<font color=black>Might as well jump
[rob v: Claude - the double entendre of the title is for you... ;^>]
3G: The cellular industry's leap of faith.
Margot Suydam, Technology Editor -- CommVerge, 11/1/2001
Today's 2G cellular networks have planted the seeds of consumer interest in wireless-data applications. Upcoming 2.5G and 3G networks, which promise always-on Internet access at broadband speeds, foretell an age of ubiquitous connectivity for handheld devices. When that high-bandwidth era arrives, it's expected to generate lucrative opportunities for applications like m-commerce, location-based services, multimedia messaging, and even video-on-demand.
Now that I've given you the hype, what's the reality? Carriers worldwide are indeed racing to build their next-generation cellular networks. However, they're being driven not so much by a belief in some future wireless nirvana as by pure necessity. They must increase voice capacity, stave off competition, and garner new revenue sources.
In short, it's do-or-die time. By all accounts, the transition will be enormously expensive, both in terms of equipment "forklifts" and in terms of spectrum licensing fees. Worse, the payoff is by no means guaranteed. Revenue is merely a distant beacon at this point, and economic and geopolitical conditions are further complicating a journey that would have been risky even in the best of times. Nevertheless, carriers are taking a collective deep breath and girding themselves for the perilous leap forward.
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