3GSM Congress wrap-up

Publié le 19 février 2006 par Arnal

3GSM Congress wrap-up
More than 50,000 visitors (up 42%) and about 1,000 exhibitors (also 40% up) were in Barcelona (Spain) for this thirteen edition of 3GSM World Congress. We have selected a bunch of most important topics developed in Barcelona this year.

Mobile TV: seen as the killing application by most mobile operators and able to generate new revenues.Two strategies are currently available: streaming on 3G networks, with the risk of network saturation when millions of users will use the service; or broadcasting but through a dedicated network. Announcements were numerous; Alcatel will mix terrestrial and satellite transmission, and work with Sagem, it will supply Telefonica Moviles with video services; TI, Dibcom and Philips announced new mow-cost DVB-H chips; Nokia and Sony Ericsson announced partnership on DVB-H interoperability among devices; Ikivo and Expway are teaming to bring an open-standards mobile TV reference platform to market; PacketVideo, Nortel announced products and solutions. Virgin Mobile, with Microsoft and BT will offer the service this year, in addition to many other commercial trials in the world.

HSDPA and LTE: The future of 3G was also at the center of talks. Ericsson strongly believes in a takeoff for this year, and DoCoMo, Renesas Technology, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi Electric, and Sharp will jointly develop a mobile phone platform. The number of announcements of launching HSDPA services is impressive: Rogers in Canada, TIM in Italy, EMTEK in Indonesia, SFR in France, mobilkom in Austria, C&W worldwide, ....just to add to previous deals. Commercial terminals would emerge during the year, with Ben Q claiming to be the first on the market.

Convergence: both in networks and terminals. In networks, IMS is the buzzword with a lot of solution announcements from the likes of Alcatel, Lucent, Nortel, Ericcson, Siemens, Nokia, Motorola and many others. Ericcson is believed as the market leader, but many vendors claim impressive lists of customers (i.e. Alcatel announced 70 "IMS-ready deployments" ). Vodafone named Ericsson and Nokia as IMS preferred suppliers. NetCentrex presented its new IPCentrexOne solution for SMEs. On the terminal front, convergence between cellular networks and WiFi is fashionable. A lot of announcements in the sector, i.e. from Nokia and Motorola with a GSM/WiFi handset, were made.

New SIM card is there: its role is extended to store value-added content. With up to 1Go memory soon, it will be the missing link between the mobile phone and the PC. It could also be a vector in the convergence between fixed and mobile world. Axalto and Gemplus are at the forefront of this market.

Skype or VOIP over mobile: Skype was a star in Barcelona, claiming strong ambition in mobile telephony. With deals with E-plus (Germany) and 3 Europe, Skype can offer, for €40/mo, illimited call plans. Is it a real threat for telcos and mobile operators?
Another star was Microsoft, confirming mobile applications at the center of their strategy. After the smatphone initiative (re)launched few months ago with the Windows Mobile 5 OS, Microsoft turn itself towards push e-mail, and mobile TV. The Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile, for Windows Mobile 5, brings business customers the same features as a corporate solution with instant messaging, VoIP, conferencing, .. Microsoft also announced Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Search for mobile. It signed a deal with Vodafone for push e-mail. It has signed up 102 mobile operators in 56 countries to offer devices running on its OS and has over 47 vendors manufacturing handsets around its system. On the mobile TV sector, Microsoft entered through a deal with BT and Virgin Mobile.

and of course

New handsets: hundreds of mobile phone were displayed and introduced: with any form factor, any weight and autonomy, more and more multi standards, all with a camera.