Hi! Managers: The many business benefits of 3G Mobile high-speed data networks: Part One

By Andrew McBean

The first pre-commercial trial network on 3G was launched by NTT DoCoMo in the Tokyo region of Japan in May 2001. On January 29 this year, the number of customers using 3G hit 500 million worldwide across 300 networks. Even 4G's commercial life began in December 2009, with 40 more networks predicted worldwide by 2012.

So what are the benefits of these new "mobile high-speed data" networks for businesses?

On phones? When smart phones were first introduced, they were focused on business customers. E-mail was considered a "killer app", and the notion was that phones would be used to extend corporate systems, enabling on-time decisions to be made by executives busy on golf courses, or sales people or agents giving "real-time" information and application processing, signing up customers at the initial meeting.

It soon became clear that e-mail was not data intensive. There is a limit to how much people are prepared to, or can physically, read and reply to on a small screen. And the extension of corporate systems to the phone never went beyond discrete applications, mostly bespoke by firms themselves; the DHL hand-held terminals seen upon parcel delivery are an example.

When 3G was first introduced, a new "killer app" was determined - video calls. But this fell wildly short of expectations; there are only so many times we need, or want, to see our friends in their pyjamas. Or people in suits, it seems. The business conference call suffered the same fate. The mobile industry was "hung up", if you will excuse the pun, on "calling".

But along came the iPhone. Released as a 2G device on June 29, 2007 primarily in markets that already had 3G, it became a fabulous success before its 3G version was released on July 11, 2008. This proved that 3G was about data and not calls. The iPhone thus led to a significant paradigm shift in the way that mobile phones work with data and 3G's role in that renaissance will be significant.

On infrastructure? 3G speeds are not enough to compete with LAN speeds of 100mbs in companies. Additionally up to 90 per cent of smaller businesses in Thailand are already connected via ADSL. To replace ADSL as a primary access will not be trivial. Only if 3G can offer a consistently higher speed, value and experience - or mobility - to the customer, will they switch.

On laptops? 3G is a lot about laptops. Laptop users will have seamless access to enterprise systems with a good speed, anywhere. For sales people or agents, it is too expensive to provide them all with laptops as the cost compared to most monthly wages is prohibitive. However, prices are coming down and expect to see a significant increase in productivity and sales using this new mobility. Wi-Fi will not be sufficiently ubiquitous or "industrial strength" enough to compete with 3G when 3G becomes pervasive.

But the huge benefit to businesses will be around the opportunities created by all these consumers being connected together. But that is for Part Two.

Andrew McBean is senior vice president of DTAC. Follow his articles every third Monday of the month.

I saw a 3G video stream from some guys car while he was driving through parts of Florida. The stream was smooth and the sound was clear. I was very surprised as I had not seen anything like that before.

TheWalkingMan

This is a very funny article.

The iPhone 3G did two things: One, for the first time, a really large number of people actively used the data network. Two, the glorious 3G network crumbled and died and provided speeds slower than 2G EDGE for a vast number of people in the most crowded markets. If you were able to connect at all.

So if anything, I think the iPhone 3G made a case for 4G technologies. 3G works well only when there's not many people using it so talking about it replacing ADSL is plain silly.

3G works well only when there's not many people using it so talking about it replacing ADSL is plain silly.

In a rural location it is the ideal solution when wired ADSL is not possible, the bandwidth usage density should be fine. In cities too many people swamp the system. I would like to see some figures on the number of 2G - 3G handsets in service for a given area vs population density. There are cases where the service providers are swamped the moment a popular application gets loose, spreads and consumes the bandwidth. I was remarking to a friend last night that Windows has been around 25 years and is still in need of security improvements. I feel that the cell phone environment is either perfectly secure or has yet to have the holes explored, I know what I think.

3G works well only when there's not many people using it so talking about it replacing ADSL is plain silly.

In a rural location it is the ideal solution when wired ADSL is not possible, the bandwidth usage density should be fine. In cities too many people swamp the system. I would like to see some figures on the number of 2G - 3G handsets in service for a given area vs population density. There are cases where the service providers are swamped the moment a popular application gets loose, spreads and consumes the bandwidth. I was remarking to a friend last night that Windows has been around 25 years and is still in need of security improvements. I feel that the cell phone environment is either perfectly secure or has yet to have the holes explored, I know what I think.

3G works well only when there's not many people using it so talking about it replacing ADSL is plain silly.

In a rural location it is the ideal solution when wired ADSL is not possible, the bandwidth usage density should be fine. In cities too many people swamp the system. I would like to see some figures on the number of 2G - 3G handsets in service for a given area vs population density. There are cases where the service providers are swamped the moment a popular application gets loose, spreads and consumes the bandwidth. I was remarking to a friend last night that Windows has been around 25 years and is still in need of security improvements. I feel that the cell phone environment is either perfectly secure or has yet to have the holes explored, I know what I think.

It may be the ideal solution for a rural location but here in Thailand I don't think the provision of a 3G network is high on the list of priorities.

3G works well only when there's not many people using it so talking about it replacing ADSL is plain silly.

In a rural location it is the ideal solution when wired ADSL is not possible, the bandwidth usage density should be fine. In cities too many people swamp the system. I would like to see some figures on the number of 2G - 3G handsets in service for a given area vs population density. There are cases where the service providers are swamped the moment a popular application gets loose, spreads and consumes the bandwidth. I was remarking to a friend last night that Windows has been around 25 years and is still in need of security improvements. I feel that the cell phone environment is either perfectly secure or has yet to have the holes explored, I know what I think.

It may be the ideal solution for a rural location but here in Thailand I don't think the provision of a 3G network is high on the list of priorities.

I think more importantly, if you are only going to be able to support a few users, the economics of upgrading the network to 3G don't make sense.

It may be the ideal solution for a rural location but here in Thailand I don't think the provision of a 3G network is high on the list of priorities.

Rest of the world already on 4G while Thailand is lucky to have 2.5G Edge.

Fred & Barney.

The potential for skimoff of the 3G spectrum is just too massive. The next little Taksin is waiting to wet his beak.