Interview: Personalized Services Key to 3G Mobile PhoneThe 3G (third generation) mobile phone will be focused on Internet, instead of mobile, and personalized services will be key for the wireless Internet, said Robert Mao, president of Nortel Networks China Limited December 5.In a recent interview with Xinhua, Mao said the 3G wireless communication is by no means a faster transmission of voice package, and all the Internet services provided through the fixed line will be accessible to the 3G mobile phone instead. For example, people can download a song through the 3G mobile phone in 10 seconds, just like doing that on a computer linking the Internet cable, he said at the ongoing International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecom Asia 2000 in Hong Kong. "The 3G is the trend that mobile phone operators must follow," said Mao. "Operators could be sifted out of the market if they didn't go in that direction." As for the application solution provider, he said, it is critical to give full play to the Internet on the mobile phone and offer new services by combining the Internet Protocol (IP) and optical transmission technology. At the ITU Telecom Asia 2000, Nortel was demonstrating its latest wireless Internet applications, including a peer-to-peer Chinese chess game over (General Packet Radio Service) GPRS mobile phone, which enables two mobile phone users to play the game anytime and anywhere on a pair of mobile terminals. Mao said voice is only part of the wireless terminal of the 3G mobile phone, and the core of the 3G network will reflect a variety of services over the wireless terminal. At present, mobile phone operators are making profits mainly from voice transmission, but the prices for phone calls are falling constantly, he said. When the basic service is free, operators have to seek wireless technology advancement for value-added services and make people use the new services. He pointed out that the 3G networks requires huge investment in building wireless network instrument, but ruled out possibility of bringing any negative impact on the 3G network expansion. He said Nortel is leading the way in the 3G network and the GPRS network developed by Nortel for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney can transmit data at the speed of 163 Kbps, 16 times faster than the 9.6 Kbps on other networks. Moreover, the transition to the 3G mobile network from 2.5G will occur at much faster pace, he said, adding that European mobile phone operators would soon launch new services due to the expensive cost of the 3G license. Nortel's first 3G mobile phone network will be launched in Spain next summer, he revealed. |
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