INTEROPERABILITY, NETWORK SHARING AND ATTRACTIVE APPLICATIONS
16 November 2001 - European Institute for Research and Strategic Studies in Telecommunications GmbH (EURESCOM)

Volker Reible, director of Deutsche Telekom's R&D branch T-Nova/Berkom, emphasised that instead of one 'killer application' there will be a variety of UMTS applications serving different needs, like gaming, city guides and home surveillance. Louis-François Pau, general manager at Ericsson, sees a huge profit potential in personalisation. This includes the analysis of data, individual upload and download features as well as customised service functions. The importance of professional users for the success of UMTS was emphasised by Hans-Gerd Servatius, senior consultant at PriceWaterhouseCooper. With a growing number of employees working out of the office, he sees a huge business potential in the development of business to employee portals and the creation of more mobile office environments.

But there are obstacles. Mihai Mateescu, development manager at Motorola, pointed out the fact that many current mobile users have no Internet access at home. This could affect the introduction of mobile Internet services to the mass market. Several speakers suggested that the fast introduction of GPRS services could be a useful way of making users accustomed to mobile broadband services.

Another obstacle for the success of UMTS in Europe is the negative effect of the UMTS licence auctions, according to ETNO director Michael Bartholomew. He strongly criticised the European Union's attempts to regulate the mobile business and UMTS in particular, arguing that there is no need for regulation by the EU in the telecoms sector. He also criticised EU commissioner Mario Monti's decision to allow UMTS network sharing only on a case by case basis, because this means telecom operators have no planning security. Nonetheless, Harri Heikkinen, marketing manager at Nokia Networks, recommended exploring the opportunities of network sharing to ensure coverage that matches high customer expectations.

Joachim Posegga, programme manager and senior researcher at SAP, named four basic requirements for the success of UMTS services: attractive applications, fulfilling business requirements in the roll-out of UMTS, the seamless integration of UMTS applications in the current network environment and worldwide interoperability.

http://www.eurescom.de

More News:
  • For November 2001
  • From European Institute for Research and Strategic Studies in Telecommunications GmbH (EURESCOM)
  • For Federal Agency