News
Issue #2003 - 19 (June 2003)
(Updated June 12, 2003)

INFRASTRUCTURE, PRODUCTS & SERVICES

3G News This Week

1. TV Phone Now
Samsung Electronics has introduced the TV Phone (model: SCH-X820) in Korea that accesses color TV in real time over VHF/UHF channels.

Previously, mobile phone users have had to pay separate fees to service providers to watch TV.

2. AppEngine and 3G LAB’s Mobile Interface 
dynamicsoft and 3G LAB announced their partnership to develop a SIP-based customizable and dynamically updateable application environment for wireless carriers. The joint offering combines two award-winning products – the dynamicsoft AppEngine and 3G LAB’s Trigenix Mobile Interface Technology. This enables operators to easily build rich communications applications that combine presence, messaging and voice and deliver them via over-the-air downloads to a subscriber’s mobile phone. 

3. DoCoMo Expands 3G Coverage Area
NTT DoCoMo announced that service area for its 3G mobile phone will be expanded to an additional 43 towns and villages in the Kanto-Koshinetsu region.

4. Photo Messaging to the Rescue of 3G?
Photo messaging has found strong awareness among global mobile phone users and appears to be the first breakout capability of next generation multi-media messaging services (MMS), according to the latest Mobinet study of 5,600 mobile phone users in 15 countries conducted regularly by global management consulting firm A. T. Kearney and the Judge Institute of Management, Cambridge University's business school.

The findings underscore the growing penetration of advanced mobile phone technology and point to a strong potential revenue stream for mobile carriers able to capitalize on photo messaging awareness among their customers. 

More than 80 percent of mobile phone users in the study were aware of the photo messaging capabilities of today's mobile phones, and two-thirds said they were willing to pay to utilize those services. Among those under 19 years of age — the heaviest users of text-based messaging — 42 percent said they would be willing to pay more than $1 US to send a photo message. Fourteen percent of all users were prepared to pay more than $2 US per photo message. More than 30 percent of those surveyed said they would be willing to use photo messaging at least once a week in the future.


Source - Several but primarily http://www.3g.co.uk

MobileInfo Comments and Advisory: 3G continues its long but slow journey for deployment - faster in Asia but slower in North America.

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