If 3G operators want to see a return on their investment, then they must get the mass market going as soon as possible. There is no niche market on earth big enough to repay the debt, let alone make anyone some money -- it has to be popular, which means it has to be cheap. And the idea of selling expensive services in a restricted environment is similarly flawed: as wired broadband providers have found, this is not the reason people want to be connected.
If 3G doesn't get its act together soon, then Wi-Fi or WiMax -- or even some smart use of 2.5G -- will move in on the action. There is a huge market for truly mobile broadband: the technology that gets there first will win.
3G can only be that technology if it drops its ridiculously high barriers to entry. There is no point in having interface cards that come encumbered with elephantine configuration software if we are used to Wi-Fi's click and go.
In fact, there's no point in having interface cards. The Wi-Fi experience is that the hardware is built in and arrives working. 3G has to get to that point, and that means persuading laptop makers to include the capability as standard. Wi-Fi's there already: domestic broadband created the market and the laptop makers leapt in gratefully.
3G's challenge is to recreate the expectations and experience that people have of domestic broadband, but countrywide. Expecting anyone to get excited by an expensive, unreliable, cumbersome service that costs a fortune is only an option for those who are selling the only game in town -- and telcos no longer have the comfort of monopoly.
Talkback
This was a badly thought out article - the point of 3G is as a mobile phone technology - that it has packet based network data capabilities is a 'happy' accident as far as mobile datacards are concerned. Due to the nessesity of a SIM card, this technology is never likely to be built in: its interesting to note that 2.5G data cards have been avaliable for years now, and as yet I've not seen a single internal implimentation of a datacard. Due to the hassle involved with contracts, it's unlikely that laptop vendors will do deals with mobile operators for supplying their sims with the laptop - and pay as you go data services are so marginal as to be pointless in thier inception.
WiMAX holds a lot of promise, but would seem to require an awful lot of investment by one or more companies to make coverage nationally avaliable before this becomes a reliable source of mobile data solutions. For now, the future is still a long way off.
Keith
Greetings Zdsters!
Please keep my email out of circulation but feel free to use my name.
I just wanted to make you aware of something.
I joined the three network a year ago because, well, it seemed like a good deal, and for the most part, it was, until December rolled past. Since Jan this year I have had worse coverage month on month and repeated claims that there was something wrong with the network just caused them to send replacement handsets and SIM cards, which, of course, fixed nothing.
Repeated calls to support just caused some poor underpaid operative in Sri Lanka to roll through their litany of checking my local network (THEM: "your coverage there is excellent" ME: I know, I can see four bars but most of my calls get dropped" THEM: "there should be no reason for that" ME: I know" THEM: "hmm...") and not realising I have BOTH a home and work place (!!) (THEM: "your coverage there in NW2 is very good" ME: I'm at work in EC1" THEM: "is not your address 123 street name?" ME: "Er, yes, but it is a Mobile phone!!! I am working just like you!")
So I had enough and, now that my contract is ending in a month ~I am shopping for another deal. Even my old Motorola Brick-U-Like phone circa 1991 gave better service, and for the most part, dropped calls were de rigeur then. Frannkly, I shouldn't have to climb a ladder in the back garden to call the local cab office. My wife rings from the cellar, why can't I ring from the back office of the house?
An hour after my 30 day's notice to cancel my account (which took over 20 minutes, talking to three people who asked me seven times to try one of their special offers!), I call a mate only to find my phone is claiming an "Inactive SIM" and I cannot make calls. I just want to pick up my phone and make calls that I pay for and not have calls drop for no reason in an Strong signal area. And no "special offer" can beat simple unobtrusive service.
Another 45 minutes calling various numbers, and on hold for 20 minute stretches I discover that "several others" are experiencing this problem and three cannot help me, do not know when it will be fixed, can't say how I will be notified when it does change nor what I should do to help. The website mentions nothing and customer services is as out of the loop as I am. There will be no compensation and, umm, that's it.
The only thing they did not say was "bugger off" but they didn't need to, their inaction, incompetence and subterfuge said it for them.
Alone, adrift and forgotten if you ask me....
So if anyone else is experiencing this from three, or if anyone else knows what is going on and how we can get some money back off the useless plods, let me know and to anyone considering a three contract, I suggest you look for any of the review sites that overwhelmingly warn people away from 3G in great numbers.
3G? 3/10 G!
From Ireland I bought a 3-locked phone on eBay (with no simcard in it) from the UK. I then discovered that the Irish branch wont sell me a simcard on it's own, but only if I buy a mobile phone as well, which would set me back 100 euro. So I rang the UK parent company who told me that they'd sell me the unlock code if I got a UK simcard to put in it. Like an eejit I paid for one to be sent over to Ireland. Next time I rang them they said the original owner would have to ring them and inform them that she had sold me the phone. She did this, and gave me her account code with 3 in the UK. But the next time I rang them they said she'd have to ring them because they wouldn't give or sell me the unlock code, they would only give it to her. Thats where I'm at at the moment. God knows whats goiing to happen next. After all this it seems to me that whenever I talk to a representative of the UK 3 network I'm told something different, and always by somebody in India or wherever. I get the impression that there is a high level of organisational incompetence running through the company; no single person or entity seems to be in posession of a clear sense of what is needed. I have never gotten the same direction from any two employees, nor talked to the same person twice. I have noticed that this is a distinct pattern with young companies(although I have no idea of how old the 3 network is -I suspect its still gestating): poor or no feedback facilities resulting in little or no self correction of issues affecting customers.Even the Irish policy of not selliing simcards without buying a new mobile as well has to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Talk about poverty consciousness. Avoid this lot if you have any free will left.