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Taiwan ready for wideband mobile multimedia standard
3GSM platform to deliver seamless roaming across 200 countries
2004-03-11 / Taiwan News, Staff Reporter / By Marie Feliciano

Chairman of the GSM Association Craig Ehrlich, right, and CEO of the GSM Association Robert G. Conway promote the next generation wideband mobile multimedia standard, 3GSM. (Peter Mah, Taiwan News)
Taiwan is raring to exploit the market potential of the next global generation wideband mobile multimedia standard or 3GSM (global system for mobile communications), a world trade association for mobile operators said yesterday.

"What 3GSM represents in Taiwan is an opportunity for mobile operators to get higher revenues per user. That is one of the pathways that the GSM Association is promoting," GSMA Chairman Craig Ehrlich said at a media briefing in Taipei.

The trade association is comprised of 620 second- and third-generation mobile operators, and 130 manufacturers and suppliers in 206 countries. Taiwan Cellular Corporation sits on the GSMA board.

As of February 2004, the group's members provided mobile services to over a billion customers, Ehrlich continued.

3GSM, the technology that the trade group is plying, is a platform for third-generation mobile multimedia services. Its core strength is its ability to deliver seamless international roaming across more than 200 countries. The platform has penetrated 75 percent of the world's mobile phone industry, while its competitor, CDMA or Code Division Multiple Access digital wireless technology, is trailing behind with only a 15 percent share, Ehrlich said.

"(Our) 75 percent (share) will increase to 80 percent in two years because two other technologies - TDMA in the U.S. and PDC in Japan - will be switching to GSM," he said. "Our levels of penetration throughout the world will continue to increase and CDMA will continue to be what I call a niche (platform)."

Taiwan is ready to deliver "cost-effective and compelling multimedia services" on the 3GSM platform later this year, he boasted.

"Around the world, 3GSM momentum continues unabated, 36 networks have already launched, and a further 40 are expected to launch by end of 2004," Ehrlich, said. This is the year that the industry can finally say that it has economies of scale, he added.

"Massive operator investment and the supply of 3GSM handsets coming on stream from leading vendors, combined with a wealth of exciting mobile content and a fiercely competitive market are all key factors that will rapidly unlock Taiwan's mass market," the executive said.

Taiwan, the official added, was an early mover in the world of GSM, with the first networks launched in 1995. The country currently has a 113 percent market penetration - the highest in the world.

"Global roaming and interoperability, massive value, and variety of products and services are the unique hallmarks of a global open standard, the fruits of which Taiwan, its people and its industry already enjoy with GSM," GSMA CEO Rob Conway added.

"GSM is the world's biggest commercial cooperative - a mobile telephony eco-system. The global reach and breadth of the GSM industry keeps handset, infrastructure, and application costs down, benefiting Taiwan's operators and their customers - these economies of scale help explain Taiwan's massive level of penetration."

Ehrlich likewise dismissed skeptics and naysayers who predicted that 3G was destined to be a flop, or that 3GSM would never get off the ground.

"A number of years ago, when the Internet implosion occurred in the stock markets of the world and some of the 3G auctions occurred in Europe, there were some significant questions about the future of the mobile phone industry," he said.

"Those of us in the industry felt very confident about our future but some of the financial community were a bit skeptical about how we can survive going forward with 3G."

Within the next few months, those skeptics would realize that "it was a timing issue only," said Erhlich.

"One factor that seemed to slow down the development of 3GSM was the handset. Will we have enough telephones? We are very confident that has been solved. During the third and fourth quarters, we will see at least a dozen different handset vendors introducing their 3GSM products," he added.

Another frequently asked question, he noted, was: Where will the next one billion subscribers come from?

Mobile operators would be able shore up their revenues by creating more demand for wireless multimedia services in advanced economies, and making their products and services accessible to emerging markets that had still low penetration levels, he said.

China, where GSM has cornered 25 percent of the market, will grow another 20 percent this year. India, which enjoyed 120 percent growth last year, was another plum market for the GSM community, the official added.

"China, India, Latin America, and Eastern Europe still have low penetration levels. That's where our next one billion subscribers will come from," Ehrlich said.

"The issue here is: How do we get our terminals and handsets into those markets? Our industry is finding ways to get our products into the hands of more people."

http://www.etaiwannews.com/Business/2004/03/11/1078972825.htm