BellSouth and Smartcom take careful approach on 3G
December 9, 2002
Executives from mobile operators BellSouth Latin America and Chile's
Smartcom told participants at the 2002 CDMA Americas conference
in San Diego that Latin American operators need to focus carefully
on how to make 3G applications commercially viable.
The executives warned market restraints make it necessary for operators
to act with caution.
Smartcom president Jorge Rosenblut said Latin American users are
reluctant to increase the portion of their income on mobile communication
services. The operator launched a cdma2000 based wireless Internet
service called Wisp in June this year, but Rosenblut said results
has been disappointing, noting Chile has only 80,000 laptops in
circulation.
BellSouth president Ralph de la Vega said cdma2000 operators in
the region need to obtain more handsets at better prices, and develop
applications with local content. He said handset price trends are
positive, with cheaper options available on the market. De la Vega
doesn't believe games and digital photos will do well in Latin America.
"We need new CDMA products to compete with GSM," he said.
After recognizing the need for caution, the executives acknowledged
that the capabilities of cdma2000 are simply too great for operators
to ignore them. De la Vega said that mass marketing of 3G applications
within the next year was unlikely.
BellSouth is deploying 3G CDMA networks in six Latin American subsidiaries:
Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela. Smartcom
was Latin America's first operator with a 3G CDMA network, launched
in Chile in mid-2001.
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3G Motorola A920
