Qualcomm and Teleepoch
Enter Into a 3G CDMA Subscriber Unit License Agreement, October
6, 2007
MTN chooses Cambridge Broadband
Networks for multi-service wireless network in Rwanda, October 6,
2007
Brazilian government to
publish 3G bidding rules soon, October 6, 2007
KTF 3G service suffers
from technical problems, October 6, 2007
Argentina’s Personal
lunches 3G service in Rosario, October 6, 2007
Russia has it's first 3G
network, October 6, 2007
AT&T could drop Alcatel-Lucent
as 3G mobile network supplier, October 6, 2007
Enea Extends License Agreement
with ZTE for 3G Handsets, October 2, 2007
LG to unveil premium handsets
in Brazil, October 2, 2007
KTF 3G subscribers doubled
in less than 3 months, October 2, 2007
3G policy in India will
be non-uniform, October 2, 2007
- previous news
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Videotelephony mass market in five years, says Analysys
December 10, 2003
Videotelephony, long the Cinderella of telecoms services, could be a
mass market within five years, according to a new report from Analysys.
“With the arrival of mass-market broadband and video-capable mobile phones,
there is at last a real opportunity to turn videotelephony from what has
been a rather minor specialist telecoms sector into a mass-market one,”
says Chris Moller, author of the study. “Increasing bandwidth should help
to turn videotelephony into a more desirable service and, critically,
into one where demand is not constrained by specific needs.”
The report, The Future for Personal Videotelephony, argues that although
the initiative is currently with 3G operators, there is a major window
of opportunity ahead for fixed broadband operators. “The range of possible
applications using fixed broadband networks extends much further than
what is possible on 3G, where limited bandwidth will limit the market
to mostly fun applications,” says Chris Moller. Despite the limitations
of mobile videotelephony, Analysys forecasts consumer spend of over EUR1.5
billion by 2007.
The report argues that it is in fixed operators’ interest to incorporate
videotelephony into long-range strategies. Rupert Wood, principal analyst
at Analysys explains: “Developing attractive videotelephony services can
be seen as a means of shifting long-term growth strategy away from the
difficult and highly competitive environment of one-to-many media delivery
and into a new extension of what is operators’ core business area: one-to-one
communications.” Although it is early days, operators like Fastweb, with
an established fixed videotelephony service, and France Telecom, through
the recently announced Wanadoo Visio service, are beginning to push fixed-line
videotelephony out into the mass market.
But major technical barriers remain. “Operators need to think strategically
about the value of upstream bandwidth,” says Moller, “and this is something
that the media delivery business model has tended to undervalue.” Moreover,
the report warns, broadening the appeal of services from the enthusiast
to the general public will need investment in guaranteed IP bandwidth
and simple fixed-mobile interoperability. The long-term stakes are very
high, but who will come to dominate in this market will be determined
by those that start thinking strategically about videotelephony now.
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3G Motorola A920
