3g-g
20th June 2005, 01:13 AM
From the Sunday Times online. (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2103-1659855,00.html)
Matthew flipped open his LG mobile phone after the final whistle at his beloved Birmingham football club and went to check other results. Video clips should show him all the goals of rival teams, but, moments later, he closed the handset in frustration. His connection had jammed.
Matthew is a Nokia employee, and, because he knows his phones, the young executive couldnt hide his contempt at the service interruption. His stumbling first steps with the latest mobile technology are common: the new high-speed services promised by third-generation (3G) phones have a nasty habit of backfiring.
The video clips are great when they work, he said, but the services dont live up to the promise of the adverts. If I want info quickly, Im often best doing a Tarrant and phoning a friend.
3G is the latest high-speed data technology to link a mobile with its network (the familiar operators are 3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone) and was designed as broadband for phones, promising exciting extra services such as video calls, fast internet access, television and music downloads. Oh, and voice calls. There is a growing suspicion, however, that too many corners were cut in the rush to bring mobile multimedia onto the market, resulting in poor reception and handsets that are complicated to operate, oversized and short on battery life.
Anyone buying into the extras finds themselves road-testing a technology that is still in a developmental stage. Frankly, you might be better off on an older network, where GSM technology has driven mobile phones with increasing reliability and ubiquity for more than a decade; although designed for voice, it also handles e-mail and internet access.
3G does seem an unreliable tech- nology, said Christopher Christoforou, a senior researcher with the consumer watchdog Which?. Video calls are sometimes dropped because you go outside a 3G area, but they also seem to drop for no apparent reason. In terms of quality, the new services are mixed. Video calls are ropy and the picture is blocky. Sound quality isnt good and the video is often out of sync.
The mobile-phone industry famously paid £22 billion for licences to operate 3G networks, so it was always imperative to launch paid-for services as soon as possible to recoup the investment. Heavily marketed novelty entertainment services, such as Big Brother clips at £1 a throw, highlight the operators desperation to generate a return. For the most part, though, consumers are not taking the bait and remain unsure of the value of gimmicky videos and chart- music downloads.
In a bid to encourage take-up, many tariffs offer cheaper phone calls, and if your 3G signal drops out, the connection reverts to a GSM network so you shouldnt be cut off. Vodafone, for example, charges £40 per month for its Anytime 350 package, which runs on regular GSM technology and includes 350 minutes of calls to any network, regardless of the time of day. On Vodafones 3G tariff, the same fee will buy 500 minutes and includes 50 minutes of video calls and 100 free text messages. Call tariffs on the 3 network are even cheaper.
Go to any of the operators websites, however, and youll see maps showing scant coverage, along with forecasts that some areas will have to wait for years before 3G services arrive. Although a phone reverts to GSM when out of range of 3G, if youve bought into the latest technology for its whizzy new services, then youll be disappointed. Put simply, youre driving a Porsche, but often end up in the slow lane with the workaday but reliable Ford Focuses.
The 3G early adopters are guinea pigs. The fact is that everyone in the industry is on a steep learning curve, and we should expect another year while networks are optimised, said Nigel Wright, director of applications engineering at the communications analyst Spirent. In the meantime, inevitably, you are going to have issues with coverage penetration into buildings, for example, is not good.
To be fair, the phone companies are improving 3G coverage. The ultimate goal is to reach 99% of the population, but we are at about 65%, and thats mainly in the more urban areas, said Vodafones Toby Robson.
The flaky reception footprint is only one of several reasons that consumers are reluctant to move to 3G. The handsets now on the market are generally bulkier and more battery-hungry than GSM models. Early phones ran out of power in as little as three hours, a travesty when you consider that people rely on their phones as a constant companion.
In a recent Which? report, only one 3G phone, the Samsung SGH-Z107, qualified for a Best Buy award (see Buyers guide). Newer 3G phones have improved: the Samsung is a bit smaller than normal, and battery life is better, but GSM handsets are still smaller and easier to use, Christoforou said.
According to a YouGov poll, 70% of mobile subscribers believe that phones are growing more complicated. Rather than technological advances making it easier for the consumer, they seem to be making things more complex, said John Hughes, executive vice-president of Netonomy, which commissioned the YouGov research.
The phone industry blames the complexity of 3G handsets for their teething problems. There are so many features in these phones that they end up bigger than second-generation handsets, but they are shrinking, said Michael Milligan of the Mobile Manufacturers Forum.
Nokia says that the poor image of 3G phones stems from terrible design, as companies rushed to be the first with a 3G handset on sale. For anyone moving from a simple dial-and-talk mobile phone, a menu-based high-tech handset can feel like walking into a maze, with confusion at every turn.
As it is, one-fifth of the population shuns mobile telephony altogether, and in response to research that found people wanted fewer, not more, functions on their mobiles, Vodafone last month launched the Simple Sagems, two foolproof GSM models.
