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To: carranza2 who wrote (10945)	4/23/2001 3:37:06 PM
From: S100	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 34857

day old but more on Isle of Man FEATURE-Tiny British isle races Japan to be first with 3G Sunday April 22, 10:33 PM EDT By Richard Baum, UK telecoms correspondent LONDON, April 23 (Reuters) - The handsets have only just arrived from Japan and Britain's foot-and-mouth epidemic has delayed things, but Mark Briers is still confident the tiny Isle of Man will lead the world into a new telecommunications era next month. On this self-governing island between England and Northern Ireland, Briers and 10 of his Manx Telecom colleagues are working round the clock to launch the first third-generation (3G) mobile telephone service by the end of May. If the base stations communicate properly and the new customer billing software doesn't crash, the Manx bankers and farmers will be able to hold video conferences, check weather forecasts and download games on mobile phones at the same time as the technology hits Tokyo. (hope it is sooner) "We're shooting like crazy for the end of May," said Briers, Manx Telecom's 3G director. "We've gone to 24 hours working to do the best we can." The plan is bringing rare attention to the 30 mile (48 km) by 10 mile (16 km) isle that usually only rates a mention for its offshore banking industry, TT (Tourist Trophy) motorcycle race and as the birthplace of the Bee Gees' Gibbs brothers. It's no accident that the island's sole telecoms provider is neck and neck with Japan's NTT DoCoMo (9437) in the race to launch 3G first. Manx Telecom is part of British Telecommunications Plc (BT), which decided in April 1999 to use the island as a test bed for the technology it will roll out in the UK and continental Europe from next year. FREE LICENCE With no competition and a free licence from the Manx government, the company was able to start work on the project a year before the rest of the world even began auctioning the licences that have smothered the industry in debt. At the launch, 10 base stations will provide coverage for 70 percent of the 75,000 inhabitants. Briers was aiming for 100 percent, but foot-and-mouth precautions have prevented the installation of another 20 base stations on farmland. A bigger problem could be a shortage of handsets. So far there are just three on the island, including two recently arrived videophones that the company is preparing to test over the network. The manufacturer, Japan's NEC Corp (6701), is promising 200 for the launch, after which Briers says it could be another year before they are available in volume.(hand built?) It's debatable whether that amounts to the commercial launch the company is claiming, but relative to its size it's similar to the number of phones DoCoMo expects to sell in the first year after its launch, also scheduled for the end of May. Some of the phones will be sold in shops -- Briers won't disclose the price -- but most will be given to selected groups to allow the company to experiment with services for a wide-ranging user base. Government officials, the tourism industry and the winners of a school essay competition will be among the lucky pioneers. SERVICESON OFFER Whether they will want to use 3G services is one of the big unknowns facing the industry. Among those in the works for the Manx launch are location-based services developed by Siemens (SIEGn), which will identify the position of the user and offer them local shopping or tourism information. Briers said 40 blue-chip companies are preparing 3G versions of their WAP (wireless application protocol) mobile Internet sites for the service, ranging from weather information to betting. Some may offer the ability to download 10-second video clips at seven times the speed of a dial-up fixed-line Internet service. Games could be one of the most popular applications. Online games company Gameplay (GAM) will overlook the island's conservative traditions and invite users to mate penguins in the game "Arctic Love". At 1,000th the size of the UK, the island is clearly little more than a laboratory for BT. But the leap to 3G from current technology is so great that the Manx experiment should be taken seriously, said Declan Lonergan, European mobile director for technology consultants Yankee Group. "It's such a different proposition to GSM (general system for mobile communications) that there will be a lot of learning on the job," he said. Briers says he can already see clear benefits for BT. With real performance data from live base stations it will be able to refine its network simulation software and roll out services faster elsewhere, he said. It will also give it a headstart on how to market the service. "You'll get the first pages of your marketing plan. You won't get your whole first chapter." But with so much at stake with 3G, he said, even the first pages are worth having. money.iwon.com