for Georgian customers. For this reason we have decided to provide you - our Georgian customers with a more detailed information about this product.

The idea of producing three-band phones was probably conceived on the very same day as the GSM 1900 appeared on the mobile phone market in America, however the idea was not so easy to put into practise. For a long time, world leaders in the field of mobile phone manufacturing produced 900/1800 MHz models and 1900 MHz models separately. The only exception to this was Bosch, a company which was not particularly prominent in the mobile phone business and which, until then, had introduced only few models to the market. The Bosch 718 World was indeed a major innovation, operating simultaneously on the 900 and 1900 MHz bands, however mobile phone customers expected innovations from the leaders in the industry.

In early 1999 Motorola L7089 went on offer, the first in a series of three-band phones, highly estimated by specialists and experts. Its three bands were supported by a number of technical parameters which none of the rival models on the market: Nokia 6110, Bosch World Com 718 or Ericsson 888 could surpass.
There was one other factor ensuring the success of L7089. Instead of simply adding a third band to the already existing models, Motorola chose to design a new three-band phone based on a different platform and equipped with a number of new technological functions. The classic Motorola menu having undergone only marginal changes over a number of years failed to meet increased customer demands and lacked the sophisticated software of its competitors. Motorola therefore decided to make considerable changes to the menu  component of the phone in bringing out the three-band model. The Motorola menu is now more in line with modern European menus. The influence of other companies on the new Motorola menu can be felt to a certain extent, however the new structure and new sequence of functions are quite impressive.

Motorola three-band models despite having been available on the market for a year are still unique from the point of view of using 900/1800 and 1900 MHz bands. 900/1800 MHz phones have been produced by almost all manufacturers but no other manufacturer has brought out three-band  model even by the spring of 2000. Only Ericsson had announced that they would have a new three-band model on the market in the second half of 2000, and in early March Nokia presented a 1900 MHz phone using only two - 900 and 1900 frequencies.

In addition to its modern design and high battery parameters, Motorola L7089 is quite light, weighing only 108 grams. The model has the so-called Optimax TM display designed exclusively for Motorola phones and notable for high contrast, rendering the five-line display more convenient in use.

Another advantage of the model is its high mechanical resistance with the case attached by six screws. The company paid special attention to this, as low mechanical resistance had been a considerable disadvantage of the first StarTAC phones..

For the first time Motorola offers a voice activation feature in the L7089, this allows customers to use a voice signal to call up to 25 pre-programmed numbers and to activate nine different functions. This service which was first introduced by Philips is becoming more and more popular although it says more about the prestige of the manufacturer than about the convenience of the function.

The VoiceNote function so popular in previous models of Motorola has also been transferred into the new model. This service is also offered by several other manufacturers but the capacity to record up to three minutes of speech has not yet been attained by competitors.

L7089 also has VibroCall TM, a feature well-known to Motorola users and considered by certain customers to be a necessary attribute of any mobile phone. Unlike the mobile phone handsets of other manufacturers, the Motorola handset give possibility to activate vibration plus common ring, thus reducing the number of calls you miss.

For the first time in the history of Motorola phones the L7089 can be connected to external equipment to exchange information with a PC by means of infrared technology.

It is very possible that ordinary customers will welcome one simple new feature more than the sophisticated features described above. While previous models, for example, used to store received and missed calls together which was not always convenient, the L7089 will store the calls separately and in addition will indicate the time when the missed calls were received.

We will not dwell here on those technical parameters of this new model that are of interest to professionals only, or go into great detail about the functions which are not yet in use due to network configurations. We will only add that many different accessories (regular and extended batteries, car chargers, and car kits) are available to our users, and what is no less important, a Motorola authorised Service Centre already operates in Tbilisi and can carry out, any warranty or after-warranty repairs.

The L7089 model was followed by two other three-band models from Motorola; Motorola P7389 and Motorola L7389, we will bring you the latest information about  these two models once the Mobile Internet has appeared in Georgia.

Levan Buchukuri
Head of MagtiCom Customer Care
and Marketing Department