Asian telecommunication operators have put their rollout plans for third-generation (3G) mobile networks on hold as industry players seek more time to ensure the success of high-speed wireless services.
The extremely costly 3G license fees and other outlays, still unproven user demand, lack of applications and limited availability of compatible handsets were among the reasons operators cited in delaying their 3G timetables.
An anaemic global economy has also made it harder to raise additional capital and dented consumer confidence, analysts said.
"The fact that the economy is bad means that users will be more careful about spending ... so everybody including the telcos become more cautious," said Bertrand Bidaud, technology research firm Gartner's vice president for telecommunication research.
3G is supposed to bring high-speed Internet access to mobile phones and personal digital assistants but a dearth of devices and appropriate content applications could undermine consumer acceptance. Despite having paid hundreds of millions of dollars for 3G licenses, operators across the world are still upgrading current technology, known as 2.5G, in order to harness its remaining potential before 3G kicks in.
Earlier this week, Singapore's StarHub and rival Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (SingTel) called for more flexibility in the launch of 3G networks in the city-state.
StarHub went so far as to "formally request" the December 31, 2004 deadline imposed by the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) -- industry watchdog -- be abolished.
"Frankly, consumers do not care what we use for our infrastructure technology," StarHub's president and chief executive Terry Clontz said.
"It is the availability and price of data-enabled handsets, useful applications, and premium content that will drive consumer demand, whatever underlying technology is used to provide it," he said.
SingTel did not ask for the deadline to be dropped but said "flexibility will allow operators to introduce 3G in response to market readiness and commercial considerations rather than as a blanket nationwide rollout.
"We believe there is no advantage in launching a nationwide 3G network simply for the sake of doing so," the island's biggest telco said.
Elsewhere in Asia, the launch of 3G in South Korea, another tech-savvy economy similar to Singapore, is behind schedule.
"As in other countries, the lack of content applications and delays in developing handsets and switchboards have caused the delay," an official from the Ministry of Information and Communication said.
South Korea's 3G service launch will take place sometime in the second quarter next year, about one year behind the original timetable. It was supposed to be ready for the opening of the 2002 soccer World Cup in May co-hosted by South Korea and Japan.
In Hong Kong, where consumers are just as obsessed with the latest in gadgets, economic woes have put a severe squeeze on mobile users' wallets.
Some 5.82 million people, or around 90 percent of Hong Kong's population of 6.6 million people, are mobile phone subscribers with the vast majority still using the previous-generation 2G network.
Fewer than 2 percent have purchased 2.5G phones, which cost around HK$3,000 (US$385).
Japan's top mobile phone carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc, which blazed the trail with its i-mode Internet-capable technology, one year ago became the first to launch 3G services, but even that was four months later than planned.
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