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Strategies & Market Trends : Rande Is . . . HOME -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: johnsto1 who wrote (26220)	5/20/2000 12:45:00 PM
From: johnsto1	Respond to of 57584

Wireless pacific rim exploding,web content with wireless devices. Excerpts from todays Barrons Wireless Auctions: Boon and Bane for Asia By Leslie P. Norton Will Asia soon get a windfall from third-generation cellular licenses? Auction results in Britain suggest delicious prospects for nations around the world, not least in Asia, which will be first to see 3G service. Bidders for the five British 3G licenses -- including Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa -- paid a total of $36 billion, or $600 per capita. Third-generation cellular service will probably be less about amazing applications than about easing capacity constraints. But cellular operators, with their existing billing systems, could boost revenues as people start using phones and hand-held devices as credit cards and devices to conduct e-commerce. IDC Asia Pacific says Asian e-commerce now totals $15 billion, and annual growth is about 80%. That could explode with 3G. That adds up to a lot of spending by cellular operators. Using U.K. license valuations and adjusting for population and market share, Jardine Fleming reckons that Hong Kong 3G licenses could be $4.24 billion, South Korea's $2.3 billion, and Taiwan's $13.2 billion. Meanwhile, the costs of building out the 3G networks themselves could range from $257 million for Hong Kong's SmarTone to $9.4 billion for DoCoMo. There are other issues to consider. There are two competing versions of third-generation cellular standards. Handsets will need to be compatible with both, which will make them more expensive. China has made noises about yet a third standard, one reason Europe-rich in handset and switch manufacturersheld off on approving China's entry into WTO. (Europe signed off on China last week.) "Being able to dominate China is a big issue," says Jessica Madoc-Jones, the Yankee Group's Asia chief. Another reason SINA*will see incredible growth,being a former software company they have the tools to smoothly incorporate wireless products that dominate the Pacific Rim. biz.yahoo.com biz.yahoo.com