Asia poised to take lead in wireless technology

Asia poised to take lead in wireless technology

SINGAPORE (AFP): Asia is well positioned to take the lead in
the application of wireless Internet technology, having the
highest number of mobile phone users worldwide, experts told a
regional technology conference Tuesday.

Time will come when people in Asia will be able to point an
infra-red equipped mobile phone at a soft-drink vending machine
and the bill will be automatically charged to their bank account,
they said at the Comdex Asia technology exhibition and
conference.

Despite Asia having the highest number of mobile phone users
globally, the potential beyond making calls or sending short
messages has been largely untapped.

"When you look at the number of mobile users in Asia, it's far
beyond anywhere else in the world," said Stefan Hanna, the Asia-
Pacific vice president and general manager of Ericsson, Sweden's
telecommunications equipment maker.

"It's growing like crazy, exploding," he told AFP after an
executives' forum.

Wireless technology allows people to surf the Internet,
transact business, pay for purchases, listen to music, watch
movies and carry out a host of other functions using mobile
phones.

While the U.S. leads in the usage of fixed lines and the
Internet, it is lagging far behind Asia, especially Japan, South
Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore, in mobile
phone usage, the conference was told.

Mobile phone use in these countries ranges from 47 to 61
percent of the population -- much higher than in the United
States with only 39 percent.

"That clearly is leadership and by guarding that and spinning
on that, I'm pretty sure that Asia has a fantastic opportunity to
be the leaders when it comes to pushing new applications, new
usage around this new technology," Hanna said.

In the next 15 years, mobile wireless applications will emerge
into a much bigger business, compared with the business generated
by the personal computer 20 years ago, he said.

The handphone will become a more powerful device than the
personal computer from a consumer and business perspective, he
added.

Steve Wood, the Asia-Pacific vice president for content
networking at Nortel Networks, said the need to stay competitive
in a globalised economy and the influence of cultural factors
will drive Asia into the wireless Internet technology.

A penchant by Asians for face-to-face communication is also an
incentive for investors, he said.

"The really big opportunity is mobile Internet," Wood told
AFP.

"Furthermore, I think a lot of the Asian cultures really enjoy
having personalized content delivery communication on them. In
Asia a lot of the communication is face-to-face, one-on-one."

Although, infrastructure could be a hurdle as many Asian
countries still lack the technology for wireless
telecommunications, Wood said they will be forced to invest in
the sector as a necessity for economic growth.

"Clearly the way it will unfold is wireless. In China and
India, they can't dig holes in the ground fast enough to lay the
cable to get the phone systems to get these people to make
telephone calls," he said.

Regulatory issues on the auction of so-called third generation
(3G) mobile licenses are also potential hurdles, Wood said.

"Regulatory issues, auctioning of the spectrum can be very
sticky -- who controls what and what's the price," he said.

Another kink to be ironed out is how banks can work with
telephone companies to encourage mobile wireless transactions,
speakers said.

However, Kelvin Tan, director for mobile e-services at Hewlett
Packard, cautioned against overhyping expectations.

"I think that it is important that we don't overhype. The
expectations must be managed properly," he said.