Rise in 3G deployments a sign of 3G acceptance

April 7, 2005

Based on infrastructure deployments and other developments in recent quarters, it appears that the 3G market is beginning to hit its stride, reports In-Stat. In terms of actual deployments, Q2 of last year was a record for 3G deployments when a total of 18 deployments went commercial, the high-tech market research firm says. Although many early 3G services were clearly flops, the technology continues to improve, and a wealth of new services is on the horizon.

3G infrastructure is shipping, 3G licenses are being used, and there are a fair number of 3G handsets available. Though the subscriber base, especially outside of South Korea and Japan, is still lagging, it is starting to pick up at a good pace in Europe, and both Verizon and Sprint are moving forward aggressively with EV-DO expansion in the United States.

A recent report by In-Stat found the following:

- The next five years will be a time when many carriers will finally get it right, and it's likely that 3G phones will forever change our lives like 2G phones did with voice.

- Providers need more data offerings because their initial attempts at attracting customers to new data services have sometimes failed.

- Video conferencing with a 3G phone is growing in popularity in Japan, while in Europe and the US, carriers are hoping that mobile TV services will catch on.

This Market Alert is drawn from the In-Stat report, "3G Deployment Update" (#IN0502117GW), which analyzes the worldwide mobile phone 3G market with a focus on infrastructure deployments. It includes a list of 3G deployments - CDMA2000 EV-DO technologies and WCDMA - for 2004, segmented by country.