Forecast for 3G services to dominate

date: 14th January 2001, source: IT Week

Although no handsets or services for third generation (3G) boardband mobile data are expected to surface before 2002 at the earliest, analyst group Analysys predicts that about a third of mobile users will subscribe to 3G services by 2006.

Based on research conducted in association with software company 3G Lab, Analysys concluded that around 480 million subscribers worldwide will have signed up for 3G services by 2006, and it expects over one billion by 2010.

When they first appear, 3G services such as those based on Enhanced Data GSM Environment (Edge) will initially offer data rates of around 144kbit/s over mobile handsets, increasing to 384kbit/s as Universal Mobile Telecommunications Services (UMTS) based technology becomes available. Even higher data rates of 2Mbits/s are also achievable, but at the expense of coverage and mobility at high data rates.

Julian Harris, business development manger at 3G Lab, said 3G services will offer mobile subscribers a variety of applications for corporate use. These will include enhanced multimedia, email, paging, fax, video conferencing and Web browsing, all of which will be able to route data packets via Internet, satellite or LAN.

Harris predicted that when 3G services first arrive, companies may find interoperability problems between handsets, terminals and to run on them. "For IT managers, interoperability issues will dominate," he said. "But that shouldn't affect equipment. There should be more local and network applications and access to back-ends will be key."

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