3G to come alive in 2001

date: 12th January 2001, source: Wireless Network

"The wireless revolution will continue to explode globally," said Jeffrey R. Provence, manager for Wireless Fund. “The Nasdaq recent decline has given investors the opportunity to buy many great companies well of their 52 week highs.”

Third generation mobile communications systems are scheduled for operational startup in Japan and Europe in 2001-2002. By 2004, the wireless subscriber base worldwide is expect to reach 1.4 billion users, and approximately 300 million users will be accessing the internet from some form of wireless appliance.

Japan will have hyper-fast 3G mobile phones by mid 2001. The success of I-mode has attracted 16.8 million users in its brief 22-month history and is still growing at an incredible 40,000 to 50,000 new subscribers each day. The first 3G services in Japan will open the door to data rates of 64 kb/s, or six times faster than 2G.

"Over the next few years, we will see more and more companies allocate resources to wireless Web-enabled devices," Provence said.

On January 4, Sprint PCS and Palm announced a co-branded version of the MyPalm portal, which will include access to e-mail, e-commerce purchasing and Web access. The service should be available in early 2001 and Sprint plans to introduce Palm OS based smartphones that integrate voice and data by midyear.

Nokia said today it sold more than 128 million cell phones last year, up 64% from 1999 and topping overall market growth. "Clearly, Nokia is taking market share form other cell phone vendors. 64% growth over 1999 numbers is very strong," Provence said.

"The wireless revolution is touching all parts of the globe," said Malcolm R. Fobes III, the sub-advisor to the Wireless Fund and portfolio manager of the Berkshire Focus Fund, the #1 ranked Large-Cap Growth fund on a 3 year average annualized basis (Source Morningstar.com 1/3/01). "We continue to focus our efforts on the clear leaders of the wireless paradigm shift."

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