UBS Warburg said start of 3GSM World Congress in Cannes indicated...
UBS Warburg said start of 3GSM World Congress in Cannes indicated there still was “limited visibility” on commercial rollout of new mobile data services such as multimedia messaging and 3G Wideband CDMA. Firm said in note to investors that…
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operators had signaled unwillingness to invest heavily in 3G until more “signs of life” emerged for mobile data services. It cited general lack of conviction in expected return on investment in new mobile data services. View that emerged in first session of conference Mon. was that 3G commercial launches weren’t likely before 2004-2005, UBS said. Orange said it would launch test 3G network in summer. Key technical barriers for industry that emerged include site acquisition, particularly because for 3G, double number of 2nd-generation sites was required, UBS said. On Mon., Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector disclosed results of what it billed as first live, over-air call of wireless handset platform for 3G. Platform is being sampled with handsets from Siemens and Motorola. Motorola said platform was designed to “shave months” off development and integration time so manufacturers could develop 3G devices more cheaply. Meanwhile, Nokia said Tues. its 6650 phone, dual-mode WCDMA/GSM unit, completed interoperability testing with infrastructure vendors including Ericsson, Nokia, Nortel, Siemens. Nokia said tests for intersystem voice handover with 6650 handsets showed progress to 3G systems from 2G.