Maurice, a couple of points on handsets you may have missed while travelling on planes rather than websurfing:
1. G* mgmt guidance as recently as last week is that of the 10K user terminals now with distributors, 3K are from ericy, the remaining 7K split between Q and Telit. So I don't think it's handset availability that's slowing Vod down in Oz; I think it's GW buildout. My impression is Dubbo was only recently upgraded from a Telemetry only site to a full fledged GW; Mt Isa and Meekathara (sp?) are still in process, with ETA 3/00. Someone posted a note that Vod/Oz had recently conducted it's first test call there.
2. The Telital PR seemed pretty bullish on G* from what I can tell. They seem ready to try and take as much biz as there will be; the Telit guy said they could build 1M UTs per year on their own, and they're coming out with a new, smaller/lighter phone in the "spring."
3. IMO, the best GSM markets for G* will be S. Africa, China and Russia. S. Africa is held up by regulatory delays; China & Russia are ...well, no one seems to really know. The Italian, S. Korean and French GWs are mainly monuments to national pride. I suppose even in those countries a few odd thousand users will be found, but after that, we really need some movement on the GW and regulatory fronts in less well developed climes.
4. In the W. Hemisphere, things may get better pretty soon. Several good markets ready to open this MONTH, we are advised, and all can use Q phones.
-RS |
