Worldwide 3G Market Trends and Developments

The survey research on "3G Market Outlook (2007-2010)” that was conducted recently had come to a conclusion. The survey provides an extensive research and objective analysis on the current 3G markets worldwide, overall 3G performance and the future prospects of 3G technology. The report will help telecommunication companies to analyze the key trends and developments in the worldwide 3G market so that they could capture the biggest piece of the market share.

The report also examines and provides an insight into the various dimensions of the worldwide 3G industry such as the current market size, its forecast across segments, end user analysis, regional market analysis, the catalyst for success and others too. It also highlights the factor of success and the failure in worldwide 3G industry plus the all opportunities that is available in the industry.

Some findings from the research:

• CDMA2000 (Code Division Multiple Access 2000) and WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) market is forecasted to account for 41% of the total worldwide wireless market by 2010.
  
• It is forecasted that the worldwide 3G subscribers base will grow at a CAGR of 55.93% for the period spanning from 2006 to 2010 where major share is contributed by Asia-Pacific regions.
  
• Japan is the first nation to have more than 50% of its subscribers using 3G (2006 end). Korea is close at second.
  
• The WCDMA technology is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 15.58%, high as compared to other technologies like CDMA2000 for the period spanning 2007-2010.
  
• 3G market-driving forces are likely to be high data speed with mobile Internet access, mobility, multimedia facilities, videoconferencing, etc.
  
• China’s 3G markets will likely contribute significantly in expanding the 3G subscriber base in the Asia-Pacific region after the Beijing 2008 Olympic event.

It also addresses what are the issues that are critical to succeed in 3G industry.

• What are the trends in 3G market with respect to subscribers, geographic segmentation, future prospects etc?
  
• What are the trends and opportunities in different countries?
  
• What are the successes factors in deployment of 3G technologies?
  
• What are the challenges associated?

This article was picked from http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/May2007/4652.htm

Celcom to offer Mobile TV Service

So much of international news, here are some local news for you. Celcom had formalized a joint collaboration with ROK TV, a United Kingdom based mobile entertainment specialist to offer the most powerful mobile TV service to its customers both via GPRS and 3G making Celcom the first telecommunication operator in Malaysia to offer mobile TV via both networks.

Subscribers will be able to enjoy the best quality mobile TV and the best end user experience with just any 3G mobile phone. The service will commence in August 2007. Dato' Sri Shazalli, Chief Executive Officer of Celcom had quoted, "We have achieved great success with our mobile content services. The move is in line with our position as a powerful multimedia content telecommunications leader in the country. We are excited to have ROK TV as our partner in innovation."

They will be able to watch various shows on their mobile phones ranging from breaking news and sports news to cartoon series, rap music and entertainment news just like any other conventional TV. Among the channels that will be available in the initial stage are ABC News Now, Al-Jazeera, ITN, SNTV, Xtreme TV, and Mixcast. More channels will be added to the current 6 later on.

The subscription fees had not been announced yet but it will not be cheap definitely. So are the users willing to pay a premium price for the service to watch on a small screen? Well, I personally doubt so. Again, time will tell.

News was picked from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19325946/

3GPP?

3GPP? Ever heard of that acronym? What does it stand for anyway? 3GPP represents 3rd Generation Partnership Project and it is a collaboration agreement that was established in December 1998 between ETSI, ARIB or TTC, CCSA , ATIS and TTA to bring together a number of telecommunications standards bodies which are known as “Organizational Partners”. The agreement that was formalized by them is called “The 3rd Generation Partnership Project Agreement”.

The scope of 3GPP is to make a globally applicable 3G mobile-phone system specification within the scope of the ITU's IMT-2000 project. 3GPP specifications are based on evolved GSM specifications. 3GPP standardization encompasses Radio, Core Network and Service architecture. The objective of the projects includes setting 3GPP Technical Specifications and Technical Reports for the 3GPP core network and the specifications for the GSM core network.

For more information visit 3GPP.org


PDF format of “The 3rd Generation Partnership Project Agreement”.
PDF format of "3GPP Scope and Objectives".

3G Embedded Modems the Latest Craze in Wireless World!

