2.5G Wireless Phones Boost

Letting customers walk out of a shop with a preconfigured 2.5G mobile phone in their hands where GPRS and WAP is already working, an e-mail application is ready to go and some other mobile services like multiplayer games or instant messaging are configured and working, can really make a difference to the speed of the rollout of 2.5G.

Inset above shows Lycos and Daum webmail services phone screens.

This is what they have done in Korea and in the first year, over 9 million customers (25% of the 36 million mobile subscribers) have bought a new preconfigured 2.5G mobile phone and out of them 85% are frequently using mobile services!

Many customers who today have a GPRS mobile phone in Europe, have not actually started using GPRS, simply because they have got it configured it yet, or tried and given up. As mobile phones get more and more complicated, being able to actually use the phone with a few touches of a button - and no long complicated set-up procedures - will become more and more crucial for the success of both the 2.5G mobile phones and the take up of new mobile services.

When a customer walks out of a store in Korea with a new 2.5G mobile phone in their hands, the phone has been preloaded with a number of applications that the operator hopes the mobile user will start using. In Korea the mobile operators are using sub-brands to market and sell mobile phones to different customer segments - so the phone a teenager buys will have different pre-installed applications than a phone a woman buys!

A typical set of preloaded applications in a teenagers phone could be:

-An e-mail application with an entertaining interface

-A Chat application

-A number of games

A typical set of preloaded applications in a adults phone could be:

-An e-mail application

-A calendar (PIMS) application

-An Instant Messaging application

The different applications are either already paid for, through the subscription or have a free evaluation period of typically a month. Or it can be a combination of both - e.g. where the e-mail is included in the subscription and the other applications can be freely tried for a period of time.

For the content providers and service creators, actually getting your application pre-installed in the mobile phone is ultimate goal and does give competition between the service creators and content owners to develop innovative, entertaining and easy to use services that the mobile users can quickly start using. There were two main business models to get applications developed for the 2.5G mobile phones. The first was where operators subsidised the development of new application and gave a smaller revenue share by keeping usage prices low or free and the second was that the service owner put his application on the phone for free, but then got a larger slice of the revenue from the service.

As there is only room for a limited number of applications on each mobile phone, the mobile operator will usually preinstall 4 or 5 applications, leaving room on the mobile phone for the user to download another 4 or 5 applications - depending on their size.

There are many other applications for the mobile user to choose from and they can be accessed either from a mobile portal or from the brand or sub-brand portal that the customer subscribes to.

Of course, the applications that are preloaded in the mobile phone get the most usage, but after customers have gotten used to the applications, they start looking for other applications that also can inform them, help them or entertain them on their mobile phones. It is common that later on in the life span of the phone, the original pre-loaded applications get replaced by the subscriber to ones that suit his or her needs even better.

Strand Consult spent almost 9 months analysing the worlds most advanced mobile market. We met with all the players in the mobile value chain and been honoured to have access to information not previously disclosed.

We describe what the operators, the content owners and the technology companies business case actually looks like for real. With key figures and information we give a detailed description of a mobile market with over 30 million mobile customers - of which 9 million are 2.5G users and 85% are regular users of 2.5G mobile services.

TODAY'S PRESS RELEASES

TTP Communications announces that TCL mobile Communication Ltd, China's largest manufacturer of mobile phones, has licensed TTPCom's GPRS (2.5G) platform.

Local analysts say the new entry of Thai Mobile and Hutchison CAT is unlikely to affect the revenues or market share of the three main mobile-phone players.

China's mobile market is expected to continue to bring in sophisticated technology from overseas network operators, while at the same time, give play to market forces in expanding the country's mobile services.

onix announced its protocol test support feature for the newest Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) standard release.

DoOnGo Technologies announced that Matsushita Communication Industrial will license the popular Mobile Intelligence(TM) to be featured on Panasonic's new phones.

Vesper, a Brazilian operator providing services to 17 states in the Southeastern and Northern regions of the country, including Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, is the first Latin American operator to deploy a 3G CDMA2000 1xEV-DO network.

DMA2000 is rapidly expanding throughout the Americas. In the past year, 18 operators in North, Central and Latin America have deployed CDMA2000 and are now delivering 3G services to millions of subscribers.

Ericsson and AT&T Wireless today completed the first WCDMA/UMTS call in a live network environment in the Americas. With initial packet data speeds up to 384 kbps, the call demonstrates true 3G capabilities

okia and Racal Instruments announced that the two companies are working together to deliver test equipment for third generation CDMA2000 1xEV-DV networks.

PT Wireless Indonesia (WIN), a cellular telecommunication network and service provider in Indonesia, has selected Airvana to enable high-speed wireless and broadband data services for its CDMA2000 1xEV-DO network in Indonesia.

Alaska Communications Systems the leading integrated communications provider in Alaska, has selected Airvana to provide high-speed wireless and broadband equipment for its CDMA2000 1xEV-DO

Thin Multimedia, Inc., a leading provider of wireless video streaming solutions, today announced that Reliance Infocomm Ltd. has licensed Thin Multimedia's complete mobile video streaming solution to provide video services to wireless subscribers in India. Reliance Infocomm is a subsidiary of the Reliance Group, India's largest private enterprise.

The CDMA Development Group (CDG) (www.cdg.org) today reported that there were nearly 135 million CDMA subscribers and 24 million CDMA2000 users worldwide at the end of the third quarter of 2002.

Nortel Networks announced the ability to provide integrated solutions for wireless operators that will seamlessly link existing and future Wireless Wide Area Networks (WWANs) with fast-emerging wireless 'hot spots,' also known as Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs).

Anite announced the availability of 200 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) conformance test cases. The test cases enable the testing and approval of mobile phones and wireless terminals for use on next-generation cellular networks.

-PHONE announced the launch of Vodafone Global Standard on December 20 to offer customers in Japan unprecedented access to mobile services at home and abroad. This Third Generation (“3G”) service is based on international Third Generation Partnership Project (“3GPP”) standards

A glimpse of the near future can actually be seen by looking at the palm of a South Koreans hand - but the price of a prediction is just too high.

The company expects 10% or slightly more handset market growth in 2003 - while anticipating a challenging industry environment in wireless infrastructure to continue

Fujitsu Limited will demonstrate a variety of advanced broadband and mobile products and solutions at ITU TELECOM ASIA 2002 which will take place in Hong Kong

EuroTel Bratislava announced that the second installment of the UMTS license fee in the amount of Sk 999 million was paid in full to the Telecommunications Office of the Slovak Republic

Airvana Inc and Winphoria Networks Inc will demonstrate push-to-talk applications over a live CDMA2000 1xEV-DO network and interoperability with 1xRTT networks

QUALCOMM Incorporated announced that the Company will be exhibiting and demonstrating its industry-leading wireless solutions at 2002 CDMA Americas Congress

Ericsson and Hutchison have signed a seven-year agreement to implement an innovative services business model that will deliver increased efficiency and significant cost savings.

Telstra launched Australia’s first fully operational third generation (3G) mobile service for business customers, which is faster, more powerful and feature rich than anything they would have experienced before.

After twice delaying a planned launch, Japan's J-Phone Corp is finally set to start commercial third-generation (3G) mobile phone services this month, testing the water for British parent Vodafone Group Plc.

HUTCHISON 3G, the UK’s new entrant mobile operator, is facing growing pressure to merge with another group - possibly MmO2, formerly BT Cellnet - early next year after suggestions last week that it cannot meet its loan covenant requirements by the second half of next year.