A Week In Wireless No. 89
Telecoms.com
24-FEB-2003
Dear (patient) readers,
We had hoped to bring you our annual Riviera edition of AWIW fresh from the 3GSM World Congress last Friday. Unfortunately, the technical gremlins that regularly hitch a ride in the laptops of conference delegates, speakers and, most regrettably, journalists made their presence felt in Cannes. The Informer hopes you do enjoy his belated round-up of the week's events at the GSM industry's premier jamboree.
The great thing about Cannes and the 3GSM World Congress, which if you didn't know was in full swing last week, is that there's something in it for everyone. There were all the old qualities that make the annual industry trip to the French Riviera what it is: the armies of pretty, beaming girls dressed like cartoon characters; the journalists braving the cold February evenings on board yachts because somebody had mentioned the possibility of free drinks; and of course the fact that Cannes is a town inexplicably infested by small, skittering dogs. But there were lots of new aspects to the show for us all to enjoy: the chance to text the chairman during the keynotes, for example, and say which speaker you wanted to evict from the Palais des Festivales, or something.
What this year's 3GSM World Congress demonstrated above all, though, was that the industry is on more of an even keel nowadays. Having ridden the peaks and troughs of the UMTS big dipper over the past few years and having felt distinctly queasy afterwards, there was now a welcome absence of both the naive optimism and the over-pessimistic dread that has typified previous conferences. There was still plenty of straight talking, however, notably from Siemens board member Rudi Lamprecht. This is still "a market in trouble, a market looking for answers", he warned his audience - a perhaps surprising message from the company that had hired out the fanciest boat in Cannes. Fortunately, Lamprecht pledged that Siemens will "change from being a supplier to a proactive partner" to help operators turn things around. What's more the operator, not the supplier, is the one that controls the value chain, Lamprecht reckoned. Not all the speakers at the conference agreed with that of course.
The Congress even had a rock 'n' roll edge to it this year. Billing specialists Sepro went all punk and did up their stand in the style of a well-known Sex Pistols album cover, presumably to bring some attitude to the main exhibition hall. "Never Mind The Billing", the stand's slogan advised - which curiously enough had always been the Informer's policy anyway. And the word on the street was that Canadian rocker Bryan Adams was playing at the Lucent party on Wednesday night, although the Informer was too busy sound-proofing his hotel room that evening to attend.
As ever, though, the rumour-mongering at the stands proved far more interesting than listening to the official line in the sessions. One prime example: the reason that there was no sign of Hutchison at the show, a nameless attendee whispered to the Informer from behind her hand, was that a directive had come from the top banning all Hutch employees from turning up. What might the Hutchison top brass have been afraid of, we wondered. Fresh-faced Hutchlings fraternising with those rough kids from Vodafone? Strictly UMTS folk rubbing shoulders with GSM plebs? Perhaps it was for the best, though, that no Hutchison people were on hand to hear what mmO2 CEO Peter Erskine had to say. The number of customers that 3 stands to steal from mmO2 is "probably none", Erskine told the Informer. But aren't mmO2 and Hutchison unofficially thinking about merging? some recalled. Well probably not any more. Incidentally, Erskine suffered in the Congress rumour mill himself, as a brief mention in his speech of the word EDGE snowballed into an "mmO2 to deploy EDGE" story in the hands of some journalists. But there was no story there at all, as mmO2 then confirmed.
EDGE was in fact something of a theme last week. The Shosteck Group gave its verdict on the technology at one of the first sessions - no EDGE in Europe, they reckoned, but plenty of opportunities in the Americas. The Global Mobile Suppliers Association held a yacht-board meeting about EDGE that was so hush-hush that nobody knows what went on. And Kari Sundback, Nokia's director of 3G Marketing and Sales, IP Networks, told A Week In Wireless that Nokia is trying to persuade all its operator customers to upgrade their GSM networks to EDGE to avoid a huge discrepancy in quality between areas that have 3G coverage and those that don't. Whether they would take the advice was less clear.
And of course the Congress always represents a chance to play with all the latest toys, and this year was no disappointment on that score. There were 3G phones from Nokia (apologies once again for breaking that N-Gage), Sony Ericsson, Motorola and NEC for delegates to play with; Danger Inc brought over its new colour Hiptop, which will be on sale in Europe later this year; plus of course the usual, impressive array of i-mode phones. And on the networking front, IPWireless's TDD hotspot, which centred on the Majestic Hotel, went down particularly well. As IPWireless explained, you could get coverage anywhere around the Croisette, even in the Nice-Cannes helicopter shuttles that were buzzing around the place. The potential benefits of the technology were especially clear to the Informer, himself a proud helicopter owner.
