Content provider Cybird upbeat on Japan 3G outlook

date: 16th February 2001, source by: Reuters

Third-generation (3G) mobile phones, scheduled to hit the Japanese market in May, should have a bright future, the president of Japan's leading content provider for Web-linked mobile phones said on Friday.

The newest wireless service of Japanese telecom giant NTT DoCoMo Inc , 3G will feature numerous innovations not available with DoCoMo's current second-generation (2G) ``i-mode'' service, such as CD quality sound and movie screening capability.

Some analysts have raised doubts about the profitability of introducing the new 3G enabled mobile phones, saying sticking with the current i-mode format would be more sensible.

But Kazutomo Robert Hori, president of content provider Cybird Co Ltd , said that as long as the new phones offer a high level of service, demand for them should follow.

``I think that 3G requires a high level of technology,'' Hori told a media luncheon. ``The first year will be tough but it should pick up after that.''

Hori cautioned that from a content providers' perspective, the new wireless systems may not offer as much of a revolution as advertised.

``3G is just another way to enrich existing services,'' Hori said.

``People may want to the see the actual goal-scoring scenes in football rather than just reading about it, but nobody is going to watch a two-and-a-half hour movie on their mobile phones. That's ridiculous.''

The first 3G services will be able to deliver data at 64 kilobits per second, six times faster than 2G. That initial level will still be far short of the maximum 384 kbps that 3G technology permits.

The first 3G-enabled phones are expected to be launched in Japan at least 18 months ahead of the rest of the world.

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