Beauty Contests Speed 3G Deployment

According to recent research by the Teleconomy Group, a correlation exists between countries that have favoured a beauty contest rather than an auction based award of licenses, in terms of state of preparedness and a realistic schedule for the launch of 3G services. Teleconomy says that it believes that in countries such as Sweden, Finland and Denmark, the estimated start date to deploy 3G networks appears more realistic compared to Germany, the UK and Italy.

The cost of license per head of population highlights this relationship with a mere US$0.0006 in Sweden compared to US$657 in Germany and US$576 in the UK. Teleconomy has forecast just under 5 million subscribers in western Europe by the end of 2004 and sees close to 30 million subscribers in the region by 2007.

"The latest figures represent only a modest penetration across the globe" commented Dr Qmars Safikhani, managing consultant at Teleconomy. " We believe that western European countries will overtake Asia Pacific in the near term for deployment of 3G because of a more harmonised network technology as well as network share plans".

Sweden and Finland will lead the 3G launch in Europe and see a much faster implementation and adoption than elsewhere. Teleconomy also suggests that Germany could beat the UK because of regulatory approval of shared networks and also the favourable response given to the launch of I-Mode services by KPN in the country.'"

Posted to the site on 7th June 2002