Motorola Likely to Offer Cordless Telephone Soon

Motorola Inc. likely will enter the consumer cordless telephone business by year’s end as a prelude to advancing into the market for a new--and more lucrative--generation of mobile phones, analysts said Monday.

The move would put Motorola in direct competition with industry leader American Telephone & Telegraph Co., and would make it the first firm to make cordless phones in the United States.

Sue Schmidt, a Motorola spokeswoman at the company’s headquarters in suburban Schaumburg, Ill., declined to comment on the firm’s plans. But Motorola filed documents last month with the Federal Communications Commission detailing the development of two versions of cordless phones. And Motorola has shown a major Midwest-based retailer a cordless phone it hopes to market soon, said a spokesman for the retailer, who asked that his company’s name not be used.