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3G cost billions: Will it ever live up to its hype? |
Dogmann
Joined: Jan 29, 2006
Posts: > 500
From: London England
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Hi as someone who in the late 90's ran my own mobile date company which was Wire Free Data Ltd and i was a full member of the Mobile Data Association due to ill health i stopped in 1998. At this time most pieces of equipment were a complete nightmare to even get working. I used to be given Ericsson equipment to test GC25, SH888, DI 27 etc and it was impossible to sell anything unless you could go and set it up for the client far from practical or profitable, it cost me 1000's to play in this field before giving up. Wap was a complete waste of time and expensive to use, the only data and IMO it isn't really that saved the mobile telecoms Co's was text messaging IMO a complete rip off all the Networks IMO vastly overpaid for their 3G licenses scared that if they missed out they would be finished and believed Video calling was going to be a killer app plus of course everyone surfing the net.
Only 2 months ago did i go for a 3G handset, i have not made a video call yet and doubt i ever will. Only now that T-Mobile have launched Web N Walk am i prepared to use Data on my handset as the fixed price structure is IMO value for money, web surfing if fine and as Yahoo and Nokia developed Yahoo Go i now have proper push E-mail at no extra charge with no complicated set up and it works so now at last E-mail is viable.
There are always a small hardcore of people that are early adopters but the mass market neither wants or needs most of the services that are available and until the Mobile Telcos and manufacturers supply equipment that is easy to set up and cheap to run penetration of the market is very unlikely to improve. Back in the late 90's the projected growth for mobile data was huge and it still has not reached even the lowest penetration projections yet. Unless of course you count text messaging as Data which i most certainly don't and never will.
T- Mobile IMO are the first operator to actually make use of the huge capacity available on their 3G network and by realistic pricing are generating income on capacity that costs them virtually nothing as E-mail and web surfing has no shared revenue costs and is only using what otherwise would be unused capacity. I can not understand what is takeing the other operators so long to respond and match what they have done. The current connection figures show more than 50% of all new connections are going to T-Mobile and i am not sure if this includes ported numbers or not. If they do not react soon T-Mobile will be in an unbeatable position as not only is their pricing the best but even their customer service is good IMO.
Marc
[ This Message was edited by: Dogmann on 2006-07-31 14:03 ]
[ This Message was edited by: Dogmann on 2006-07-31 14:06 ] |
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goldenface
Joined: Dec 17, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Liverpool City Centre
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I agree.
It seems the operators are still battling with each other over cheaper talk & text tariffs - although T-mobile seem to have got it just right there too.
Voda, Orange O2 etc all have phones available that are equipped with email and messenging applications and others such as mobile blogging, wap and internet but are not making easy for consumers at all by providing comprehensive data plans to take advantage of all these extras.
Whats the matter with them?
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fatreg
Joined: Jul 26, 2003
Posts: > 500
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http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/yourplan/additionalservices
whats difficult about them data charges??
i use 3G all the time. not for video calling though.. only for data use but i cain a good 50mb a month...
now with mobile blogging on my K800 thats only gonna go up...
fatreg
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Dogmann
Joined: Jan 29, 2006
Posts: > 500
From: London England
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Hi Fatreg,
No problem but how much does it cost you for your 50mb per month, is it more than £7.50 that T-Mobile charge for unlimited useage?
I have to say after the fiasco with my P900 when i had to threaten to sue Orange to get out of my contarct and my money back for my phone, even if they offered to pay me i would and will not ever have an Orange phone again since Orange insisted i was wrong and wasn't intitled to use the update service plus a very serious billing issue when again they insisted i was wrong and they were right untill i asked for a conflict resoloution number and suddenly i was right after all and it got sorted in under 1hr. I used to be with Orange since there launch and have sold and connected more phones to their network than i can even remember but definatly over 1000 and they definatly are not the company they once were, they used to win the JD Power award every year but not anymore IMO Orange suck big time.
Marc |
amnesia
Joined: Jan 15, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Doha, London, Tokyo, Shanghai
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@goldenface, Mobile email in Japan isn't 'popular', it's because that's their text messaging method.
They don't use SMS, they use emails. When you get a mobile phone you also register an email address for the phone number.
So it's not out of popularity, they're forced to use that service.
edit: and you do NOT need a 3G sim to enjoy 3G services all over the world.
In the Middle East for example, you can use a 2G sim card. You call them up, say activate 3G and that's it.
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[ This Message was edited by: amnesia on 2006-08-01 00:09 ] |
Luke-the-magic-man
Joined: May 31, 2005
Posts: > 500
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I think the main problem is call costs, if they were the same price or possibly a little bit higher then normal it would be ok, but I believe a normal call cost is like 30p pm or something like that?
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apolloa
Joined: Jul 27, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: Dorset, UK
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It will be worth it, but we'll be into 4G in 2 or 3 years time and were already into 3.5G. Just remember a lot of those billions are down to the stupid greedy way the governments, well the UK's one anyway, auctioned of those licenses as the money went straight into there coffers and the mobile customers have paid for it, another tax I think.
Sorry rant over.
It will mature and become great and as more people buy phones with video calling then this will come down in price too. |
bart
Joined: Feb 03, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Flanders
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whats all this about a 3G sim? i've used 3G during its launch in belgium more then 1.5years ago. it worked fine. (used K600) video phone was great, watching tv had problems (only vodafone branded phones would work in the beginning).
but i had a 32k sim like most people here, and it worked fine!
right now i don't use it, i'm willing to use it, but only 1 operator has it, thats proximus (working together with vodafone) and its the most expencive one. even a simpel sms cost 0.20euro!
the operator i'm on now, ask only 0.88euro
one thing i did notice is that 3G was ready, videophone worked flawless. their have been new technologies that didn't work from the start, but this one did.
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[ This Message was edited by: bart on 2006-08-01 02:43 ] |
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Posted: 2006-07-31 15:01
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