Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gdichaz who wrote (9183)	10/29/1999 9:34:00 PM
From: JohnG	Respond to of 54805

Cha2. Magnificant!! I'm happy for you. JohnG

To: gdichaz who wrote (9183)	10/29/1999 10:35:00 PM
From: quartersawyer	Respond to of 54805

Cha2, & thread, re: Q's HDR... We've heard noise from chronic naysayers for a few months now about the possibility of low demand for high transmission rates for data in the mobile mode. At the same time, too much of what is posted on SI fails to differentiate wireless data from mobile wireless data, to the point of a series of posts on the Q threads the other day which woefully assumed that news items about fixed CDMA projects represented back door assaults on Q's IPR in mobile. This recent article clearly states a negative opinion of the value of 3G wireless for European operators. I assume they're referring to the cost of upgrading to W-CDMA. They spent $500 million on the study, it says (impossible!), so the information is questionable. But who stands to gain here, and can anybody say why it ain't so? Mobile Operators Should Compete on Voice Not Data, Says Report By Vanessa Clark 29 October 1999 Mobile operators should use wireless data as a way to increase voice calls and not try to compete with fixed operators in the data market says a new report from U.K. analysts Schema Consulting. The report, Opportunities for Unified Telecoms Services: The convergence of IP, intelligent networks and mobile technologies, sets out to advise mobile operators on business strategies that will justify the investments being made in wireless data technologies. It warns operators that they will not be able to compete with fixed operators in data alone as technologies like xDSL and cable modems mean that wired data rates will continue to outstrip mobile rates. However, Schema sees new technologies like WAP as an excellent chance for operators to drive voice revenues, reduce churn and provide unified telecoms services - but will only ever generate incremental revenues themselves. "Mobile operators are ... going to have to think about the ways in which mobile data can complement the services provided over the fixed network, rather than try to compete with them head on," said Henry Harrison, senior consultant at Schema. Location-based services are going to be crucial here. For example, calls made on a personal mobile phones could be billed to a corporate account when they are used on-site. Another service Schema suggested was that shopkeepers could offer free phone calls from within their stores to attract customers to special offers. The shopkeeper would pay the operator for the calls with the cost off-set by increased sales. Harrison said that pure mobile data is a gamble for operators, especially in Europe where they are being asked to commit billions of dollars to untested networks and technologies as part of the auctioning of licenses. In the U.S. operators are taking a more evolutionary approach to 3G not requiring a massive initial investment. Harrison warns that "expectations for mobile data are in danger of being over-inflated because of a focus in top speeds for new technologies." For instance, GPRS rates, set at around 107.2 kbps, are shared by all the users in the cell - so the more users means a slower actual rate. And although 3G standards make the promise of data rates at up to 2Mbps, this is only under ideal conditions, stationary and at the middle of the cell. It is crucial that operators manage users expectations now to avoid this impacting the market later. Harrison says that operators will have to set up pricing models that charge a premium for higher rates. "Whatever the technology, lower speeds are cheaper and the pricing of data services has got to follow this model," he said. The $500 million study was conducted over the last five months in Europe and the U.S. and consulted operators, ISPs and vendors as well as 700 end-users. <i/> totaltele.com