Ericsson R520 UMTS

Year: 2002
Prototype level: Platform
Codename: Valentina

Overview

The R520 UMTS prototype, known as Valentina or Walentina, was an experimental Ericsson handset created to investigate the use of UMTS on a phone based on the R520m platform. At a time when 3G networks were still being developed and the technology was far from ready for everyday use, Ericsson used modified handset hardware such as this to explore and test the new network technology. The prototype retained the basic appearance of the R520m, but underneath it represented a very different stage of development from the GSM phone that would eventually reach the market.

Valentina is particularly interesting because it appears to be one of Ericsson’s earliest UMTS handset prototypes. Surviving examples are extremely uncommon, and most are fitted with test software rather than anything resembling a finished consumer system. The antenna is also unusual: surviving photographs consistently show the prototype fitted with an antenna derived from the T29 family rather than the standard R520 antenna. The UMTS functionality itself was never completed to the point where its full capabilities could be properly established, leaving Valentina as a snapshot of Ericsson’s early experimentation with 3G handset technology.