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» 3G phones to become the fixed line killer?
We recently ran a major feature on Fixed-to-Mobile Substitution here where we made the point that...

"Fixed telecom operators need to beware of 3G operators stealing, not so much their subscribers but their conversations that would have been conducted from the home or office wired handset. Observing 3’s pricing strategy you almost hear a distant echo of British Telecom’s old advertising slogan “it’s good to talk”, a classic marketing campaign in how to grow voice minutes. 3's take is now “that it’s good to talk, very cheaply with us!”. "

Now we have read about a 3G handset that is in development that could also become the phone you want to use around the office. It was reported

"...NTT DoCoMo Inc plans to beat its rivals and release this summer a 3G (third-generation) cellular phone that also functions as an internal extension phone in the office, Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported.

KDDI Corp has similar plans, but its launch will likely come in November, while Vodafone KK is considering a similar service as well.

DoCoMo's new phone will have a built-in chip enabling use for voice communications via wireless LANs (local area networks).

Thanks to the high data transmission speed of 3G cell phones, the handset will let users instantly download e-mail, schedule and address book data from their personal computers.

In addition, they can check the phone screen to see whether people are at their desks before actually calling them.

Once taken outside, the handset will function as a regular 3G cell phone, and calls will be subject to the same charges used in the company's FOMA 3G service...".

This story together with two other recent stories:

- France Telecom introduces single bill enterprise wi-fi/ADSL/GPRS/PSTN/3G

- 3G applications now start to interest Corporates

- suggests that despite the early focus of 3G launches on the consumer market, there is a new shift of targeting the business market.

Our earlier conclusion remains good, i.e. the road to fixed-mobile substitution doesn’t start with 3G, FMS started ten years ago. But what 3G does is make the issue more complex. Both fixed operators and mobile operators have seen the introduction of high speed wire and wireless data services make the choice of their respective voice service strategies less obvious.

http://www.the3gportal.com/3gpnews/archives/007230.html