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The dream of third-generation wireless networking came true today for AT&T Wireless customers with the first Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE)-capable smartphone in North America—the Nokia 6620.

Rolled out nationwide, the 6620 taps into an AT&T GSM network that delivers data up to three times faster than GPRS, the current data-exchange standard for GSM. As a result, instead of streaming audio and video, for example, at 115 kilobytes per second (Kbps), the Nokia 6620 performs at 384 Kbps.

Sounds good, but what do higher bandwidths mean for AT&T Wireless customers? According to the carrier, the answer rests with the mMode services they lined up to support the new mobile handset.

"Customers can enjoy mMode's streaming video and audio services on the Nokia 6620 and take some of the best of the Web with them while on the go - all in a true high-speed mobile environment on our national EDGE network," said AT&T Wireless VP of mMode Services Sam Hall.

Not surprisingly, the most significant service comes courtesy of Real Networks. rTV, an audio/video subscription service, streams content from FOX Sports, ABC News, CBS MarketWatch, Sporting News Radio, NPR, The Weather Channel, and Hollywood.com to the 6620. It also offers personalized 'Alerts,' notifying subscribers when particular programming becomes available.

AT&T Wireless also provides Nokia Sports, a service that brings baseball and basketball scores, standings, news, video highlights and live baseball game audio streaming to the 6620.

Other mMode services include Mobimate's WorldMate travel application, which provides simultaneous graphical representations of up to five different time zones, weather conditions for over 250 cities and a currency converter, all updated over the air.

mMode customers also get e-mail, over-the-air synchronization of personal information management data, and a Web browser that supports HTML 4.0, XHTML/CSS and WML standards. Quickoffice mobilizes Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents for viewing and editing.

The Nokia 6620 costs $299.99 after rebate with a 2-year agreement. Data and voice plans as well as mMode services are extra.

More on the Nokia 6620

Unveiled back in January 2004, the tri-band (850/1900/1800 MHz) Nokia 6620 employs a 65,536 color TFT display for viewing still images and video clips captured by its integrated VGA camera and real-time video streaming over AT&T Wireless' EDGE network.

The Bluetooth-enabled mobile handsets allow you to use wireless headsets and connect to other Bluetooth peripherals, such as printers. Users can also sync to their PC wirelessly with Bluetooth.

The Nokia 6620 has 40MB of RAM and enables multimedia messaging (MMS) with Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) technology. SMIL allows images, sounds and text to be built into a single MMS message in a particular order. The multimedia content of the message will then received in exactly the order intended by the sender.

An integrated image uploader helps users send pictures directly to Internet-based photo services, where images can be stored, sorted, shared, and turned into prints.