3G or not 3G: that is the question
I am still perplexed about 3G. I was thrown off by this statistics on which I have elaborated in my previous post.
Is 3G really adding or is it nothing? This time I would like to argue PRO. Because…
1) The statistics showing that 70% of mobile Internet is used at home may just be showing the ease of Internet use from mobile devices as well as that users usually… are at home. The first observation speaks favorably for 3G adoption whereas the second really casts doubt as to whether 3G is unnecessary.
2) I just came back from Altai where Internet isn’t that great. There I have all possible Internet connections (though I go there, as my superior correctly suggested, to “meditate” (also without quotes)) — Satellite+GPRS and DSL (+WiFi). This time I had guests — RAs for my wife’s project — and they all invested in HSDPA modems. That made sense, I thought — the aforementioned alternatives are marginally better in speed, too cumbersome to implement, and unreliable at best.
3) The person behind first largest Russian Internet massmedia (Anton Nossik) has recently visited our modest town for a talk show. His idea was that WiFi will be taken over by WiMAX and WiMAX will be taken over by 3G (I think WiMAX is a good alternative to 3G, especially if there will be mobile Internet phones). For him and others 3G would have been a benefit because breaking GPRS made it nearly impossible for them to toy with their iPhones.
The other news is that if we have mobile Internet, a lot more people can start using it, apart from the big cities’ 33 million users — people in rural areas have good phones as a rule, but they all lack good Internet.
3G obviously will be first build-out in large areas where its usefulness is indeed limited. Although I am not the target audience, as marketing people like myself would say, but I don’t really need it — I use it at work and home at good speeds and in-between I prefer to transit on the real and not information highway (well, except for audio books which I get beforehand — speaking of which I recommend The New New Thing — what a story, also very relevant for our — post-bubble — economic times).
MTS Novosibirsk Launches 3G
Yesterday I was at an MTS presentation of 3G in Novosibirsk. The general impression is positive.
MTS invited business clients to talk about 3G and business services offered by MTS.
There were a lot of decorations, beautiful girls, and entertainment. Yes, and food was great. Read more
