3G Will Invigorate Wireless Music - Webnoize
8/24/2001
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, Aug 23, 2001 (Newsbytes via COMTEX) -- Today's wireless music services are cumbersome and expensive, but according to a new study, the future sounds great and is coming soon.
The study by Webnoize, a company that monitors the digital entertainment industries, said third-generation (3G) wireless technology will be deployed in the United States by the end of this year. The launch of 3G, which features faster wireless data transfer speeds, will allow the delivery of multimedia services to mobile consumers, the firm said.
Matt Bailey, a Webnoize analyst, said people have been talking about 3G for so long, many do not realize it is nearly ready to take off.
"We are getting pretty close to these services being reality instead of vaporware," said Bailey. "The problem is, many media companies are not ready for the roll-out of these services."
Bailey said four companies will roll out high-speed 3G networks in select U.S. cities in the next six months. He said AT&T, Verizon and Cingular are targeting late 2001, while Sprint PCS is aiming for late this year or early 2002.
"Those four represent the vast majority of nationwide U.S. carriers," he said.
Presently, there are three working wireless music services in the world, with two in Japan and one in the U.S., Webnoize said.
The Japanese services allow users to sample from 30 seconds to 45 seconds of music tracks, with an option to purchase and download the full track. The purchase price per track ranges from $1.29 to $3.23, depending on the service, but Bailey said the cost is inflated by a 10 cent to 12 cent per-minute usage charge.
"The cost per song can be up to $79 for a single MP3 file," he said. "This price level will deter all but the most ardent music fans."
Bailey said the 2.5 G services that soon will be deployed in Asia and Europe will drop the cost per song to about $11. "In a couple of years, 3G will take it down to just 27 cents per song."
Sprint PCS currently offers U.S. subscribers access to an online music "locker" where, for $10 a month, tracks can be transferred from a PC to a specially designed phone. Bailey said the Uproar phone from Samsung combines an MP3 player with a cell phone.
"People can connect the phone to their PC and transfer music from the PC to the phone to listen to later," he said.
The study said the wireless data transfer speeds on the Sprint PCS service are capped at just 14.4 kbps (kilobits per second). At that speed, a four-megabyte MP3 file can take nearly 40 minutes to download, Webnoize said. According to Bailey, even the early 3G networks launched this year will deliver speeds well over 100 kbps.
"The next step with wireless will be far more sudden than what we saw with the Internet," he said. "The 14.4 rate is equivalent to how fast the Internet was five years ago. With 3G, data speeds will go to a maximum of two megabits per second, which is like going to something faster than a T1 line."
Consumers will be able to stream a high-quality music file with a connection speed of 100 kbps or above, he added. "Even with 2.5 G, there will be enough bandwidth available for consumers to download or stream music."
Bailey said MP3.com has moved quickly to push the wireless channel. He said MP3.com is working with Qualcomm on the latter's Binary Runtime for Wireless (BREW) initiative.
"Qualcomm is heavily involved in supplying equipment for 3G services," he said.
The new services will spawn specialized devices, Bailey said. These handsets will need multimedia capabilities to handle both sound and video. In addition, he said many personal digital assistants (PDAs) will become multimedia entertainment devices instead of purely organizational devices.
Newsbytes News Network
Copyright 2001 The Washington Post Company
