Based on experiences in Japan, pundits said local demand for third-generation (3G) telecommunications services may remain extremely limited because popular mobile content doesn't require super-fast transmission speeds.
"Consumers don't actually care about how much bandwidth the 3G network has ... their only concern is what they can get from their mobile handsets," said Angel Li (
The public and industry have been misled by "high-speed" mobile Internet services for years, she said, adding that the real driver behind 3G service is applications.
For instance, the most popular data applications in Japan -- photo, video-mail, mobile games and graphic services -- do not require extensive bandwidth to make them race.
According to Chikatomo Hodo, an Accenture official based in Tokyo, the market acceptance of NTT DoCoMo Inc's 3G services has not been positive.
In October last year, NTT DoCoMo offered the world's first 3G services in Tokyo and other major cities in Japan that allowed users to connect to the Internet via cellphones at 384kbps (kilobytes per second), or 40-times faster than most mobile-Internet connections.
As of last week, DoCoMo said it had only attracted 134,000 subscribers -- far short of the 1.4 million users the company has targeted for March 2003.
KDDI Corp, Japan's second-largest telecom operator, launched 3G services in March this year and it already has more than 2 million 3G subscribers.
KDDI offers mobile-Internet services at 144kbps, or just 15-times faster than traditional mobile-phone Internet connections.
Rather than offering super-high-speed transmission speeds like NTT DoCoMo, KDDI chose to focus more on photo and short video-mail applications that enable users to take and exchange pictures or record short videos via their handsets, Hodo said.
Based on what we learned from the Japan market, said Li, we suggest Taiwanese operators slow down the pace of 3G deployment.
"Mobile companies can offer basic mobile Internet services on their existing networks first, using it as a testing ground, and then develop advanced applications based on that," she said.
In an effort to boost market acceptance for 3G, operators should provide entry-level services from existing networks and then offer access to advanced 3G servises in the future, she said.
An increasing number of mobile services around the world have taken this strategy, Li said. Mobile players in South Korea, for example, are delivering motion-picture reviews, real-time traffic reports and various downloadable clips of TV programs on color handsets.
According to Accenture, South Korean sales of mobile Internet services last year accounted for only 5 percent of mobile companies' total revenue. But the addition of mobile-video content is expected to help boost that figure to 20 percent in 2005.
"Taiwan's development of mobile-Internet service lags behind that of South Korea -- I expect Taiwan won't reach the 20 percent level until 2006," Li said.
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