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Telecoms show a toned down affair

Two people look at mobile phones at the NEC booth during a media preview of the ITU Telecom World 2003 exhibition, in Geneva, Switzerland, Saturday. The world's biggest telecoms show will opens today in Geneva. PHOTO: AP

Gone are the gigantic exhibition booths, some of which were built like pyramids, had their own elevators or were decorated daily with thousands of fresh roses.

Sobriety is the new opulence at ITU Telecom World, the trade show organized every four years by the International Telecommunication Union, a UN agency.

The 1999 edition took place at the height of the dotcom and telecommunications boom, when money seemed no object for companies eager to ride the wave, sure that changing technology -- like the ill-starred WAP, or wireless application protocol, an attempt to make the Internet user-friendly for mobile phones -- would drive consumer demand.

Telecom World 2003, which opened Saturday and ends Oct. 18, comes amid sustained economic gloom and financial headaches for firms that spent billions of dollars in European bidding wars for licenses to run next-generation mobile networks but have been slow to develop phones and services and claw back their investments.

"This ITU Telecom is of vital importance as it comes at a time when many companies have been in the doldrums and the avarice and greed of a few have tainted the sector and shaken the credibility of the people in our sector," said ITU Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi. "The sector is in soul-searching mood, trying to understand what went wrong."

This year's event has drawn 908 exhibitors from 46 countries -- down from 1,200 firms at the 1999 session. They include government-owned and private phone companies, and manufacturers of everything from mobile handsets to robots that lay underground cables. Senior technology executives -- among them Microsoft founder Bill Gates -- also are taking part.

Many big names have stayed away this time around, including Alcatel, Deutsche Telekom and Nokia, the world's top mobile phone maker.

Nokia, based in Finland, was one of the big spenders last time, raising eyebrows for its organization of a daily shuttle flight for staff and company guests from Helsinki to Geneva.

Nokia officials said the company this year had decided to focus on more specialized events like the CeBIT technology trade show in Germany.

Sweden's Ericsson does not have its own stand at this year's Geneva show.

Instead, it is represented by Sony Ericsson, a joint venture operated by Ericsson and Sony Corp, and tucked away in a larger Sony booth.

Sony Ericsson spokesman Peter Bodor told reporters the company had no plans for any major launches at Telecom World.

Companies have come to Geneva in a more humble frame of mind than 1999, he said.

"Previously, the thought was that technology would drive consumer demand, but in fact usage has been driving the technology," he said.

Half this year's exhibitors are small firms which have never before attended a previous Telecom, Utsumi noted.

"This illustrates how the telecommunication industry is reshaping itself, with a new wave of smaller, innovative companies beginning to emerge," he said.

Utsumi said industry should focus more attention on the needs of customers in poor countries.

The number of mobile subscribers in developing countries has snowballed from 3 million to 500 million in a decade. Inadequate fixed line networks make cell phones an attractive option in many poor countries.

"The main opportunity for the industry to rebound will come from developing countries," Utsumi said. "The industry must render services that are affordable in local terms."
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