Finally, 3G is closer to becoming a reality<\/p>\n
Zatni Arbi, Contributor\/zatni@cbn.net.id<\/p>\n
"As we see it, between 2001 and the end of last year, the
\ncellular phone network industry experienced a recession," said
\nMats H. Olsson. Speaking to a group of Indonesian journalists
\nduring the recent CommunicAsia 2004 in Singapore, he recalled his
\nmany years as Ericsson's country manager for Indonesia. He left
\nIndonesia early this year to head Ericsson China, so he still has
\na very good grasp of the Indonesian market.<\/p>\n
"For more than a decade, up to 2000, we were accustomed to a
\nCAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 30 percent and more
\nglobally, but, during the recession, the industry was declining
\nby 15 percent," he explained. Media reports say that Ericsson was
\nin the red in the last two years. Today, the good news is that
\nthe industry has picked up the pace once again -- in Indonesia,
\nand elsewhere in the world. Mats said his company had learned a
\nbasic lesson from the experience as well: Know what your
\ncustomers need and want.<\/p>\n
In Mats' opinion, one important factor has been responsible
\nfor the upswing in Indonesia's telecom business, with
\nprivatization starting to show the desired results.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's telcos are now managed much more professionally
\nand transparently. This allows for more rapid and stronger
\ngrowth. On an international level, the global economy is also
\nshowing stronger indicators, with Asia Pacific -- as expected --
\nleading the way.<\/p>\n
Also, Ericsson has been a leading player in the 3G
\ninfrastructure market. The Swedish company claims that it has a
\n30 percent share in the Asia-Pacific infrastructure market.
\nCurrently, it is working with SingTel and Maxis (Malaysia) to
\nbuild their 3G WCDMA networks, and with state-owned
\ntelecommunications company PT Telkom for its CDMA2000 network.<\/p>\n
If you were in Singapore during CommunicAsia last week, you
\ncould probably feel the 3G pulse starting to quicken, although
\nseveral big names in the industry were notably missing at what
\nwas supposed to be the biggest annual telecom event in Asia.<\/p>\n
Will WCDMA Work?<\/p>\n
While the race between CDMA2000, from the Qualcomm side, and
\nWCDMA, from the GSM side, continues, analysts have one question:
\nWill the WCDMA work beyond the basic voice service?<\/p>\n
As the WCDMA comes from the GSM alliance, which means that a
\nnumber of vendors have to work together to define the standards,
\na lot of people may wonder whether interoperability will cause a
\nproblem.<\/p>\n
Ericsson provided an answer during the event. One of the
\nhighlights at the company's exhibition was its demonstration of
\nthe interoperability between WCDMA 3G handsets.<\/p>\n
In a container set up just outside Hall 4 of the Singapore
\nExpo, it put together a working WCDMA network complete with a
\ncouple of antennae. Eleven 3G handset models from eight handset
\nmakers -- including Nokia, NEC, Sony-Ericsson and Motorola --
\nwere used to show that live video calls could be made, regardless
\nof which handset the user was equipped with.<\/p>\n
The frame rate was only around 15 frames per second, so the
\nimages were not as smooth as one would like -- not yet -- but it
\ncertainly worked.<\/p>\n
However, as providing footage of your ear canal could hardly
\nbe called good manners, it would be best to allow for face-to-
\nface communication by placing the camera in an agreeable
\nposition. I guess when the service becomes widely available, the
\nuse of a headset or earphones would be mandatory. Otherwise, can
\nyou imagine a room full of people all trying to listen to calls
\nvia speaker phones, with the volume set at its maximum?<\/p>\n
Push to Talk<\/p>\n
For the last two years, PTT has had a different meaning in
\ntelecommunications. It also stands for Push to Talk, and is
\ntaking the industry today by storm. It works like a Citizen Band
\nor ham radio. You listen to other people -- like a conference
\ncall -- and if you want to talk, you just push a button. If you
\nare unlucky, someone may push their button before you -- and in
\nthat case you will have to wait.<\/p>\n
In the U.S., Push to Talk has been offered by Nextel for many
\nyears. Nextel, however, uses a proprietary standard, and
\ntherefore only those with Nextel devices can use the service. The
\nGSM people then got together and worked out a standard so that
\nthe service could be used by people with different handsets from
\ndifferent vendors.<\/p>\n
They called it the open standard Packet over Cellular (POC),
\nand at the moment it is being brought to the Open Mobile
\nArchitecture (OMA) alliance to be made the official standard. As
\nalways, an open standard will ensure market acceptance, which is
\nvery important for the success of a new service in the telco
\nindustry.<\/p>\n
Push to Talk has also been available on the CDMA front. Last
\nyear, I saw it demonstrated during the CDMA World Congress in
\nBangkok.<\/p>\n
Push to Talk is not a store-and-forward service -- whereby
\nvoice messages are saved on a server and then forwarded to a
\nnumber of recipients. Push to Talk is a real-time communication,
\nand that is why Ericsson also calls it "Instant Talk".<\/p>\n
A number of different groups can be defined, and members
\nselected for each of those groups. When you want to talk to a
\ngroup, you just select it and push the button. The voice will
\nthen be digitized, compressed and transmitted in packets of data.
\nSo, Push to Talk actually requires a network that supports packet
\ntransmission, such as GPRS, EDGE, and of course WCDMA.<\/p>\n
The benefits of Push to Talk are plentiful. This service
\nshould be much cheaper than conventional, voice-based conference
\ncalls. To call a group of people, only one or two buttons must be
\npressed. It is believed that users of this service will comprise
\nmainly of teenagers, families with a lot of children, as well as
\ncompanies that often need to talk to a lot of employees at the
\nsame time for quick decision-making.<\/p>\n
Outsourcing the Services<\/p>\n
Ericsson's rebound this year is also attributable to the
\nsuccess of its Managed Services business, which has gained more
\ncustomers in various countries, including Australia. Even multi-
\nvendor telcos can outsource tasks from network design to
\nmaintenance to Ericsson.<\/p>\n
This will bring cost-efficiency and the opportunity for telcos
\nto concentrate on their business. Ericsson says that its
\nmanagement and consultancy business contributes around 15 percent
\nof its group turnover.<\/p>\n
With such services becoming more and more outsourceable, in
\naddition to application hosting services, it can be envisioned
\nthat the mobile telecom industry will evolve into something like
\nthe airline industry, which has now become crowded with super
\ncheap airlines.<\/p>\n
With the right deregulation, a broad range of non-voice,
\nvalue-added services may eventually be offered by small companies
\nwithout their own fully fledged infrastructure. All they need to
\nhave is the creativity to find the right services -- that people
\nneed and are willing to pay for.<\/p>",
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