More worrying for phone companies is the fact that even among existing cus- tomers, new-era services are not striking a chord. These include music and video downloads, and video calling, where a moving image of both parties accompanies sound. Orange this month launched live television programming, including CNN news and two cartoon channels, over its 3G network for a £10 monthly subscription. The service, however, works only on the new Nokia 6680 handset.
All the networks offer video clips such as highlights of football matches. This can be impressive, considering the screen size, especially if downloaded, then viewed, rather than streamed live. Although some media analysts predict that the small screen will one day be as vital as the television for delivering news, the concept of video by phone (whether calls or clips) is proving a hard sell, especially given the £5 per month that 3 charges for sports clips, for example.
Video calling in general hasnt taken off, said James Barford, senior researcher with Enders Analysis. Look at video conferencing there are empty conferencing suites all across London. The quality and time lag make it very unsatisfactory. Voice calling works well because it is simple and people are comfortable with it. Thats not the case with video.
As for the other services, such as downloading music, I see no reason why youd want to pay a premium for downloading music to your phone when you could put it on your computer, then transfer it to your phone. Vodafone, for example, charges £1.50 for a track that you could buy for 79p from iTunes, or less from some sources. People use phones to make voice calls.
There lies the rub. Try as they might, the phone companies have yet to find a killer application that exploits the new technology with compelling content or tools: 3G is a high-speed train waiting for passengers.
The resistance to multimedia functions is borne out by research that shows even old-fashioned 2G camera phones are underemployed. Continental Research says nearly one in four cam-phone owners never sends photo messages, and only one in five sends more than one picture a week. Camera-phone messaging is declining, with the average number of picture messages sent per subscriber dropping from six per month to fewer than four. By contrast, the Mobile Data Association maintains that plain text- messaging services are rampant, with 2.4 billion messages being sent every month.
It is possible that 3G will take off, but only when the phones are more manageable, reception improves and someone comes up with an idea that exploits the bandwidth imaginatively. Until then, early adopters living in areas with good 3G reception might enjoy the short-term benefits of these phones as might anyone who simply wants the cheapest calls, regardless of the un- gainliness of their phone. For the rest, it might be better to sit tight and wait for the industry to pull its finger out.
At the Consumers Association, Christoforou offered the pragmatic verdict: 3G is very much in its infancy, so for the time being, people are generally best off sticking with their 2G phones.
Matthew flipped open his LG mobile phone after the final whistle at his beloved Birmingham football club and went to check other results. Video clips should show him all the goals of rival teams, but, moments later, he closed the handset in frustration. His connection had jammed.
Matthew is a Nokia employee, and, because he knows his phones, the young executive couldnt hide his contempt at the service interruption. His stumbling first steps with the latest mobile technology are common: the new high-speed services promised by third-generation (3G) phones have a nasty habit of backfiring.
The video clips are great when they work, he said, but the services dont live up to the promise of the adverts. If I want info quickly, Im often best doing a Tarrant and phoning a friend.
3G is the latest high-speed data technology to link a mobile with its network (the familiar operators are 3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone) and was designed as broadband for phones, promising exciting extra services such as video calls, fast internet access, television and music downloads. Oh, and voice calls. There is a growing suspicion, however, that too many corners were cut in the rush to bring mobile multimedia onto the market, resulting in poor reception and handsets that are complicated to operate, oversized and short on battery life.
Anyone buying into the extras finds themselves road-testing a technology that is still in a developmental stage. Frankly, you might be better off on an older network, where GSM technology has driven mobile phones with increasing reliability and ubiquity for more than a decade; although designed for voice, it also handles e-mail and internet access.
3G does seem an unreliable tech- nology, said Christopher Christoforou, a senior researcher with the consumer watchdog Which?. Video calls are sometimes dropped because you go outside a 3G area, but they also seem to drop for no apparent reason. In terms of quality, the new services are mixed. Video calls are ropy and the picture is blocky. Sound quality isnt good and the video is often out of sync.
The mobile-phone industry famously paid £22 billion for licences to operate 3G networks, so it was always imperative to launch paid-for services as soon as possible to recoup the investment. Heavily marketed novelty entertainment services, such as Big Brother clips at £1 a throw, highlight the operators desperation to generate a return. For the most part, though, consumers are not taking the bait and remain unsure of the value of gimmicky videos and chart- music downloads.
In a bid to encourage take-up, many tariffs offer cheaper phone calls, and if your 3G signal drops out, the connection reverts to a GSM network so you shouldnt be cut off. Vodafone, for example, charges £40 per month for its Anytime 350 package, which runs on regular GSM technology and includes 350 minutes of calls to any network, regardless of the time of day. On Vodafones 3G tariff, the same fee will buy 500 minutes and includes 50 minutes of video calls and 100 free text messages. Call tariffs on the 3 network are even cheaper.
