No proven business plan for advanced 3G services – Telstra CEO

date: 13th January 2001, source: telecomasia.com

Telstra CEO Ziggy Switkowski, told attendees at a conference in Tucson, Arizona, that "there is no proven business model for streaming high-speed video services on 3G."

"Applications like this are just not economic," Switkowski said.

Commenting on Telstra's strategy for 3G, he confirmed the carrier's plan to bid in the Australian government's planned spectrum auction, but adds that 3G "does not allow us to do anything that existing spectrum cannot do – it just provides extra capacity, and we already have the most spectrum in Australia."

A recent Forrester Report warns that the introduction of mobile Internet services won't pay for UMTS investments.

The report, authored by Forrester's Lars Godell, predicts that ARPU of mobile carriers will decline by 15% by 2005 despite the introduction of wireless Internet services, destroying profits, unleashing major business failures and industry consolidation.

Meanwhile, the Australian Financial Review reports that Telstra is the final stages of talks to buy 15% of Singapore mobile operator MobileOne.

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