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To: 49thMIMOMander who wrote (14978)	9/6/2001 9:01:32 PM
From: JohnG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 34857

Vodafone says its 3G services will fall short By Dan Roberts, Telecoms Correspondent Published: September 6 2001 20:22 \| Last Updated: September 6 2001 21:45 Vodafone, the world's largest mobile phone operator, has warned that its third generation networks will not be able to offer much-heralded multimedia services when launched next year. Vodafone has spent approximately £13bn ($14.5bn) on a dozen 3G European licences, but in recent days has told City of London analysts that the technology remains too slow and expensive for users to receive live video or music clips. Instead the telecoms group will guarantee access to the internet only at data speeds which fall below the internationally-agreed standard definition of 3G services. Vodafone's initial service will also be slower than the minimum specified by the UK Government when it auctioned licences last year. Over the past year Vodafone and other telecoms groups paid a total of E112bn ($99.5bn) to acquire 3G licences around Europe, predicting that widespread multimedia services would offset the expense of building new networks. Several operators are still promising to send video clips of football matches when they launch next year, although analysts said that Vodafone's comments put this in doubt. Vodafone's warning about data speeds for its 3G networks across Europe are likely to intensify concerns that the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephone Service) standard which was agreed by all European operators is suffering from serious technological snags. Vodafone still hopes to be able to provide multi-media services on its 3G phones, but it could take several years to achieve. As news of the company's gloomy conclusions leaked out from the private briefings with analysts on Thursday, Vodafone's share price fell 4 per cent to 137p. There were also sharp falls in other technology stocks. The FTSE 100 index closed down 112 at 5,204, its lowest level since since October 1998. British Telecommunications hit a new four-year low, finishing down 24.5p at 370.5p. Shares were also hit by new figures which showed that British manufacturing output fell at the fastest rate in a decade in the three months to July. Technology industries suffered their steepest output decline on record. The British operator intends to configure its network to guarantee data speeds of 64,000 bits per second, which is sufficient to improve the quality of existing text-messaging services and basic text-based internet information. However, the speed is far below what is commonly required for good quality moving pictures or sound files. Still pictures will also take up to 12 seconds to download, according to research by investment bank Morgan Stanley. Vodafone insists some users in certain areas may be able to receive considerably more than 64 kilo bits per second (kbps), but because higher data rates will not be universal, it does not plan to offer services that rely on such network capacity. On Thursday night, the company said: "The initial network design will guarantee 64kbps from launch but the network will have capacity to offer up to 384kbps, so 64kpbs is the absolute minimum." Analysts believe the company will save around £500m in capital expenditure costs this year by not building infrastructure required for faster guaranteed speeds. The International Telecoms Union, the body responsible for setting common global standards, defines "third generation" mobile networks as those that can provide at least 144kbps in all environments and up to 2 mega bits per seconds in certain situations. news.ft.com. ---------- Well... with NTT's delays and Europe's apparent problems, Korea has exclusive claim to Video On Demand - that it presently offers with 1x (whose performance will be markedly improved by year's end with 5100 chipets). And matters will become even more interesting by the World Cup with do. Not sure what infrastructure Vodafone will save... If the quantity of base stations is reduced - in light of the extremely high chip rate for the uplink handover search window that's required for asynchronous handoff - dropped connections, freezing and extreme battery drain will result.... Just ask NTT, who doesn't yet know how many base stations will suffice...