Anything related to the word "wireless" is getting crazier as 3G vendors started to develop these embedded 3G modems into laptops. As in current time, users will have to pair up their mobile-phone with the laptop to get 3G Internet access. This is not the most effective way as user have to carry both devices at the same time and they need to pair it up each time they want to use the service with either Bluetooth® or infra-red between the laptop and the mobile-phone.

According to Allen Nogee, a principal analyst with market research firm In-Stat/MDR, he said "Laptop vendors are interested in embedded 3G modems because it offers them the potential to differentiate their products and cellular carriers think it may encourage a few more users to rely on their services".

Whether this will turn into reality or not remains a mystery as embedding a 3G modem into a laptop is not cheap and the modems lock customers into specific operators’ services which is an unappealing option to the users. Furthermore, they still have other alternatives such as Wi-Fi which maybe cheaper and faster to use as well. Going for an unlimited 3G data package tends to be expensive and how often would most users work with a cellular data service? Other problems include 3G carriers have been upgrading their networks so rapidly and so often to support faster transmission speeds. For example, it had evolved from GPRS to Edge then to 3G and now 3G with HSDPA technology.

No one knows whether this idea will work or not in the near future. Only time will tell. Laptop vendors are struggling to keep the cost down as users often only look for cheap and useable laptops. Slapping a device at 1/4 of the total laptop price would not help the vendors in any way at all.

The article was summerized from http://www.technewsworld.com/story/50398.html

New Generation of Mobile VoIP?

fring had announced its latest expansion of the newest mVoIP (mobile Voice over Internet Protocol) technology by adding all of Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0 series devices to the compatible list of handsets that can run this free service. Now all fringsters (users that uses fring's services) can choose to communicate for free between fring, Skype®, Google Talk™, MSN® Messenger, twitter™ and hundreds of SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) providers on any of the 300 Windows Mobile phones and PDAs in addition to more than 20 Nokia devices over any 3G, GPRS or Wi-Fi Internet connection.

This new technology by fring has brought many of the current Wi-Fi enabled but SIM-less Windows Mobile PDAs from the dead and they now can function as open VoIP phones. Internet access is needed to make VoIP phone calls, hold multiple live chat sessions and also make VoIP enabled PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) phone calls.

This service by fring is totally free and it could be downloaded as a mobile phone application that offers real mobile independence to roam freely between 3 kinds of wireless networks (GPRS, 3G, Wi-Fi) and enjoy the benefits of multiple IM (Instant Messaging) from one single contact list. It will save mobile phone users a big sum of money by utilizing free Wi-Fi Internet access that is almost available everywhere and also help users to utilize their usage for those who subscribes to unlimited 3G Internet access data plans, instead of costly mobile phone calls.

This application is currently in BETA testing stage and compatible with the following handset models:

Nokia 60 series, N70 series, N80 series, N90 series, E60 series, E70 series and all Windows Mobile Series 5.0 and 6.0 handsets.

The original article from Forbes.com could be found here

What do you think the mobile operators will do to combat this? They may lose millions or even billions if users start to use this technology fully. Discuss it in my ChatterBox or even my comments area :)

World's First 65-nm 3G Chipset!

QUALCOMM, a wireless telecommunications research and development company based in San Diego, California has announced a significant milestone achievement in semiconductor technology as they unveiled the 65-nanometer (nm) chipsets to be used in newer generation of 3G handsets. They have also begun their worldwide commercial launch of this ultra small chipset technology.

They had launched at least 3 handsets with this technology and they estimate another 40 more new handsets will come along the way this year. This new chip is reportedly to be more cost effective to produce. Besides that, it has greater power efficiency and also a slimmer form factor while supporting the high-speed data capabilities and advanced service opportunities offered by 3G technology.

The 3 handsets vendors that had taken up this technology for their new 3G phone are: 

• The WCDMA (UMTS) U120 handset by Huawei
• The WCDMA (UMTS) KU250 handset by LG Electronics
• The HSDPA U700 handset by Samsung

The original article could be found at here

*There is also an article on LG KU250 handset titled "Cheaper 3G Phones?" in my archive.