Go to any of the operators websites, however, and youll see maps showing scant coverage, along with forecasts that some areas will have to wait for years before 3G services arrive. Although a phone reverts to GSM when out of range of 3G, if youve bought into the latest technology for its whizzy new services, then youll be disappointed. Put simply, youre driving a Porsche, but often end up in the slow lane with the workaday but reliable Ford Focuses.
The 3G early adopters are guinea pigs. The fact is that everyone in the industry is on a steep learning curve, and we should expect another year while networks are optimised, said Nigel Wright, director of applications engineering at the communications analyst Spirent. In the meantime, inevitably, you are going to have issues with coverage penetration into buildings, for example, is not good.
To be fair, the phone companies are improving 3G coverage. The ultimate goal is to reach 99% of the population, but we are at about 65%, and thats mainly in the more urban areas, said Vodafones Toby Robson.
The flaky reception footprint is only one of several reasons that consumers are reluctant to move to 3G. The handsets now on the market are generally bulkier and more battery-hungry than GSM models. Early phones ran out of power in as little as three hours, a travesty when you consider that people rely on their phones as a constant companion.
In a recent Which? report, only one 3G phone, the Samsung SGH-Z107, qualified for a Best Buy award (see Buyers guide). Newer 3G phones have improved: the Samsung is a bit smaller than normal, and battery life is better, but GSM handsets are still smaller and easier to use, Christoforou said.
According to a YouGov poll, 70% of mobile subscribers believe that phones are growing more complicated. Rather than technological advances making it easier for the consumer, they seem to be making things more complex, said John Hughes, executive vice-president of Netonomy, which commissioned the YouGov research.
The phone industry blames the complexity of 3G handsets for their teething problems. There are so many features in these phones that they end up bigger than second-generation handsets, but they are shrinking, said Michael Milligan of the Mobile Manufacturers Forum.
Nokia says that the poor image of 3G phones stems from terrible design, as companies rushed to be the first with a 3G handset on sale. For anyone moving from a simple dial-and-talk mobile phone, a menu-based high-tech handset can feel like walking into a maze, with confusion at every turn.
As it is, one-fifth of the population shuns mobile telephony altogether, and in response to research that found people wanted fewer, not more, functions on their mobiles, Vodafone last month launched the Simple Sagems, two foolproof GSM models.
More worrying for phone companies is the fact that even among existing cus- tomers, new-era services are not striking a chord. These include music and video downloads, and video calling, where a moving image of both parties accompanies sound. Orange this month launched live television programming, including CNN news and two cartoon channels, over its 3G network for a £10 monthly subscription. The service, however, works only on the new Nokia 6680 handset.
All the networks offer video clips such as highlights of football matches. This can be impressive, considering the screen size, especially if downloaded, then viewed, rather than streamed live. Although some media analysts predict that the small screen will one day be as vital as the television for delivering news, the concept of video by phone (whether calls or clips) is proving a hard sell, especially given the £5 per month that 3 charges for sports clips, for example.
Video calling in general hasnt taken off, said James Barford, senior researcher with Enders Analysis. Look at video conferencing there are empty conferencing suites all across London. The quality and time lag make it very unsatisfactory. Voice calling works well because it is simple and people are comfortable with it. Thats not the case with video.
As for the other services, such as downloading music, I see no reason why youd want to pay a premium for downloading music to your phone when you could put it on your computer, then transfer it to your phone. Vodafone, for example, charges £1.50 for a track that you could buy for 79p from iTunes, or less from some sources. People use phones to make voice calls.
There lies the rub. Try as they might, the phone companies have yet to find a killer application that exploits the new technology with compelling content or tools: 3G is a high-speed train waiting for passengers.
The resistance to multimedia functions is borne out by research that shows even old-fashioned 2G camera phones are underemployed. Continental Research says nearly one in four cam-phone owners never sends photo messages, and only one in five sends more than one picture a week. Camera-phone messaging is declining, with the average number of picture messages sent per subscriber dropping from six per month to fewer than four. By contrast, the Mobile Data Association maintains that plain text- messaging services are rampant, with 2.4 billion messages being sent every month.
It is possible that 3G will take off, but only when the phones are more manageable, reception improves and someone comes up with an idea that exploits the bandwidth imaginatively. Until then, early adopters living in areas with good 3G reception might enjoy the short-term benefits of these phones as might anyone who simply wants the cheapest calls, regardless of the un- gainliness of their phone. For the rest, it might be better to sit tight and wait for the industry to pull its finger out.
At the Consumers Association, Christoforou offered the pragmatic verdict: 3G is very much in its infancy, so for the time being, people are generally best off sticking with their 2G phones.