3G Launches to Peak in 2004, Ubiquity Waits to 2007

Three years ago, the euphoria surrounding 3G resulted in operators spending billions of dollars in licensing fees, solely based on exponential calculations of growth in subscribers and average revenues per user (ARPUs). But to their disappointment, some operators now find it nearly impossible to recover their investments and most have delayed their plans to deploy 3G, according to a new study by research firm Allied Business Intelligence (ABI).

Since the launch of its pioneer 3G-based WCDMA services in October 2001, Japanese mobile operator NTTDoCoMo has been able to garner only about 155,000 subscribers through January 2003. Though many technical improvements have been made, deployments of 3G will face further hurdles as operators continually refine their data services. Further, though primarily complementary in nature, EDGE and Wi-Fi technologies may influence the deployment of some 3G networks.

ABI research indicates that the major hurdles for implementation of 3G have been the following:
Unrealistic projections by operators
Complexities in network infrastructure
Handset interoperability
Stringent regulatory conditions

"Operators may be forced to upgrade to the 3G network in the long run, not because of its promise of higher data speeds, but due to an expected thirst for voice capacity," says Kenil Vora, ABI analyst and author of the report.

The report, "Wireless Network Operator Strategies," examines the approaches adopted by major global operators and provides a realistic outlook on where the industry is headed. The report covers six different regions and the projected deployment timelines of 2.5G and 3G within them. The report also includes deployment projections for WCDMA, CDMA2000, EDGE, MMS and Wi-Fi technologies, as adopted by various operators. The study is available as a standalone report or as part of ABI?s new Wireless Systems Subscription Service, to be unveiled May 15, 2002.

This Press Release Sponsored by AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES

TODAY'S PRESS RELEASES

The multimedia composer and transaction engine made available by Liquid Air Lab, combined with the mBill billing platform, enabled mBill to integrate an existing SMS chat application with a multimedia messaging component.

n top of all the other challenges facing MMS before it can become the success that the mobile operators are hoping for and boost non-voice revenues to new heights - one issue stands out that is crucial for the content providers before they even think about publishing and selling content via MMS - Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Response to Californian Congressman Darrell Issa’s letter to the Honorable Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defence from Rob Conway, CEO of the GSM Association and Member of its Board.

LG will launch a rotational camera-fitted GPRS phone on the Italian market, the largest in Europe. The camera phone model is fitted with 65,000 -color TFD-LCD and 40 poly and intended for export to Europe.

All European telcos can learn valuable lessons from i-mode and Vodafone live!, according to a new brief by Forrester Research. Europe's i-mode gets the services right and the marketing wrong, while Vodafone live! does the opposite.

The PA-Manager allows operators to enforce the priority access policy at cell level without compromising Quality-of-User Experience (QoE) for all other services sharing the same media space, and also to monitor application performance on a cell-by-cell basis.

To their disappointment, some operators now find it nearly impossible to recover their investments and most have delayed their plans to deploy 3G, according to a new study by research firm Allied Business Intelligence (ABI).

DTAC announced cooperation with world’s leader in mobile communications Nokia to strengthen its position as the leading wireless data services provider.