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 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.

First about 3G.

I have not had any experience with 3G prior to this evening. I read a little, but didn’t bother to study it because I thought it is too far away from my reality. Well, I was wrong. MTS is planning to have 100 base stations by the end of THIS year rolled out in Novosibirsk. As of now, 3G is operational in the very center. By the end of the year it should be in Akademgorodok and elsewhere in the city’s center. Andrei Kozlov was a very knowledgeable MTS specialist who was patient enough to answer all my questions.

Back to the experience. 3G is great. As I understand it is pretty much defined by the speed at which data can be transferred to and from the Internet (up to 3.6 mpbs). In other words, we are talking about new services — the most famous being video-calls — and fast (almost cable) Internet. Cool. The only bummer is the price which didn’t change, thus you will be parting with your money times faster than usual. On the other hand, if not many people are using the service, you can indeed experience cable speeds.

Second. Other MTS services… well, they are just not too hot. They may be in a greater demand with the roll-out of 3G though, that’s for sure. I liked the FMC where corporate telephone network can be integrated with the MTS cellular network.

There was one non-Russian speaker representing (along with a Russian speaker) RIM and Blackberry technology. I have doubts there will be much uptake of this service once 3G and iPhone are launched, but some ex-pats may find the service worth replicating, especially if they talk to their overseas headquarters who are used to the service. Good luck!

Here are some photos from the event (first video-call, some presenters, general setup).