3G Services Likely To Be Introduced In Next Year

[george]

3G services likely to be introduced in next 12 months

Hutch to pioneer with trials in Q2

BANGKOK: Third-generation (3G) mobile phone services are expected to be introduced in Thailand during the next 12 months, with Hutchison-CAT Wireless Multimeda slated to begin commercial trials early next year.

But market leader Advanced Info Service (AIS) says it is still undecided on 3G technology because it would need at least US$100 million (about 4 billion baht) to upgrade its network to provide for the high-speed features of 3G.

Hutchison-CAT's senior vice-president, Piroon Paireepairit, said Hutch, its cellular arm, had embarked on a large investment plan for commercial 3G trials by the second quarter of 2004.

Hutch was on the verge of launching its first phase of 3G trials through the increase of capacity of high-speed data pipes from 153 kilobytes to two megabytes, he said.

``We will begin commercial trials runs in Bangkok first in order to see the market response and the potential demand,'' he said, adding that the second phase will include the provinces.

3G services enables users to transmit data 40 times faster than second-generation (2G) phones, which are prevalent here, to converse via videophone or to download short movie clips.

Mr Piroon did not disclose the size of the investment, saying that a full commercial launch would need substantial funds for new network equipment, applications and spectrum to be built up.

Hutch, using the CDMA system supplied by Motorola and Nortel, provides cellular services in Bangkok and 25 central provinces. It has about 400,000 subscribers.

AIS said it had yet to consider investing in 3G technology as it was still in infancy and the company had yet to see demand among Thai users.

``It is too early to make any business direction on the technology. We have to wait and see the market environments including regulatory body, legal framework, licence issues, economies scale and potential demand,'' said Wichian Mektrakarn, AIS's executive vice-president of network operations.

3G services, only just emerging in Europe, were first introduced in Japan in 2001 by the country's top mobile phone carrier NTT DoCoMo.

``There was a little sign of progress as it was still in infancy in terms of 3G networks and 3G-capable handsets,'' Mr Wichian said.

According to an industry analyst, 3G networks suffered from partial geographic coverage, weak battery life of handsets and a lack of attractive applications compared to 2G phones.

Mr Wichian said, however, that AIS was moving toward 3G services, with its latest commercial launch of Edge technologies.

Enhanced Data for Global Evolution gives GSM networks the capacity to handle services for the third generation of mobile telephony while allowing for existing cell plans to remain intact.

``If we decide to invest in 3G technology, we will begin commercial trials in Bangkok which will require around $100 million for the 3G network infrastructure and radio frequencies,'' he said.

According to an earlier comment by Sigve Brekke, co-chief executive of DTAC, the second-ranked mobile operator, the success of 3G would depend on several factors _ the number and variety of handsets available in the market and enough demand to drive innovative applications.

Mark Stevens, vice-president of Nortel Networks of Canada, said 3G mobile phone service was likely to explode worldwide because it was a natural evolution of services for operators.

--Bangkok Post 2003--11-05

[phazey]

There is only one comment to add here, the 3G handsets i have seen are @#@!!@#@$! awful.

./P