advertisement

Ask CNET Asia

Find Products

  • Brand
  • Price
  • Operating system
  • Phone type
  • Connectivity options
  • Touchscreen
  • Built-in digital camera?
  • Filter »

Buying Advice

Editors' Top 5s

CNET Features

 
 Print    Email     Bookmark     Share

3GSM preview: On with the show

By Andrew Donoghue, ZDNet UK
Feb 13, 2006

The world's largest mobile conference is getting bigger. We lift the lid on the technologies that deserve your attention this year

With around 40,000 attendees expected, this year's 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona is set to be the biggest in the show's history. Keynote speakers will include Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer, who will doubtless be pushing his company's strategy of attempting to secure a foothold in just about every area of the tech industry. Other notable heavyweights include Orange chief executive Sanjiv Ahuja, Nokia president Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, T-Mobile chief executive officer Rene Obermann and Peter Erskine, chairman and chief executive of O2. But although the show may be growing in size and impact, it is difficult to identify one clear theme that will dominate the event. The various hardware makers, software vendors and operators in attendance are under increasing pressure to find the next big innovation that will inject back some of momentum the industry enjoyed at the turn of the millennium. Various technologies and themes are being touted as the next big revenue driver--such as mobile TV, convergence, HSDPA, music downloads — but it is not clear which, if any, will emerge as a "killer app" to rival voice.

According to Chris Lewis, enterprise practice leader for analysts Ovum, the endgame for those assessing the emerging range of technologies from a show such as 3GSM is to focus on how their communications networks can be simplified, while not being put off by the various competing standards and technologies.

"If you're a forward-looking IT manager then you should be looking at a single platform that is IP-based which allows you to carry whatever applications you want at the right quality of service, and with management control, and let's you extend that across multiple sites and even to your partners and clients," he explains.

 

 
When fixed and mobile converge »

    Talkback
There are currently no comments for this story.
To post comments, you need to become a member. It's FREE.
advertisement