Top Ten 3G Ready Nations

Japan and Australia have been ranked as the two most 3G ready nations in the world, by a unique global survey of 40 nations conducted by 3G & Wi-Fi Pacific, an industry newsletter based in Asia.

The survey measured demonstrated consumer and economic behavior, technology adoption rates and regulatory and cost settings viewed as essential to the long-term success of 3G. It is not necesssarily a measure of early supply side-driven adoption, such as that seen in South Korea.

Japan ranked highly on almost all measures but was particularly advantaged in the rankings by the strenth of its personal income, technology spending and absence of 3G licensing overhead. Australia was also ranked highly on its particular strengths in Internet penetration, technology spending , commuter times and regulatory regime.
European countries figured high in the rankings, with Finland coming third, Switzerland 5th and Norway 6th. The USA came 4th and Canada came 8th in the rankings.
Although some Asian nations are already demonstrating early 3G adoption, Asia generally ranked poorly. After Japan, the next highest Asian nation was Singapore at 16, Hong Kong at 17 and South Korea at 19.

Although South Korea is currently the leading nation for early 2.5G and 3G adoption, the survey found that it may ultimately have difficulty sustaining its leading position as a result of relatively modest figures for personal income, cellular penetration and relatively high 3G license costs (South Korean operators are obliged to build dedicated 3G networks and pay license fees, with current services offered through 2.5G upgrades)
Likewise, although the Philippines is the world's leading SMS user this survey betrays the fact that this usage is driven by a desire to evade voice charges. The Philippines ranked 32nd, weighed down by low incomes, low cellular and Internet adoption and a weak commercial popular culture industry.

The survey measured nations across eight different criteria:

- Existing cellular penetration, which tends to flatter European countries and tiger Asian economies against North America and larger Asian countries.
- Existing Internet user penetration, which favors English-speaking and rich countries over South European and poorer countries.
- Purchasing power
- Costs of 3G licensing, with weighting to cheap, non-existent or technology-agnostic markets, and negative weighting for markets with high or mandatory 3G licensing and network costs.
- Technology spending as a percentage of GDP
- Size of commercial popular culture industry, in view of early applications such as pop song ring downloads, digital imaging and related content
- Daily commuting duration, in view of early propensity of mobile apps for "killing time". Some markets with high commuter populations but short transit durations lose weighting in this category.
- Degree of liberalization and openness in 3G and Wi-Fi licensing, rewarding nations with regulatory arrangements for Wi-Fi class licensing, MVNO mandates, multiple licenses and technology transparency.

The survey, unsurprisingly, found that some countries performed poorly on all indicators, especially the less developed nations of Asia. Some high-profile cellular markets in Asia which might have been expected to rank better such as Taiwan and China ranked lowly because of inferior penetration, regulation and technology usage indicators.
The survey was based on public domain information accessed from sources such as the CIA World Factbook, the International Telecommunications Union and the press releases and reports of domestic regulators.
For more details about the survey, contact Natalie Apostolou in Europe on +612-418-279-422 (roaming mobile) or Tony Chan in Asia on +852-2975-8560, or email: tc7991@netvigator.com.

The 3G Global Readiness Index
Presented by 3G & Wi-Fi Pacific and Telecom TV.com

THE RANKINGS
1: Japan 21: Spain
2: Australia 22: Italy
3: Finland 23: Malaysia
4: United States 24: South Africa
5: Switzerland 25: Brazil
6: Norway 26: Russia
7: Sweden 27: Thailand
8: Canada 28: Mexico
9: Denmark 29: China
10: Netherlands 30: Brunei
11: Britain 31: Iran
12: France 32: Philippines
13: New Zealand 33: India
14: Ireland 34: Sri Lanka
15: Germany 35: Vietnam
16: Singapore 36: Pakistan
17: Hong Kong 37: Burma
18: Israel 38: Indonesia
19: South Korea 39: Cambodia
20: Taiwan 40: Bangladesh

This Press Release Sponsored by AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES

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