Cannes also proved the latest theatre for the Microsoft/ Symbian software scrap. Microsoft came up with a swathe of new announcements: the decision by T-Mobile to launch a smartphone over the summer and the arrival of Samsung's first GSM/ GPRS device to use Windows were particularly eye-catching. However, Samsung's concurrent decision to take a five per cent stake in Symbian was perhaps enough for the two software rivals to come out of the week honours even.
As ever, the wireless industry's big night out came in the form of Tuesday evening's GSM Association Awards ceremony. 'The Industry Oscars', as the winners are always keen to describe them, were lit up this year by an appearance from Vodafone CEO Sir Christopher Gent, who had come to collect the GSMA Chairman's award for his contribution to the industry. "Thank you Chris," quipped outgoing Chairman, Jim Pratt, "you've been a real gent." "And Jim," came the predictable riposte from comedian Clive Anderson who hosted the occasion, "you've been a real...chairman."
For the GSM Association, though, it was a big week. There was the official installation of Craig Ehrlich as the new Chairman; but more important was the first meeting of the new operator CEO board - the 12 angry men, as the permanent members have swiftly become known. GSMA CEO Rob Conway encouraged us all to look upon the new board as the industry's answer to the UN Security Council - at which point French and American representatives began shouting at one another and shaking their fists. Indeed, you have to wonder how much consensus the new board - which is all about empowering the operator community - will manage. The Informer noted, for example, that a second edition of the press release announcing the board's formation omitted Cingular Wireless, which had been included previously. Which brings us nicely onto rumour number two: that SBC (one of Cingular's parent companies) has reportedly asked a leading infrastructure vendor to give them a quote for swapping out the Cingular network to CDMA. We'll have no waverers in GSM's new flagship organisation, thank you very much.
So a good and productive week was once again had by all. On the usual valedictory note, The Informer overheard one bunch of jaded, groggy-looking delegates leaving the Congress on Friday morning, shaking their heads and mumbling "never again", or something to that effect. But they'll come back next year. They always do.
The Informer
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Spotlight - Horst's 3GSM experience
Telecoms.com
24-FEB-2003
The Informer caught up with Dr Horst Malmsteen, chairman of the MIA, and got his take on events.
The Informer - So, Dr Malmsteen how did you find the show?
HM - Well it was very well signposted, and it's been here for years, so it wasn't that difficult.
- No, I meant, what did you think about the show?
- Yes, I know what you meant. I was just using humour to make a point, namely that language is easy to misinterpret and therefore clarity of expression is very important. And I think one of the problems here at the show this week has been that people always dodge the question and don't like to give you proper answers to your enquiries. This week the MIA used the show to stage its inaugural event, and the talk there was very straight.
- Oh, when was the event, I don't remember it...
- Well, there were so many breakfast briefings, lunch meetings, cocktail hours and informal dinners that we decided to do something different. We had a midnight-feast networking event.
-At midnight?
-Yes. We think this might be why the numbers weren't as good as we had hoped they might be. But more than three companies were represented - and at the very highest level.
-So what was said?
- Oh, I don't think it would be right to go into details, but I can assure you that it was really very clear indeed. We have a number of plans; plans which we plan to put into action in the very near future. We put out a press release, we will be producing an environmentally aware brown paper very soon, which we expect to have quite an impact and we will be having another meeting in a month's time to determine some more of our forward strategy. Of course we are very focused on increasing our membership levels at the moment. We need to reach critical mass in order to secure funds for our next level of operation. And don't ask me what that is because I can't tell you.
- OK. I saw the press release and it didn't actually say anything at all.
- Well, no. You have to be very careful what you tell the press, because they tend to write it down and send it to people. So we at the MIA prefer to withhold any true meaning from our press releases in order to maintain confidentiality.
- I see. What key messages did you pick up at the show?
- Well, I think it's clear that we really need to drill down into the teeth of the user experience. Only by understanding what our users really want and need can we give them something that will suit them. We advocate all board members actually inviting two users to come and live with them for a week to see what they want, and how they use their mobility solutions. I also think we need to stop trying to sell technology, which a lot of people have been saying this week. Fortunately, as an industry, we've managed to avoid selling technology rather well for the past few years, so we're well on our way. And you can quote me on that.
- That is reassuring. Thank you, Dr. Malmsteen. See you next year.
- You might think that. But I couldn't possibly comment. |
